EMMA CALVE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 586, 14 August 1909, Page 11

EMMA CALVE.

; Madame Calve'is universally admired for her kindness of heart'. !Everyone..remembers how-she,sang, : td-a''dying doctor some time and - many " are the; stories ; told ;of her goodness.: Or.ce when she was in New. York, busy 'writing her. apartment, at -the' hotel' the door opened: 'and ; two -little girls looked in.'' Madame Calve had-iev'er,'seen 1 them before, but "she '.warned ...tliem ! ."cordiaUj;' aiid asked w-hat, they, wanted.Oh,',' they replied,.;('.'w<> "want, to' 'heaT you singi"' -The famous prima; donna 'put" 'aside Tier work, wont, instantly to, the, piano, ,'ahd sang .'to them . some of'her most famous songs', for which," in opera, she would have' received hundreds of pounds. When she had finished, she ordered tea and cakes, arid, haying regaled her little,visitors to'their hearts' content, sent th'em.away delighted. ' \.'. " ' A; well-known! JTrench newspaper once published an interesting series,'of answers from well-known artistes to the' question; " Are you happy?" -, Madame CalveY reply was to the effect that the artistic-life is by no' means all delightful: .' "I,know nothing in the world so melancholy. aR tho day after a ' first night.'.!' she said.. " For weeks, for months,' one lives in a fever, with one's nerves strung to the utmost. Then when it is all oyer the' deadly -'feeling, comes that the end was not worth striving for." No, I would net ; for the world live the life of an' artist again." " Afien.l am at work," ,she remarked on'another occasion,.." J. don't live;. I have plenty , of'exercise, te. see all the museums t and- picture-galleries, l and to enjoy myselfand -all these! things are. impossible if I am to sing and act well."

Women's .claims appear to-- have been largely ignored when the open air statues of London wero erected. Among the 97 monuments to: be encountered by the.student of London - street • life, no • fewor than ,86 are effigies of the self-loving creation, or 87 if we include ' that unscathed horo of many fights—the Battersea Dog. Of the remainder, only eight aro statues, of^women, Queeni Victoria ' being lepr'esnnted three times, Queen Anne twice, -and Boadico'a, Elizabeth, and Diana once each. ;Queen Eleanor's Cross arid Cleopatra's Needle complete the, scanty roll' of 'public memorials to ',women in the London streets. ' ■ ■ .■ : . •