Page 6 Advertisements Column 3

Evening Star, Issue 14625, 22 July 1911, Page 6

WHEN THE GULLER WAS GULLED. Puccini, the comparer of ' The Girl of the Golden Wefet,' was responding to a toast oh music at a dinner in New York. "Oue of my musical remini-ven•;«;.,'' j.r said, " relates to Milan. Vifiiti.ru Milan en a rainy winter day, I dined neat the Cat'iodral, and then strolled in the direction of La Scaia. L-o and behold, my own opera, of 'Toßca' was hilled at La Scab for that evening, so, of course, I couldn't resist a stall. 'La Tosca' was received warmly hy a crowded hou:-e. The applause was ahiu.-et frantic. In fact, a young woman iseit/-d on my left got so annoyed because i d;a;> t shout* that she rebuked me, a frown wrbik"'Why don't yon applaud that master - piece?' ehe paid. '•'Masterpiece?" said I, and I laughed sarcastically. 'Masterpiece? Oh, dear!' "'Don't you like the music?' she demanded. " ' No, eaid I. ' It's the work of an amateur. ' "'You know nothing of art,' she cried, 'or tou wouldn't talk like that.* •'*oh, don't 1?' said I. And thou 1 proceeded to prove to her, according to the laws of thoroughbass and coimicipni.it. how poor a work 'La Tosca' was. I. tr;ld her litis aria suggested Verdi, that chorus was a reminiscence of Bizet. In a word. [ knocked rny own music into a cocked hat. "When I fi niched the young w<inr.:i said : " ' Ie that your real opinion—your eincf re conviction?' " ' Absolutely,' fiaid L "' Very well,' she said, with an odd little laugh; and at breakfast the next morning the first thing I saw in niv newspaper was the headline 'Puccini on Tosca.' And there I read, word lor word, my remarks of the night before. Tat yountf woman, a musical critic, had recognised me. When I thought I was galling her ehe was gulling ine." During cleaning operations at the Ship Hotel at Weybridge (England), a grandfather clock was opened for the first timo for many years, and found to contain tie entire skeleton, of a cat.