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Show AN INTERVIEW WITH AN ARTISTE. Florence St. John, London Mincer, Pa burdeni Heraelf to The New York Sun. Miss Florence St. John, tbe English singer, does not like it because her managers wou't let what sua speaks be priuted as sue says it. But Miss St. John (or once got the start at her managers. She- was interviewed by a reporter of The New York Sun and, strong to say, got in her sentiments exactly as she made them. "They nil ask me ii I like America better than England," she said to i The 8uu scribe. J "And, of course, I say I do not, for, though I may learn to love America very much, England is my home. But the next day doesn't the paper say that I love America best, and when I ask my manager to explain that he says, 'Oh, that's all right. You don't want to offend anybody, any-body, you know, and they thought it best for you to pnt it that way. You must bo careful care-ful what rou snv.' But why must I be careful, and why '""- T. JOH. enn't I say that I love my home bestf" Now isn't this too bad. Then the interviewer asked her: "What predominant American characteristic do you notice!" Whereujion she said something which, if It didn't make the American woman's ears burn, they must lie mad of tiro bri"k: "Oh, curiosity and hurry nioro than anything any-thing else. Why. they aro regular Paul t'rys, all of them. I am introduced to a lady, and she looks mo all over from uiy feet up, and when sho has finished she knows just how old I am, and what I havo on, and how much it cost, and all that. The other day I stood for a moment looking at some pictures of Mr. Kendal In a window, and a lady recogulioi me, went buck to toll her two friends behind her, ami then they ttll three stood and discussed dis-cussed my costume iu a sufficiently loud ton for mo to hear." And this about their drew: "They told me American womeu were such good dressers, but I have failed as yet to set tho well dressed American lady, for directly they aro handsomely dressed they are simply French women. Thore seems to be no American Amer-ican style of dress; everything conies from Pari. You could quickly detect an English woman In Paris, but an American would scarcely be distinguished from the Frenoh. women. They are no dreadfully frightened of unbending, and they live so much on what other peoplo may think of them, that thoy freeze up such a Bohemian as I am until I am not myself. "The other day I was Introduced to one, and she took rue all in w ith that sweeping glance of hers my eyes, my teeth, my hair, my very soul and after a long time she said sho would like to know my thought, and I almost laughed in her face." Perhaps the lady to whom she refers may take a little comfort in knowing those thoughts if she happens to peruse this article. "There's just one thing more I notice, and that is the little slow drawl in speech. Kow they call rue 8-n-l-n-t John. What's tho use in being all the morning in saying a name. Run it all together and call me "Ulnjln" and be done with it and ready for something else. Why, wheu they ask me a question t've got it all answered in my mind, and have forgotten what it was before they finish it." Tha American naturally wonders how Knglishnien pronounce St. John the Evangelist Evange-list and fit. John the Baptist. Do they call them Hinjin the Evangolist and Binjin tha Baptist) But here is a novelty, indeed. The proverbial pro-verbial stupidity of an Englishman iu catching catch-ing the meaning of a joke seems to exist everywhere eliept in Kuland. What must be Erotbor Jonathan's dullness if ha is behind his cousin in this respect? "You are very much slower to catch a Joke than the English, and laugh much less heartily. heart-ily. I can always count one, two, three after a joke before any one laughs, and If the fun is a little broad the ladies look all around to see If any oua is going to smile, aud by that time tho men are laughing, so, under cover of it, they titter a Httlo. The play on words aud puns do not seem to amuse them at all, aud I have to wait so long for the laugh after I sing, 'Don't follow me where I live; that is a thing I can't forgive,' that I wish for hammers ham-mers to pound it into their heads with. Then the applause is so much less spontaneous and hearty that I don't know on oncore when I get one, and have to be sent on by some on else. I fancy tho Americans consider uses sort of interlopers, and don't like us very well anyway. I feel their lack of sympathy very much." Miss Sinjin, you are giving your English sisters away. It seems that they laugh oponly with the men at the "broad" parts. That isnt nice of them at all. It's very naughty. Miss St. John's imputations "poll th American youth are, principally, that be crowds and stares at her. "They seem to have cheek enough for anything," she says. "Our Johnnies aren't quite so awfully proper in dress as your dudes. Occasionally you will see one with his overcoat on his shoulder and looking as If bo were alive. W call 'etu Dresden china tissue paper when they get so very fine and look as if they'd blow over if any one breathed; but, poor things, their heads are just the same empty. I sing a littlu sweet bit of Gounod's music, end they glower at mo and try to swallow the knobs of their sticks, and then they say: 'Oh, come, now, Binjin, sing somethiug jolly something like "Will you be my Holly-hockr" Holly-hockr" Oh, their poor brains, their oor brains!" "Did you bring your little boy with youP asked The Sun's bright young man (or maybe it was one of Th bun's bright young women). "No; he wouldn't com. He Is In London with his grandmother. I don't see what Ui nursery has to do with 'Fuurt Up to Dote.' Here I want to pose as a young aud innocent damsel, and they keep dragging the poor baby in, and worst of all say be is 4 months old, which is rather embarrassing, as I haven't lived with my husband for eighteen months, and the child is 4 years old." Who can wonder that the poor woman prefers pre-fers her English home, whore the "Dresden China" young men call ber fiiujin, though they do glower and try to swallow the knoU of their aticka, and call for "Will You Ha Mine, My Hollyhock," to a land where they are so indelicate as to impute a 4-montlis-old ! child to a woman who has lived single for eighteen months, "Ob, come cow, Hlnjin" j give us something jolly. |