CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 101, 15 December 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

Of one Yuletide spent in St. Petersburg, before the war. Dame Nellie Melba, the worid-famous singer, tells the. following story : "On Christmas Kve, after singing in opera to a densely crowded audience, T was called before the curtain for a whole hour and a half, until from very fatigue T was compelled to take a

seat during the short interval of the deafening applause. And when at last 1 was allowed to escape, a crowd, thousands strong, followed me to my hotel and serenaded mc through an intensely cold night until three o'clock in the morning. "When, a few hours later, T reached the station to leave St. Peters-bir.-g, I found it packed with my admirers of the night before. It was with the utmost difficulty that a way 'was made for mc to my carriage through the cheering, hat-tossing, delirious crowd, who, when at last T had secured a refuge in the carriage, sent ill """countless throngs for my autograph, and finally, seizing the pencil and my gloves, tore them to pieces to keep as souvenirs."

OF another Christmas a very different and beautiful storv is told bv

the prima donna. As she was leaving Hie theatre at Philadelphia, and was about to step into her carriage, her arms laden with flowers, an old woman, who had waited for hours in the bitter cold, stole up to her and timidly asked for a single flower to remember her by. In a moment Melba had handed to her her entire flora] burden, and then, swooping down, kissed her. "God bless you/.beautiful heart!" was all the poor woman could find voice to say: but if even a benediction found its way to high heaven, surely that one did.

On one Christmas Eve when Melba was travelling to Minneapolis to sing, a boy, selling fruit and candy, entered her car and after making some purchases, she asked: "Would you like to go to the opera to-night?" "Well, sure!" said the boy with a grin. "Would yon like to hear Melba?" she continued: and the lad answered-: "Well, I should smile!" "Then," said Madame, pointing to

her manager, "go over to that gentle man and tell him I said he would give you tickets for yourself and your mother or some friends." The boy, in mused surprise, asked: "Well, who are you, any way?" "I am Madame Melba" she answered whereupon the unabashed youngster sent her into convulsions by retorting: "Go on! I've seen Madame Melba, and she's real pretty."