I
The Omaha Sunday Bee
I -
Copyright. 1912. by Amerkn-Exam!nr. Great Britain Rights Reserved,
Magazine Page
f by ureal Prima Do
a ke hither coaaclona eeatnat
Tha lloea ahow the serve eoaaeetlona
eaurtloaa la ahowa by the heavy llaea
here are atroas betweea B. C aad D,
f blood to the erootloaal eeatrea of the
w
rHT are prima donnas un
reasonable, capricious, vlo-
' lent, often ungrateful as
well as generally delightful?
i Because, says science, they have
enormously developed sensory cen
tres in their brains, while their
higher inhibitory moral centres have
been switched off.
. Nearly all the great "tempera
mental geniuses" of history have ex
hibited the same peculiarities.
' Professor David Edgar Rice, Ph.
D. (Columbia University), formerly
of Columbia's department of psychol
ogy has ' explained the underlying
reasons in a profound and scientific
manner.
r The truth, very simply and un
scientifically stated, seems to be that
the prima donna and the "tempera
mental genhiB" have a very large
Mood supply, and very large brain
centres, In a certain locality of the
brain, and that the higher moral and
intellectual centres of the brain are
comparatively neglected.
' It can hardly be called the prima
donna's fault . She has been gifted
ty nature with an enormous centre
of -vocal expression In her brain,
which uses up so much. blood and
nervous energy that her moral and
intellectual centres do not have half
a chance. , '
Remember that, according to Pro
fessor Rice, there are "tempera
mental geniuses" and '"Intellectual
geniuses." Herbert Spencer .was an
"intellectual genius," and was not
expected to do anything unreason
able. Richard Wagner was a "tem
peramental genius," and he was ex
tifit-feA tiS throw a wine hnftle at his
host 6r do something at least
startling as that once a day. And
prima aonnas snare me pecuiianues i
of "temperamental geniuses."
: First, let us satisfy ourselves that , 4
prima donaas are. unreasonable, and
i then lt go moire deeply Into the
J science th shows why they: are
unreasonable. , , ,.
Oscar Hammeroteln discovered a -beautiful
young American singer
named Felice- Lyne. She became
famous in a single night after she
sang Gilda in' "Rigoletto" at Ham
mersteia's London Opera House. She
is only twenty years old.
The King and Queen went to hear
Felice Lyne, and the Queen told her
that she bad "a perfectly lovely
voice." T Every honor fell to her
largely as a result of the discrimln- .
ating enterprise ot Oscar Hammer
stein. ...
A few. weeks ago the impresario
advertised Madame Berthe Cesar, the
toted. French prima donna, as Mar- ;
guerlte In "Faust," a role in which
Miss Lyn. had been singing. MiS3
Lyne, felt aggrieved at Mr. Ham- 1
niersteln, and at the next rehearsal,
when she' met him, she beat hlra ,
oyer the head with the heavy score
of , the i work, which had made her
famous, thereby causing him "great
bodily pain and mental anguish," as
the lawyers would express it ,
Another illustration of the prima
donna temperament was furnished J
the other day by Miss Frltzl Scheff,
This sprightly young person was
travelling In a special car on the
Union Pacific Railroad. In the morn- -
ill . ; 7 In .
Ftisr Fritzi Scheff, Who Pulled the Emergency Cord So That
ft Trrin Would Stop and Not Make the Water Slop Over
, ' ' . While She Was Bathing.
B h centra o Ideatlomt C the ecatr of emotional D aa role control.
Betweea theae tlea. The flrat head la of aoraal person. The full control of
betweea A and C. The aeeoad head la that of a prima doaaa. The nerve
but the control betweea A and C la weak. The third head llluatratea the How
prima doaaa which roba the higher coaaclona controlling centres of atreasth.
ing she took d private bath In her
private bath tub.
The movement ot
the train caused the tub to joggle
in an unpleasant manner and made
the water 6lop over. So the prima
donna quickly pul' -d the alarm cord
that Is provided for murders and
similar emergencies and brought
the train to a standstill.
"What is the matterf asked the
conductor. Miss Scheff explained vi
vaciously. The train stopped until
she had finished her bath.
Miss Mary Garden always explains
things Interestingly, and she has
thrown a lot of light on prima don
nas' morality and psychology. A
wealthy but simple-minded woman,
Mrs. David Mayer.of Chicago, com
plained that she had advanced the
money for Mary Garden's musical
education, and that after Miss Gar
den became famous she snubbed her
benefactress.
