CHAPTER XII.

THE RETREAT FROM FRISCO--HOTEL DANGERS--A SCENE FROM "CARMEN"--OPERATIC INVALIDS--MURDEROUS LOVERS--RAVELLI'S CLAIM--GENERAL BARNES'S REPLY--CLAMOUR FOR HIGHER PRICES--MY ONWARD MARCH.

San Francisco, or Frisco, as the inhabitants pleasantly call it, is at the end of the American world; it is the toe of the stocking beyond which there is no further advance. For this reason many persons who go to Frisco with the intention of coming back do, as a matter of fact, remain. It is comparatively easy to get there, but the return may be difficult. It is obviously a simpler matter to scrape together enough money for a single journey than to collect sufficient funds for a journey to and fro; and the capital of California is full of newly-settled residents, many of whom, having got so far, have found themselves without the means of retracing their steps.

At the period of the operatic campaign conducted by me--which, beginning most auspiciously, ended in trouble, disaster, and a retreat that was again and again on the point of being cut off--contending railway companies had so arranged matters that access to San Francisco was easier than ever. The war of rates had been carried on with such severity that the competing railway companies had at last, in their determination of outstripping one another, reduced the charge for carriage from Omaha to Frisco to a nominal sum per head. L20 (100 dollars) was the amount levied for conveying a passenger to Frisco direct; but on his arrival at the Frisco terminus L19 was returned to him as "rebate" when he gave up his ticket.

The rates from Frisco to New York had also been considerably reduced; and it was not until, after a series of pecuniary failures, we were on the point of starting that, to our confusion and my despair, they were suddenly raised. I had a force of 160 under my command, with an unusual proportion of baggage; and this hostile move on the part of the railway companies had the immediate effect of arresting my egress from the city.

Ravelli, possibly at the suggestion of his oracular dog (who always gave him the most perfidious counsel), had laid an embargo on all the music, thus delaying our departure, which would otherwise have been effected while the railway companies were still at war. They seemed to have come to an understanding for the very purpose of impeding my retreat. Ravelli suffered more than I did by his inconsiderate behaviour, for he was entirely unable, with or without the aid of his canine adviser, to look after his own interests.

It must be understood that in America a creditor or any claimant for money, _bona-fide_ or not, can in the case of a foreigner commence process by attaching the property of the alleged debtor. This may be done on a simple affidavit, and the matter is not brought before the Courts until afterwards.

All the foreigner can do in return is to find "bondsmen" who will guarantee his appearance at a future period, or, in default, payment of the sum demanded; and it has happened to me when I have been on the point of taking ship to be confronted by a number of claimants, each of whom had procured an order empowering him either to arrest me or to seize my effects. I used, therefore, on my way to the steamer, or it might be the railway station, to march, attended by a couple of "bondsmen" and a Judge. The "bondsmen" gave the necessary security, the Judge signed his acceptance of the proffered guarantee, and I was then at liberty to depart.

Once, as I have already shown, I had to suffer attachment of my receipts at the hands of a body of "scalpers," who, when I had liberated the money through the aid of two friendly "bondsmen" and a courteous Judge, abandoned their claim; though when next year I returned to Frisco they could, of course, had it not been absolutely groundless, have pressed it before the proper tribunal.

Among other extraordinary claims made upon me immediately after the affair of the "scalpers" was one for 400 gallons of eau de Cologne. Some such quantity had, it was alleged, been ordered for fountains that were to play in front of the Opera-house; but the dealers, in lieu of eau de Cologne, had furnished me chiefly with water of the country. They swore, however, that I really owed them the money they demanded, and an attachment was duly granted.

