The Argosy — page 304: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ADELAIDE RISTORI. | ale great men and women have grown up from the very begin- ning in the niche of the temple of fame which is to be theirs for all time, and gradually have learned to fill it. Others have found their way into their appointed niches with difficulty, and after | long searching for them. The former may surely be deemed the most fortunate, the most blessed by both God and nature, and _ Adelaide Ristori was one of these. Adelaide Ristori was born into a family closely connected with the stage in Italy, but a family which, hitherto, had produced no special brilliant theatrical star. When she was about three months old, an infant was needed for some scene of a play performed by the company to which her parents belonged ; she was put into a basket asleep, and carried thus on to the stage. When the baby was taken from her snug retreat she began to remonstrate and lament at what, no doubt, seemed to her very unwarrantable usage. This sudden thrusting of the nursery into the middle of deep tragedy must, we should have supposed, have had a fatal effect on the performance. One of the ready actors was, however, quite equal to the occasion. He took the child and held her up to the audience ; whereupon, the good-natured Italian crowd broke into a mingled shout and laugh. It was thus that Adelaide Ristori received her first shower of public applause. ’ Little Adelaide’s next appearance on the stage had also an ele- ment of comedy in it, which did not at all bespeak the tragic actress of the future. She was carried on to the boards to represent the child of a great noble who was escaping from brigands with his little -Sonin his arms. The many strange faces gazing at her, the crowd Of strangely-dressed figures round her, the rough words spoken by the supposed robbers, all terrified the child. With a desperate, unex- pected effort she freed herself from the embrace of her imaginary father, and springing from his arms ran nimbly away off the stage, leaving the luckless Duke to make his way out of his trouble as he might, : As she grew older, however, the child began very fully to enter Into the business of the stage, and to show that she was to the Manner born. She learned children’s parts, whenever required, with Wonderful quickness, and performed them with singular natural grace. Her histrionic talent soon, indeed, began to develop itself in such a remarkable manner, that when she was ten, small grown-up parts were frequently entrusted to her, and she would act a soubrette or a confidante with marvellous spirit and truth for a child of her age. Thus the girl continued to grow into an actress while her mind and GEOG aoo S (CO)