bers. Some of the members agree with them. Still, there was no other recourse, and as the Messrs. Aborn displayed a willingness to be as strenuous as their subordinates, little complaining was heard.

Next season the grind is to be eased, because the Century Company will then be a fairly efficient operatic unit, and sufficiently routined to permit some cessation in the work which has been imperative throughout the last seven months. Great care is being observed in replacing unsatisfactory orchestra-players, chorus-singers, and principals with successors competent to perform adequately their respective duties, and to the credit of this institution it should be mentioned that the hundreds of American young men and women, as well as those of other nationalities, who have applied for hearings, have not applied in vain.

This willingness of the Century management to listen to aspirants for positions, even though it has entailed many hours of time and concentration every week, has proved productive. A dozen excellent new principals, including the young American tenor, Orville Harrold, have been added to the roster, some of whom were chosen to form the nucleus of the second Century Opera Company which was to have been. started in Philadelphia next autumn to alternate with the existing organization between that city and New York.

Milton Aborn's belief that an expansion policy would be helpful did not meet the approval of the Century directors. They felt every effort should be concentrated on a single company and to perfect a working plan suited to the needs of all concerned. Late in March it was decided to introduce changes during 1914-15, one of the two most important being the reduction of the New York season from thirty-five weeks to twenty.

The second move calculated to help matters was the decision to have two different operas running, on alternate days, over two weeks. Under such a system the New York public may know in advance the exact cast to be heard in any performance, while the company will have two weeks, instead of one, to prepare a new work.

On February 1, 1915, the Century 1915, the Century Opera Company will make its first tour, but only three cities are to be visited.

These are Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia, and each will have from four to five weeks of what should then be exceptionally fine popular-priced opera.

A valuable executive has been secured for the Century Company in Jacques Coini, who was stage-director at the Manhattan Opera-House under Oscar Hammerstein. Mr. Coini should not only administer the duties of his department to the advantage of performances in and outside New York, but he should be of invaluable assistance to the Messrs. Aborn in strengthening the artistic side of the entire organization.

Now, while it is a fact that too many Century performances have fallen below the standard which should unfailingly prevail even at a two-dollar scale of prices, a generous quantity has been of genuine merit, and these would have been accepted as satisfactory if the cry had not gone forth that better, much better, popular opera would have to be offered than the country had before known.

Some of the artistic lapses, occurring early in a week when an untried work was first presented, have been corrected in the course of progressing performances. This indicates for a certainty that seasoned experience and the acquiring of a repertory by the present organization will ensure better things next year. But as the music critics have been forced to write about the attempts connected with premières, their adverse comment undoubtedly would have been moderated had they considered a final instead of a week's first performance.

Both Milton Aborn and his brother Sargent admit that they are far from content with what has already been done, and such frankness is an encouraging sign. Printed criticisms of the inefficient orchestra have brought changes to the number of twelve; similar remarks relating to the chorus resulted in the displacement of several singers by more experienced and vocally capable persons, while the weaknesses of certain principals mean that after next May their posts will be filled by superior artists.

"Never before," declared Milton Aborn to the writer, "has such an opportunity as beckons to the Century been offered an organization aiming for similar ideals and ends. Fostered by a civic body, nurtured by public-spirited and wealthy persons,

and liberally patronized month after month by the people, this popular-priced opera company is plowing in a fertile soil, which needs only careful and skilful cultivation to deliver a crop of untold worth to the community.

"Realizing that the eyes of residents of other cities are upon us, we have a duty to perform for their benefit as well as for our own, because if we demonstrate that such a project as ours is a possibility, many such organizations will be formed in cities where the need for them is proportionate to that of New York. That not only means the furthering of operatic enlightenment and culture, but it will provide employment for many Americans, and give them chances for the gaining of experience which cannot now be had short of what Europe affords."