It was through the treachery, then, of the dog-fearing Ravelli that our misfortunes in Frisco were brought to something like a crisis. In seizing the music in which the whole Company had an interest the thoughtless tenor was, of course, injuring himself and preparing his own discomfiture. The effect of his action was in any case to stop for a time my departure. We had evacuated the city, and now found ourselves blocked and isolated at the railway station. The railways would not have us at any price but their own. The hotel keepers were by no means anxious for our return, and some of the members of my Company had a healthy horror of running up hotel bills they were unable to pay. This may in part at least have been inspired by the following notice which, or something to the same effect, may be found exhibited in most of the Western hotels:--

* * * * *

_An Act to Protect Hotel and Boarding-house Keepers._

"Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri as follows:--

"Section I.--Every person who shall obtain board or lodging in any hotel or boarding-house by means of any statement or pretence, or shall fail or refuse to pay therefor, shall be held to have obtained the same with the intent to cheat and defraud such hotel or boarding-house keeper, and shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county gaol or city workhouse not exceeding six months, or by both (such) fine and imprisonment.

"Section II.--It shall be the duty of every hotel and boarding-house keeper in this State to post a printed copy of this Act in a conspicuous place in each room of his or her hotel or boarding-house, and no conviction shall be had under the foregoing section until it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the Court that the provisions of this section have been substantially complied with by the hotel or boarding-house keeper making the complaint.

"Approved March 25th, 1885."

* * * * *

I had, counting principals, chorus, ballet, and orchestra, 160 persons under my care, and by the terms of the hotel notice just reproduced the penalties incurred by my Company, had they quartered themselves upon innkeepers without possessing the means of paying their bills, would have amounted in the gross to L16,000 in fines and eighty years in periods of imprisonment. It was evidently better to bivouac in the open than to run the chance of so crushing a punishment.

A deputation of the chorus waited upon me, saying that as their artistic career seemed to be at an end, it would be as well for them to take to the sale of bananas and ice creams in the streets; whilst others proposed to start restaurants, or to blacken their faces and form themselves into companies of Italian niggers.

Some of the female choristers wished to take engagements as cooks, and one ancient dame who in her early youth had sold flowers on the banks of the Arno thought it would be pretty and profitable to resume in Frisco the occupation which she had pursued some thirty or forty years previously at Florence.

All these chorus singers seemed to have a trade of some kind to depend upon. In Italy they had been choristers only by night, and in the day time had followed the various callings to which now in their difficult position they desired to return. All I was asked for by my choristers was permission to consider themselves free, and in a few cases a little money with which to buy wheelbarrows. I adjured them, however, to remain faithful to me, and soon persuaded them that if they stuck to the colours all would yet be right. For forty-eight hours they remained encamped outside the theatre. Fortunately they were in a climate as beautiful as that of their native land; and with a little macaroni, which they cooked in the open air, a little Californian wine, which costs next to nothing, and a little tobacco they managed to get on.

_From the "Morning Call."_

"The scene outside the Grand Opera-house looked very much like Act 3 from _Carmen_--about 100 antique and picturesque members of Mapleson's chorus and ballet, male and female, were sitting or lying on their baggage where they had passed the night. As these light-hearted and light-pursed children of sunny Italy lay basking in the sun they helped the hours to pass by card playing, cigarette smoking, and the exercise of other international vices. One could notice that there was a sort of expectant fear amongst them seldom seen in people of their class."

What above all annoyed them was that they were not allowed to go to their trunks, an embargo having been laid not only on my music, but on the whole of the Company's baggage. One of them, Mdme. Isia, wished to get something out of her box, but she was warned off by the Sheriff, who at once drew his revolver.

The Oakland steamer was ready to carry us across the bay to the railway station as soon as we should be free to depart. But there were formalities still to go through and positive obstacles to overcome. At last my anxious choristers, looking everywhere for some sign, saw me driving towards them in a buggy with the Sheriff's officer. I bore in my hand a significant bit of blue paper which I waved like a flag as I approached them. They responded with a ringing cheer. They understood me and knew that they were saved.

How, it will be asked, did the Company lose its popularity with the American public to such an extent as to be unable to perform with any profitable result? In the first place several of the singers had fallen ill, and though the various maladies by which they were affected could not by any foresight on my part have been prevented, the public, while recognizing that fact, ended at last by losing faith in a Company whose leading members were invalids.

One of the St. Louis papers had given at the time a detailed account of the illnesses from which so many members of my Company were suffering.

