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The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page
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Copyright. 1912. by the Star Company- Great Britain Right Reserved.
from a
Geraldine Farrar Tells How
Observation of Her Operatic
Goose Flock and Study of Pate
deFoie Gras Led Her to the
Right Road for Slenderness
By GERALDINE FARRAR
Tlio Charming; and Veriatlle
LAST spring when, ray sobbou
ended I realized that 1 bad
grown too stout for cither
musical or practical purposes.
I bad suspected It for Botne time
before, but when I asked my friends
what to do they gave mo plenty of
advice but no proof.
Ono of them said "Walk." She
had been walking six xnllos a day
and I noticed no decreaso In her
size. Instead her muscles were
growing larger.
Another Bald: "Diet," but diet
with her was a synonym for starva
tion. Whllo she was growing
Ilghtor In wolght she lost all her
energy. My vitality was my capital,
i cou'.d not afford to Impair It
1 was advised to tako reduction
baths. Tho woman who gave me
this ndvlco even presented mo with
a sample of the strango compound,
a powder she poured Into tho tub,
But her faco bore strango blotches,
which she said wcro tho result of
the baths. I waived the baths.
A woman I knew went to the
Turkish baths every day. I believed
that breathing hot air so often
would Injure my vocal chords.
An amateur physician prescribed
obesity pollota, but she had taken
them and I happened to know that
her digestion was all but rulnod,
Success waits on good' digestion.
The obesity pellets woro foregone.
Still In a quandary I went abroad.
I weighed ono hundred forty pounds.
I wanted to weigh one hundred
twenty-five, the right wolght for my
height, which is tho medium one,
about fivo feet Ave and a half Inches.
How should I rid mysolf of those
fifteen pounds of oxcess avoirdu
pois, useless bodily baggago?
Whllo I loungod In my dock chair
1 hate to walk tho deck I hum
med some alra I had sung tho last
soason. Ono of thoao was tho song
of tho Gooso QlrL Midway in tho
"cluck-cluck" song I stopped and
sat up straight and looked out over
the dancing blue waves. 1 had an
inspiration.
Prom the Metropolitan Opera
House to Strasburg had been but
a step in tho long boots of Imagina
tion. I saw my white goeso crowd
ing around me in the big. echoing
stage. Then I saw them in different
surroundings, In a dark collar in
Strasburg, a nail driven through
tho webbing of one foot, chaining
them cruelly to the floor. I saw a
man stuffing them with food. I saw
them fattening, as it were, under
?x StraiUur-r Geese Zilam Fattened for
Where
bout three years to woo
T takes about three years to woo
J u""us tne wkoi people In Northern Nl-
gerla. -This is only in keeping with many
other hardships to wtiich tb0 men of thU
race are subjected.
it seems that a man ol the Ekol doesu".
confer a very great favor upon the woman bo
selects to be bis wire, According to the nu
live custom, be must terve her people fo?
u)u considerable time usually two or three
ars before he can claim her. His worn
mostly consists In helping to clear the bush
for iho next Bcasou's taruis. but other er
vice muy he required of blni.
OurlcK thlB time he Is uxpected to make
presents to tbo relations of his future wire,
th value of, which varies according to ljit
menus. A very usual list of girts to father
and mother r guardian consists or a rtemt
American Prima Donna,
his hand. They woro nailed to tho
floor so thoy couldn't got any oxer- ,
else; they were put In a dark collar
so they couldn't get any sun, and
only enough air to koop them alive;
this and tho food mndo them
enormously fat, gave thom fatty do
gonoration of tho llvor and gave
tho world pato-do-folo-graB.
