A VERY MELANCHOLY END

Dunstan Times, Issue 1294, 17 December 1886, Page 3

A VERY MELANCHOLY END

A sufficiently grim tragedy is reported amongst the congruences of the late dreadful weather. It relate* to the death of Madame Hurleraan, the singer, with whose singing, doubtless, many readers were familiar The career of a foreign singer or musician in London is after this fashion. She must begin by obtaining an introduce tion to one of that class of hostesses whom Mr Du Manner has satirised under the name of “ Mrs Ponsouby de Tomkyns.” “ Mrs Ponsonby da Tomkyns ” in real life is not heces-' sarily a woman, much less a British subject. Indeed, some of the most advantageous of the De Tomkyns tribe are bachelors, two or three of them being of foreign extraction. The stock-in-trade of a Ponsonby de Tomkyns is a large and carefully-assorted acquaintance, onehalf consisting of millionaires and grandees, the other half of beauties and geniuses. 11 is a rule of the De Tomkyns tribe never to remunerate any genius for what they may do in the way of entertaining and amusing its fellow guests. The idea is, or rather was, that genius was sufficiently advantaged by being heard in the Totnkyn’s drawing-room by the rich or great, whi might hire ■ it for some entertainment of ir.sown.' It should bo added that it is a rule among the De Tomkyns to pass on geniuses from one to another in a truly liberal spirit. This system worked well for the genius in the old and prosperous days, us every gratuitous appearance at a De Tomkyns house meant two or three paying en« gagements at the houses of the undislanguished rich But times have changed. Duchesses don’t give parties in these days of agricultural depression. ‘ They sponge on Mr Pon« sonby da Tomkyns for a supper. Mdme. Hurleman was well launched in the world above described, and was supposed by her patronesses to be getting on ‘{very nicely ” ; but in fact she was starving and penniless. She never begged or borrowed, and no one knew of her trouble. She fought bravely and proudly on, hoping things would mend. One bitter snowy Sunday night, some weeks since, she wa* invited to a particularly small party. She had no money for a cab. She went as near the house as she could in “ The Underground;’’ and walked the rest of the way through tho snow. The party was full of angels, aristocrats, actors, ambassadors, artists, authors, and Americans, wi hj a civilised Home Ruler thrown in to give piquancy to the occasion. Mdme. Hurleman’s singing was an immense triumph. Probably she laid the foundation of a hundred pounds’ worth of engagements. She walked back to the train in the snow. During the night she awoke with , congestion of the lungs. In a few days she was dead of her cold, aggravated b 7 starvation. All-she left was eight shillings-—and a little girl ' of six years old The child has been taken cave of for the present by a rumo • prosperous and famous artiste, and a fund is to be rai-cd to put it for odn- | cation into a convent. —“ Pall Mall i Budget. 1 ’