ANECDOTES OF SIMS REEVES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1710, 13 June 1884, Page 3

ANECDOTES OF SIMS REEVES.

The following are a few observations concerning the great tonor abovenamed, as narrated by himself to the correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette Even when going to a concert I am overconio with nervousness, and—wish tho cab would upset and be'done with it. My heart doesn't jump to my throat or beat at an altnormal rate, but a tremor besets my limbs, and—l tell you it is sheer anxiety to bo at my best. During the concert I avoid everybody, take a quiet corner and commune with myself, taking a glycerine lozenge, and very often holding a handkerchief to mv mouth." " You ask me about encores. Now, let me tell you, I am glad to sing ail encore if it is a new work or a now song. Or suppose I ieel that I have not dono justice perhaps to myself, perhaps to tho piece, that is justice as I interpret it, then I like to repeat my song. Or sometimes, if the audience

lias been more than usually appreciative vand responsive, it is an intense pleasure mo to gratify tliera by singing another song, But to put it in a matter-of-fact way and adopt metaphor. I keep a shop—you ask me for twentyfive yards of silk and pay me for fifteen, No, lam paid to sing three or four

songs, and I decline to sing six or seven. There is a class of concertgoers—a grasping, greedy class—who come to hear me and say to themselves, ' Wo paid our money, let us get as much for it as we can,' This is the class I have always held in contempt, And it is that I have often felt their presence that has impelled me to take a firm course. Yes, it is tho ensrom nowadays to sing encores' and it is notorious that artists come down with encore songs in their portfolios. They say,'Wo cannot afford to decline an encore," Very well; let them go their way, Igo mino, Over and over again I have been compelled to sing an encore when tho houso refused to hear anyone else; and the sound of the hisses, the groans, and theca tcalls have como down to me in our private room,"