The bI ry of that tidbit on your
aftcr-theatro plate Is a story of suf
fering, though it bo only the suffer
ing of a goose. Tho farmer who llyes
noar Strasburg, in Qormany, catchos
his biggest, most likely gooso and
takes if to uwu. It is bought by a
dealer in meat supplies, who placos
It In a collar with other victims. In
tho darkened cellar, when his fright
ened eyes adjust themselves to tho
dim light, tho poor'goose sees others
llko himself standing quiet, because,
every movement of theirs strains and
tears at a poor foot that has boon
nallod to tho 'floor. This tho dealer
In gooso flesh uas done so that tho
gooso will tako no exercise and so
fatten faster. Then, being deprived
of tho slightest exerclso tho goosu
can only eat and sleep. His keepers
see to it that ho oats, for they force
food dowu nlj throat
Thus overfed, nnd not exercised,
he grows enormously fat so fat
that fatty degeneration" boginB. This
disease fastens upon his live:, making
it hugo and puffy. When ho has
been inflated enough to plcaso the
eplcuro ho is killed. Ills liver is
extracted nnd wo smack our Hps
upon it nnd sny: "How good is pato
de folo gras,"
That I understood in a flash, wan
what had happonod to mo. 1, too,
had boon nailed to tho floor by tho
circumstances of my llfo as an opora
slngor. No air had boen as do
llclous to mo as tho musty, oxygon
Iosb air of tho stage. I had taken
no pains to breath any othor. I had
had no exercise bocauso I novor
took a stop I didn't havo to. I had
boon chained as tho gooso was and
with tho same offoct. I, too. had
fattoned, only, unlike tho poor goose
of Strasburg, I was not suffering
from fatty degeneration of tho llvor,
at least I hoped not I had not yet
reachod the pato-do-foio-gras Btngo
but I might
Fiv minutes' modltatlon often
changos a careor or alters a life 1
havo hoard. Tho inspiration I got
from "Tlio Gooso Girl." changed my
Bummer.
I had thought of a few weeks In
ii... p: r- ,
Women Really Have
a maid i0hn of ualm oil .... ... ... f. .... ..... .km..
a maid
j ww it ui uailll U1I. II nPflrt iT t
or dried niea , two bottles of rum. and two
or more heads of tobacco.
Tho woman who Is being woood is often
uJLl X??Ui!B '? the sUts demanded rrora her
lUtUre hUBDHni! Wara l t i .
requ red; Five silk handkerchiefs, two pieces
nPn?r"nfa 'ook,ns-,a'8-
pair or scissors, a p pee
u....ru..arn pium ana 0 nfe
If tho biiltor does not make the Klfta ox
, Pected or him. the parents reruso to pmvlde
ul P fJ V,?..n,arrie- (5,-l8 who do tut
i..8d.rat"nB hous,- are looked down
u, uieir copaniotis
mffl
Photo J Sv
Aim OuroHT v V
nntn ....
nmrr.ui u dkiuny
graced.
After all these exactions, the husband Is
not at'. all sure that hlB wifo will keep her
aldo of the bargain. She may divorce him for
little or no reason One man. who had
worked for his wife's people for four years,
and stinted himself to make them the' pres
ents demanded, was divorced by his wife
three weeks later because he was Indiscreet
- A V. ... 1 1 . 1 . i i . . i i .
raVor. a comb
rf black cloth
u
a
u
an
enoufiu iu uui up
. 1 .1.
II nun uiou wiuiuiuu iiiui i)u iiuu euieu
some tish she had prepared, but this
denied.
If a, woman wishes to free heraeir without
the consent or her. husbanq. she rakes out
lire, and pours water on the embers till they
die out.' She then cuts her hair and covers
herself with white Dalnt. These BlniDle cere-
and a man
who monies completed
1 v mvQw.
On the left ia Seen Miss Farrar When Her In
creasing Plumpness First Began to Startle
Her. On the Right is Miss Farrar After
She Had Taken Her Lesson From Geese
and Pate-de Foie Gras.
London, of Paris for lothes, of tho German baths,
tho usual round in Europe, but instead 1 went to
Munich, took a large house a few miles out and
gave mysolf over to losing those fifteen pounds. I
lost them, SIMPLY BY NOT BEING A QOOSEI"
Their Own Way
m..i i. .., J
maid Is worao than dia
divorce,
severlni:
uii iuo uorK in mo uouso
.C... I I.I
up
ho
"he !s ( to marry wii-mi
: in
"Wiat did tho gooso do?" I asked
mysolf,
"He lived In a close, dark cellar."
1 answered, "and that Is Just what
I must not do."
bue jneases. a uotU parues aKree to
tho
the Droceedlni? u Avon oin.ni.
