MISS VAN ZANDT.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 992, 29 October 1881, Page 3

MISS VAN ZANDT.

A veby pretty life story, says the Washington Capital, is told or Miss Van Zandt, our charming American song-bird. She was born in New York. Her family, which is of pure Flemish origin, lived originally in the metropolis, but business prompted the artist’s father to settle on seme possessions that he had in the State of Texas. The child was educated in the “ forest primeval,” among tattooed Indians, rough settlers, and all the rude scenes of frontier life. At the age of four years little Marie mounted the horse behind her father as he went out hunting, and often visited the neighboring Indian camps on horseback and alone, the squaws liked the little girl, and when she did not return home and her parents looked for her, they were sure to find Marie quietly eating her supper with her dark sisters of the prairies. Van Zandt at one time was obliged to go to New York on business. He took his wife and little girl with him. Arrived at their 'destination, they often visited the theatres of the city. On one occasion they were present at a representation of Lucia di Lammermoor, given by an Italian troupe then in New York. When the parents of Marie had returned to Texas they noticed that, in spite of time and distance, their little girl had retained in memory the principal airs of the opera. One morning, the story goes, the little five-year-old entered ner parents’ chamber, and stopping at the threshold, began to play one of the grandest scenes of the opera. Her parents, struck by her passion in exclaiming “ Edgardo ! Edgardo !” and her natural aptitude for music, resolved to let her study. Mme. Van Zandt gave Marie her first lesson in music, and the made rapid

progress. But at this time no one thought that She would follow a theatrical Career. Mr. Van Zandt now saw himself oblighed to leave Texas and go to England, whither business interests called him. Little Marie, then eight years old, was put into a convent in Warwickshire, and, though disliking the prison-like seclusion, she was hardly outstripped by her companions in her studies, and surely not in the gaiety and amiability of her nature. We are told that she was punished one, just once, whilejn this English convent. Some severe “ Miss ” of the establishment had found in Marie’s desk a lyric tragedy in four acts, and signed by the precocious author. Judge of the horror! Marie remained in the convent two years. One evening, at a London soiree, to which the mother had taken her, Marie, then ten years old, made the acquaintance of Adelina Patti. The great eantatrice took interest in the talented little American, and would make her sing occasionally in London drawing-rooms, and she sang with success. Hes master, however, was the famous Lambertini of Milan, and not, as the Voltaire says, Mme. Patti. Miss Van Zandt is still a favorite with Patti. The other day the great cantairice wrote her a note telling her that it was impossible for her to be present at the “ first night of the ‘ Pardon de Ploermel/ but requested her to accept as a token of regard and- interest a fine blue-enamelled gold breast-pin with pearls and diamonds.”