Springfield weekly Republican. [volume], October 26, 1911, Page 6, Image 6

About Springfield weekly Republican. [volume] (Springfield, Mass.) 1851-1946

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6
OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS
‘ FAITH AND CREATIVE ENERGIES
LACK OF EARNESTNESS IN MUSIC.
Even England May Have Her Mn-
Mician of First Rank When There
Is Greater Seriousness of Mood.
An extract front a dissertation by John
F. Runciman, the English critic, on the
lack of nationality in American music,
was published in this column a week ago.
Only Macdowell of-our composers has in
terested Mr Runciman, and Macdowell he
regards as possessed of every musical gift
but genius. The critic has no illusions
about the composers of his own country:
he is. in fact, profoundly dissatisfied with
them all. But he is dissatisfied as well
with the greater continental lights, such
as Strauss and Roger. He sees a weak
ness in all contemporary music, and he
considers this weakness as the thing to be
expected when composers nave no “faith
in themselves as artists, faith in their
artistic impulses and intuitions.
"The creative men of old," he writes,
“if they would not have gone cheerfully
to the stake for the faith which was their
art. certainly would have starved for it.
and often did. The energy divine worked
so fiercely in their souls that they had
no choice, but to let it loose in the shape
of art; Cui bono; never occurred to them:
they were the helpless, though not the
unconscious, instruments of an instinct
that amounted to a consuming passion."
How is it to-day? “Doubt seems to have
entered into the souls of all the candidates
for musical fame. They are not ’sound
and integral, proper to an age of faith.'
Those who pose as great composers want
the reward of martyrdom without paying
the price; or perhaps 1 might say they
want their martyrdom with home com
forts, on the painless dentistry principle, j
Strauss and Max Reger, on the continent,
seem to follow the market with close at
tention. and on Strauss’s behalf the press
is worked iu this country with consum
mate skill and amazing energy and perti
nacity—not one newspaper is left untried,
and in many of them, as I recently re
marked in the Saturday Review, articles
appear which ought to bear at the end the
indication ‘[Advt.F. In England Elgar
writes for the festivals, or. when he
launches a violin concerto, he is aided and
abetted by a very—and a deservedly—fa
mous violinist: and Elgar has given us
nothing truly new or. in my opinion, genu
inely great. ‘Gerontius’ is a fine failure;
’The Apostles' a shabby failure; ’The
Kingdom' a miserable failure. Stanford
need not be discussed; he is an old stager,
and I think all serious musicians have
made up their minds about him. Bantock.
Delius and Holbrooke are all startlingly
clever, and all try to startle, but not one
seems to have anything to say."
With the great composers creation has
been inevitable. Bach and Mozart spent
their lives composing music because their
energies would not let them rest. “Bee
thoven, one of the most successful of com
posers in the worldly sense, during his
earliest years, deliberately ’took the new
road'—gave up writing the kind of music
his patrons liked and paid for and sent
forth stuff that puzzled Iris most fervent
admirers and outraged the tenderest feel
ings of many estimable musicians.”
Music, more than any other art. demands
that the artist should have something to
say, and without ’’sincere and profound
emotion nothing that is at once new and
noble can be produced." “Nothing seems
to move any one profoundly to-day; we
dwell in a skeptical age. when it seems
so much of a toss-up whether life is fu
tile or really worth going through with
that men seem unable to work themselves
up, over things that perhaps don't matter,
into the spiritual state requisite for the
production of great music. Our souls are
more or less benumbed. Elgar is un
doubtedly a seriously devout person; that
his whole being is shaken like a harpstring
by his religious feelings, so that whether
he wills it or not it emits music, 1 must
emphatically deny—if it were be would
not fog off on ns such incoherent twaddle
as 'The Apostles. The other composers
do not even pretend to be deeply moved
by life: they are simply trusting' to their
decorative invention to suggest to them the
pew—they forget that the only music that
is great, and endures comes from the heart
and soul. ... In due season things
will alter: earnestness about life will again
be possible, and then, depend upon u. great
music will again he written even England
may have her great musician."
AKe to Resin Musical «tndy.
Th" question of the age at which chil
dren should be permitted to study music
is considered by John W. Bremer, writing
in the New Music Review about I tab-r ozr s
system of musical gymnastics
From the beginning lialcroze has x-oidrc
the one fatal error common hi music tea-h
ing. namely, the custom to let children stud;
music as young as possible He has applied
to music what experience has forced i 0
a*ply to other studies long ago the <w
knowledgment that music should he the ...
dium of expression for artistic foci| n «
concluded that one should not make muM"
utiles: rhe exigency for it arises that >s
when one nas something to onmmnnloato
that one has felt or experienced. That th's
experience or feeling demands expression t
musical form presupposes definite natural xe
tltude. Music must be born in the individual
be must be musical. 1f he possesses 3 qp:;
cate ear sensitive nerves and rhythni"
feeling he may develop them throur’ «tu<h
nnd exercise Are these qualifications lack
Ing. they ran never be ronveved through
the mechanical study of an insurument
Tnrgenfelt and Wagner’s Music.
