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. - " - TM'E -SALT iAKE TIvl.BUN.I5." SUNDAY MORNING. JANUARY 5, l'JlbV " " ,.'1 fb
IGeraldine Farrar Tells How
: Observation of Her Operatic '
Goose FocA- aid Jtady o Pate
- de--Foie Gras Led Her to the
Right Road for Slenderness
By GERALDINE FARRAR
The Charminp and Veruatilo Amcricnh Prima Donna.
IT AST spring when my season
I ended I realized that I had
' grown too stout for either
muBlcal or practical purposes.
I bad suspected It for some time
before, but when I asked my frionds
what to do they gave me plenty o
advice hut no proof.
One of them said "Walk." She
had been walking six miles a day
and I noticed no decreaso in her
eize. Instead her muscles were
growing larger.
Another said: "Diet," but diet
with her waa a synonym for starva
tion. Whllo she was growing
lighter Jn -weight she lost all her
energy. My vitality was my capital.
1 couid not afford to Impair it.
j was advised to take reduction
baths. Tho woman who gave me
this advice oven presented me with
a nample of tho strange compound,
& powder she poured Into tie tub.
But her face bore strange blotchos,
which she said were tho result of
the baths. I waived the baths.
A woman I knew went to the
Turkish batbB every day. I believed
that breathing, hot air so often
would injure my vocal chorda.
An amateur physician prescribed
obesity pellets, but she had taken
them and I bapponod to know that
her digestion was all but ruined.
Success waits on good digestion.
The obesity pellets were foregone.
SU11 in a quandary I went abroad.
I weighed ono hundred forty pounds.
1 wanted to weigh one huudred
twen ty.fi ve, tho right weight for my
height, which is tho medium one,
about five feet five and a half inches.
How should I rid mysolf of those
fifteen pounds of excess avoirdu
pois, useless bodily baggage?
While 1 lounged In my deck chair
1 hate to walk tho deck I hum
med some airs I had sung the last
ceason. One of theso was the song
of the Gooao Girl. Midway In tho
"cluck-cluck" song I stopped and
sat up straight and looked out orcr
the dancing blue waves. I had an
inspiration.
From the Metropolitan Opora
House to Strasburg had hoen but
a step in the long boots of imagina
tion. I saw my white geese crowd
ing around me In tho big, echoing
Hoge. Then 1 saw them in different
surroundings., in a dark cellar In
Strasburg, a nail driven through
the webbing of one foot, chaining
them cruelly to tho floor. I caw a
man stuffing thorn with food. J saw
tliem fattening. us it wore, under
his hand. They wore nailed to tho
floor so they couldn't get any exor
cise; they wore put in a dark cellar
so they couldn't get any sun, and
only enough air to keep them alive;
this and the food made them
enormously fat, save them fatty de
generation of the liver and gave
the world pato-do-foie-gras.
Tho st-ry of that tidbit on youi
nfter-tbeatre plate is a story of suf
fering, though it be only tho suffer
ing of a goose. The farmer who Uvea
near Strasburg, in Germany, catches
his biggest, mo3t likely goose and
takes it to twn. It is bought by a
dealer in meat supplies, who places
it in a cellar with other victims, lu
tho darkened cellar, when his fright
ened eyes adjust themselves to the
dim light, the poor goose 6ees others
like himself standing quiet, because
every movement of theirs strains and
tears at a poor foot that has been
nailed to tho floor. This the dealer
in goose flesh uns dono so that the
goose will take no exercise and so
fatten faster. Then, being deprived
of the slightest exercise the goosu
can only eat and sleep. His keepers
kco to it that lie eats, for they force
food down uL: throat
Thus overfed, and not exercised, C
he grows enormously fat so fat
that fatty degeneration begins. This 1
disease fasteus upon his liver, making
it huge and puffy. When he has
been inflated enough to please the I
epicure ho is killed. His liver is
extracted and we smack our llp.s fe
upon it and say: "How good is pule
dc faiv ffra.t."
