A Singer and Her Frock.

Manawatu Herald, 5 January 1899, Page 2

A Singer and Her Frock.

— __^ Some amusing and some pretty stories have been told concerning Madame Annie Grey, a singer who lately made a most successful tour through the United States. Her special power is that of interpreting Scotch songs ; and a " Burns recital " usually ended with an after levee, where she had to shake bands with hundreds of enthusiastic strangers, either Soots, or of Soots descent, or possibly only the warm lovers of Burns that most Americans are said to be. At Bay View, when besieged by an immense crowd, she turned suddenly to find a man preparing to cut off a piece of her tartan silk soarf — whether as a memento or a matter of business speculation, is not stated. A yonng Sootch woman was pathetic : " Oh, Madame Grey, yoa have made me so homesick ! " and she hurried away from the platform with tears falling fast. At Ocean Grove, where 10,000 Methodists had assembled for their annual camp meeting, a quaint incident ooourred. An arrangement was made that on the evenings Madame Annie Grey should sing. At the appointed hour she sat in the artists' room waiting to be led to the platform, when the door opened and twelve ministers filed in, looked at her, looked at one another, and somewhat precipitately filed out again. Then Major Pond her American manager, put his head in at the door, glanced at his oharge, and re. tired. Then oame a long and awful pause ; but at last " the twelve good men and true, reappeared, headed by a bishop, and escorted the singer to the platform, where she received a hearty welcome, and the reoital went off splendidly." Afterwards the manager explained matters. It appears that the divines had never thought of such a thing as a lady's arrival in evening dress, and the idea of such an innovation at a camp meeting was quite too much for them. No compromise could be suggested, and the recital waa very nearly given up, when Major Pond had an inspiration. " Look here," he said, " Madame Annie Grey sang before Queen Victoria in that sort of a frock, and I guess what's good enough for Queen Victoria is good enough for us." The charm proved as effectual with clergymen as with pirates, for Queen Victoria is truly a name to conjure with in the States. " She is worshipped as the embodi* ment of all that is womanly and good." The Bishop at once endorsed such sentiments, the rest agreed, and the difficulty passed by. At the olose of her concert Madame Grey was surprised by the Bishop laying his hands on her head, and publicly blessing her, in spite of v that sort of a frock," while the audience mounted their seats to wave their handkerchiefs and applaud, and finally there was a rush to shake hands in the usual fashion. But the idea will certainly strike the English reader that Queen Victoria would not herself have thought a Methodist camp meeting quite the I oooasion for full dress.