SARAH BERNHARDT AND THE LITTLE RED RIBBON.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 64, 22 April 1914, Page 4

SARAH BERNHARDT AND THE LITTLE RED RIBBON.

By an f interesting coincidence, Madame Bernhardt delivered the first of a series of lectures upon the art of diction at the Universitie des Annale, Paris, two days after receiving the longdeferred decoration of the red ribbon o& the Legion of Honour. Needless to say, her appearance was the signal for a perfect ovation.

The great artist had long before undertaken the pleasant task of giving these talks upon diction to a large gathering of students, and when she stepped forward with the little touch of red upon her breast the enthusiasm knew no bounds.

Madame, by a charming fiction, spoke of her long life in dramatic work—not in th<? first person, but in the third—as of a very young student that she had known; and in this way she was able to tell many interesting and intimate details of her girlhood without embarrassment and with infinite charm. She spoke of her first stage

ance in .a little play, the work of a religieuse, "Tobie Recouverant la Vue," which was performed "before the VicarGeneral, and in which she had done very well indeed. She was then 11 years of age, and 24 months later her fifty years upon the stage was'to. begin. And so the story went on, related with infinite " coquetterie" and as only Madame can tell a story. Speaking of the almost universal delight evinced at the decoration of Madame, a pleasure enthusiastically expressed by the 109 other women members of the Legion of Honour, an article in the last "L'lllustration' ; says—- " There was not wanting a knight to advocate the rights of Madame Sarah Bernhardt for the distinction, fqr M. Edmond Rostand (the author of "Chanticleer') had already remarked that it was a fitting climax to the splendid record of Madame, which included the incomparable impersonation of the heroines of Sardou, L'Aiglon, and all her well-known roles, that the garland of laurels which she had flyng round the world, should ultimately have been caught together and fastened jwith the red ribbon of honour." 1 • • %-bi> . In a delightful picture wiiijjh accompanied the article, Madame is shown in the act of opening her address, her long coat of some striped fur and a toque of '' Loppe'' setting off the grace of h'er figure in a marked degree. Among the famous women similarly honoured may be mentioned Mesdames Louise »Abberia, Daniel Lesueur, Adophe Brissou, Judith Gautier, and Poilpot.