A letter of Ttirgenieff written from
Baden Baden in August, 1868, contains a
frank expression of opinion about Wag
ner. The letter has lately appeared in a
Russian newspaper, and this extract has
been published by Philip Hale in the Bos
ton Herald:
I have just been to Munich to witness the
first performance of Wagner's "Hhelngom '
and Incidentally something else also Munich
is an interesting city: the king of Bavaria
as you perhaps may know, fs an Intin ite
not to say eccentric, friend of Wagner wiu.se
music is a royal concern in Bavarlnj but In
consequence of various absurd and comnH
rated Intrigues, out of which Aristophnnes
might have made a curious moral-satirical,
political comedy, the opera was not > Pr
formed nnd only the dress rehearsal ■ as
given. 1 was present at It. Music and text
are alike Intolerable, but- you know among
the Germans there are people for whom W ig'
tier Is almost Christ. I was much diverted I v
all this snarl. '
Settlings of George Herbert's Poems.
Dr Vaughn Williams, well known in En
gland as a collector of folk tunes, has
composed settings for five of George Her
bert s poems. They were sung at the fes
tival in Worcester. Eng., last month, and
were pronounced by the Daily Neus spe
cial correspondent ‘the most distinctive
novelty of the festival”:
in these five settings of poems by George
Herbert, the composer seems to be' working
toward a new style that shall combine . or
tain features of the old and the new That
of course, Is in n sense what Debnsav hrs
done, nnd Dr Williams has certainly learned
something from Debussy. The Influence Is
more than an occasional resemblance In the
orchestral coloring, for the composer Is far
too Independent a thinker to fall back on
other men's Ideas. The songs are full of in
vention—l do rrot more than hint at some of
the phases through which the music has de
veloped. At one moment we are reminded
of the period when music was the spe-Lal
property of the church, and thia eccleslastL
' cal Mic.srstinn vivos a peculiar charm to th^
fourth sciig “The Call." Like the others. Its
; ehief characteristic is its delicate simplicity,
; L r in the.whole set (with the e\<eptlon «>f
’he last, which is far chorus alone.' the
• music is extraordinarily reticent, and sea ce
| ly ever rises to a complete climax. It is frit
, of delicate tones, however, and sounded
| derfully fresh and intimate in comparisu n
| u ith the blatant self assertion of so mn* h
i modern music.
Boston's School of Grand Opera.
I The school of grand opera has been re
। opened in Boston by co-operanon of the Bos
! ion opera company and the New England
• conservatory of music. A main reason for
} re-establishing at the New England conserv
j a Tory the school of grand opera, which has
{ been in existence for the past three years
| in connection with the Boston opera iw
. pany. is to make sure that its work dove
■ tails properly with that which precedes. To
■ direct the instruction at the opera school
i two efficient members of the Boston opera
I company have been drafted, by arrange
j ment with Director Henry Russell. Ar-
I ualdo Conti will serve as conductor and
’ Ramon Rhinehart as regisseur. Mr Conti
I is a north Italian, who became conductor
| of the symphony concerts in Padua when
j 16 years old. He conducted opera in Rome
and in Paris; subsequently he accepted the
[ position of conductor of the grand opera
! in Buenos Ayres, a post which he occupied
for a number of years, but which afforded
him frequent opportunity to return to
Europe sot special engagement, in 1905
Mr Conti conducted a season of grand op
era in Tendon, and the following winter he
came to America with the San Carlo opera
company In 1908 he became a conductor
of the Boston opera company, which posi
tion he still holds. Mr Blam-hart is a na
tive of Spain, and now a member of the
Boston opera company. He is a baritone.
He made his debut several years ago at
the Teatro Liceo in Barcelona, in Thom
as’s opera. 'Hamlet.” Ensemble work
in operatic roles is one of the announce
ments in connection with the establishment
of the school at the New England conserva
tory. Supplementary to the acquisition of
individual roles, various scenes from the
principal operas are to be studied and re
hearsed in an ensemble class in which the
roles necessary to complete the casts wdl
be supplied by regular members of the
Boston opera company.
Other Note and Comment.
Carl Pohlig. writing in the special fall
issue of Musical America, says: "The
most promising school of to-day is the
French school. The music of the French
has always been marked by taste and ar
tistry and there is no question that the
group of orchestral composers who seem
to center around Debussy reflects a very
striking and spirited development of art
along oi’ginal and beautiful lines. 4he
Russian school, which occupies so large a
part of attention in our programs (and
justly so for the great works of its best
known masters! seems to have fallen to
day into a sort nf stagnation so far as
new works go. The Slavic impulse and
the strong cry of nationalism, which stim
ulated a large group of composers, does
not seemed to be marked by results at
present among the younger Russian com
j*osers. So far as Germany goes, except
in the case nf Strauss, no very remarkable
work is being done: the leading composers
are working along serious, thoughtful,
scholarly and musicanly lines.”
The remarkably successful revival of
Offenbach's “La Belle Helene.” at the
Kunstlertheater, Munich, which kept the
house filled through the summer, is cow
said to have been suggested first by Gus
tav Mahler a year ago, according to the
New Music Review. The idea was prompt
ly taken up, says the Review, and Mah
ler agreed to conduct the performances,
but his illness and death kept him from
realizing his part of the project. Now
that the success is indubitable, numerous
other European theaters have asked for
the mi Re-on-scene, and the coming tour
in America is expected to attract cor
responding attention.