"An astonishing amount of sickness," said the writer, "has seriously interfered with the success of the Italian Opera. Fohstroem and Dotti sang during the engagement, but both complained of colds and sore-throats, and claimed that their singing was not near as good as it usually is. Minnie Hauk had a cold and stayed all the week in St. Paul. Mdlle. Bauermeister could not sing on account of bronchitis. Signor Belasco was compelled to have several teeth pulled out, and complained of swollen gums. Mdme. Nordica was sick, without going into particulars. Signor Rigo was sick after the same fashion. Signor Sapio was attacked by quinsy at Chicago, and returned to New York. Signor Arditi, the musical conductor, was confined to his bed with pneumonia. Mdme. Lablache had a bad cold and appeared with difficulty. Many of the costumes failed to appear because Signor Belasco, the armourer, was taken sick en route, and held the keys of the trunks."

The illness from which so many of the members of my Company were suffering might, in part at least, be accounted for by their reckless gaiety at St. Paul. The winter festival was in full swing, and the ice-palace and tobogganing had charms for my vocalists, which they were unable to resist. They went sliding down the hill several times every day. The ladies would come home with their clinging garments thoroughly wet. They caught cold as a matter of course, and the sport they had had sliding down hill took several thousand dollars out of my pocket.

Minnie Hauk was nearly crazy on tobogganing; so was Nordica. Signori Sapio and Rigo tried heroically to keep up with the ladies in this sport, and were afterwards threatened with consumption as a reward for their gallant efforts.

But it was above all the conflict between Ravelli and Minnie Hauk in _Carmen_ that did us harm, for the details of the affair soon got known and were at once reproduced in all the papers. It has been seen that Mr. von Wartegg found it necessary to bring Ravelli before the police magistrate and get him bound over on a very heavy penalty to keep the peace towards Mdme. von Wartegg, otherwise Mdme. Minnie Hauk; and the case, as a matter of course, was fully reported.

What could the public think of an Opera Company in which the tenor was always threatening to murder the prima donna, while the prima donna's husband found himself forced to take up a position at one of the wings bearing a revolver with which he proposed to shoot the tenor the moment he showed the slightest intention of approaching the personage for whom he is supposed to entertain an ungovernable passion? "Don Jose" was, according to the opera, madly in love with "Carmen." But it was an understood thing between the singers impersonating these two characters that they were to keep at a respectful distance one from the other. Ravelli was afraid of Minnie Hauk's throttling him while engaged in the emission of a high B flat; and Minnie Hauk, on her side, dreaded the murderous knife with which Ravelli again and again had threatened her. Love-making looks, under such conditions, a little unreal. "I adore you; but I will not allow you under pretence of embracing me to pinch my throat!"

"If you don't keep at a respectful distance I will stab you!"

Such contradictions between words and gestures, between the music of the singers and their general demeanour towards one another, could not satisfy even the least discriminating of audiences; and the American public, if appreciative, is also critical.

With some of my singers ill in bed, others quarrelling and fighting among themselves on the public stage, my Company got the credit of being entirely disorganized, and at every fresh city we visited our receipts became smaller and smaller. The expenditure meanwhile in salaries, travelling expenses, law costs, and hotel bills was something enormous. The end of it all was that at San Francisco we found ourselves defeated and compelled to seek safety in flight.

We did our best at one final performance to get in a little money with which to begin the retreat; and I must frankly admit that the hotel-keepers on whom the various members of my Company were at this time quartered did their very best to push the sale of tickets, for in that alone lay their hope of getting their bills paid.

It has been seen that at one time I was threatened with a complete break-up: my forces seemed on the point of dispersing.

I succeeded, however, in keeping the Company together with the exception only of Ravelli, Cherubini, and Mdlle. Devigne, who afterwards started to give representations on their own account, and soon found themselves in a worse plight than even their former associates who had the loyalty and the sense to remain with me. After much aimless rambling they turned their heads towards New York, which, in the course of two months, they contrived by almost superhuman efforts to reach.