Tho
of th niQrrtatra I., nila la l.ll . . J
by tho wife covering her hands with white
chalk.
Divorced wives may marry again, but
widows must not listen to the proposal of
any .man until the mourning for the departed
Is over.
Among theso people as If the cup of down
trodden man was not near enough to over
flowinK a husband must bupport his mother-in-law
If she become a widow. In case of
divorce, tbo wife has the flrst claim on the
children, because she has risked her life for
them.
Tho chief wife Is regarded as tho head or
the household. U Is she who selects the
homo, and It Is the duty of the husband to
follow wherever his chief wire mav lead.
m
haw
6
So for tho first time In my life I
lived out of doors. Not at night
No, I did not sleep In a tent, nor In
a sleeping porch. That would have
given me the sniffles, and I hate
sniffles. Dut every day 1 staid out
In tho open air for ten hours. This
was my programme.
At six every morning my choco
late was brought to mo in bed. Af
ter drinking it 1 dressed and went
Into tho big German garden. I
didn't take brisk nor even violent ex
ercise, for I hato exercise and al
ways will. But I sauntered about
or sat in one of the big rustic seats
and read, or wrote letters or chatted
with my mother or any chance
visitor. I breathed very, very deeply
and often, as though I were about
to sing, but I did not sing It was
part of my resolution to forget opera,
and I succeeded, I have no espe
cial system of breathing. I Inhaled
deeply and exhaled freely countless
times a day. bathing my lungs tu
PHOTO' n.t VVH-ITTt. fff
Miss Farrar as the'Gon e Girl in "Koenigslrind
cr" Tending the Geese That Taught Her (to. Be
Thin. '
tho delicious. Invigorating air.
At luncheon, at one o'clock-1 ate
whatever I liked of slmplo Ameri
can food prepared by an Amer'can
cook. Had I eaten the hoavy Ger
man rood I could . not toll this truo
story. I did not stint mysolf in
amount nor in what I ate except as
to two things. I know that tho Jailor
of the gooso at Strasburg fed him
butter and cream and milk. These
I declined. Luncheon over I wrapped
myaelf In a linen duster, swathed
my head In a veil, topped it with a
motor cap, and drove,
until duBk.
I arrived at horns
in tlmo for dinner,
and as soon ' as my
dinner was finished
I rosted, not in my
room, but in the, gar
den. And all . tho
while I breathed
deeply and let the
nxveen do Its perfect
work. Oxvcen
taton In great
draughts into
what the poor
gooso of Stras
burg needed.
Had no con
trived to get that, the dnrkti" and
even the lack of exerclso against
him as they were, he might have
saved his poor liver. For tho air
burned up tho fat tissues as a flame
burns paper.
Every morning when I awoke t
thought of tho Strasburg gooBO. I
imagined his forced breakfast of
fattening things, and I waved away
tho maid who tried to tempt me with
buttered toast, telling me how ex
cellent It was with ths chocolate,
and I, sternly ordered her to take
back tho pitcher or thick yellow
country cream she longed to pour
Into tho cup of chocolate. '
And that was all! Positively
everything! I livod out or doors
as tho goose did not. And I declined
the food on which the goose's liver
gradually, fatally, developed Into
patede-fole-gras.
For two weeks there was no per
ceptible difference Ii. my weight, but
1 thought I noticed a slight loosen
ing ot the bands of my gowns. The
third week I was elated, for the
scales In my bathroom showed me
threo pounds lighter.
Thus encouraged, I went steadily
ul-out my goose euro. Even In damp
weather or when there wore
mountain storms, wearing rubber
clothes, I sauntered about the gar
den and toured the beautiful country
about Munich In r v automobile.
And my weight steadily lessened.
Reduction, like a ball, acquires mo
mentum, I lost two pounds the
rdurfj week and tv.o and a hair the
tirth, and my weight steadily de
creased until I, on one glad day.
round myseU There I was. so far
as avoirdupois goes when I came
to this country from Germany. I
was no' longer encumbered by oni
hundred rorty pounds. 1 weighed
one hundred twenty-five.
I had gotten my Inspiration from
oue o ni roles I had learnnrt
lesson rrom the silliest or birds, a
goose uad taught me how to -et
thin