Henry Russell, director of the Boston
opera house, returned to Boston a week
ago after a summer abroad. The Boston
opera company will undertake this sea
son its most extensive repertoire. Mr
Russell has announced that Claude De
bussy, composer of "Pelleas pt Melisande/’
will conduct the first performance of this
work in Boston. Maurice Maeterlinck,
author of "Pelleas et Mclisandc.” is also
expected to be present. The Boston opera
company will produce several new works.
The following soloists have been encaged
by the New York Philharmonic society for
the present season: Mme Gadski. Mme
Nordica. Mme Frances Alda, sopranos;
Alessandro Bonri and Ludwig Hess, ten
ors: Kathleen Barlow. Efrem Zimbalist
and Henry P. Schmitt, violinists: Lpo
Schulz, 'cellist: Josef Lhevinno. Katherine
Goodson. Harold Bauer. Arthur Fried
ham and Ernest Hutcheson, pianists.
A symphonic poem. "Antony and Cleo
patra.'’ by Raymond Roze. was per
formed last month in London. A critic
^aid: “Mr Bozo bad achieved a certain
amount nf picturesque oriental coloring,
but somehow the atmosphere did nor enn
vim e. and the alternation with other styles
gave rather n patchy impression.”
Heinmch Zoellner, formerly director of
the German liederkranz in New York,
has composed an opera. "Tzigane.” which
will be produced this season at Stuttgart.
Leoncavallo is at work on a two-act
opera. "Forest Murmurs.” The libretto,
written by Enrico Cavalchioli. is based
on a novel of Korolenko's.
The manuscript of Wagner's early op
era. "Die Hochzeit.” was recently pur
chased in Berlin by an Englishman.
R. E. Johnson of New York announces
Paderewski. Godowsky and Ysaye for the
season of J 91- 1913.
Saint-Saens's "Dejanire” will be revived
this month at the Paris opera.
TO PICTURE 46 PARISHES.
Interesting Program Planned for Fall
Meeting of Hampden Association
of Congregational Charches,
The fall meeting of the Hampden asso
ciation of Congregational churches,
to bo held at the First Congre
gational church, in West. Springfield, on
.November 1. will he rendered unusually
interesting by the plan of showing fine
stereopticon slides of the various churches
in the association, and of the parishes,
while the minister from each church gives
a, brief summary of the work in his field.
Forty-six parishes will be thus shown and
described, and all the churches, from the
oldest to the youngest, will have a part,
together with pictures of the proposed
building for Faith church. The purpose of
the plan is to effect a closer union of the
churches by giving the members of each
one a definite idea of all the other
churches, and the work they are xloing,
and to inspire them in this way for larger
work in .the future.
The churches of the association Are
spread over an area 40 miles long in
Hampden county. Many of the delegates
will spend the night in West Springfield at
the homes of the members of th" church
there, and the women of the church will
serve two meals during the dav. The
central location of the West Springfield
church, the recent combining of the Park
street nnd First churches, nnd the hand
some alterations which have been made
nt the Park-street building, which is now
the center of both congregations, make this
church an ideal place for the convention.
The retail trade board of the Boston
eliamlior of commerce has already opened
a cainjiaicn for early t'hristmas shopping.
The appeal is equally applicable to Spring
field and every other trading center Store
keepers and clerks will be relieved of a
burden that can be lifted if buyers will
pay heed to this request.
THE SPRINGFIELD WEEKLY REPUBLICAN: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1911.
NOTES IN THE WORLD OF ART.
ITALIAN RARITIES IN NEW YORK.
—
Metropolitan Musenm Uns a Botticelli
and a < arpaccio Recently Acquired
—('holer Bronxe and Silver.
j Director Robinson of the Metropolitan
’ museum of art iu New York predicts an
1 unusually interesting winter for friends of
the museum. "This past year and this
past season have been remarkable in the
possibilities there have i»ecu of acquiring
■ not alone pictures, but works of art of dif
ferent kinds," said the director the other
I day. "ami we shall have many things of
| great importance to show, and among
• rhe most interesting of these are the works
| of the Italian artists, in which the museum
! has heretofore been somewhat weak.’*
The beginning of these are shown in a
remarkable Botticelli and a Carpaccio,
both from the Abdy salp in London, last
May, and an interesting Sienese picture '
shown in gallery 31. while announced, but '
n a yei ready for exhibition, is a Sodoma. [
' Mars and Venus Trapped by Vulcan.”
The ('arpaccio. which stands first in the
list, was cataloged as a "Pieta,” but the :
museum has adopted the name given it by |
Sir Claude Phillips in an article in the ,
Burlington magazine. "Meditation on the i
Passion." The figure of the Christ is seen
in the picture, resting upon a ruined :
throne, while on either side sit the medi- *
tative figures of bearded patriarchs. There
is what is considered a false signature. j
"Andreas Mantinea F.." in one corner of
the picture. This is hung in gallery 30. j
as is the Botticelli. ‘‘Three Miracles of ;
St Zenobius.” This painting is one of a
series on popular panels. The Abdy pic- !
tures had been in storage for the greater |
part of the lest 20 years, and the Botti
eplli is not listed with other pictures by '
the artist. The figures are sharply out- I
lined, w ith decorative effect, and if is sup- ;
posed that the panels were intended far i
insets in furniture, possibly for chests for '
clerical vestments.
