66

to protect it; she must be disinterestedness itself, have a noble heart, be of a very serious turn of mind, and of course as beautiful as Lucifer before he fell." If by any chance she can have lost a lover by a fall from a horse, or a whirl down a precipice, and it can be insinuated that for a time she was nearly bereft of reason, the excitement becomes very much enhanced; and any innuendo about an unknown act of charity being eventually traced to her, has a marvellous effect.

Out of some such matériel as this, with plenty more added thereto, Barnum's agents plied the suffering populace of the New World for six months before Jenny Lind's arrival; and when that advent took place, efforts of a more strenuous character were to be made. A steamboat was freighted, and a miniature population engaged, to witness the departure of the only nightingale that could really sing, for the only land that knew anything about singing! and another one, with a much larger attendance, was procured to witness the bird's arrival there. One wing of an hotel was selected for her accommodation, to which it was arranged to draw her in a hired vehicle by a hired mob; and as soon as decency would permit, she was shouted for, and called out, until she appeared upon a becoming balcony. A band was contracted for, to serenade her at nightfall, and telegraphs were set in motion all over the city to let the public know how she bore the operation.

Her début was then announced, and the "agents," it is said, were ordered to promulgate, as a fact, that every ticket was disposed of; that the first was sold for something like eight hundred dollars; and that the fortunate holder was a hatter, to whose shop everybody immediately flocked to get a sight of the said talismanic ticket, and, as a matter of course, to buy a hat at the same time. The doubly-done public had no idea that the hatter was a relative of Barnum, and that no such sum ever was paidno, the bait was swallowed; and as, in many more towns, another hatter was declared to be the fortunate purchaser of every first ticket sold, the inference was that Barnum had a relation in that line of business all over the Union, or that he took a stock one with him for the occasion. As it was some time, in different localities, before her concert tickets were put up to auction,*

hire them in Paris, on the Boulevards du Temple, or thereabouts, for three francs a week.

* The English play-goer is not familiar with the American practice of tickets being bought in at the established price, and then being put up to auction for competition, which enables the speculator, or in other words the manager, to turn his commodity to a profitable account. We

thousands of admissions were given away, to convey an idea that they had been sold, which led to their being so, eventually. In some cities empty houses were taken beforehand, and furnished in a costly manner for Jenny and her staff; and on her departure, the goods were immediately announced for sale, and bought with a rabid earnestness, by which the upholsterer gained a large profit. This was the temptation held out to the worthy man who furnished Jenny's domicile in New Orleans, to induce him to do so at a very reduced price, and a description of every item of the sale, after her departure, would make the funniest catalogue ever printed.

At Boston, a newspaper gave out, with solemn announcement, that a man had invented a tea-kettle, which he christened Jenny Lind, from the fact that the moment it was filled with water and put on the fire, it began to sing! In the same city, the coachman who drove the warbler from the railway station to the "Revere House," mounted the steps of that hotel, and, extending his right hand, said: "Here is the hand that lifted Jenny Lind out of the coach, gentlemen; you can any of you kiss it who choose to buy that privilege for five dollars-children, half price!"* At Newport, in Rhode Island, the landlord of an hotel, even recently, in advertising his house and all its advantages, added this rider to the bill:

"P. S.-The beautiful carriage, drawn by the famous buckskin horses, which conveyed Jenny Lind from the 'Canonicus,' on her arrival here, can be had at any time, by applying as above. "WILLIAM DEAN."

It would fill a volume to detail all the drolleries, all the absurdities, and all the quackery which created them, in connection with this extraordinary engagement-such as had never been heard of before, and never will be again, at least for the next century. It is unnecessary to say that, in America as in England, Jenny turned up her nose at her dupes, the moment she had turned her back upon them, and, as

"These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die,'

the said Jenny, taking unto herself for a husband, a musical individual by the name of Otto Goldschmidt, subsided into com

were present during an engagement of Anna Thillon's, when her manager turned auctioneer, literally ascended a rostrum, and sold his own tickets to the highest bidder.

* See Jenny Lind's tour by C. Rosenberg.

parative obscurity. Whether this state of quietude be agreeable or not, we cannot take upon ourselves to determine; but, certes, feelers of divers character have been from time to time circulated in the American Journals. At one time, a paragraph appeared in them, stating that Jenny and her chosen one lived unhappily together; and this was directly followed up by an extract from a letter which Jenny wrote to Mr. Zachrisson, the Swedish Consul in New York, running thus: "We are, God be thanked! quite well. Otto is very good and kind. He labors always, is at home always, is kind always, is the same faithful friend always, thinks only of my welfare and my happiness, and maintains a calm, still COURAGE in all circumstances." One would think, on a perusal of this latter passage, that Otto must have been engaged in some dreadful battle, some national crisis, or some other fearful event, from this display of a "calm, still courage;" but as his principal occupations must be playing the fiddle, drinking hock, and eating Sauerkraut, we cannot see that such employment requires any very great degree of bravery! Then, again, from one end of the Union to the other, paragraphs perpetually appeared heralding forth Jenny's continued acts of benevolence, and her incessant distribution of alms. Whether or not these avant-courriers have been dispatched with an ultimate view to a return to the States, time will show; but in the interim, the following rejoinder to those paragraphs, which immediately followed them, must have somewhat damped her ardor. A New York paper, in which it appeared, stated that it came from the Berlin correspondent of the "London Literary Gazette."

