THE TRUE STORY OF ILMA DI MURSKA.

Otago Witness, Issue 953, 25 April 1889, Page 28

THE TRUE STORY OF ILMA DI MURSKA.

(From Truth.) The world has not yet learned the true story of the later life of the unfortunate prima donna, Madame lima di Murska, nor the real reason which induced her unhappy daughter to commit suicide over he* mother's corpse. Madame di Murska, by the way f was the daughter of a colonel in the Austrian army, and was the wife of an Austrian officer, himself the descendant of an Irish soldier who accompanied James II from the Battle of the Boyne, and went into exile. Madame di Murska's first husband "survives the prima donna, who had, however, in various parts of the world gone through the ceremony of matrimony with at least two other people. Di Murska had only two children, both by her Austrian husband. One of them was the daughter aforesaid, who also married an Austrian officer. That officer died in 1876. and his brother-in-law (Madame di Murska's only son) committed suicide immediately afterwards. With this preamble I will proceed to the story, which has been furnished by a person whom I believe likely to be well informed. It seems that this death of. her son-in-law and suicide of her son, happening as they did almost at the close of her most prosperous career, swallowed up most of poor Di Murska's savings. Her practice 15 years ago, when she was really making money, was this : When she went to the United States in 1873 (previously to that she earned in Europe little more than would suffice for the keep, of herself and her children), she began to send all her surplus cash for investment to her daughter, who was then married and living in, Vienna. Di Murska started her American business in May 1874, with Mr De Vivo (Salvini's impresario) as manager. Always duly cautious with strangers, the prima donna refused to put more than £200 into the concern, and De Vivo accordingly had to find the bulk of the capital. This proved to be a small affair, for the opening concerts in New York and the West were very successful, and within three months Di Murska sent £2400 to her daughter for inveptment. The tour started again later in the year 1874j in Canada, and although snowstorms and fogs interfered with the business, Di Murska in three weeks sent

£1200 to her daughter. In New Orleans the party literally coined money, Di Murska receiving half the gross receipts on £400 houses a night, while in San Francisco her profits on the " Creation" and other oratorios amounted to £250 per concert. In the result, upwards of £9000 went to Vienna, always for investment. In June 1875 the party sailed for Australia, and, during the tour, which ended in August 1871, Di Murska gave 145 concerts, 10 operas, and two oratorios, receiving for herself, over and above expenses, £16,000. Of this, £11,000 went to Vienna to her daughter, who, according to De Vivo's statement, must down to that date have had in hand for investment against a rainy day upwards of £20,000.

And here I must make a digression as to the destiny of the balance of Di Murska's Australian earnings. A Hebrew, adventurer, who had taken the norn de theatre of Alfred Anderson, was -engaged as pianist, and Madame di Murska fell violently in love with him. She refused to believe anything to her sweetheart's detriment, and married him on December 28, 1876. The happy pair started for a fortnight's honeymoon, but returned within a week. Di Murska declared that her husband had appropriated a cheque for £1800, which i she intended to send to her daughter— always for investment. A quarrel ensued, and the husband returned to his father's house. The prima donna demanded admittance, but the father declared that his son was ill. This statement was not believed, but it proved to be true, as on the following day the bridegroom 1 died. He left all his property, including the balance unspent of the £4000 to £5000 which he had obtained from poor Di Murska, to others. A suit was forthwith instituted and £600 was recovered. But Madame di Murska was still determined to try whether marriage was a failure, and, less than nine weeks later, she entered the holy bonds of matrimony with another gentleman, who survives her.

Madame di Murska returned to America in Ostober 1876. But it seemed that the bloom had then departed from her oelebrity. She lost nearly £5000 in California, and just about that time she learned of the death of her son-in-law, and the suicide of her son. It is possible that nobody will now know what became of her £20,000 and more. But, at any rate, this money was gone, and Madame lima di Murska, at a period of life when most married operatic stars seriously think of retiring, found herself from'no fault of her own practiqally destitute. A private letter from New York, from another source, however, gives me a sad account of the .straits to which she was eventually put. As we know, she failed latterly as a concert singer and a teacher. It seems that she^afterwards lived in a garret, and was discovered ill and almost starving by Mr Silas G. Pratt. The Austrian consulate were' applied to for help to ship the prima donna oack to her native country, and they offered the munificent donation of sdol, or £1, which was forthwith returned. It is only fair to say that the Austrian Consul himself shortly afterwards contributed £20 from his own pocket. But, meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Pratt took poor Di Murska into their house, and tenderly nursed her, until Mr William Steinway, Mrs Thurber, and other good souls raised the money for her journey homeward, the, steamship company, on learning the circumstances, kindly allowing a substantial rebate on their usual fares.

We know the last stage of all. Ahnosfc starving, the once-petted prima donna reached her daughter in Munich, only to find no, money, left and, the Qupboard bare. She still forebore to apply, to her first husband,

whom she had maritally injured. Eventually she died. As for her daughter, I, for one, am noV astonished that a brain so weak that it was unable to preserve her mother's little capital was notsufficiently strong to withstand ,the, suicidal tendencies developed in her brother. Mother and daughter were cremated together. One last touch was added to a drama so eventful and pathetic that if it had •appeared in a novel it would have been dabbed impossible. The cremation of the mother and daughter was attended by the long-suffering first husband, who knew nothing whatever about his wife's sad financial situation, and who would, despite his matrimonial troubles, have willingly taken steps to save his former spouse from such a fate. It is a pity thaii Di Murska, ever a woman of high sensibility, did not make her poverty public property. London musiclovers idiotically paid Mario's gambling debts, and they have even more recently placed a tombstone on the grave of a wealthy English tenor. They would assuredly have "been generous to a prima donna who had done nothing much worse in her life than imprudently trust her savings to her own flesh, and blood.