t, honest face and bouncing
manners. Her arms are long but shapely, and in the last act of Lucia
her luxurious black hair tumbles down and envelopes her like a
mosquito net. Her audience night before last was a coldly critical
one, of course, and it sat like a bump on a log until Sembrich made
her appearance in the mad scene, where Lucheer gives her vocal circus
in the presence of twenty-five Scotch ladies in red, white, and green
dresses, and twenty-five supposititious Scotch gentlemen in costumes
of the Court of Louis XIV. Instead of sending for a doctor to assist
Lucheer in her trouble, these fantastically attired ladies and
gentlemen stand around and look dreary while Lucheer does ground and
lofty tumbling, and executes pirouettes and trapeze performances in
the vocal art.

Then the audience began to wake up. The comfortable-looking little
prima donna gathered herself together and let loose the cyclone of
her genius and accomplishments. It was a whirlwind of appoggiaturas,
semi-quavers, accenturas, rinforzandos, moderatos, prestos, trills,
sforzandos, fortes, rallentandos, supertonics, salterellos, sonatas,
ensembles, pianissimos, staccatos, accellerandos, quasi-innocents,
cadenzas, symphones, cavatinas, arias, counter-points, fiorituras,
tonics, sub-medicants, allegrissimos, chromatics, concertos,
andantes, etudes, larghettos, adagios, and every variety of turilural
and dingus known to the minstrel art. The audience was paralyzed.
When she finally struck up high F sharp in the descending fourth of D
in alt, one gentleman from the South Side who had hired a dress-coat
for the occasion broke forth in a hearty "Brava!" This encouraged a
resident of the North Side to shout "Bravissimo," and then several
dudes from the Blue Island district raised the cry of "Bong," "Tray
beang," and "Brava!"

The applause became universal--it spread like wild-fire. The vast
audience seemed crazed with delight and enthusiasm. And it argues
volumes for the culture of our enterprising and fair city that not
one word of English was heard among the encouraging and approving
shouts that were hurled at the smiling prima donna. Even the pork
merchants and the grain dealers in the family circle vied with each
other in hoarsely wafting Italian words of cheer at the triumphant
Sembrich. French was hardly good enough, although it was utilized by
a few large manufacturers an