MRS. HAMMERSTEIN'S OWN STORY ,",it “ a Glittering Trail Oscar's Final Collapse; the Mysterious Woman at His Funeral; His Widow’s Descent to Poverty OUT OF THE PAST Come* Thi* Photo of Mr*. Hammerttein When She Was the Wife of Julian Swift, Wealthy Chicago Packer, Whom She Later Divorced To Marry the Itnpreiario. Hr HIS is the final instalment of •* a series of articles by Mrs. Oscar Hammerstein, dealing with the triumphs and disasters of her colorful life. Ii it she concludes the story of how she first married a wealthy Chicago packer, then was the wife of the most famous impresario of his time, and finally was found, penniless and forgotten, drifting about Hew York, amidst the scenes of her former glories. By Mr?. Oscar Hammcrstein. S I come to the final chapter of my story there constantly recur to me the words Oscar Hammer stein once wrote in a letter to me: “Don’t worry about the future. 1 want to know that there are no lines of care in your face. Bear in mind that 1 will always be near you in sorrow and in happiness—even unto eternity.” He wrote those lines just before his London defeat. Then things began to close in on us.He had spent oh his The Letter Reproduced at Right I* Addreaaed by Mr*. Hammeratein to Morri* W Geat, the Theatrical Magnate, and Authorize* Oacar to Collect Back Rent for the Manhattan Opera Home. London venture all of the $1,200,0.00 given him by the Metropolitan Opera Company. Upon his return to New York the United Booking Offices gave him $225,000 in adjusting the Palace Theatre franchise. That sum he put Into the ill-fated Lexington Opera House. The announcement that he would re enter the New York field was a sur prise to the Metropolitan. He tried to circumvent the $1,200,000 agreement by saying he would produce opera in English at the Lexington. But just his opera house was seven-eighths finished, he was served -with papers in an injunction suit brought by the Met ropolitan to restrain him from produc ing opera in any language. Thus the Lexington was turned into a vaudeville and motion picture house. HIS FOLLY The Philadelphia Opera House, Built, by Oscar Hammerstein. It Was There He, Introduced His Opera Company to the Pennsylvania Metropolis, But the Venture Proved a Failure. THEY WERE GAY A Dinner Given by Mrs. Hammerstein in Honor of Ogden Pell, Well-Known New York Society Man. During Early Days /Of the War. 1, Vera Brand, the Operatic Star; 2, Mrs. Hammerstein; 3, Ogden Pell. Frorh; then on, business reverses continued. In Ifl* Oscar went into bankruptcy «*x me ume me extensiveness, and pecularities of his business interests were reviewed. As respect the nature, magnitude, complexity ami variety of his operations, Oscar was a unique bankrupt. He required the ser vices of at least a dozen firms of law yers, but he had only one bookkeeper! His enemies took advantage of this to pester him. He fought valiantly and desperately to the end. One day, when the black shadows of death began to gather about him. Oscar rose from his sick bed, against my remonstrances, and went to his office at No. 151 West Thirty-eighth Street, a ramshackle af fair located over a garage. It was'then that he surveyed the remnants of the palaces he had built upon the sand and in a rage penned a letter to his attor neys denouncing all his enemies. But on a dark day in August, IP 111, this man—who was once worth $10. 000,000 and who had built thirteen, magnificent theatres in hi.s time—died practically penniless. It was just a few months before the expiration of his agreement with the -Metropolitan. In his death everything passed into ob livion. If is opera schemes fell into de cuy and his wonderful inventions \an ished, ■ ■ ;■ It was on that day that the dire real hy of the inconstancy ol' material things thrust itself upon me with ap palling force. While death ticked off the crucial moments at Oscar's bedside. I became conscious that the gigantic' deeds he had achieved and their world ly rewards were fleeting. And some thing of.myself seemed to go out, too. like a candle in the wind. At first there were difficulties in ai ranging a funeral. Arthur Hammer stein. Oscar’s son. and Morris (Jest, the producer, and l decided the publi. would want to see the remains of so great an impresario. Through the ef forts of Otto Kahn. Oscar’s deadliest rival in the opera world, Henry Mot genthau, former United .States Ambas sador to Turkey, and Felix Warburg, the. famous financier, consent was ob tained to have services in Temple Emanuel. On the day of the funeral I suc ceeded in reaching John McCormack, the tenor. I knew it would have been my husband’s wish that McCormack sing at his funeral. It was Oscar who had enabled McCormack to win fame in America. And McCormackV sing in? of “The Lost Chord" at that fune Ho w and Are Talking Singing Produced By HERBERT L. HERSCHENSOHN. (Phytician and Surgeon) "T*HE voice-box, called the larynx, is &b expansion of the upper part of the wind-pipe, the trachea. It is composed chiefly of two iarge cartilages, tne thyroid cartilage (commonly called the Adam’s Apple), and the cricoid cartilage which lies im mediately beneath it. The thyroid car tilege is somewhat V-shaped and re sembles a partially opened book that lias been set on end. The cricoid car tilage looks like a signet ring, the nar row band being in front, the wide part being behind, between the two open *nds of the thyroid cartilage. Resting on top of the cricoid at the back are two little cartilages called the arytenoids. They are not tightly fastened to the cricoid but are free to move inward toward each other, or outward away from each other, in much the same way that garage doors open and close. _ The vocal cords are merely bands of ~ tissue which run along the side walls *' of the larynx, one on each side, from the front to the back. The attachment in front is to the thyroid cartilage. The rear attachment is to the arytenoid cartilages. ^ How is the voice produced? Each " breath of air that we take passes J through the voice-box between the two vocal cords. In ordinary quiet breathing ' the vocal cords lie