The money he made in the store
went to keep up the margins, and changes in the market. At last the
door of his store was closed and we were penniless and saw no way out
of it.
I being always hopeful, it was for me to raise the drooping spirits
and advise means of action. I left for San Francisco with the younger
boy and Mr. Blake remained with the elder to straighten out his
affairs as well as possible. I took my sewing machine with me and
intended to retrieve the family fortune with my voice and my needle. I
came to the home of Mrs. John Clough, a friend, on Third street,
between Market and Mission. Her husband was a fine tenor singer and I
knew she would help me get something to do. I was there but a few
weeks when the Lyster Opera Troupe came from Australia and began
singing at the old Metropolitan theater on Montgomery street. I was
one of the 300 members of the Handel and Haydn Society, which was
called upon by Mr. F. Lyster for voices for the chorus. A leading
contralto and a soprano were in the troupe. Mrs. Cameron and I were
chosen after the voices were tried and accepted. I had no trouble as I
had studied the choruses of most of the familiar operas. I also knew
many of the contralto arias, like Perlate de Amour in Faust and other
contralto numbers of the different operas that we gave. I was engaged
at $20 per week, which seemed to me a fabulous sum, for I was without
any means. These were strenuous days, sometimes fourteen hours in the
theatre a day, singing one opera and practicing a new one.
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