That. I understood In a flash, was f
what had happened to me. 1, too, $
had been nailed to the floor by tho
circumstances of my life as an opera p
elnger. No air -had been as dc- I
Melons to mo as the musty, oxygen-
less a-lr of tho stage. 1 had taken
no pains to breath any other, i had
had no exercise because I never ',
took a step I didn't have to. I had
been chained as tho goose waa and
with tho same effect. I, too, had
fattened, only, unliko tho poor goose
of Strasburg, I was not suffering
from fatty -degeneration of tho liver,
at loast I hoped not. I had not yet
reached tho patc-de-foic-gras stage,
but I might.
Five minutes' meditation often
changos a career or alters a life. I
havo heard. The inspiration I got
from "The Gooso Girl." changed my
summer.
I had thought of a fow weeks in
- - ' tjapgSoa
mm wa rn mm
Mm XmCp mm H
On the left is 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.
Ixmdon, of Paris for clothes, of tho German baths,
tho usual round in Europe, but Instead I went to
Munich, took a largo house a few miles out, and
nave myself over to losing those fifteen pounds. I
lost them, SIMPLY BY NOT BEING A GOOSE!"
"What did the gooso do 7" I asked
njjHelf.
"Ho lived in a close, dark cellar,"
I answered, "and that Is just what
1 must not do."
Where Women Really Have Their Own Wav
T T takes about threo years to woo a maid
I among tho Ekoi peoplo In Northern Nl
gerla. This is only iu keeping with many
other hardships to which tho men of thb
raco aru subjected.
It seems that a man of tho Ekoi doesn".
confer a very great favor upon tho woman be
belects to bo his wire. According to the na
tivo cu6tom, he muHt terve her peoplo fo:
H1 -ome conslderanlo time usually two or three
ears -heforo ho can claim hor. His work
H1 mostly consists in helping to clear the bush
for tho next season's farms, but other ser
rices may be required of him.
H' During thiH time he Is expected to make
presentn to the relations of his future wife,
the Value of which varies according to his
means. A very usual list of gifts to father
i "(I mother or guardian consists of a demi
john of palm oil, a head of plantains, n pieco
of dried meat, two hottlea of rum, and two
or more heads of tobacco.
The woman who is being wooed is often
very exacting In the gifts demanded from her
future husband. Here is the usual dowry
required: Five silk handkerchiefs, two plecos
of cloth, one bead necklace, a tin plate, a
spoon, a looking-glass, a razor, a comb, a
pair of eclHsors, a pleco cf black cloth, a
pleco of white cloth, five balls of string, an
earthenware plate and a knife.
If the suitor docs not make the gifts ex
pected of him, tho parents refuse to provide
the daughter with a good "fatting house,"
a placo where she can remain in idleness and
fatten up for the marriage. Girls who do not
have a good fatting houaa are looked down
upon by their companions, and a man who
marries a skinny uiaid is worbu lhau dis
graced. After all these exactions, the husband Is
not at all sure that hl3 wife will keep her
side of the bargain. She may divorce him for
little or no reason. One man. who had
worked for IiIb wife's peoplo for four years,
and stinted himself to make them the prps
enta demanded, was divorced by his wife
three weeks later because he was indiscreet
enough to eat up nil tho pork In the house.
It was also claimed that he had eaten up
fiomo fish ahe had prepared, but this he
denied.
If a woman wishes to free herself without
the consent of her husband, sho rakes out
flro and pours water on the embers till they
die out. She then cuts her hair and covers
herself with white paint These simple cere
monies completed, she Is rroe to marry whom
one p.ti.istu. i. otn pmues agree to the
divorce, tho proceeding Is even Blmplor. The
severing of the mairlago Lends is indicated
li) the wife covering her hands with whlto
chalk.