The painting by Matteo di Giovanni ;
was foj-nierly in the collection of Charles
Butler at Warren Wood, Hatfield. Eng., i
and is supposed to be another chest or |
Italian casson panel. It is interesting. ;
with its quaint female figures, several of
which are swimming across a stream at
tired in their ordinary rich robes. The
scene is supposed to illustrate the story
of Camilla.
A remarkable Venetian bronze door
knocker, in strong design, Italian Renais
sance, is one of the important accessions
in the decorative arts department. There
is a charmingly interesting bust of an an
gel wearing a demure smile, an unusual
piece to bo found outside the cathedrals,
of wood, the beginning of the Gothic
period, and a beautiful piece of German
sculpture is a mother and child in an un
usually fine state of preservation, belong
ing to the first quarter of the 16th cen
tury.
The loan collection of old silver, largely
church services, made or used in America,
will bp opened with a reception to the
members on rhe evening of November 6,
with an exhibition of old portraits, many
by Copley, the master of the colonial pe
riod. There will be portraits by Black
burn and other artists of the time.
A Rare Roman Mosaic.
One of the best Roman mosaics ever
found in France has been discovered at
Lyons, on the hill of Fousviere, in the vast
and sumptuous substructure of an im
mense edifice, one of the ruins of the
capital of the Gauls. These ruins were
exploited during the Middle Ages as a
quarry. But a mosaic is not so easily car
ried off as a column or a statue. Pre
served by a sort of miracle at the time of
the great devastation, this pavement seems
to have remained in place for about 15
centuries under a protective layer of filling
composed of earth, fragments of moldings,
and marble plaques of all colors. Intact,
the piece was about four meters square,
but about one-third of the surface has
crumbled away. In an elegant and rich
ornamental pattern formed of a black and
white and red fringe or braid-work de
sign, one line of which forms the outside
border, and the others cross each other at
right angles, five figure subjects are rudely
framed. The central panel, unfortunate
ly somewhat damaged, but lacking none
of its outlines, represents the young Bac
chus seated on .a panther. The god
crowned with ivy or vine branches, shows
a nude torso, the legs half hidden by a
lion's skiu. and his feet shod in buskins.
He holds the thyrsus in his right hand,
and his left arm rests on the neck of the
panther, who clasps in bis forepaws the
tympanum, or timbrel, the ritualistic ac
cessory of the ancient worship of Bacchus.
The two subjects placed beneath the cen
tral panel are busts, one depicting a veiled
woman whose headdress consists of the
conventionalized foliage of papyrus or of
mistletoe, and rhe other depicting a young
man with light hair falling in curls on his
neck and his forehead decorated with bril
liant flowers. These two heads are admir
ably preserved.
New Paintings at Spanish Mosenm.
Several important accessions of Spanish
art have been secured at the Hispanic so
ciety of America's museum, Broadway
and One Hundred and Fifty-sixth street.
New York. One of the notable paintings
acquired is "The Ascension of Mary Mag
dalen.” by Ribera, which has been placed
on the cast wall of the art gallery opposite
the celebrated portrait of the duke of Oli
vares by Velasquez, which now occupies
the place of honor on the west wall of the
museum. Another interesting painting 'is
"The Carthusian Monk." robed in white
and painted by Francesco Zurburan (1598-
1(562). The monk is depicted seated and
perusing a manuscript, which he holds in
his hands. It is said that Zurburan made
a specialty of painting monks. On the
south wall of the museum has been hung
a painting of a "Knight in Armor.” who
wears a white ruff. It is attributed to
Pantoja de la Cruz. a Spanish painter.
Two paintings of the king and queen of
Spain by Sorolla have been placed in the
library of the Hispanic society. The por
trait of King Alfonso, which was painted
by Sorolla in 1910, possesses added sig
nificance inasmuch as it is signed by the
kins. The three-quarter length seared por
trait of the queen was painted by Sorolla
in 1911. The accessions of sculpture at
the Spanish museum includes a bronze
statuet of a Spanish dancer and a seated
portrait in bronze of Sorolla. by Prince
Paul Troubetzkoy. Both of these exam
ples of Tronbetzkoy's nrt may be seen in
the reading room.
The kidnaping of “The Mona Lisa” has
naturally given renewed interest to facts
about Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci, ac
cording to the London Chronicle, though a
voluminous writer, never published a sin
gle line daring his lifetime. Only within
the last 30 years have his writings been
made known to the world. After the mas
ter's, death in France his manuscripts
wore brought bark to Italy. His heirs
proved unworthy and the precious writings
were gradually dispersed. Iziose pages
were often detached and were either given
away as relics or stolen. No attempt was
j made to publish any of his treatises ex-
I cept that on painting for more than 300
I years after his death. This was partly
owing to the great difficulty of deciphering
his handwriting. Da Vinci was lefthanded
ami always wrote in oriental fashion from
right to left. Resides this his orthography
is peculiar to himself: he abbreviates some
wortts and joins others together and etn
: plnvs neither stops nor accents.
