THE TRAIL OF WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2799, 17 June 1916, Page 3

THE TRAIL OF WAR

HOW ARTISTS ARE SUFFERING PAUL DUFAULT TELLS There is a grim, sido to this terrible war<on which comparatively little has been said or written. ■ Art, it is true, is universal, but-the artist must have a nationality, be he ever so cosmopolitan, in habit—he •is either English, French, German, Russian, Austrian, Italian, or American; and with the first blast of war, those artists holding allegiance to one or other of the belligerent Powers saw thoir little kinguom crumbling before their eyes, for an artist —speaking more particularly of singers, actors, and instrumentalists—canont nope to pursue his bent when his audiences are • grasping rilles in the' frontier trendies, ever so i'ar away. These artists, or at least a large proportion, at length found that to exist they would have to transfer to a neutral country where there was a reasonable chance of making a living .in the way they loved best. Tho only possible country that ottered chances was America, and there, particularly during the last twelve months, artists from all parts of. Europe have swarmed, eager to find work that would tide them over the period of the war. "They: were," of course, centred in New York by the thousand," said Mr. Paul Dufault, tho eminent tenor, in an interview. "There, artists from France, Italy, Germany, and Austria, aro struggling to get work. Among! them aro many fine artists—prima donnas —who saug to mo and showed' me tho extent of tlieir culture in opera and concert work. Some beautiful French singers, who could not speak English, would some to me to implore me to get for them something to do if it was only' to keep them from actual want. But it was impossiblethere wore go 1 many poor people. Oh, it was terrible! "Of course, we have a Musicians' Club, with a fund of some thousands of dollars, and wo try to help them all wc can, and much good lias been done by the club. Big concerts are given every season by tho club, and so we make a few thousand dollars for distribution among artists in distress—primarily our own, but there is always a kindly consideration for the stranger ' within our gates. "I'll tell you of one case—just one among many, many hundreds. A. French lady artist—a beautiful singer—came to mo to say that her money had all been lost "and her beautiful home in the North of France had been destroyed by the Germans. She begged me to get her something to do, if it were only to sing in a restaurant, or cabaret—anything, anything! "To-day, too, there are thousands of actors and actresses out of work in New York. Actors from all parts of Europe, over on the chance of being taken up by some manager. It is a sight to seo them tramping up and down Broadway at 11 o'clock in the morning—long-faced and dejected, making the rounds of the managerial 1 offices to see if there is anything doing. There again the Lambs' Club is doing what it can to alleviate distress among the player-folk. The misery of their condition has been accentuated by the high prices prevailing for board and lodging as the result of the war. In N«w York itself it is now almost impossible to obtain lodging of any kind in a hotel—they aro all crowded up. This is the result of the well-to-do people from Europe taking up their residence in New York until peace comes to escape the horrors of war. There must be many thousand of them—glad to be away from the glut of blood and abject misery, and willing to pay through the noso for the privilege of having 'found sanctuary in America. "What will.be the outcome of it all? Who'.'Can'say? Some will eventually drift - back, but there is bound .to bo a proportion of those that America will claim as her own. It seems to mo that all iMiropeaiicivilinatiou ,is in the meltingpot, and who can. say what grooves of cnlturo it will run into after-this-mad ■war is over?" ~