A Sudden Cure

Running an opera company means living with surprises—especially when a star singer decides she’s “too ill” at the last minute. When Mme. Gerster was billed to sing *Lucia* in St. Louis, she suddenly informed the manager she couldn’t perform that night. He suspected the illness wasn’t serious and asked for a doctor’s certificate to show the public.

Gerster refused to see a physician—her word, she insisted, should be enough. The manager called one anyway. The doctor asked to see her tongue. As she left the room, she mockingly stuck it out: “There!”

The doctor immediately wrote an alarming certificate: irritated epiglottis, contracted uvula, inflamed tonsils. When Gerster read it, she exploded and insisted on singing that evening—“just to prove what an ass that doctor was.”

She sang. And the doctor still sent his bill: $60.