The Fogg art museum of Harvard
has recently received as a loan from
Mrs Francis P. Nash n largo tondo repre
senting "The Mystic Marriage of St Cath
erine,” which bus many of the character
istics of Filippo Lippi's work, nnd which
has been attributed to him. The same
museum has also received as an Indefinite
loan a small pinnacle representing St
i Agnes attributed to Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
1 Tlie little picture, says the Boston Tran-
s, ripr. has mneh of the chnrm of the early
Si. nrso school, though its somewhat rough
oxecutiou ,h, ls . n ,,| .oiiipare favorably with
: the beat work of Lorenzetti. It is the old
est painting in tin Fogg museum. Loren
setti was active between 1323 and 1348,
and this painting, even if executed by one
i n fJ'’ s pnpils, was probably painted before
1350. Tlie next . .riiest painting to this
is a picture attributed to Spinello Aretino,
" ;ls Ptobablv painted in the year ■
I'hc Buffalo Evening News reports that
unusual interest is being taken by the
American institui of architects in the
proposou memoria : ^ge from Buffalo to
l- ort Erie, which it is intended to erect to
eelebrate tlie centenary of peace between
the United Stales and Canada. All works
of art euibndyim. architectural features
eouie within th e purview of the institute; 1
and especially one of a monumntal char
acter. As the Butfalo-Fort Erie bridge
would be the first memorial bridge of ini- 1
portance to Im erected iu the United
States, it is natural that the members of
the institute should be watching the move- .
ment closely, and it it is successful they j
will co-operate to insure that a design
worthy ot the subitet and of the two great ,
countries shall be selected. The project ;
will probably, be nisi ussed at the annual
meeting next December.
Frederick Macniomues has completed his
model tor the statue of Edwin Booth
which is to bo ere- : I in Graniercy park,
New York. Booth is represented in the
character of Hamlet, holding Yorick's
skull, and the figure is to stand under a
great arch suggestive of the stage of a ;
theater. <'ohunns will rise at each side,
and on one of thes< will be the mask of
tragedy, on the other that of comedy. The
decoration of the pediment will consist of
accessories used bv Booth in some of his
famous parts. The sum of $25,000 has
been appropriated for the monument by
the Players’ club.
An exhibition of new lithographs and
etchings by Joseph Fonnell is in progress
at the rooms of Frederick Keppel & Co,
4 East Thirty-ninth street. New York. It
will close the 31st. Of the lithograph en- ,
titled "The coronation of King George V
and Queen Mary in Westminster Abbey,
June 22, 1911,” Mr Pennell says: “I was
admitted to all flu rehearsals and to the
ceremony. Every line of this lithograph
was done in the abbey, at the time, and
it is the only historical record of the event
in existence.”
The marble portrait busts by Robert I.
Aitken are highly spoken of by critics who
have seen them. His bust of President
Taft won much favorable comunnent at
the recent international exposition in
Rome. His portrait of Henry Arthur
Jones, the English playwright, is pro
nounced an admirable piece Ot work. Oth
er busts by the same sculptor include those
of David Warfield. Augustus Thomas, Wil
lard L. Metcalf, the late Senator Edward
Dolcott, and Henry R. Wolcott.
A San Francisco sculptor .suggests that
a colossal statue of Father Junipero Serra
should be erected in Lincoln park, sur
mounting a group of mission-buildings to
form a part of the architectural scheme of
the Panama-Pacific international exposi
tion. There are already statues of Father
Junipero Serra in Monterey and in Gold
en Gate park, San Francisco,
An exhibition of paintings is in progress
at the Montross gallery. 550 Fifth avenue,
New York city, ami will close Saturday.
The painters whose pictures are shown
are Hugo Ballin. Elliott Dangerfield, F.
W. Dewing, Childe Hassam. W. L. La
throp. Gari Melchers. Alexander Schill
ing. D. W. Fryon, Horatio Walker, J.
Alden Weir and Henry C. White.
Charles Niehaus has been commissioned
to model the portrait statue of Zachariah
Chandler for the statuary hall in the Capi
tol at Washington. The Michigan Legis
lature appropriated $15,000 for the pur
pose. The statue is to be of marble.
NEW HYMN BY FANNIE CROSBY.
Has Been Producing Hymns for
About <53 Years.
Springfield and it's people have a warm
admirer in Miss Fannie Crosby of Bridge
port, Ct., the blind hymn writer, who has
come here for a week's visit with Mrs R.
B. Currier of 10 Chestnut street. Miss
Crosby will celebrate her 92d birthday on
March 24. bnt one would never guess her
age from her appearance, conversation or
actions. She says herself that she is as
young as she was 60 years ago and de
clares that the figures of her age should
be reversed. Her activities carry out her
words, and she is as busy with her writ
ing, her knitting and the numerous other
occupations of the day as she ever was.
She is fond of knitting and generally has
a bag of soft wool by her chair. During
the recent Christian endeavor convention
in Atlantic City Miss Crosby addressed a
gathering of 10,000 people, a feat that
few half her years would care io under
take. On Sunday afternoon she spoke
at the Rescue mission here. In Bridge
port, Ct., where she has made her home
for 12 years with her niece. Mrs Florence
Booth, she is a hearty worker for mis
sions and is much interested in the. work
of the circle of King’s Daughters.
Miss Crosby has been writing hymns for
about 63 years and during that time has
written about 7000 which have been sung
all over the world wherever Christianity
has reached. She loves to compose them
and believes e is better able to do so
than when kI? was younger. The follow
ing is one of i r most recent hymns, hith
erto unpublished, and ih entitled "We
know not"
We know not 'he splendor prepared for the
blest
In the beautiful mansions above.
But we knov that from labor nnd sorrow
they rest
In the am r Emmanuel's love.
