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ON'T you step Into my parlor?" all Lillian
Ruasell.
It really Is " the prettiest parlor that ever
you did spy." Before I asked the prima donna
to show me through her home I used to won
der why she gave up her work on the road to
remain with Weber & Fields In New York.
Afterward I marveled that she ever left the
Manhattan. All the king's horses and all the
drag the average woman from a place
borough of
king's nun couldn't
like thiit.
Miss Russell's address is 1(11 West Fifty-seventh street.
The hoiiHe Is directly opposite Carnegie hall, and looks so
much like the other houses on the block that one Is Inclined
to compare them all to a row of gigantic brown teeth. The
inly Indication of what Is Inside Is derived from the fine
curtains hanging at the windows.
" A hasty trip from cellar to garret," Miss Russell told
me when first I spoke to her about the dwelling, " Is like a
Journey down the Pike at the world's fair. Henri Duveen,
who planned the house for us, arranged for rooms In the
period of Louis XVI., of the first empire, and of the Nor-
, man conquest. Thera are also an old English supper room,
a Dutch dining room, a Turkish den, and a plain, comfortable
American bedroom. It Is necromantic, except that one walks
over the magic carpet .Instead of merely sitting on it."
Like a 'Bit of Fdiiybnd.
No. 161 West Fifty-seventh Is more like fairyland than
the product of ordinary necromancy. It Is as beautiful a
home as one could desire. The drawing room represents the
day of Marie Antoinette, and there are oglier drawing
rooms at Versailles. There Is a parquetry floor partly cov
ered by a deep blue rug. The walls are of wood painted
white, and Into this wood have been let various panels of a
delicate blue silk. Winter and summer a tiny fire burns In a
tiny grate, over which Is a shelf bearing a bust of the un
fortunate queen. On either aide of this grate are cabinets
containing miniatures and carved ivory. Between them Is
a tapestry screen, and still further to the left and right ar
bronse mirrors. A queer old chair with a back shaped like a
ea shell occupies one corner of the apartment, and a broad
couch laden with pillows stands opposite. Through glass
doors directly across from windows looking on the street
one catches a view of the music room and a glimpse of Na
poleon In bronse glaring at Marl Antoinette on the man
Ulpiece. J
Glimpse of the Mask Ifyom
'The music room is a little bit of a place, with a piano
filling most of It On the piano are a magnificent scarlet
plush robe embroidered In gold, with the Napoleonic bees,
the bronse figure Just mentioned, and the score of " Lady
Teasle." the opera in which Miss Russell soon la to begin
ler season at the Casino. John Kendrick Bangs, who col
laborated with Roderlc Penfleld In writing the libretto of this
piece, is the only unmusical person represented by photo
graph or statuette. There are several plaques of Schubert,
Mossrt. Schumann, Grieg, and Beethoven. Also, Item, one
gilt music rack, one small harp, and a quantity of scarlet
drapery. ' ,
The mualo room has no wall on the side to the left as
one enters from the drawing room. Instead, there is a
foyer and a staircase with a landing so commodious that It
looks like part of a stage setting. Here are a hanging lamp
and more plush covered with bees. This time the plush,
whion la draped gracefully over the balustrade, is purple.
J
Dining Room of Oik. x
A pungent odor of grapes drew me toward the dining
room, and Miss Russell followed. Tou know the average
dining room, with Its stiff sideboard and its picture of dead
fclrds. Well, this is a dining room that would have inspired
Byron to poetry. De Maupassant to gluttonlsm, and Mon
tesquieu to tears. The apartment Is cut out of oak, or, to
be more accurate, Its walls are all of oak. Flemish tile
have been let into this oak everywhere, principally over the
enormous grate on the right a grate In which real logs lay
on big andirons ready for the match. To match these tiles
there are blue ourtaine at the windows snd a small blue rug
on the polished oak floor. The left wall Is a sideboard this
1 no exaggeration carved by hand and glittering with glass
and silver.. On . top of the sideboard stands a quantity of
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blue pottery. A ponderous oak table, aet'as for guest,
takes up the middle of the room. Around It are carved chairs,
upholstered with leather on which Miss Russell's initial
have been stamped In gold. At one's back a marvel of a
Dutch clock, alx feet tall, could be heard measuring off the
seconds. It measured them so glumly snd so insistently that
it might have taken the piece of the skeleton at a feast la
Pompeii. Miss Russell did not in the least suggest Arbsces,
however, and the heavy oaken beam visible overhead hint
at Rotterdam much more than at the City of the Dead.