"Have I snubbed the Mayersr ob
served Miss Garden. "Really, I don't
know whether I did or not I was
very young when they first became
interested in me. I was not Inter
ested in them so much as I was in
making a name for myself. They
were merely the means to an end."
Hundreds of other cases might be
cited. The most admired prima
donnas and actresses have shown .
themselves unreasonable, capricious
and erratic, but no one admires them
a bit the less afterward.
Sir James Crichton Browne, a fa
mous English physician, made an
address recently to the Child Study
Society at the University of London
on the difference between men's and
women's bralfis. His remarks Inci
dentally explained some ot the pe-
culiarltles of prima donnas,
"In woman." he said, "the posterior
region ot the brain receives a richer
flow of arterial blood; In man the
anterior region. The work of the
two regions ot the brain is different
The posterior .region is mainly sen
sory ana concerned with seeing and
hearing. The anterior region in
cludes the higher Inhibitory centres
V ft M. ,, A . .
ui. y- pQO
. T nVt h.
. r -
(,f C ffi
I
which are concerned . with the will,
and the association centres, con
cerned with the appetites and de
sires based on internal sensations.
There Is a correspondence be
tween the richer blood supply of the
posterior region of the brain In wora
n, and their delicate powers of
sensuous perception, rapidity of
thought and emotional sensibility,
and between the richer blood supply
of the anterior region In men and
their greater originality on the
higher levels of intellectual work,
their calmer judgment and stronger
will.
"The crown of the woman's skull
is flatter than ' the man's, but the
back of her brain is relatively larger
than his."
Now Investigation
shows that the tem
peramental genius usu-
ually possesses a brain
that is highly develop-
' ed at the back, 1, e., in
the region where the
woman's brain also is
relatively most devel
oped. In a musician, a
poet or an artist the
centres of hearing, see-
ing and language are
most highly developed,
and these, as we have
seen, are in the back of
the brain.
Now, the prima don
na is an artist and con
siderably more of a wo
man than the average
woman, . so that the
phenomena which ,'are
constantly going on In
the posterior part of
her brain must be sim
ply amazing, and an ex
cuse for any sort of di
does. .
Professor Rice agrees
with Sir James Crich
ton Browne concerning
the distinction between
the sensory and higher
'inhibitory areas of the
brain. He points out
that the tendency of science is to
localize, more and more, various
mental faculties In certain groups
of nerve cells.
"It has been found, that the lan
guage centre is split up and special
ized in a most extraordinary man
ner," said Professor Rice. "A man,
for Instance, may know English and
French and Greek. Then he may
suffer an Injury to his brain, and
he will be found to have lost his
knowledge ot English, but to have
retained his knowledge of French
and Greek. In fact any one or two
languages of the group may be cut
Miss Mary Garden, Who Snubbed
Mrs. David Mayer, Who Had
Paid for Her Musical Education.
"I Was Not Interested in Them
When They Were Helping Me,"
Said Miss Garden, "but Only in
My Own Career. I Paid Them
Back Because I Would Consider
It a Discredit to Owe Money
to Such People."
out and leave the others in good
order. .
"Language seems to be the centre
most concerned in the prima donnas
and other artists we are discussing.
"It must be obvious to anybody
that it there is an enormous develop
ment in one region of the brain, an
other is likely to be neglected. The
organism possesses only a certain
vitality, and It one part is abnor
mally developed another Is corre
spondingly undeveloped.
"Doubtless there are large ganglia
around the expression area in the
prima . donna's brain, connected up
with large white fibres. Cn the
other hand, her moral Inhibitory
centres are Just little pinhead dots
a.. a. ' mm
em
4 so
Because, S cience Tells Us, the Expression Centres
in Their Brains Take Up Ail the Blood Supply, and
the Poor Little Higher, Inhibitory Centres Are Starved
connected with tiny threads. When
the expression centres are working
vigorously these little dots can hardly
get in a suggestion sldewise. Now,
a commonplace respectable person
would have good-sized moral inhibi
tory centres hitched together like a
well-conducted electric circuit.