And we know that the ransomed together
shall meet
On the blip .-,f eternal delight.
And again id .again the old story repeat
As they walk with the Savior in white.
We know n t how far in .the regions nt
space.
Or how near us their dwelling mav be;
But we know that they gaze on Emmanuel’s
face. .
Anil its brightness forever they see.
We know n.a how sweet are the anthems
that roll
Through tL" city of jasper and gold
But we know that the bliss of the glorified
son I
To a mortal can never be told.
We know an) the wonder, the Joy. the sur
prise.
Me slm ~e| when onr feet press the
shore:
But we k .w that all tears will be wiped
• from onr eyes.
Anri onr ; . ting with friends will be o'er.
ANCESTRY.
To the I Hit'.r of The Republican :—
I note your statement (discussing the
hollowness «,f aristocratic pedigrees! that
"nearly everybody, as a matter of fact, is
descended from nearly everybody"; but
bow little the mathematical correctness
of that fa is realized. It is easy to dem
onstrate, if ope only faces the figures.
Let's put them all down and look at them.
Each .me is directly descended from
father an I mother, that's two; father and
mother arh from two, that's four; our
grandpa:. ms each from two, that's eight;
’J" 32. 64. 128, 512. 11)24. 2048, 4096,
8192, 16.381, 33.768. 67.536, 135.072, 270,
111. 540,288. 1,080,576 -and there you
have it. only 20 generations back, or prob
ably about 700 years (date 1211, A. D.l,
and we pile up a total of over 1,000,000
persons from whom each of uh is directly
descended, nnd whose blood is commingled
as ours
The Charlemagne quality of which you
speak (reigning from 742-8141 must be
spread out pretty thin by tills time, eh?
. , A. B. L.
heir Haren. (It.. October 19. 1011.
Horses that are spotted like leopards
are common in China.
OUR BOSTON LITERARY LETTER.
WAR AND WAR CORRESPONDENTS.
Rnxsell of the London Timos—Mis
niHnnßement of the Crimean War—
The Indian Mutiny of IS57—-Lady
John RußMoirn Memoirs—The Duke
of Kr.qxll*u Tours'— Old Mnsleal In-
NtrnmentM.
From Our Special Correspondent.
Boston, Tuesday, October 17.
The life of Sir William Howard Russell,
published in this country by E. P. Dutton,
is too much for one meal, because its two
volumes raise so many side issues and
subsidiary questions. Consequently, only
the first volume will occupy me to-day,
with contemporary single volumes, the Me
moirs of Lady John Russell, published by
John Lane, and Hutchinson's London pub
lication of Argyll's first volume. Russell
was born in Ireland near Dublin in 1820,
Lady Russell in Scotland at Minto house
on the Teviot (the seat of those Elliots
who became Mintos), late in 1815. Conse
quently, but little more than four years
intervened between these two beginnings
of importnnt lives. Russell outlived Lady
John by seven years, but both had passed
the fourscore mark at death—the countess
dying in 1898 and the war correspondent
lute in 1905. But in 1842, when the Irish
man was training for a journalist, the
Scotch lady was already the wife of a cab
inet minister, who had been in Parliament
half his life, and in the cabinet, off and
on. for 10 years. Consequently, she came
much nearer the seat of government (which
the British cabinet is) than the war cor
respondent became after his upsetting (in
1855) the fifth ministry in which I.ord
John Russell had a place. The outlook
of the two on court and Parliament was
very different, as indeed were their char
acters and sex. No relationship, even by
marriage, ever existed, and the Irishman
was more radical than ths Scotswoman,
and also, in our civil war. more friendly
to the cause of the North, which was the
truly conservative of the two sides.
William Howard Russell was the grand
son of two very unlike Irishmen,—Capt
Jack Kelly, a Catholic, much given to
hunting and conviviality, and William
Russell, a Protestant pietist, who detested
the Irish Catholics. Another grandson of
this Protestant became an archdeacon of
the Anglican church,—a first cousin of the
war correspondent. The education of W.
H. Russell was bi-partisan,—half Catholic
and half Protestant, but his Anglican kin
dred paid his way through Trinity college
in Dublin, and he planned for a time to
hold a college fellowship there. But an
excursion iuto O'Connells oratorical field
in 1842. as a reporter for the London
Times, and his success in that violent pe
riod of agitation for "repeal” fixed his
destiny as a journalist. Ten years later
lie was a professional writer for the press,
and in the literary circle at London which
included Dickens. Thackeray. Jerrold.
Mark Lemon, Yates and the founders of
Punch. Early in 1854 the Times sent him
to the Levant to look out for the opening
of the Crimean war; and in the next two
years his reputation was made as the first
and .greatest of the war correspondents in
the latter half of the 19th century. The
story has often been told: the war made
and unmade reputations, but those who
gained the most fame by it were Russell
and Florence Nightingale: and the opportu-'
nity of ,Miss Nightingale may be said to
have been created by Russell and the
Times.
