CARLOTTA PAITI AND THE GHOST.

Waikato Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1233, 25 May 1880, Page 3

CARLOTTA PAITI AND THE GHOST.

Artists, especially foreigners, are generally superstitious, antl an amusing instance of the fact occui'cd outside Messrs Allen and (Jo.'s music warehouse on Saturday afternoon. When he wont homo some three years ago in search of talent, Mr. R. S. Smythe visited Paris, and during his stay opened negotiations with Madame Carlotta Patti, with whom he had several interviews. But there was a difference < of some £2060 between the lowest sum which the great vocalist would consent to take for 100 concerts, and the highest that the Agent was willing to guarantee her, and the affair dropped. The idea of reaping a golden harvest in the southern col@nies, where her friend Arabella Goddard (who had recommended Mr. Smythe to her) had amassed a fortune, was not, however, abandoned by Madame Patti, and she decided to visit Australia. On reaching Melbourne, she inquired about that droll manager who, in her magnificiently furnished apartment in Paris, had painted in such glowing colours the pleasures and profits of an Australian tour, assuring her that the costly presents with which the tables of^ her boudoir were covered were as nothing compared with the splindid tokens of their enthusiastic admiration of her brilliant talents which the squatters and other wealthy colonists would shower at her feet. But in answer to her kind inquires about her antipodean visitor, she was told that he was dead, an announcement which Madame Patti, who is possessed of considerable dramatic talent, effected to hear with some regret. Imagine the lady's astonishment then, when, as her carriage drove up to Allan's on Saturday, Mr. Smythe advanced to meet the Diva. He had only returned from a long tour the previous night, and so looked superabundantly healthy and lively. Uttering a shriek which attracted the attention of the doers of the block, many of whom had never heard the famous singer before, Madame exclaimed, " Mon Dieu ! — They told me you were dead. You have not been dead?" " Thank you, I'm ail right up to now, " replied the imperturbable manager. Having, by shaking hands with him, satisfied herself that the supposed deceased was still in the flesh, the gifted lady expressed her pleasure on renewing the acquaintance of the courteous manager,—Melbourne Daily Teleyrajjh,