Where She leids Sometimes,
The library la to a house what the pulse Is to a patient.
Mies Ruaeell and I walked up the stairs to see hers, which 1
over the drawing room. En route ahe told me how shs first
beard the script of "Lady Teasle." "Mr. Banga and I
slipped away from a number of guests," she replied, " and I
sat on the atepa while he read the libretto to maw Funny,
wasn't Itr i
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" For the sake of the public, I hope so," I replied.
Side by side on MIhs Russell's library table I found George
Bernard Shaw, Ralph Waldo Mmerson. Sir Edwin Arnold,
Sir Francis Bacon, Jerome K. Jerome, Omar Khayyam, end
Mooksee, who Isn't an author, but a particular ugly toy
spaniel. Mooksee's full face Is astonishingly like that of a
dowager at the horse show.
The library Is old English. One wall Is hidden behind
shelves of bonks, most of which look as though they were
there to be read. Dumas was positively dogeared. "The
British Essayists, III forty-two volumes " seemed suspicious.
All In all, however. I should say that Miss Russell is a wom
an who enjoys reading. On the opposite wall hang Munoz's
little picture, "The Spy," Lejeune's "The Defense," and
photographs of Alice Nlelson and Edna Wallace Hopper.
These last bear endearing messages and are signed "Alice",
an.d " Edna." This room is In a pale green, tempered by a
dark green carpet. There are several cabinet of curios, a
helf of amphorl, and a large phonograph.
Keeping Tab on Her Weight.
Miss Russell's own room Is In pink and gold. It contain
a handsome brass bedstead with a cover and pillowslips of
Irish lace. At the head of the bed is a small table bearing a
telephone, a reading lamp, and various push buttons, by
which the maid may be summoned or the lights extinguished.
The lamp Is of a Pompellan glass. At the hack of the apart
ment Is a glass dressing table under a canopy of lace, and
a French bureau bearing a Bet of gold toilet articles. Through
a narrow door one sees a bathroom, and, In the bathroom, a
cale on which she may weigh herself dally. Apparently the
end of Miss Russell's fight over her wslst line is not yet.
On the next floor up are a dream of a spare room and a
den. " Men and bears are supposed to have a monopoly on
dens," said Miss Russell, " but this Is my favorite part of the
bouse."
Her Coxy Oriental Den.
The apartment is oriental in nature. Its prominent fea
ture being the Inevitable cosy corner. This cosy corner,
however, is ss attractive as a coxy corner can be. The walls
are upholstered with Persian rugs and the celling is a tent
top of cloth of gold. The lighting is accomplished by the
aid of open lamps suspended from this ceiling. There Is a
cabinet full of carved Jewels, there are a half a dosen heathen
gods, there are several tabourets Inlaid with pearl, and
on top of these things a card table and an assortment of
autographed pen and Ink sketches by Outcault, O'Neill, Mc
Cutcheon, Martin, Stanlaws, Olbson, Remington, and Archie
Ounn. Did M. Duveen approve of these?" I asked.
' No," replied Miss Russell. " but one must have civilised
comforts even In an oriental room."
" Meaning Outcault?"
"Meaning the card table."
We looked about for a few minute and then I began
putting on my gloves. I had noticed that among all the pic
tures in the house there was not one of Miss Russell. I asked
ber about It. but she only laughed. " If a notion of mine,"
h said. " After awhile I may have a photograph of myself
as Lady Teasle." Perhaps Miss Russell finds her most flat
tering likeness framed in the gold border of the mirror in
that delightful Marie Antoinette drawing room. For, beau
tiful as the house at lfll West Fifty-seventh street undoubt
edly is. the queen of comlo opera was the most attractive
thing I aaw in it. Chakwimo Poluhik. .
4
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