Before leaving, Ravelli, as I have shown, dealt me a treacherous blow by getting an embargo laid on my music as if to secure him payment of money due, but which was proved not to be owing as soon as the matter was brought before the Court. That there may be no mistake on this point I will here give exact reproductions of Ravelli's claim as set forth in due legal form, and of my reply thereto. Apart from the substance of the case, it will interest the reader to see that an American brief bears but little resemblance to the ponderous document known by that name in England. An American lawyer sets forth in plain direct language what in England would be concealed beneath a mass of puzzling and almost unintelligible verbiage. I may add that law papers in America are not pen-written but type-written, being thus made clear not only to the mind, but also to the eye. In America a lawyer arrives in Court with a few type-written papers in the breast-pocket of his coat. In England he would be attended by an unhappy boy groaning beneath the weight of a whole mass of scribbled paper divided into numerous parcels, each one tied up with red tape.

I will now give the documents in the case of Ravelli against Mapleson, which, after being heard, was dismissed, but which, in spite of the admirable rapidity of American law proceedings, caused me several days' delay, and, as a result, incalculable losses; for apart from the sudden rise in the railway rates I missed engagements at several important cities along my line of march.

"_Superior Court City and County of San Francisco_, _State of California_.

"LUIGI RAVELLI, Plaintiff, v. J. H. MAPLESON, Defendant.

"_Complaint._

"Plaintiff above named complains of defendant above named, and for cause of action alleges:

"That between the 4th day of February 1886, and the 4th day of April 1886 the Plaintiff rendered services to the defendant at said defendant's special instance and request, in the capacity of an Opera singer.

"That for said services the said defendant promised to pay plaintiff a salary at the rate of twenty-four hundred dollars per month.

"That said defendant has not paid the said salary or any part thereof, and no part of the same has been paid, and plaintiff has often demanded payment thereof.

"Wherefore plaintiff demands judgment against the defendant for the sum of forty-eight hundred dollars and costs of suit and interest.

"FRANK & EISNER & REGENSBURGER, "Attorneys for Plaintiff."

_"State of California, City and County of San Francisco._

"LUIGI RAVELLI being duly sworn says that he is the Plaintiff in the above entitled action. That he has heard read the foregoing complaint and knows the contents thereof. That the same is true of his own knowledge except as to the matters therein stated on his information and belief and as to those matters he believes the same to be true.

"LUIGI RAVELLI

"Sworn to before me this 10th day of April 1886.

"SAMUEL HERINGHIE,

"Dep. Co. Clerk."

In reply to the above my attorney and friend, the invincible General W. H. L. Barnes, put in the following "answer and cross complaint":--

"_In the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the City and County of San Francisco._

"LUIGI RAVELLI, Plaintiff, v. J. H. MAPLESON, Defendant.

"Now comes J. H. Mapleson defendant in the above entitled action by W. H. L. Barnes his attorney and for answer to the complaint of Luigi Ravelli the plaintiff in the above entitled action respectfully shows to the Court and alleges as follows:

"The defendant denies that between the 4th day of February A.D. 1886 and the 4th day of April 1886 or between any other dates plaintiff rendered services to the defendant at defendant's special instance or request or otherwise in the capacity of an opera singer or otherwise except as hereinafter stated.

"Defendant denies that for said alleged services or otherwise or at all this defendant promised to pay plaintiff the salary of twenty-four hundred dollars per month or any sum except as is hereinafter stated.

"Defendant admits that he has not paid the said plaintiff for his alleged services since the 4th day of February A.D. 1886; but he denies that the same or any part thereof is due to plaintiff from the defendant.

"And further answering the defendant alleges and shows to the Court as follows:

"That heretofore to wit on or about the 22nd day of July A.D. 1885 at the City of London, England, the plaintiff Luigi Ravelli and this defendant made and entered into a contract in writing in and by which it was agreed substantially as follows:--

"1st: That said Ravelli engaged as primo tenore assoluto for performances in Great Britain, Ireland, and the United States with the defendant, said engagement to begin at the commencement of the season about the 1st of November A.D. 1885 and to close at the end of the American season, the salary of said plaintiff to be twenty-four hundred dollars per month payable monthly. The said Ravelli agreed to sing in Concerts as well as in Operas, but not to sing either in public nor in private houses in the Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, or the United States during 1885-6 without the written permission of the defendant. The said plaintiff also agreed in and by said contract to conform himself to the ordinary rules of the Theatre, and to appear for rehearsals, representations, and concerts at the place and at the precise time indicated by the official call, and in case the said plaintiff should violate said undertaking, the defendant had the right to deduct a week's salary from the compensation of the plaintiff, or at his option to entirely cancel the said agreement as by said contract now in the possession of the defendant, and ready to be produced as the Court may direct, reference being thereunto had may fully and at large appear.