These two issues are, after all, the paramount factors of the plan formulated by the Century. And they are of such unquestionable importance that a little patience should be exercised by those inclined to jump too quickly at conclusions and given to voicing opinions likely to be changed by developments. If New-Yorkers had indicated their disinclination to support the Century performances, affairs would be slightly altered; but the weekly receipts, with the subscriptions already paid in, have enabled the payment of all incurred bills, together with a preliminary $40,000 expense item caused last summer in work which had to be done before the wheels of the machine could regularly turn. This does not mean that there will be no deficit for the 1913-14 season. On the contrary, about $50,000 is the amount which the Century directors will probably have to take from the endowment fund, largely because of the preliminary expense item.

Some uninformed persons, finding fault. on the ground of alleged skimping by the Messrs. Aborn, may be surprised to learn that while proper economy is being exercised, fair salaries are given in return for services rendered. Some of the best principals of the Century Company receive nearly $500 a week, and their contracts provide for an increase that will elevate them at the third year to half again that figure.

The average first principals are each sure of $200 for from three to four ap

pearances every seven days; the singers of secondary importance receiving from $50 to $75 apiece for a week's endeavors. When one bears in mind that the season is thirty weeks and more, the compensation appears commensurate, and is far and away larger than is ordinarily possible in European opera-houses.

Chorus-singers,-there are one hundred in the Century,-are paid as little as $14 a week and as high as $25, the average being $18. A number of them, though, who have small parts to sing are given $30, $35, and even $40 for their weekly strivings. The ballet, which numbers thirty, receives $18 and $20 per person. Coming to the orchestra, we find the Century apportioning $90 a week to its concert-master, and for the average maintaining nearly $50. There are very few musicians who obtain less than $72 minimum for eight opera performances and one Sunday-night concert and extra rehearsals.

Conductors, stage-managers, and chorusmasters can depend on from $100 to $250 each for every one of the thirty-odd weeks of their labors, and the members of the executive and business staffs have no complaints to offer because of an insufficient compensation. It is an operatic family at the Century which is in most respects fairly well satisfied.

Perhaps one of the most gratifying conditions which exists at this opera-house is the prominence given American singers, and the opportunities that are to be afforded in more ways than one to provide assistance for inexperienced native singers who have the voices and other requirements justifying preparation for grandopera careers.

This new plan, which is now in process of formulation, is to permit the creation of several judging committees to pass on the abilities of candidates for places in the free school of opera soon to be established at the Century; to select certain competent young Americans to appear on the Sundaynight concert programs, and to examine submitted unheard grand operas by native composers and librettists and, where they have exceptional merit, make their productions matters of certainty at the Century Opera-House.

There will be an executive committee, a committee to choose those who shall be admitted into the opera school, as well as

others deserving a concert appearance, and a third committee to judge the scores and librettos of the American operas. The scope of this plan, which Otto H. Kahn declares warrants the offering of certain prizes, is one of the broadest and most useful ever devised for the betterment of American singers, composers, and librettists. It is to be called the Society for the Advancement of Americans in Opera.

Within a month this plan will be well under way, and then our young people will have at their command an organization from which opinions may be had that will not only be superlatively expert, but of such an authoritative nature that they can be turned into actual cash. Singers residing outside New York City may arrange by letter for appointments to sing for the judging committee, and the verdict, whether favorable or adverse, will be of inestimable value.

As for the makers of grand opera with English texts, to which the Century Opera Company is now pledged, they have at length secured an outlet for their endeavors for which they have long hoped. In a manifestly superior position to produce American-made operas than the Metropolitan Opera Company, which lacks fine artists who can sing in English, the Century should take the lead in giving native composers and librettists the chances they have been steadily denied.

That Americans are welcomed by the Century management, and that they are given every chance to succeed within reason, may be seen from the list of those now occupying important and subordinate posts with that organization. A dozen of the A dozen of the first principals were born and reared in the United States, while a far greater number who sing secondary rôles, and others giving a "wee bit" to the singers, are American to their finger-tips.