The sad condition of the English army
before Sebastopol is in this first volume
sufficiently set forth; its causes were the
same that made the ill-success of England
in onr Revolution, the first blunders in
her Napoleonic wars, and in the recent
Boer war inevitable. The root of all
has been the unwise contempt for other
nations, and the inability to see clearly
what is the real situation in foreign coun
tries, which was so manifest in the sup
port given by the ruling class in England
to the cause of negro slavery in our civil
war. They failed to see that the cause
of the Union was the cause of liberty;
and so great was their hatred of democ
racy that they had the folly of believing
that the slave-holding oligarchy was a
true aristocracy, seeking, good government,
and not a desperate tyranny, aiming at tue
retention of its unjust power, which the
American people were bent on destroying,
and did so. under the lead of Lincoln,
whom for years the English aristocracy,
with a few notable exceptions, insulted
and slandered, until the success of his
emancipation policy became so obvious
that even Palmerston and his French
ally. Louis Napoleon, were forced to see
that they could no longer conspire for Hie
independence of the slave-holding des
potism.
The course of events in our war is re
lated in the second volume, and need not
here he further mentioned. Less familiar
ground is Russell's reporting the later
stages of the Indian mutiny of 1857. where
he exposed his life to more risks than in
the Crimea, bnt was treated by the mil
itary officers with more consideration than
three years before. He saw in India, and
occasionally censured, the British con
tempt for races guilty of a skin not col
ored like the Briton's; a scorn that has
since increased and been imitated by our
American imperialists. It is interesting to
observe how Lady John Russell viewed
these affairs in her private letters, which
cover the period from 1842, onward, in
chiding the Repeal of the Corn Law, the
Irish famine and attempt at rebellion, the
revolution of 1848 on the continent, the
extension of the franchise, the Crimean
war, etc. In that war her husband made
several mistakes, as he did during our civil
war: hut he came out right at last, though
his resignation from the cabinet at a crit
ical moment in 1855 xvas the occasion of
censure by the queen, who would rather
have had him than Palmerston at the
head of a reconstructed cabinet* Four
years earlier, when Palmerston had been
too demonstrative in favor of Kossuth,
and against the Anstro-Russian alliance,
we have the following entry in Lady
John's diary (November 13, 1851):—
The queen talked long with me. After ao
cnslng Lord Palmerston of every kind of
fault and folly, public and private, she said
several times, "I have the very worst opin
ion of him." I secretly agreed with her in
much that she said, but openly defended him
when I thought her unjust. I told her of Hie
steadiness In friendsip and constant kind
ness. in word and deed, to those he had
known in early life however separated by
time and Station. She did not. believe it and
said she knew him to be quite wanting in
feeling. This turned out to mean that bls
political enmities outlasted the good fortune
at his enemies. She said If he took the part
of the revolutionists In some countries he
ought lu all; while he pretended great com
passion for the oppressed Hungarians and
Italians, he would not care if the Schleswig-
Holsteiners were nil drowned. I said this
wan too common a falling with ns nil.
1n onr civil war Palmerston sided with
the revolutionists of Carolina and Vir
ginia, while Victoria was usually on the
aide of the T'nion and the government.
In the Mason and Sidell affair. the Rus
sells were on the side of peace with the
I'nlted States, while Palmerston and the
Times were for war, as rhe following let
ter of T-nlv John Russell implies (Decem
ber 13, 1861);-
John could not but fool that there had
I been no fault on our part. ... I wish the
newspapers «ero blameless: nut there was a
sneering, exulting tone In many nt them,
after the military disasters of the noilh.
which was likely to Irritate. Mi- Motley
said long ago that the Tinies would. If pos
sible work up a war between the two coun
tries 1 have no doubt from what John and
others say, that he was tight. . . . Thore
rail be no doubt we have done deeds very like
that of cept Wilkes,—not exaotly like, be
cause no two cases ever are so, but 1 wish
we hud not done thorn, ami I suppose anil
hope we shall admit they were very wrong.
(January 8, IW2 > The commlasloneis
arc surrendered. Thank God! John Is de
lighted. Ht was very anxious tip to the last
moment. It lias been a surprise to ns to
hear of the aery tempered Joy, or rather,
the 111-concealed disappointment of London
society. But John says London society la al-
| ways wrong; and 1 believe the country to lie
all right
This was not far from the truth, and
became the exact truth when even Lon
don society saw that the game of the
slaveholders was played out. Nothing in
England succeeds like success: and Lord
. John saw that it was not the "republican
I bubble,” but the slave-whimpers' soap bub
ble that had been an iridescent dream.
Gen Lee repaid the English strain of com
pliment to him and his cause by saying; -
That England had acted front no regard io
either portion of the Union, but from a
jealousy of the united nation, and n desire
to see it fall to pieces. England had led the
South to believe she would assist them, and
■ then deserted them when they most needed
: aid.
i The present duke of Argyll in his "Passages
j from the Past” relates his conversation with
, Lee at Lexington, in May. 1866, —the
• marquis of Lorne being then but 21, and
I apparently not sharing his father's, good
I opinion of the United States, or the north
l ern portion. of it. He had spent a week
or two in Washington before going down
into Virginia, and had heard from Bruce,
the British embassador, this singular predic
tion :—
I'd make you an even bet that If annexa
tion there be within the next 20 years it will
be the annexation of New England to Can
ada. not of Canada to the United States.
Sumner was told that the East would short
ly find itself nowhere from the increasing
power of the West.
