The Washington Herald from Washington, District of Columbia • Page 23

p-vg: 3 'LfltfcajMLagLjCIugSgB SEPTEMBEH 12, 1915., Jfe SECTION 1 3 Jt'1 KM i I i i cJ Hik. aajajajajajajajajajajajajajajy TTT. I IA I lr at (4 Rock-a-by Baby," Crooned, by Alma Gluck, Will Lose Famous Opera Singer $714 a Night In Contracts For 210 Nights. THE. world's most expensively Iullabled baby.

That's what the little daughter Is that, was born the other day. Lake-' George to Ef rem Zimballat. fatuous Russian violinist, and his wife, best known to the world as Alma' Gluck, grand opera star. For "ilamma Zimbalist has given up a Mason which held (150,000 worth of.re- eltal and concert contracts for her Just she might sing her little baby girl to leep and give it all the other cares that nl a mamma herself can give. Alma Gluck's season begins in October and ends In April.

In the 210 days which comprise her season she could easily earn 1150.000. That means that every night he sings the famous "Rock-a-By ong it costs her just $714 to do It. And that means that each ot the thirty-seven notes of the song costs her Just exactly $37. It's the most expensive little baby in the world so far as Its lullabies go. There Isn't a baby prince or princess In all of Europe or the lands of the east, there Isn't a millionaire's tot In all the western world nhn gets such tremendously expensive good night songs crooned to It when it closes Its eyes at night time as does the little Zimbalist baby.

But Alma Gluck sings her $714 worth of lullaby to her.llttle one every night with a heart overflowing with happiness and without a regret In the world. Her loss af $150,000 for this season means absolutely nothing to her when weighed In the balance against her baby and Its prop-r bringing up. Nor Is Alma Gluck a sentimentalist by any means, nor Is she overwhelmed for the moment with the Joys and splendorr of maternity. She Is an extremely level-headed person. Is this young and beautiful woman who Just a few, years ago was drearily tolling away as a stenographer ta a little back office In New York.

That she cancels all her contracts for this season and -devotes her time worthof It to hei baby does not mean that the Joys ot motherhood have completely strangledwithln her the sense of the duties she owes the "world aa aa artist. She has not given as an artist, but for. the time being stterhas put It to one side, feeling that It. is not now ao Important as the care her baby When she has brought her baby tb'a'polat where feels that she can leave for aereral 4ays or a week, perhaps then, asa not until then, will back to the aoncert stagel "8otlls easy to see. that ytiauGluekiS; aet atjaequmeataust.

arr a otaerwao sternlty makes iorgeteverj- -HfBFifffcaHbitJiicetf w. I 1-M-MJ 1-Lg. fc-fc IK3 11 issBi artist who 'will sacrifice maternity and a home to art. For Alma Gluck has lived a life. Her path has not alwajs been so strewed with roses and bathed In sunshine as it has been In the last few years.

She has known sorrow and suffering, she has known poverty and despair. And strang-est of all to say she has been blamed because she did not love the home. That was what was said of her when yhe dl- vorced her plain business husband and took to art some five years ago. It was after her meteoric success In the small part' of Sophie In Massenet's "Werther" at the New Theater. One gay little song by the unknown singer and all New Yorfl fell at her feet.

Other audiences have doiie the same thing wherever Alma-has gone since. The lovely songstress said little to the public concerning her domestic difficulties at ihe time. About all she uttered was; "When I sing I am Alma Gluck. an artistic force, and the wife of no And of course all the IJame Grundys misunderstood her. They pointed her 'out aa a a stenographer In a Nev York law office, who married a poor clerk and was -happy enough with him when along came Ambition into their happiness, re-veallag to the wife the applause she might have If she deserted her home and husband.

"Foor these Dame Grundys said over and over many a time and put Alma down as one who forever loat for being-a hater of the home. Then came an announcement, that surprised them all. Alma Gluck wa3 reported engaged to marry againthis time not to a poor clerks but to. a' world-famous artist, Efrem The Dame Gundys couldn't understand why Alma should man-to take up a career and then soon after marry another man. It must' be artistic temperament, they said.

But Alma had her own explanatlok. "It was not the desire for acareerV saya-Almai "Gluck. "There was so 'much else. It was all so hard and to 'dark aad hoperess. There was nothing.

Te, was oldeV.tbaa I. awelvolder, and he asked nothing Hfa'hatlwhatwaa iharat eaoaihX-We his bafla. --was -little iBiaaeise-oiu. wo-nronw never' ui-mwmhuijiimm, MM 6 kiB "I always had a rolce. I remembej It used to annoy my sister she was mother and father and everything In the world to me to have me singing so much.

If I wjas happy I sang. If I was Sad I sang If I was punished for singing so much It must have been a nuisance I'd find myself singing my sorrow In a minor key, forgetting -that I had promised to be good and not forever to keep singing. "None of my family was interested la my voice. That is, not in the way to let me make anything of It. You see, they were afraid to encourage me.

