Vdl GREATEST LIVING ACTRESS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2425, 5 September 1900, Page 70

Vdl GREATEST LIVING ACTRESS.

(Lionel Stuachey, in ''Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly.")

The admirable and astonishing Sarah, apostrophised' by Edinond Rostand as " Queen of attitude and Princess of gestures," has inspired delight" and terror all her life, beginning, as we shall sac, in childhood's happy hour. She was born at JTo. .265 Rue St. Honore, Paris, a house occupied by worthy Madame "Guerard, who was present at the birth of the 'actress, of her son, Maurice, aiiu of her granddaughter. The diva's mother was a Dutch JeAvess, fair and fat, with pretty face and lovely eyes, Avho spoke French very badly and with a strong Flemish accent. The Scriptural saying as to having a quiverful went into effect in her case, for Sarah Avas the eleventh child, there being two over the dozen in the total, two pairs of twins among them. For some years Sarah remained in her mother's care. When it Avas time to think of further education her i'ather, Ayho Avished her to be baptised, had -her sent to the Augustine convent at Grand Champ. At the age of 12 she became a Christian; received her first Communion, and Avas confirmed the next day, together ,Avith three of her sisters. According to her own account, she at once became extremely pious and passionately given to praying to ,the Virgin Mary, of whom she had a little image in gold presented to her. She was melancholy and unruly at the same time. Her mother preferred her other daughters, and so it happened that Sarah seldom left the convent, and even passed some of her holidays Avithin-its pensive Avails. But her sober surroundings, seemed go^d soil for the hatching of mischief.

One: day, when the girls had learned that in all the schools ,6f France, excepting their oavu, -bonbons -had been distributed in honour of the Prince Imperial's christening, Sarah proposed to several- of her comrades that they escape- from' the convent, herself undertaking to manage the elopement. She stood Arell with the sister in charge of the ■turning-box, who happened to be very short-sighted. She Avent into the box and drew tLe sister's attention to a hole in her. dress .under her arm, raising that limb towards the rope. While the confiding sister Avas looking for the hole, Sarali pulled the rope, the gate flew open, and the young persons flew out. Their luggage amounted to a. few trinkets, three pieces of soap in a little bag, and seven franc fifty centimes cash. The good nuns were scarcely nimble enough for effective pursuit, and so the police were notified, and soon caught the fugitives. Crossexamined upon the origin of their wicked expedition, one of them, tattled. Sarah, the dark soul who had led the expedition, was exposed, disgraced, and sent home. She Avas soon taken back, however. . . Her first impulse, upon leaving the convent for good, Avas to become a nun! St. 'Augustine, the patron -saint of the institution where she Avas brought up, and Avhose pictures Avere plentiful tliere, had been her first lov.e, and she Avas also deeply devoted to her little golden image. But fate had other things in store for Sarab. --To begin Avith, a glover, a tanner, and a chemist suceessiA r ely asked her hand in marriage. The purchase of some , marsh-mallows had_ instigated the pharmaceutical passion, which liaugnty Sarah rejected, as she had the 'honest sighs of the glover and the tannei. The Due de Morny, a friend of her mother, then gave his opinion that Sarah ought to go upon the stage. Her mother considered her too thin and too plain, but yielded to the Duke's persuasions, ,and alSoAved, her child to apply for admission to .the Conservatoire. The manner in Avhich she recited the " Tavo Pigeons," by La Fontaine, secured her a place at once. Auber, the composer, and Regnier, the poet, jwere nn the examining board. Regnier "pre-

one of his colleages that she. would be a tragedienne ; but another of the d;i ectors prophesied a yet more alluring prospect — that she- would bs both.

So Sarah went to work. But she did so without the least enthusiasm. She felt no call for the histrionic profession. Her likes and dislikes had not been consulted, but that particuar vocation had simply been thrust upon her. She had been at the theatre for the first time in her life a few clays before the examination, when she saw " Amphitryon " at the Oomedie Francaise. The piece made her cry. The stage had no attractions for her. During her course -at the Conservatoire bhe often wept bitter tears,- and confessed to her governess a preference for painting. Every day her mother gave her the money to pay for two omnibus fares- -her own and the governess's — but they walked, and took a cab whenever enough money was saved. Sarah did not care to rub shoulders with promiscuous humanity. Nor does she now. Her studies were rendered the more odious by her having an inherited trick of pronunciation to overcome : she was in the habit of talking through her tealh, and to cure this fault she was obliged to practise declamation with india-rubber pellets in her mouth, one gained a second prize for comedy and a second prize for' tragedy at the Con'serva•tbire, but ne'er a first foi. either.

' Sarali lr-ade her debut at the Comedie Francaise in "Iphigenia."' Her only friend in the company was Coquelin. who indeed had been kind to her when they were fel-loAV-pimils at the Conservatoire. As to that performance, she lias pince avowed that fear was her strongest emotion, and that when, at the sacrifice, she lifted up very long and very thin arms, the whole audience laughed.