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These rough-riders of the Czar were as wild and
savage as the country they came from, and they
galloped over the territory of Parma In search of
blood and booty, not glory.
The Cossacks came to the village of L,e Ron-
cole. They attacked this hamlet. They shot
men and women. They tossed children on the
points of their lances, and made a terrible mas-
sacre and ruin.
One peasant woman, the wife of a poor inn-
keeper of L,e Roncole, held an infant of a few
months at her breast. Despite the horrors around
she did not lose her presence of mind entirely,
but darted unobserved up the stairway of the
Mrs. Drew has discovered that Jefferson was church, and clambered into the belfry. There
inspired to play ( 'Rip Van Winkle" by his she lay hidden while the clamor and the murder
half-brother, the almost forgotten Charles Burke. proceeded below, and when night came and the
Burke met with '' modified success '' in the play, Cossacks had gone, she crept from the belfry to
and Jefferson followed it up with Dion Bouci- the ground, with the child safe at her breast.
The woman in the belfry was Guiseppe Verdi's
cault's drama. Mrs. Drew says that the famous
line, " Are we so soon forgot when we are gone,'' mother, and the child at her breast was Guiseppe
was Burke's own, and neither originated with Verdi himself.
*
Boucicault nor with Jefferson. It was intro-
duced into the first version of the play.
A merchant of Cleves, of the name of Jorris-
sen, who had become almost totally deaf, was
*
Mme. Albani has explained that temporary sitting near a harpsichord at which a person was
taciturnity is the secret of her wonderfully pre- playing. The merchant had a tobacco pipe in
served voice. That is to say, that before sing- his mouth, the bowl of which rested accidentally
ing a heavy role at night she hardly speaks a against the body of the instrument, when he was
word all day and remains as much as possible agreeably and unexpectedly surprised to hear all
alone. Then Mme. Albani wisely makes it a the notes in the most distinct manner. This
rule never to sing to her friends. Different was in 1750. By a little reflection and practice
artists have almost opposite rules for the pres- he again obtained the use of this valuable sense,
ervation of their voices, and what Mme. Albani which, as Bonnet says, connects us with the
prescribes for herself would perhaps be quite moral world ; for he soon learned, by means of
unsuited to Mme. Patti, who, according to her a piece of hard wood, one end of which he placed
between his teeth, while another person placed
friends, sings all day.
the other end on his teeth, to keep up conversa-
* *
B'arly in the century a party of Cossacks of tion, and to be able to understand the least whis-
the Russian army entered the Duchy of Partna. per. His son afterward made this beneficial dis-
II
covery the subject of an inaugural dissertation
published at Halle in 1754.
* * *
No American poet ever received a more envi-
able compliment than one paid to John Howard
Payne by Jenny Lind on his last visit to his
native land. It was in the great National Hall,
in the city of Washington, where the most dis-
tinguished audience that had ever been seen in
the capital of the Republic was assembled. The
matchless singer entranced the vast throng with
her most exquisite melodies, " Casta Diva,"
the "Flute Song," the "Bird Song," and the
" Greeting to America. " But the great feature
of the occasion seemed to be an act of inspira-
tion. The great singer suddenly turned her face
toward that part of the auditorum where John
Howard Payne was sitting, and sang " Home,
Sweet Home,'' with such pathos and power
that a whirlwind of excitement and enthusiasm
swept through the vast audience. Webster him-
self lost all control, and one might readily im-
agine that Payne thrilled with rapture at this
unexpected and magnificent rendition of his own
immortal lyric.
***
Alexandre Dumas is as unashamed as his father
was of the negro blood that runs in his veins.
The Bishop of Autun having recently delivered
an address on the abolition of slavery, M. Dumas
wrote him a sympathetic letter, in the course of
which he said : " A reader like myself, who has
only to go back four generations to find negro
slaves among his ancestors, could not remain
deaf to this eloquent appeal. It is, therefore,
not only for our brothers, from the Christian
point of view, that I thank you, Monseigneur,
but perhaps also for some real relatives whom
I may still have on board the slave-traders'
vessels."
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