CHRISTINE NILSSON'S FIRST APPEARANCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1866, 26 August 1887, Page 31

"In a little hut among tall pines on the estate of Count Hamilton, near Wexio, iti Sweden," says Mr Louis Engel, "the hut consisting of two rooms, belonging to a poor forester, on August 3, in the year 1843, was born a little tow-headed girl, the youngest of seven children, who never spoke unless especially questioned, but continually sang trying to imitate the birds or the murmuring of the waters — in fact, obeying an inner impulse to imitate the great melody of Nature, never having heard anything else.

"The Sjoabohl (hamlet) of Snugge, to which the part of the forest belonged wheie she had first seen the light of day, was a few miles distant from Wexio, and the high ambition of the poor children was t-> bo able to get to the fair of Wexio, and tarn a few pence somehow in that great town of some 1800 inhabitants. In order to reach that glorious result, little Christine, who had taught herself to play on a small fiddle which belonged to her elder brother (and which you can see any day you please in the magnificent mansion she has built for herself in South Kensington) entered into partnership with her brother, who was already her inferior as a violinist, and they started out together for the celebrated Wexio. . . On they went, until they reached, on their way, Ljung-by ('by 'means village), where there was held a small fair, and" where the young violinist accompanied her own voice in the few Swedish national songs she had then heard and retained in her precocious memory.

"With great pride she relates that this, her first open-air concert, brought her the treasure of 3|d, forewarning her of the untold wealth which awaited the children at the town fair. Thither, then, they repaired, with all the courage that success, glory, and money can give, and arrived a little tired, but hopeful, at the fair. There was suddenly a big audience, who wondered if the violin played Christine, or Christine the violin. When the admiring crowd assembled, it attracted the attention of Mr Tornerhjelm, the provincial judge, who tried to find out, as everyone of us would, what was the matter.

"Well, fortunately for the great singer, the judge, a man over 6ft high, looked over the shoulders of the people at the little girl who formed the centre of attraction, and then he saw and heard, over and above the scraping of the little fiddle, what he thought the sweetest and most enchanting timbre of voice he had ever heard before. A highly educated man, and accustomed to read in the physiognomy of the people who were brought before him their character and probable capabilities, he spoke first to the boy, then to the little girl, and there and then laid the foundation of the great prima donna's fortune by the present of untold wealth — a sixpence.

" Christine, already frightened with the responsibility of carrying her Ljung-by funds, suddenly grown rich beyond her expectations, with great firmness insisted on their immediate return to the only place where so much money could be safely invested or deposited— their father's hut. You can see, in one of Christine's great saloons, the little skirt, which did not descend to the ankle, the toilette of her first concert, minus the least bit of shoes or stockings, and the cherished portrait of two good Swedish peasants — father and mother — in a rich gold frame, which cost more than a long series of concerts at that time could have brought her.

" Although not quite so rich as she became hereafter, she returned with the first money earned from her first success in public to her father, who saw, real and alive, 9^d, the produce of two concerts, in his daughter's little hand. Strange as it may appear, the great success and the great financial result remained for a few days without any further consequences, when, just as a second artistic journey was contemplated, the abovementioned judge, who naturally had had some difficulty in unearthing the whereabouts of his small prima dona, came straight upon the father and asked him would he allow his honor, the provincial jndge, to take temporary possession of the youngest child, and if she were found to be so intelligent and gifted as she was supposed to be, to give her the education which would perhaps make the name of little Christine somewhat better known ? The father referred him to the mother, as every well-bred father will ; and the mother, with that abnegation that makes of motherly love the only reliable, never-to-be-found wanting love in the world, instantly consented to separate herself from her beloved child — the youngest child to boot— so long as that sacrifice could do the child any good. This little preliminary arranged, the first important step in Christine's life was made."