Lois Ewell, the most efficient and popular of the sopranos, comes from Tennessee, although she is known as a Brooklyn girl because of her lengthy residence in the City of Churches. Miss Ewell will have earned more than $12,000 for her thirtyfive weeks' work at the conclusion of the regular Century season this spring. Miss Kathleen Howard, the leading contralto, and probably the most conspicuous feminine personality in the Century organization, is a Buffalonian. Before singing in

opera abroad, as did Miss Ewell, this excellent artist was a Brooklyn churchsinger.

Another of the principal contraltos, Miss Mary Jordan, is a native of Scranton, Pennsylvania. This young woman, who has proved her capabilities in the most difficult of operatic rôles, is likewise one of the well-paid Century artists who will be given an increase in salary on account of her unquestioned success. Two recent additions to the roster of this company, Misses Mary Carson and Gladys Chandler, whose successes in the characters of Gretel and Hansel in the Humperdinck opera "Hansel and Gretel," came respectively from Texas and Omaha, Nebraska. Each is a splendid artist, and both will have greater opportunities as the Century's operations advance.

Two other American singers who are Century principals are Miss Phoebe Crosby, a soprano whose home is in Maine, and Miss Cordelia Latham, a Minnesota contralto. Such a record as the feminine singers have made is no better, however, than that of the men. The three leading baritones, by an odd coincidence, are Americans, and one of the first tenors was also born here, as was the leading basso.

Louis Kreidler first saw the light of day in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. After being graduated from Lehigh University, Mr. Kreidler went to work seriously to become a singer. His engagement by Managers Aborn followed his success in second baritone rôles at the Metropolitan OperaHouse. Thomas Chalmers, a real NewYorker, has the most beautiful baritone voice in the Century Company, and Morton Adkins, the third of these baritones, claims Cleveland as his birthplace. Like Mr. Kreidler, he is a university graduate, Syracuse being his alma mater.

Walter Wheatley, the lyric tenor, and Herbert Waterous, whose splendid basso voice has pleased Century patrons, are natives of Joplin, Missouri, and of Michigan. Mr. Wheatley has had the distinction of appearing at Covent Garden, London's most famous opera-house, in the same opera with the great Emmy Destinn, and Mr. Waterous has done equally good, if not quite as notable, work in the matter of the places in which he has sung.

Established principal opera-singers,

these American young men and women will soon have to meet the challenges of others, some of them from the very ranks of the organization to which they now belong. But the women are the ones who should be most concerned, for it is among the feminine portion of the chorus that the best material is to be found, and where ambition is oftenest met.

The new Society for the Advancement of Americans in Opera will undoubtedly find some fine voices, and the free opera school to be attached to the Century Opera-House will certainly develop many singers destined to become famous. But among "The Little Prima Donnas," which is the appellation conferred upon a group of sixteen American girls, sopranos and contraltos, who form the most talented in the chorus, are several singers for whom careers have been predicted.

Miss Amanda Brown of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, is the first of these sixteen opera vocalists. She earned enough from her duties as a librarian to pursue her studies, and so well has she progressed that a scholarship in one of the big musical conservatories eventually came to her. Another native of Pennsylvania, Miss Helena Alberts of Delaware Water Gap, is regarded by Manager Milton Aborn as having the most remarkable memory of any member of the company. Scarcely less talented in other respects is Miss Virginia Picard of Philadelphia.

New York City and its environs have contributed liberally to the gifted chorussingers, and among those who stand excellent chances of eventually having respon

sible parts are Misses Katherine Jessup, Florence Lane, Lola Demorville, Adrienne Michel, Othelia Hoffman, Ethel Snyder, and Gertrude Beck. From farther up the Empire State, in Binghamton, comes Miss Minerva Leigh.