"And the defendant further says that after the making of said contract, said plaintiff commenced to render services as an Opera singer under said contract, and so continued down to about the 8th day of February 1886 at which time this defendant was in the City of Chicago, State of Illinois, and was then and there with his Opera Company engaged in giving representations of Operas, and the like at the Columbia Theatre in said City. That on the night of said day, and while the Opera Company of this defendant was engaged in giving a representation of the Opera known as _Carmen_ in which Madame Minnie Hauk assumed the _role_ of 'Carmen,' and the said Ravelli the _role_ of 'Don Jose,' the said Ravelli while on the stage, and in the presence of the audience violently assaulted said Madame Minnie Hauk and threatened then and there to take her life, and shouted at her the most violently insulting epithets and language; that his conduct caused said Madame Minnie Hauk to become violently ill, and she so continued, and from time to time was unable to perform, thereby compelling this defendant to change the operas he had proposed and advertised to give, causing great public disappointment, and great pecuniary loss to this defendant.

"And the defendant further says that from about the 8th day of February 1885 to and until the 20th of February 1885 plaintiff refused to perform any of the parts set down for him to sing, or to attend rehearsals, or to obey calls as they were sent to him, and generally conducted himself in a brutal and insubordinate manner. That on the 20th of February at said City of Chicago this defendant with great difficulty persuaded him to act and sing in the part of 'Arturo' in the Opera of _I Puritani_, but before said last named day, he had been regularly and formally notified and called to the rehearsals of the Opera of _Mignon_, and to rehearse, and sing the part of 'Guglielmo,' and he refused so to do, and tore up the calls, or notices sent to him therefor, and threw them in the face of defendant's messenger. The said Ravelli was announced to the public to sing the _role_ of said 'Guglielmo' in said opera of _Mignon_ in all advertisements and notices for the 19th day of February A.D. 1885, but wholly refused and neglected so to do, and also neglected and refused to appear and sing in the _role_ of 'Don Jose' in _Carmen_, announced in bills and advertised for February 20th, 1885.

"That after this defendant had as aforesaid persuaded said Luigi Ravelli to sing in the part of _I Puritani_, he continued to sing until the 13th March, at which time this defendant was with his Company at the City of Denver, in the Territory of Colorado, at which time and place he again without reason or excuse neglected and refused to sing in a public concert advertised and given in said City by this defendant.

"That thereafter and until the 6th of April 1885 said Ravelli was insubordinate, disrespectful, and self-willed in all his relations with this defendant, and falsely pretended to be unable to sing with the exception of two occasions, and on each of such occasions, without permission of this defendant, and without notice, he wilfully omitted the various principal airs and songs in the presence of the public who had paid to hear him sing the same, thereby causing this defendant great annoyance and loss by reason of the disappointment of the public, and the ill-will of the public towards this defendant caused thereby. That during the past four weeks during which this defendant has been with his said Company in the City and County of San Francisco the said Ravelli has repeatedly wilfully broken his contract, disappointed the public and greatly injured this defendant in his enterprise in business. He has sung only twice during all said period, and on his first appearance wilfully and maliciously omitted to sing a principal part of the music set down for him to sing, thereby disappointing the public, interrupting and injuring the representation and inflicting great injury and loss on this defendant.

"That on the 10th of April last the said Luigi Ravelli was duly called to rehearsal, and to sing certain music selected by himself, and which he had requested this defendant to insert in the Concert programme for April 11th, but refused to rehearse or sing at said concert although this defendant had caused to be prepared said music and the band parts thereof to be written out, and arranged to suit the pleasure and caprice of said plaintiff.

