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Patti A Heroine

Patti A Heroine image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
October
Year
1895
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

te-w people have been more interviewed than Madame Adelina Patti, and yet here is a little story about her which, I think, has never seen the light of print before. It was one of those things which the interviewer misses tbrough his victim's modesty. When Adelina Patti was a girl, she was as fond as a boy of running, jumping, swimming and climbing. She was not by any means a tom-boy, and everything she found to do she did with decorum and grace. Adelina Patti was short, and generally sturdy. Her powers of endurance were simply marvelous, and among her schoolfellows there were none with whom she could not hold her own. It was on a Saturday morning in October, and Adelina, with a bevy of Bchoolfellows, had strayed into the woods and discovered a wonderful rocky ravine ealied the "Devil's Glen." Overhead the great trees interwined' their branches so as to effectually exclude the sun at all times. And below, in the central chasm of the ravine, lay a pool forty feet deep. On three sides the rocks rose precipitous, and slippery with the moss of countless ages, sheer up from the inky surface. On the stepPing stones above the fourth the party stood throwing stones into the stagnant waters, and awakening the ceaseless echoes of the rocks. Suddenly a shrill cry went up; one of the girls had slipped and fallen headforemost into the murky waters. Patti alone of the whole party retained her presence of mind. Shouting to some of the girls to run for help, she gathered up her skirts and leaped from rock to rock until she stood by the rippling, circling waters. Then, throwing off her hat and cloak, she plunged ih to the rescue of the drowning girl. Seizing her by the hair, she dragged her through the water to a floating log, and, clinging on to thi3 frail support, she rested and soothed the frightened child. Then, half swimming, half paddllng, she urged the log to the lower f nel of the basin, there to wait in the 'ater for more than half an hour, when, at last, help crae. Throughout this ter, rible ordeal Patti'a courage never failed once.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register