The Anaconda Standard

MODJESKA'S DECEPTION.

The following incident told of Mme. Modjeska would seem to indicate that she not only is fond of an occasional joke, but takes the role of performer with charming naivete. Recently, in New York, a dinner was given in her honor at a certain Fifth avenue mansion and toward the close madame was requested to favor them with a brief recitation. She stated her willingness to oblige but, though she racked her brain, nothing apropos occurred to her, and finally she begged to be let off with a short selection in her native tongue. The suggestion was applauded and madame began. Although her listeners could not understand the words, her gestures and some shrill notes held them enchanted until the final syllable, when she was overwhelmed with plaudits. As she was preparing to depart, her hostess asked her for the title of the selection she had given, and, much to her surprise, madame went into a small-sized paroxysm of laughter. "I am sorry to deceive you," she said. "but my recitation hasn't any name. My memory failed so badly that as a last resort I recited the numbers from 1 to 20 in Polish."