Climber

Mme. Carmen Reggio, obscure concert singer, last week wagered the Italian Artists' Alliance (of which Titta Ruffo, famed Metropolitan baritone, is president) that she could walk up stairs in less than half an hour. Mme. Reggio is 38 years old, she weighs 104 pounds, and the stairs to which she referred were the 1.358 steps of the 792-foot Woolworth Building, in Manhattan.

Reporters watched Mme. Reggio enter the staircase at the bottom; then they ascended to the top by elevator and waited for her to come out. This, with flushed face and hoarse breathing, she did 13 minutes and four seconds later, crying out that she had won $3,000 with which to send her son to college.

The little incident came to the attention of famed Arthur Brisbane who found a lesson in it for us all: "The lady . . . did a useful thing by impressing the health value of singing. Nothing develops the lungs as singing does. Sing at your work and avoid consumption. . . ." It seemed to most observers probable that Mme. Reggio had made her climb more for purposes of publicity than to "impress the health value," of her profession. Yet it was pleasant to reflect that Mme. Reggio had spent effort and years in developing her lungs so that she might sing the better; and that she had now achieved congratulations for singing so long and hard that her lungs were phenomenally good. Also, it seemed sad that having strengthened her lungs, Mme. Reggio was able to commercialize her equipment more effectively in athletic than in artistic endeavors.