DUSE'S GIFT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2309, 17 November 1914, Page 2

DUSE'S GIFT

At tW evening of her life, Eleanora Duse has turned the accumulations of a prosperous career over to the purpose of giving comfort and delight to her sister artists. She has established ia Rome for the benefit of young actresses. 'La. Casa ddla Duso"—tho House of Duse. That, indeed, is the .name by which thp mansion located in one of the pleasant and accessible suburbs of Rome will be known, though tho modesty of tho famous actress long led her to protest against .the ■ title. The nearest analogs to this institution are likely the Threo Arts Clubs in London and the Gamut Club of New York. Hero the women whose - intereste or occupations ally thorn with tho arts of music, painting, and,the drama find a centre for discussion and recreation. In "La Lettura" (Rome), the new House of Duse is described, and the actress herself is quoted as protesting against the name.

" 'It is the material house, tho house of bricks and stone and • mortar,' the house of goods and chattels, which 1 give; and all the jest, tho life, tho soul, everything else, must be given by them) the little actresses, by their presence, by their intelligent pleasure in theso spiritual benefits; it is thoy who must create therein the multiples and multiform soul. It is I who have dreamed and willed the advent of this multi-soulod spiritual refuge, but it is to my little, companions in art, my fresh, modost, unknown little sisters, that I have confided, the' realisation of the dream.'' •

"The liouse was opened,! after scarcely two months of .preparation, with beautiful rooms well arranged for study, conversation, reading, writing,- music, or to do anything in'. There are small, •bright bedrooms full of light and" sunshine, very simply furnished, for a long sojourn or a brief villeggiatufa,: or: a period of study and reflection. There are deep and ample easy chairs to lounge in for long hours, and small, light chairs to carry out under the tiees; there are large and small writ-ing-desks, an excellent piano, tho shade of treos, and the perfume of flowers.

."Thus is the Casa, and it was solemnly inaugurated with a most elegant tea-party, which reunited many illus-; trious personalities; many lieautiful and elegant persons;. many—too many! —princesses, marchionesses, couutosses; many novelists, story-writers, Gazetteers, dramatic critics, and authors, poets, authoresses,' artists, feminists, and journalists; everybody representative of society and the arts. ...

And in this perilous encounter and shock of' two' aristocracies, that of lirth and that of genius,' the little white house among the verdure did not tremble on its base. It is solid, therefore, both as a building and as an institution."

Mottoes are inscribed over the doc-iB, in the English- fashion, which prevails throughout the house, such as "One does not live by bread alone," etc.