"That said Ravelli not only refused to sing, but then and there declared he would sing no longer for this defendant, and falsely and maliciously inserted advertisements and notices in certain of the public newspapers of San Francisco, which notices and publications were greatly to the injury of this defendant.

"That all of which doings of said plaintiff were in breach of his contract with this defendant, and greatly to this defendant's damage, and to his damage in the sum of five thousand dollars.

"And this defendant further says that he has repeatedly condoned the violations by said plaintiff of said contract with this defendant and his violence and brutality towards persons of the Company other than this defendant in the hope that he will ultimately come to his senses, and behave himself as he should; but that all this defendant's forbearance towards him has been of no effect, and has led only to repeated and further violations of his contract.

"Wherefore this defendant alleges that all and singular the said acts and doings of said Ravelli have constituted, and are so many breaches of his said contract with this defendant and that the same have been to the damage of this defendant over and above the amount of salary to which the said Ravelli would have been entitled had he properly conducted himself in the respects aforesaid, the full sum of five thousand dollars.

"Wherefore the defendant demands that the said complaint be dismissed, and that he may have and recover of the plaintiff as damages for the breach of his said contract with this defendant the sum of five thousand dollars, together with the costs of the action and disbursements incurred in defending this action.

"W. H. L. BARNES,

"Attorney for Defendant."

"_State of California, City and County of San Francisco_.

"J. H. MAPLESON being duly sworn deposes and says that he is the defendant in the above entitled action, that he has read the foregoing answer and cross-complaint and knows the contents thereof; that the same is true of his own knowledge except as to those matters which are therein stated on his own information and belief and that as to those matters that he believes it to be true.

"J. H. MAPLESON.

"Subscribed and sworn to before me this 16th day of April A.D. 1886.

"GEO. F. KNOX, "Notary Public."

The suit having been promptly terminated in my favour (General Barnes wins all his cases, even when they are not quite as good as mine was) I had to pay a few dollars for law expenses, and the embargo on the music and baggage was raised. But we could not start on our long journey with something like ten dollars among the whole one hundred and sixty of us, and I had still many difficulties to contend with before I could make a start. In London or Paris I should have begun by parting with my valuable jewellery, but this I could not do in an American city without everyone getting at once to know of it. That jewellery cannot pass from hand to hand without some reasonable proof of ownership being given is undoubtedly an excellent thing, though it did not suit my particular case. In England we are such lovers of liberty that a low-class pawnbroker or a receiver of stolen goods is free to purchase or to accept as a pledge whatever may be offered to him without asking inconvenient questions, or troubling himself in any way as to how the property came into the hands of the person anxious to dispose of it. In America the vendor or pledger of any article of value must give his real name and address, and at the same time brings as reference some respectable person, whose name and address must also be given. This reminds me (if for a few moments I may be allowed to depart from the thread of my story) that in America spirits cannot legally be sold to anyone under the age of fifteen, nor under any circumstances to women. In England we are so wonderfully free that women and children may buy penn'orths of gin at any public-house; and one enterprising publican is said to have made a large fortune by establishing in his drink-den a metal counter low enough to suit the convenience of small children.

I was obliged to leave a fifty-pound ring at one hotel as security for the payment of a singer's bill, and, oddly enough, when this ring was afterwards forwarded me in a registered letter to New York it was seized at the moment of my opening the packet by a creditor, or rather a claimant, who, for a pretended debt, had procured an attachment against my effects; so that it was not until after I had gone through several formalities that I could get it finally into my possession.

I remember a case in which an American manager, whose receipts had been attached, made a point of putting the money, as it was paid at the doors, into his pockets, which in a very short time were laden with coin. To attach the money that a man carries in his pockets a special order known as a "garnishee" is necessary; and the attachment of money carried on the person cannot be obtained unless the bearer admits that he has it about him, or can be proved on sworn evidence to have made such an admission within the hearing of another person.