66 The newspapers of different countries have recently teemed with accounts of Jenny Lind having disbursed vast sums for establishing charitable institutions in Sweden. Jenny has done nothing of the kind. Since her marriage, she has ceased to be profusely liberal."

To drop, however, the humorous view of the question, and to pass over the limitless scene of humbug which was enacted wherever she appeared, let us seriously inquire, what all this quackery has led to? Jenny Lind's appearance in America has been a fatal blow to the encouragement and to the honest reward of other talent, by placing it on a pedestal from which it is sure to fall. The monstrous sum of money drawn by Jenny Lind and her "Mr. Merryman," has led to the belief that America is paved with gold, and that an adventurer landing there might pick up any quantity. The consequent pretensions of English and foreign artists, whose services are sought for by American managers, are literally ridiculous; and where "thousands" are

demanded, on the one hand, "hundreds" are refused on the other. Singers, giving themselves many more airs than they can sing, stipulate for three and four times the salary of the President of the United States! French dancers stick out for more dollars a year than they ever received francs for their whole lives! actors ask more in principal than they ever received at home in percentage upon it, and the whole system is one scene of throat-cutting. Nothing will ever teach this class of people wisdom; they are the victims of their own inordinate vanity :-*

"And like the scorpion girt by fire,"

they invariably dart their sting into their own brains, or whatever else their heads may be lined with. They think nothing of their art, beyond what they can make by it, and all alike believing themselves to be exclusive professors of it, commit their depredations accordingly. Is it any wonder, then, that between quackery, pretension, and rapacity, every branch of this profession is going speedily to decay! for such is the fact, depend upon it. When public performers will be content with the fair remuneration to which they are entitled, by which they can live, as receivers, and let others live as givers; when their talent relies for support on its real value rather than on its possessor's estimate thereof; when reward is meted out by merit, instead of assumption; and when modesty takes precedence of impertinence, there may be some hope for the art dramatic, vocal, histrionic, mimic, or whatever denomination it may go by; and all this will come to pass when every professor learns these linest by heart, and the greatest part believe in them—and not one moment

sooner :

"How few are found with real talents blest!
Fewer with Nature's gifts contented rest.
Man from his sphere eccentric starts astray,
All hunt for fame, but most mistake the way!
Bred at St. Omer's to the shuffling trade
The hopeful youth a Jesuit might have made-
With various readings stored his empty skull,
Learn'd without sense, and venerably dull;
Or, at some banker's desk, like many more,
Content to tell, that two and two make four,
His name had stood in City annals fair,

And prudent dulness marked him for a May'r!
What then could tempt him, in a critic age,

* "Le sot a un grand avantage sur l'homme instruit-il est toujours content de lui."

† Churchill's "Rosciad," beginning at line 585.

Such blooming hopes to forfeit on a stage?
Could it be worth his wondrous waste of pains
To publish to the world his lack of brains?
Or might not Reason e'en to him have shown
His greatest praise had been to live unknown;
Yet let not vanity, like his, despair:
Fortune makes Folly her peculiar care!"

CHAPTER XVII.

American Dramatic Fund-Samples of histrionic talent-Mr. Forrest and his castle-Mrs. Forrest and her character-Treading the stage, and treading the ceiling-Fourrier's doctrines, and their inoculationLow prices and low people-Wallack's theatre-William Tell outdone -An actress quarrels with her dress-A genuine Yankee managerHow to carry on the war-Cheap literature-One way of keeping a day "holy"-A learned lord chamberlain-Virtue of vox populiValue of patent rights-"Dyeing a martyr"-Characteristics of opera singers-The many airs they give themselves, and the few they give the public-Downfall of Old Drury-Italian opera doings-Poets and pensions-Pope's opinion of all puppets-Performers' opinions of themselves.

On the 11th of last April (1853), the fifth anniversary dinner of the American Dramatic Fund Association was celebrated at Astor House, New York, which, as far as the Stage was concerned, seemed to us much more like a celebration of the English, than the American, talent belonging to it. There was but a slight sprinkling of "natives," and the most distinguished of them all, and one who has done more than all put together, for their Stage (Forrest), was among the absentees. The responses to the various toasts proposed partook of a general reference to the drama and its representatives; and as very few artists of distinction, and not one dramatic author, of American origin, were present, it would have been a matter of perplexity to say much about people, who did not think it worth while to come and say anything about themselves. However, some of the "outsiders" of the Press, who are allowed, now and then, by their principals, to attend a good dinner and make a report upon it, assailed several of the speakers, whose misfortune it was to have their healths drank, complaining bitterly that scarcely a word was said of America, nor a syllable of encouragement was addressed to her