Worcester Daily Spy

The awful rumor that Sontag and Pozzolini had been poisoned by Count Rossi, is thus commented on by the Musical World and Times: "Nil mortuis nisi bonum. Of course there can be nothing in it—but malice. The rumor is doubtless of Italian origin. It sounds Italian—it is entirely un-American. One of the city Italian papers published, we believe, an announcement of Pozzolini's death by cholera, and in parenthesis placed signs of exclamation (!!) Hence perchance the report. A year ago, even, we heard the usual gossip which is circulated about professional persons of celebrity, applied in the case of the noble Sontag to the name of Pozzolini. But what folly! A lady of Sontag's mature age of 50—a mother who had sacrificed all her comfort for her children and husband, and yet to give cause of jealousy in connection with a young man like Pozzolini! Even changing the latin sentiment quoted above—nil de mortuis nisi verum—the world surely could utter nothing that would militate against the fair fame of Henrietta Sontag."

Death gives the fairest forms to the worms; and sometimes he gives also, the fairest reputations to the worms of slander. The whole life of Sontag was a protest against the truth of the above story.