close against the _ walls of the larynx out of the way of the air which rushes back and forth. In making a sound such as saying a word 9r singing a note, the vocal cords arc These Sketches Illustrate the \ppeai mice el the Voice-Box from Different Angles. I he Cartilages Are the Thyroid (\), the Cricoid (V) and the Two Small Arytenoids (Z). The Vocal Cords (V) Are Shown in Fig. C in the Positions for Normal Breathing. The White Dotted Lines in Fig. 1) Indicate Their Position When Speaking. brought directly into the path of the air. As the air strikes the cords, they are made to vibrate. In order to vary the pitch of the-sounds made it is necessary to correspondingly vary the degree of tightness of the vocal cords. The vocal cords are brought into and taken out of action by means of mus cles which are attached to the aryte noid cartilage. When a sound is pro duced these cartilages move inward r toward each other, so that the vocal cords are drawn away from the voice box, permitting the breath to strike ano vibrate them. The closer the car tilages approach each other, the tighter the cords become and the higher the Pitch. It is the continuous change in pitch of the words we utter.which gives color to speech. Those who are unfor tunate enough to have some affection of the vocal cords which interferes with the variation in pitch talk in a monotone. The longer and heavier the vocal cords are, the lower the voice. The larynx _ of a man is. larger than a woman’s. Consequently, the cords are longer and heavier. This explains why man possesses a voice which is lower in pitch and huskier. Almost everyone is familiar with the experiment of striking a tuning fork and then placing it over a jar and noticing the resonance and fullness of -tone which is produced. The reso nance for the voice-box is made pos sible by the spaces which are built above it, the mouth and the nose. In nasal catarrh, when the passages through the nose are obstructed, the voice loses an important resonance chamber. We say the individual is talking through his nose. Actually, however, he is talking without the use of his nose. It is nothing short of miraculous that a mechanism can be so highly per fected tliat in a rapid succession of split seconds, the muscles and car tilages can so arrange themselves that sounds of predetermined character and pitch can be made. A Recent Photo of Mr*. Hem merttc in. Note the Defiant, Doternrined Look With Which She Faced <* World Thai Ignored Her Former Preitige and Wealth. A ra! w as something never to be forgot ten. , Meanwhile, as Millionaires, fgmous artists; ami others sat in sorrow at the passing of this genius who once was art: immigrant boy, a mysterious lady in black wept bitterly, audibly, unre strainedly in a bark pew. She was pointed out to me later at the grave a Miss Frances l,ee. once a well known singer. The opera world ha heard nothing of her now for many years. It whs strange to see Mis-. I.re at: the funeral, for I recalled that, it was -he who had figured ill a spectacular suit against Oscar, in which she dec iminded $100,000 because hr had failed to kerp his promise to make her an opera -tar. I recall how some of tin* letters Oscar wrote, to her long, long ago, before he married trie, lie gave me some of these to preserve. Hr wrote eloquently and. philosophically, hut it will he noted that sometimes hr had a curious habit of referring to the pet -on he was addressing as though lie or .-hr were a third party. One Tetter to Miss Lee in particular is handy to quote in part as follows:: "The only thing got/ ail nut it Hint non rnn e nu ra a nff. J an i rrcr told me it was iirdbgply none of tiri/ business. When a no wan loves a man dr VOtedly she hue no secrets. You are the only per soil in this ! treat wide no rid that I i online all and ei rrythitiy to. Your letters of late, h a ti er er, hare been sitfro typed in character and • old and when /' thought of the last one mil blond stormed through my i:iens and I lail still in my hen THE REST IS SILENCE A* Mr*. Hammeratein Stand* Above Her Husband's Grave (the Photo Above Wa* Take Soon After Hi* Burial) She Reflects Upon the Colorful Pageant of Hi Triumph* and Defeat*. At Left i* the Monumen Erected Later Over His Grave. The Name of Mrs. Hammerstein Ha* Since Been Removed Fron It pruymp *Q pc struck dead, I knew / wm .ffvitiff mad. av that nit/ -ini, mi/ lore, that hu t suddenly, turned from we writhing* 111 mortal pain* Couhi she turn aa-ip from Oscar Hammer stein. of whom th town if prowl; Who. even if f say l don't care what any of them say. 1 am not going to emulate King Lear,” Then followed Court proceedings in abundance. They reached up to the day Oscar Hammersteln died and ex tended for two years to one terrible day for me On that day I was evicted from my apart ment in the Manhattan Opera House, which had been Willed to me, and upon which Stella and Hose brought foreclosure actions. Although Oscar Hammerstein, a' one time worth nearly $10,000,000 made me his sole legatee and execu t'ri-x in his will, it remained fora news paper man to find me on a bench ii Central Park. I was deserted, distrait and pen niiess. lit my purse 1 had exactly three pennies. Now 1 was pondering, not with too much deliberation, on the next step in my chaotic career. When 1 said I was deserted I meant that most of those human friends of mine from palmier and more roseate days Imd forsaken me, However, one friend remained steadfast through all my tribulations—-Teddy, my ten-year old collie. Soon my predicament became known through others—for I was too proud ti> reveal the secret of my distress. There were several who eumc to my aid. That night 1 did not go back to my shabby room in lower Columbus avenue. John Hoagland, thp baking powder king, who remembered me when Mayfair would have spread purple rugs for me, was kind to me. The rest of my story 13 merely the anti climax of shattered hopes and de feat. The dream (for that is all it is now) of wealth, triumphs, happiness, has faded. The best I’ve known has gone. Nothing—not njfbn despair—remains. THE END.