OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 110, 5 November 1927, Page 17

OUR PARIS LETTER

UNA CAVALIERI SOME REMINISCENCES (From "The Post's" Representative.) PARIS, 7th September. The divorce of Mme. Lina Cavalieri i'rom M. Lueien Muratorc, the opera singer, which was pronounced by the Paris Courts last week, has brought forth a flood of reminiscences of the period when Mile. Cavalieri' was declared to be the most beautiful woman of modern times, and such was the furore she created that a Paris firm of photographers sold more than a quarter of a million copies of her photographs. Tradition lias it that Lina Cavalieri was originally an orange seller in the streets of Naples, and that an impresario was so struck with 'the beauty of her face that lie at once saw that there was a fortune in it. He had her taught some songs—she' already had the voice—and thus launched her to fame. The fact remains that in what we are now pleased to call the ' '. 'nineties" Cavalieri was one of the bright stars of the Paris music halls. La Belle Oteroj Liane de Pougy— who mado a sensational attempt at suicide: we remember a headline in an American paper, "Liane, Laudanum, -,• and Lia-' ison"—and Mme. Yvette Guilbert— who was in quite another class-r-were with her in the "high spots" of the programmes of the Folies-Bergere and Ambassadeurs. THIRTY YEABS AFTER: By a curious coincidence these artists have, "nearly 30 years oh," all recently been considerably in .the public eye. Mme. Otero gave'to the world only recently her ''memoirs," which, to say the least, were unsparing of herself, and spicy. This artist, who has a beautiful villa on the Riviera, was also in the public eye recently by her objection to bathing in shorts on a Riviera beach. Mme. Iriane de Pougy has also, it is announced, just written her memoirs, but' she has handed them over, to a literary executor who is to make arrangements for their publication 100 years hence. Mme. Yvette Guilbert who, though frequently in the bill With one or other of the artists mentioned; was in quite a different class to these famous beauties. She had anart of her own which won her a worldwide fame. She also has written her me-noirs, and one of the best chapters in her book relates how she first sang before King Edward, then Prince of "Wales, and the interest he took in. her. OPERA SINOEB AND FILM STAR But to come back to Mme. Cavalieri, it was recognised when she was on the music-hall stage and sang Neapolitan songs to a guitar accompaniment, that her voice had possibilities. Accordingly she set-to work, trained for grand opera and had the satisfaction of singing "Thais" and other well-known roles at the' great opera houses of the world. Since then she has also^earned fame as a film star, and lately has run a beauty parlour in Paris. At one time she was very popular with high-placed officials at the Tsar's court, then she married a wealthy American and, having obtained a divorce, became the wife of Lucien Muratore, the opera singer. He, it is said, is going to return, to grand opera in Paris this winter. Mme. Cavalieri has not yet made known her plans, nor has she so far announced' her autobiography. . GREAT BELL'S PILGRIMAGE. On 24th September, an escort, consisting of several churchmen, 50 musicians, and others who wish to join the pilgrimage, will start with the great bell which is to hang in the tower of the monument to the dead at Verdun on the ten-day march -from Paris to its final destination at Douaumont. The boll is to be placed on a decorated car, and will/be borne first to the Arc de Triomphe, where its deep notes will sound in honour of the Unknown Soldier. The party will then leave Paris, passing through the martyred cities of Soissons, Rheinis, Chalons, Bar-le-Duc, Toul, Nancy, Metz, Saint-Mihiel,. and Verdun to Douaumont. In each city a sacred concert will be given. Since the early summer the bell has been behind the altar of the church of Saint-Nicho-las-des-Champsj where it may be visited until the day of its departure from Paris. ■■• ' . \ OLD COMRADES. A few minutes after completing his address .before the Blois Correctional Court in defence of M. Chavagnes, the deputy who has been sentenced to three months' imprisonment -in connection with a motor-car accident, Maitre de Moro-Giafferi, the eminent Paris barrister, was handed a card. It came from M. Pic, who keeps a cafe, and was formerly cook to a company of the 40th Infantry Regiment in which Maitre de Moro-Giafferi was a second lieutenant j during part of the war. The card contained a-suggestion that the barrister should call and see his old comrade in arms. As soon • as the Court adjourned, Maitre de' Moro-Giafferi went to the cafe, and ignoring all differences of station, sat down at a little round table with M. Pic, and exchanged reminiscences of Pepper Hill t and many another warm corner mentioned in the war-time communiques. / PHANTOM WORKERS. While superintending a rather big (railway job near Paris, a foreman named Baptiste hit upon a simple way of increasing his income. He "invented" a workman, and called him Chicot—a remarkable individual who was never ill,, never slacked on Mondays, and never thought of striking. Chicot's name appeared regularly for about a year on the pay-roll, and Baptists collected his wages. Finally another foreman, named Usage, noticed the immateriality of Chicot, and mentioned the matter to Baptiste, who advised him to go and do likewise. He did so, and other model workers were added to the list. Before the contractor j began to smell a rat. Baptiste had bought himself a house for 18,000 francs and put away 30,000 francs in the bank. These facts were brought out in evidence when Baptiste and Usage were brought up for trial in Paris yesterday. The Court sentenced Baptiste to a year's imprisonment and 1000 francs fine, and Usage to a year's imprisonment and 100 francs fine. In consideration ( of their previously unblemished character, they will not be required to go to prison. ■