on of a public singer. Her first tour of the
country was a continuous round of ovations. The public hailed her as
the queen of American song; the press was generous in its
appreciation. The next year she embarked in opera. This cost her a
season of severe self-struggle. She dreaded to expose herself to the
temptations of the stage. In her memoirs she assures us with all
gravity that she prayed long and earnestly for courage to put on and
wear the short dress required in the performance of the "Bohemian
Girl." We may smile at this feminine squeamishness; yet, after all,
we cannot help admiring the possessor of it wherever we find her.

Miss Abbott says that she was particularly fortunate in having
secured Mr. James W. Morrissey for her manager. This young man was
full of energy and of device; moreover, he was personally acquainted
with many of the journalists throughout the country. He was with
Miss Abbott three years, and she acknowledges herself under great
obligations to him. "It is pleasant," she writes, "to feel that our
friendship still exists, as hearty and as generous as ever; and that
it will abide to the end I doubt not, for, by naming his little son
Abbott in honor of me, my dear, good, kind Jimmy Morrissey has
simply welded more closely the bonds of friendship uniting us."
These words are characteristic of honest Emma Abbott's candor.

In these memoirs there is a chapter devoted to the newspaper
critics, and it is interesting to note the good-nature with which
the sprightly cantatrice handles these touchy gentlemen. Not an
unkind word is said; occasionally a foible or a trait is hit off,
but all is done cleverly and in the most genial temper. Considerable
space is devoted to the Chicago critics--Messrs. Upton, Mathews,
McConnell, and Gleason--who, Miss Abbott says, have helped her with
what they have written about her. Messrs. Moore, Johns, and
Jennings, of St. Louis; R.M. Field, of Kansas City; William
Stapleton, of Denver; Alf Sorenson, of Cincinnati, are prominent
among the western critics whom she specifies as her "dear, good
friends." She calls upon heaven to bless them.

There is a chapter (the thirteenth) which tells how a public singer
should dress; we wish we had the space for liberal quotations from
this interesting essay, because this is a subject which all the
ladies are anxious to know all about. Miss Abbott ridicules the i