rehearsal.

Lola's debut as a _premiere danseuse_ was made on March 30, 1844. It
was not a successful one. Far from it. The fact was, the Parisians,
accustomed to the dreamy and sylph-like pirouettings of Cerito and
Elssler and Taglioni, and their own Adele Dumilatre, could not
appreciate the vigorous _cachuchas_ and _boleros_ now offered them.
When they voiced their disapproval, Lola lost the one thing she could
never keep--her temper. She made a _moue_ at the audience; and, if de
Mirecourt is to be trusted, pulled off her garters (a second authority
says a more intimate item of attire) and flung them with a gesture of
contempt among the jeering crowd in the first row of stalls.

As may be imagined, the Press was unsympathetic towards this
"demonstration."

"We will avoid damaging with our strictures," remarked _Le
Constitutionnel_ in its next issue, "a pretty young woman who, before
making her debut, has obviously not had time to study our
preferences."

A much more devastating criticism was published in _Le Journal des
Debats_ by Jules Janin. He went out of his way, indeed, to be
positively offensive. Nor did Theophile Gautier, who in his famous
waistcoat of crimson velvet was present on this eventful evening,
think very much of the would-be ballerina's efforts to win Paris.

Beyond, he wrote, a pair of magnificent dark eyes,
Mademoiselle Lola Montez has nothing suggestively Andalusian
in her appearance. She talks poor Spanish, scarcely any
French, and only tolerable English. The question is, to what
country does she really belong? We can affirm that she has
small feet and shapely legs. The extent, however, to which
these gifts serve her is quite another story.

It must be admitted that the public's curiosity aroused by
her altercations with the police of the North and her
whip-cracking exploits among the Prussian gendarmes has not
been satisfied. We imagine that Mademoiselle Lola would do
better on horseback than on the stage.

An odd account, headed: "Singular Debut of Lola Montez in Paris," was
sent to New York by an American journalist:

"When, a few days ago, it was announced that two foreign
dancers, Mlle Cerito and Mlle Lola Montez, had just entered
the walls of Paris, the triumphs achieved by the Italian
ballerina could not eclipse the horse-whipping exploits of
Mlle Lola. 'Let us have Lola Montez!' exclaimed the