When an attachment has once been obtained the order of attachment can be sent on by telegraph to be enforced, wherever the person against whom it has been granted possesses property. On the other hand, as a counterbalancing advantage, a manager may pledge his receipts by telegraph, and one man may at any time send money to another by the same means at quite a nominal charge. Deposit the money at a telegraph office, and the clerk telegraphs to the office of the place where your correspondent is staying that a sum equal in amount to the one deposited is to be forthwith paid. Our post-office orders are issued at usurious rates, and within limited hours. One cannot, however, but foresee the day when we shall be reasonable enough in this, as in so many other matters of practical life, to imitate the Americans.

It was absolutely necessary for me at the last moment to part with a certain amount of jewellery, and this I contrived to do without, I hope, attracting too much attention. I was spared the annoyance of seeing the details of each separate sale recorded in the newspapers.

I calculated that the losses caused to me by Ravelli's preposterous conduct amounted to at least 10,000 dollars. At some of the cities along the great line of railway, where I had engaged to give performances, I was unable, having lost the dates that had been fixed, to get others; and at one city, where the manager gave me another date, he stopped the whole of the receipts; which he said were due to him as damages for the injury done to him by not performing on the evening originally appointed.

On the morning of our departure--our escape, I may say--from the city where, a year before, we had been so prosperous, and whence I had borne away not a small, but a very considerable fortune, I was awakened about one o'clock in the morning by a Chinaman, a negro, and several Italian choristers, all crying out for money. But I satisfied every claim before I left; and I was more astonished than delighted to find myself complimented on having done so by one of the San Francisco papers, in which it was pointed out that I could easily have saved myself the trouble and pain in which I had been involved by taking a ticket and travelling eastward on my own account, leaving the Company to take care of themselves in the Californian capital.

I was not in a position to give gratuities to all who, in my opinion, deserved them. But John O'Molloy, the gasman of the Opera-house, had stood by me manfully in all my troubles; and I could not leave without making him a small present. In doing so I rendered the poor fellow a truly tragic service; inasmuch as, for the sake of the twenty-five dollar note which I gave him, he was the same evening robbed and murdered.

On the whole, though in the midst of my difficulties I had been worried a little by interviewers, the San Francisco papers gave me good words at parting. One of them explained my pecuniary failure not by the scandal which Ravelli's conduct had caused, but by my having played to popular prices, instead of the exceptionally high ones which I had charged when the year before Patti was singing for me, and receiving at the time payment at the rate of L1,000 a night.

"Opera," said the journal in question, "is regarded as a luxury, to enjoy which its votaries are willing to pay liberally. High prices are its illusion, and when put down to current rates the romance of the thing is destroyed. Mapleson did not appear to understand this, and his deficiency of the knowledge has caused him to leave us almost a bankrupt by his San Francisco venture. It is admitted on all hands that he had a splendid troupe, but the fact of his performing to what are known as popular prices, and complications arising with certain members of his troupe, seem to deprive him of his usual success."

"By the way," said a writer in the paper called _Truth_, "I notice that Mapleson is said to be indebted to Ravelli for 6,000 dollars, though an artist notoriously never permits an impresario to owe him more than a few performances. [It was proved in Court that I owed him nothing.] At home, as everybody knows, in their own country they receive in about a year as much as they are paid in a month in America, the streets of which the average Italian singer imagines to be paved with gold coins. As to the success or failure of the venture of the impresario they are supremely indifferent, but pertinaciously continue to demand the utmost farthing, no matter how badly things may be going. Lyric artists are, as a rule, the most grossly ignorant people on all subjects, except their own special art, and money. They are intensely conceited and abominably selfish, and regard an impresario as their natural prey. The sums that Ravelli has received from Mapleson in the last few years are beyond question sufficient to maintain the tenor in comfort and luxury for the rest of his life. Yet the moment he fails to receive his _quid pro quo_ he refuses to render his services, denouncing his manager as a swindler, and abandons him at a moment when by loyalty and a little patience he could have aided in relieving the ill-fortune which must inevitably be anticipated in operatic affairs. Of course on general commercial principles the labourer is worthy of his hire; but in operatic matters the hire is, as a rule, so entirely out of proportion to the services rendered, and the conditions of the enterprise so unlike any other venture, that a little latitude certainly ought to be allowed."

