Once, when we went away for a day or two, we left Irish servants in the house and, on returning, I found that the maids had been wearing my smartest gowns to view the riots and lynchings. A common lace collar was pinned to one of my French dresses and I had little difficulty in getting the waitress to admit that she had worn it. She explained _naïvely_ that the riots were gala occasions, "a great time for the Irish." She added that she had met my father on the stairs and had been afraid that he would recognise the dress; but, although she was penitent enough about "borrowing" the finery, she did not in the least see anything odd in her desire to dress up for the tormenting of an unfortunate fellow-creature. Everybody went about singing Mrs. Howe's _Battle Hymn of the Republic_ and it was then that I first learned that the air--the simple but rousing little melody of _John Brown's Body_--was in reality a melody by Felix Mendelssohn. Martial songs of all kinds were the order of the day and all more classic music was relegated to the background for the time being. It was not until the following winter that public sentiment subsided sufficiently for us to really consider another musical season. CHAPTER VII STEPS OF THE LADDER In the three years between my _début_ and my appearance in _Faust_ I sang, in all, a dozen operas:--_Rigoletto_, _Linda_, _I Puritani_, _Sonnambula_, _Ballo in Maschera_, _Figlia del Reggimento_, _Les Noces de Jeannette_, _Lucia_, _Don Giovanni_, _Poliuto_, _Marta_, and _Traviata_. Besides these, I sang a good deal in concert, but I never cared for either concert or oratorio work as much as for opera. My real growth and development came from big parts in which both musical and dramatic accomplishment were necessary. Like all artists, I look back upon many fluctuations in my artistic achievements. Sometimes I was good, and often not so good; and, curiously enough, I was usually best, according to my friends and critics, when most dissatisfied with myself. But of one thing I am fairly confident:--I never really went backward, never seriously retrograded artistically. Each _rôle_ was a step further and higher. To each I brought a clearer vision, a surer touch, a more flexible method, a finer (how shall I say it in English?) _attaque_ is nearest what I mean. This I say without vanity, for the artist who does not grow and improve with each succeeding part is deteriorating. There is no standing still in any life work; or, if there is, it is the standing still of successful effort, the hard-won tenure of a difficult place from which most people slip back. The Red Queen in _Through the Looking Glass_ expressed it rightly when she told Alice that "you have to run just as hard as you can to stay where you are."