The remaining members of "The Little Prima Donnas" belong to various parts of the United States. Miss Rhea Corelli is a native of New Haven, Connecticut; Miss Lillian Nielsen-a relative of the famous Christine, and who has sung with the "Bostonians" and the "Naughty Marietta" companies-was born in Santa Baria, California, while Miss Aurelia Hulsman's home is Cincinnati. The single one of this flock of talented vocalists not born in this country is Miss Ida Allen, though she has lived in New York City since she was a child of three.

In the face of these facts, who shall say that the United States is not coming into its own from an operatic point of view? We admit that a great deal remains to be accomplished, and that everything is by no means over save the shouting. Still, there is every reason for feeling encouraged not alone because there is evidence to indicate that the public wants popularpriced grand opera that is good, but because our own young people are finally to be given the help they need. Opera for and by the people is no longer a mental dream; it is a substantial reality, and before another ten years have passed, it is likely dozens of progressive American cities will have followed New York's lead by establishing permanent opera companies of their own.

LIKE

IKE many another inspiration, the great idea came to Menai Tarbell in his morning tub. Its advent was particularly impressed upon him because he had violently turned on the overhead douche, as if the intolerable, down-at-theheels, and out-at-the-elbows condition of his pocket-book justified his own watery. suicide. As the frigid shower splashed over his body, the idea splashed into his brain.

Menai sprang out of the tub with a sudden access of energy. He slapped himself airily with the skimpy towel, quite oblivious that a fellow-pensionnaire was pounding on the door for admittance. Others might wait. Menai Tarbell had waited long enough, hammering on the door which led to success and groping about for financial returns. As a fledgling artist he had begun to wait in a gray-andsilver Chelsea byway of London, when he had sunk his New England identity in old England currant buns, strong tea, and "fish and frieds," and had affected a fine contempt for the gullible British public and its artistic idols. He had kept on waiting when the fleshpots changed to pot-au-feu and vinegary vin ordinaire.

The only visible alteration had been in his externalities. From a mild Philistinism of grubbiness of hand and bagginess of knee, he had cultivated the romantic Bohemianism of funereal "peg-tops" and flowing black tie. He had still been waiting when he deposited himself moodily in the tub. At last, however, he saw the golden path that led from the wretched alternation of drudgery and "hope deferred" straight to achievement and a plump bank-account.

The sudden vision of his grinning countenance in the dim, cracked looking-glass was so surprising that Tarbell laughed aloud despite the fact that his risible muscles had long been stiff and rusty for want of practice. Things were beginning to come his way. He was not yet "dished."

But

Tarbell finished his toilet with the vague sensation of being a kind of Judastree that, half dead outwardly, had now burst into pink blossom. Then he hurried gaily down the dark, narrow stairs into the little room of half-lights where the bright-eyed, loquacious "Madame" was counting out the sugar cubes for the pensionnaires' café-au-lait. The petit déjeuner was a frugal enough meal. the avidity with which Monsieur l'Américain passed it down caused Madame to look at him with indulgent amazement. Monsieur Tarbell had the grand air of mysterious importance. Monsieur Tarbell had the broad smile for everybody. Could it be that le bon Dieu had sent him some great gift of fortune in the night that he might pay her the hundred francs that were her due?

Monsieur l'Américain, however, did not give Madame much time to contemplate either himself or this astonishing possibility. He drained the last drop of coffee, set down the cup with a clatter, and was off.

Once outside the street door, Menai Tarbell broke into a stride which had a curious resemblance to a Western lope. The most casual observer might have seen that while he was neither walking nor running, he was making for some preconceived destination with the evident intention of wasting no time on pedestrian formalities. The scattering of a few footpassengers in his comic flight did not embarrass him any more than did their wordy protests. Somewhere in the back of his mind he was thinking of a sweet face with cool and indifferent eyes, and wondering how Cynthia would look when he could announce to her that he was succeeding, that after all he was not a poverty-stricken, conceited fool to spend his life riding the cockhorse of art, that he was not a mere irresponsible pierrot blowing thistledowns and grandiloquently calling that a métier.