"Much of our knowledge of the
localization of brain functions comes
through the surgical treatment of
brain diseases. If a patient Is found
to be suffering from paralysis of cer-
ill liaiipiim fA "5. sfe Hih -'
? Oil
'W ?5;cCi "ill
A X vr I tilA -i-t Af kill
Miss Felice Lyne Achieved World-Wide Fame as a Prima
Donna at the Age of Twenty Through the Efforts of Oscar
Hammerstein. Just Because He Had Engaged Another Prima
Donna Without Injuring Her Position, Miss Lyne Slapped Mr.
Hammerstein in the Face with a Lot of Music
tain facial muscles, the surgeon
knows exactly where to locate the
tumor that Is causing the trouble.
If it is a case of one-sided paralysis,
he knows precisely what artery In,
the brain has been injured. V
"As a result of these investiga
tions it has been found that certain
parts ot the brain are the seat of
the impulses which man shares with
the lower animals, while certain
other areas are the centre of the
so-called higher processes which con
trol or Inhibit the purely animal Im
pulses. "We often see a shifting of men
tal control from the higher to the'
lower senses in a good man who
suddenly goes wrong. Stevenson de
picted one form of this shifting In
his 'Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and
Mr.- Hyde.' - We see it also in the
case of intelligent, agreeable men
who succumb to the effects of alco
hol, cocaine or opium.
"In the case of the prima donnas
the over-development of their special
senses checks the operation of the
higher inhibitory prosesses, which
are. perhaps,' naturally weak. All
control Is removed, and the wild ani
mal In her, though a beautiful and
artistle one rages without restraint
"Lombroso mentions greatly height
oned sensibility as the most promi
nent characteristic of many of the
individuals whom he regards"- as
renluses. He says: If we seek the
' differences which separate a manor
seuius from an ordinary man, we
find that they consist In very great
part in an exquisite, and sometimes
perverted, sensibility '-?
"The first time that Alfierl htard
music he experienced, as it were, a
dazzling in his eyes and ears. He
passed several days in a strange but
agreeable melancholy. Berlioz has
described his emotions on hearing
beautiful music: First a sensation
of voluptuous ecstasy. Immediately
followed by general agitation with
palpitation. oppression, sobbing,
trembling, sometimes terminating
with a kind -of fainting fit
"Malibran, on first bearing Beet
hoven's symphony in C minor, bad a
convulsive attack, and bad to be
taken out of the hall.
"Musset Goncourt, Flaubert, Car
lyle bad so delicate a perception of
eounds that the noises of the streets
and bells were Insupportable to them.
"Urqulza fainted on breathing the .
odor of a rose. Byron bad a con
vulsive attack on seeing Kean act
The painter Francla died ot Joy on
seeing one. of Raphael's pictures."
We shall find Professor Rice's scl-'
entiflc facts and theories extensively
confirmed by , the Uvea of the most
famous musicians and actors.
Most of the great musicians were
"supermen." according to the phil
osophy of Nletasche. They were
above morality. It Is said that only
one great musician was thoroughjy
moral. That was Beethoven. He bad
such a great, well-developed brain
that his inhibitory centres were able
to overcome his artistic eccentrici
ties, but there was a terrific struggle
between the two. :
Beethoven abandoned the courtship
of a beautiful young girl, who loved
him, simply because he was deaf
and middle-aged, and felt that" he
should not tie. her life to his, ' But
be is an amazing exception among
geniuses. -
' Richard Wagner stole the wife of
his most devoted "admirer. Franz
Liszt was no better.- There atv
comparatively .only a few. great
' musicians and singers who have
not gratified their sensory , impulses
without regard to the feelings or
the rights of others.
The list of capricious modern act
resses proves the same tendency.
Ellen Terry made her reputation in
the company headed by Sir Henry
Irving, and abandoned him ' in his
old age when he was beginning to
lose gome of .the prosperity he had
formerly enjoyed.- , .
Miss Felice Lyne, the Youngest Prima Donna on the Stage.
Everybody knows that Sarah Bern
hardt is apt to reflect the workings
of her remarkable mind by throw
ing inkpots at her associates and
other acts of violence. Inhibitory
centres have no work to do then!.
" Mrs. Brown Potter became stage
struck, deserted her husband, and
went on the stage with Kyrle Bellew,
an actor of remarkable ability.
Some time later she left hip. He
lost reputation and drawing power.
His last years, it is said, were em
bittered by her action. J
The temperament of the genius In
short is a compound of exquisite
sensibilities without adequate con
scous control. The prima donna and
the actress share this temperament
with more or lesi of the genius. ..
1
ft.
i. :
t
-1
11
