{180}“ ‘Who is that?’ said Paganini, quickly looking around.“ ‘It isme, with the babe,’ answered a womanly voice.“ ‘My God! what is this?’ inquired the astonished violinist.“ ‘You well know,’ plaintively answered the woman, at the same time the infant again commenced crying.“ ‘We know you are a bad woman,’ vehemently declared the excited man.“ ‘And did you not make me so, you old Italian fiddler?’“After this there was apparently a commotion in the box, when Paganini became alarmed and was about to leave the room when I unmasked myself and explained that he had been a victim to the vagaries of ventriloquism; which, on hearing, delighted him prodigiously, and grasping me by the hand he exclaimed, ‘Bravo, Signor!—bravo!’ ”Signor Blitz retired from the stage with a fortune and settled in Philadelphia. His home was on Green street near 18th street. He taught magic and gave private entertainments for some years before his death, which took place February, 1877. One of his daughters was the famous opera singer, Madame Vanzant, who at the present writing lives in Europe. These facts I obtained from Mr. Thomas Yost.
{180}
“ ‘Who is that?’ said Paganini, quickly looking around.
“ ‘It isme, with the babe,’ answered a womanly voice.
“ ‘My God! what is this?’ inquired the astonished violinist.
“ ‘You well know,’ plaintively answered the woman, at the same time the infant again commenced crying.
“ ‘We know you are a bad woman,’ vehemently declared the excited man.
“ ‘And did you not make me so, you old Italian fiddler?’
“After this there was apparently a commotion in the box, when Paganini became alarmed and was about to leave the room when I unmasked myself and explained that he had been a victim to the vagaries of ventriloquism; which, on hearing, delighted him prodigiously, and grasping me by the hand he exclaimed, ‘Bravo, Signor!—bravo!’ ”
Signor Blitz retired from the stage with a fortune and settled in Philadelphia. His home was on Green street near 18th street. He taught magic and gave private entertainments for some years before his death, which took place February, 1877. One of his daughters was the famous opera singer, Madame Vanzant, who at the present writing lives in Europe. These facts I obtained from Mr. Thomas Yost.