Divorced wives may marry again, but
widows muBt not listen to tho proposal of
any man until the mourning for tho departed
Is over.
Among theso people a3 If the cup of down
trodden man was not near enough to over
flowing a husband must support his mother-in-law
if she become a widow. In case of
divorce, the wife has tho first claim on the
children, because she hao risked her life for
them.
The chief wife Is regarded as tho head of
the household. It is she who selects the
home, and it Ib the duty of the husband to
follow wherever his chief wlfo may lead.
fj
So for tho first time in my life
Lived out of doors. Not nt night.
No. I did not sleep in a tent, nor In
a sleoping porch. That would have
given me the sniffles, and 1 hato
sniffles. But every day 1 staid out
in tho open air for ten hours, mis
was my programme.
At six every morning my choco
lato was brought to mo in bod. Af
ter drinking It 1 dressed and went
into the big German garden. I
didn't tako brisk nor even violent ex
ercise, for I hate exerclso and al
ways will. But I sauntered about
or sat In ono of the big rustic seats
and read, or wrote letters or chatted
with my mother or any chanco
visitor. I breathod very, very deoply
and often, as though I were about
to sing, but I did not sing. It waa
part of my resolution to forget opera,
and I succeedod. 1 havo no espe
cial system of breathing. 1 inhaled
deeply and exhaled freely countleafl
times a day, bathing my lungs in
the delicious, lnvigorattng' afft
At luncheon at one o'clock Ij
whatever I liked of simple Ai
can food prepared by an Amer!
cook. Had I eaten the heavy;)
man food I courd not tell this';
story. I did not stint myaall
amount nor in -what I ate excap
to two things. I know that th
of the goose at StrnBburg fed'-
butter and cream and milk. Tl
I declined. Luncheon over I wraji
myself in a linen duster, Bwat
my head In a veil, topped It
motor cap, and df
until dnsk.
1 arrived at oi
k in time lor dia
pk and aB soon aj;
ilk dinner was flnW
Wk I reBted, not ra
mf room, but In tho
f whUo I tow
PMk oxysaa do its peri
iJ$& taken In &
draughts
"'V,if't'flya what the 1
fM. goose of StJ
'ffjm burg nel
i Had ho I
trived to get that, tho darkness!
even the lack of exercise ag
him as they were, he might M
saved his poor liver. For thg
burned up the fat tissues asafll
burns paper.
Every morning when I awon
thought of the Stranbnrg gooMi1
Imagined his forced breakfasfc
fattening things, and I waved a
tho maid who tried to tempt me w
iiuttered toast, telling me how 2
cellent it waa with the chocoli
and I sternly ordered her to U
back tho pitcher of thick yoB
country cream 3he longed to pi
Into the cup of chocolate. j
And that was all! PoaitlTi
everything! I lived out of dw
as tho goose did not And I declll
the food on which the gooae'a 111
gradually, fatally, developed M
pate-de-foie-gras. $j
For two weeks there was no f
ceptible difference in my weight, !
1 thought I noticed a slight loof
ing of tho bands of my gowns. 1
third week I was olatod, forl
scales in my bathroom showed!
three pounds lighter. j
Thus encouraged, I went "t3i
about my gooso cure. Even in diu
weather or when there wj
mountain storms, wearing rubl
clothes, 1 sauntered about the g
den and tourod the beautiful con
about Munich in irr automoW
And my weight steadily lessett
Reduction, like a ball, acquires J
montiun. 1 lost two pounds 1
fourtli week and two and a half t
fifth, and my woigut steadily ;i
creaBed until I, on ono glad dj
found myself whero I was, bo J
as avoirdupois goes, when I cm
to this country from Germany.
was no longer encumbered by f
hundred forty pounds. I weirt
one hundred twonty-flve. fc
I had gotten my inspiration tn
ono of my roIo3. I had learn!
lesson from tho silliest of blrdi.
gooso had taught mo how toy
thin,
I