I found on my arrival at Chicago that one of the Chicago papers had, at the beginning of my troubles, published the following telegram from its correspondent at San Francisco:--

"Mapleson is fighting his last week of opera at San Francisco in the teeth of dissensions, his first tenor having published a card to the purport that Mapleson had not fulfilled his obligations with him, and that he would not sing unless he published an announcement over his own name. The _San Francisco Chronicle_, the leading paper, therefore calls on all music lovers to rally in force for Mapleson's benefit on the 16th. The absurd prices Mapleson pays his operatic cut-throats makes the opera business a ruinous one. Covered with trophies and a due proportion of scars from his many campaigns, Mapleson will march his forces into Chicago to-morrow, Sunday, bivouacing for the night at the Chicago Opera-house, where his principal members will be heard in a sacred concert.

"The different performances given, notwithstanding all these operatic troubles, have been of that high standard which Mapleson alone has ever presented to us. Mapleson remains with us another week. Such performances as he has given are in but few places to be found. No Opera Company existing to-day has a better troupe of singers. There appears to exist a general impression among certain of the newspapers that Colonel Mapleson is operatically dead, and entirely out of the hunt. By his advent here, he proves to the public that he is still on deck."

My plan of retreat was well devised, and with a little good luck might have been thoroughly successful. As it was, it at least enabled us, without too much delay, to reach New York, and from New York to take ship for Liverpool.

Unable to command the railroad in a direct way from Frisco to New York, I determined to undertake a series of engagements at certain selected points all along the line. If the first of these proved successful I should be in a better position for my second encounter. It was certain in any case that at each fresh city I should be able to levy contributions; and with the money thus raised I could lay in a new stock of provisions and continue my advance by rail in the direction of New York, ready to stop at the first city whose population and resources might make it worth my while to do so.

Going back a little I must here explain that before leaving San Francisco, in order that Mdme. Minnie Hauk might be fresh for the proposed performance at Omaha, I had sent her on two days in advance--a distance of not more than 1,867 miles; whilst Mdme. Nordica was placed at another strategical point 2,500 miles away, at Minneapolis. She had to attend her sick mother, but was prepared to rejoin us when called upon to do so. Mdlle. Alma Fohstroem, not having sufficiently recovered from her late indisposition, was left behind at San Francisco, 2,400 miles from the scene of my next operations.

From Louisville, Kentucky, I telegraphed Mdme. Minnie Hauk to come on at once to play _Carmen_ for the second night of our season; and she arrived in good time. She sang the same evening.

Mdme. Nordica received orders to join us at Indianapolis, where she was to appear in _La Traviata_, which she duly did the following Friday; whilst Mdlle. Alma Fohstroem, now recovered, was brought on from San Francisco to Cincinnati, a distance of some 2,500 miles, to perform in _Lucia di Lammermoor_. She also arrived punctually, and sang the same night.

I mention this small fact to show what can be accomplished with a little discipline. The reason why Mdme. Minnie Hauk was sent on to Omaha beforehand was in order that, by announcing her arrival in that city, I might give confidence to the public, it having been reported that my Company was broken up. Hence there was no booking; though had we arrived punctually for the opera on the promised date, my receipts, which I had already pledged to the Railway Company to get out of San Francisco, would certainly have been not less than L500 or L600. Mdme. Minnie Hauk, moreover, would have been saved a detour of some 2,400 miles.

Altogether I lost about L2,000, as I missed Omaha on the Friday, Burlington on the Saturday, Chicago on the Sunday, and my first performance in Louisville on the Monday.

Notwithstanding my all but insurmountable difficulties the performances never stopped, an announced opera was never altered, and the whole of the promised representations actually took place in each city; the press notices, which I still preserve, being unanimous as to the excellence of the representations.

I may mention that the travelling on these lines averages some 25 miles an hour only, there being several very steep gradients on the road. In some instances the train goes up over 3,000 feet in 57 miles, and down again; whilst the height of several mountains traversed by the train reaches from 7,000 to 8,000 feet.