They were afraid ot the stage for a girl. It meant to them to send her straight to the 'demnltlon "I was taught to play the piano. I was let go into an office. I became a stenographer. By and by I got interested In law and made up my mind to study to become a lawyer.

I even matriculated at the University of New York Law school. Then I married." It was not of the foreign-born she first chose this slender, tall, Jewish girl, with the sibyl lie eyes, bora In far away Rumania and brought to this country a child of six but an American. "Like mjrelf," she adds. For Alma Gluck is an ardent patriot. America made her and crowned her a qneen 9t song.

Though rapturously received abroad, she has never studied anywhere but'in-America, in her opinion no coun- try In the world equals America in itt' appreciation music and respect for rarthts. "America Is willing to pay for music Other countries -are not If yau lore anything you show It by making sacrifices for it. If a man loves music he must be willing to sacrifice something for it, something of his other pleasures. Americans do. hafc The are wllllag ta-aay to'bearftie Mora sald JJfe artletlc temperament and that consuming desire career.

thepnbUp so chlldkhl'r ba- -WwraaIa ftat Vakesa woman "can" nappy, home and blessed children -aad racking, rail- C5M nrai 'JJ i- 1" i.f 5. tvi EHry 1 rfm fi Si fSvfS jyr-tizrT via the" stage door when the shouting and the handclapplng and the crowds are over. Alma Gluck found thai no voluntary was hers between home1 and a career. "We were married. We- were getting nowhere.

I could not stand it any longer. So I borrowed' money to do somathing with ray roiee. Hoij, I studied! After three' years my-teacher. took; me to Gattl- Gaszasa to hear" me slag. irnV beit I hoped was that aajalfcht say Hf" I studied.

aayt tea years longer. I. might osof ftf wktf faaiada In "lanvra aw wnw ana there 'a'adrhad'-aie. eitx-a- p5C'w: LlH JjsiS' "SCjrt rwsr P.ij& i3 yi (AyH 5 iVC YS. 581 "-i" :5 4J 4'J it4 vjWifi, jrji A1feY.tlr i I EV Lnti JT'fe5 .1 hft -yCl wsmm aJ.

-ffts; ir AJK. jS'" 5z; la wtmm W. fi yco '5frOwsl ft siViP. T3 'f-SS tVO US mi Gttcfc I had nerer sung In my life'' before an audience, who had never sung even in a Sunday school or church festival, aa other Americans do as young girls when they have voices, was to make my first appearance In grand opera. And the happiest day of my life I haven't had so many happy days that I cannot count them easily was when I put the money for my singing lessons back Into the hand that gave Geraldlne it well known.

took the new singer under her wing. She was responsible for the engagement In "Werther" which enabled New York to see Miss Gluck with both eyes. "There Is absolutely no way to be an artiste and a homemaker successfully at the? same time," says Miss Gluck. "It can't-be done. -A woman 'must choose either a home or a career.

No true woman hesitates about which' Is better 'when- she has the choice. If she has no choice let her take the career make the most of It and never let the wolrld know how' much It hurts. "A woman's Job, the Job God gave her. I Is the beat aad hardest la the-world. ITaha stoope to do anything else and ta eteoplng he ust let the other It she' tries take both ahe-Uf a robber and dishonest hare a litUa'fam.

Sometlmea I go to mf little farniv aad keep house, and 'I aat happy nntl all at oncVn.lt' r99HkfBkfH3C9Bcl jsa i it ii? fftMtiSJ MR 5J i times I sing four times a week and spend every night upon a train. It Is the -hardest kind of work. "Sometimes people are displeased with me because I cannot see them after a concert. If they only knew how much the concert takes out of me and how far I often nave to go to reach the place of my next engagement. "I'll tell you why I feel like a robber when I stay at home enjoying my-Laka George farm that I've earned all myself.

It Is because I have so many other things, beyond the reach of the best sort of women, the home women, that I hava no business that are, rightly" theirs home and all that The other things are good. Indeed travel and wide acquaintanceship among famoua people, and money. When one has them It easy to resign them. But they are not worth the sacrifice of home and children. Never! Never! "Qld you ever hear the story of tha boy who' called to his father that ha had caught a snake, a boa constrictor? she began.

'Bring him said tha father. 'I can't. He won't let answered 'the boy. "That Is the artlatlc career. It driven you more than yon drive It It has.

aa mora than I hava it I will keep em singing because I have to keep on' singing. There are contracts and offers and the rest, yon--know. But we are both fcasartiaea la Ue werM. Nrf ta.aW aa iSJJaRW loaelyealU wha atrikaa a-ttatxl aa moans BnaF i S3 (. Xs'- iSili.j I.

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