Lord Lorne dined with Seward and heard
from him the story of Payne’s attempt to
assassinate him the year before, in the
very house where it occurred. Seward told
the present duke that his lather, then duke,
“was the best friend the North had in En
gland during the. war”:—
Lord John Russell had bean cold in Ills
tone, and Mr Gladstone had made that
speech which could not be forgotten by
Americans, in which he said that Davis had
made a nation. How strange of such a man,
a deep thinker, to have supposed that while
we had before become a great nation in
spite of slavery, the very men who had
caused that weakness could In 1861, by sep
arating themselves from all that had caused
strength, constitute themselves a great peo
ple. We must avoid creating any fresh an
tagonism between the whites and the blacks.
If the suffrage were given to the blacks,
they would send people to Congress demand
ing things impossible to give them. It would
raise the feeling of the whites against them,
and there would he a war of races most dis
astrous to the blacks.
Gen Lee made observations similar, aft
er he had spoken “with hearty apprecia
tion of the conduct of several Englishmen
who had served in his army,” and had
abstained from complaining that. England
had deceived the disunionists. He said: —
The relations between the negroes and the
whites were friendly formerly, and would re
main so if legislation be not passed in favor
of the blacks, in a way . that will only do
them harm. The radicals are raising up feel
ings of race: and If a bad feeling is raised
against the weaker party, it must yield. The
blacks must always here be the weaker: the
whites are so much stronger that there is no
chance for the blacks, if the radical party
passes the laws it wants against us.
Forty-five years have passed since this
Was said by a soldier who certainly was
not “a deep thinker,” and the blacks have
not only doubled or trebled their numbers,
but have acquired $100,009,000 of proper
ty, founded schools, colleges and univer
sities, and entirely falsified the predic
tion of those who declared that emanci
pation would ruin them. Even Seward told
the young noble that the whites would, buy
up the southern lands, and that emigra
tion of whites would set that way. Chief
Justice Chase surprised Lord Lorne by
favoring giving the negroes all their
rights, including the right to vote, say
ing:—
It is not possible to give this right of vot
ing now. but It should be done as soon as
It is possible to do It. We believe that Hie
best education a man can receive Is the priv
ilege of voting. He becomes a person of im
portance and is run after and spoken to very
differently then, than when he has no vote.
I do not believe the antagonism of whites
and blacks would be Increased by the suf
frage; on the contrary. It would be lessened.
It is true that power would be given to
many ignorant men, but to give that power
Is the best means of dispelling that ignor
ance. Nor do I believe they would act in a
bodv against the whites. On the contrary,
they would split into sections and follow the
lead of white mon.
This young Briton thought Gen Sher
man more able than Grant, Andrew John
son or Chase. He found Johnson silent,
but Grant talkative. “Grant rather put
my back up by the way he would never
confess that he had ever been beaten.”
But had he? His generals were sometimes
beaten, and his campaigns sometimes were
checked; but they always ended in suc
cess, from his capture of Buckner in Ken
tucky and Pemberton at Vicksburg, until
he received the surrender of Lee nt Ap
pomattox. Grant thought Joe Johnston
fully as good a general as Lee, if not bet
ter.
The present duke of Argyll does not
seem to be a statesman, like his father,
but a man of society, good at woodcock
shooting, and a capital describer of the
human countenance, though not gifted in
art. if we may judge by samples of his
drawing in these volumes. He was rather
irregularly educated, and was withhold
by his father from entering the army,
which, he says, was his wish in boyhood.
He married one of the queen's daughters,
and was for a time governor-gieneral of
Canada. The death duties in England vex
him. and he complains that men of wealth
are now forced to invest their wealth nnd
employ their income abroad rather than in
Great Britain. His accounts of Garibaldi,
Bismarck and other great men of thel9th
century are interesting, but his judgment
of human character is not profound, nor
is his English faultless. He imparts little
bits of information not to be had from
other writers so readily; for instance, this
of Tennyson:—
He liked to read out bls poems to his in
timate friends, but hated to be overheard by
others He would take us into the very cen
ter of a large field at Freshwater, to be sure
that he could not be overheard by anyone
lurking in the hedges, -before he could stand
and declaim in a deep running bass voice
anv piece (hat had been specially asked for.
I remember his thus declaiming the whole
of his "Bondlcea." with hardly a pause for
breath He declaimed with a kind of acoom
panving drone, like what you hear as under
tone with a Gaelic choir's singing
A work by Francis W. Galpin. ‘‘Old
English Instruments of Music,” is rather
disappointing, from the use of archaic
terms, and the amount of musical knowl
edge which the reader is expected to have.
It is useful, however, by its illustrations,
which give the exact form of the Regal,
the Virginal, the Recorder. Rebec, etc.,
described in the text. It seems that “sym
phony.” at one time the name of the hag
pipes. was afterward given as a name for
the primitive hurdy-gurdy, a sort of com
bination of the organ and the lyre, in
which a wheel was turned to move the
wires. Also, the “pair of virginals” was
simply n single ’instrument of the spinet
sort, but got its double name from the
analogy of “a pair of organs,”—so termed
to distinguish tne I-atin "organa” (our
organ) from the singular noun "organum,"
which had a previous and different mean
ing.
CARNEGIE HERO FUND AWARDS.
Bravery In Several New England Ac
cident* tlerngnlied by Commis
sion.
Forty-«*v»n bronze and 12 silver medals
were awarded by the Carnegie hero fund
commission at its fall meeting in Pitts
burg last week as n recognition of bravery
in saving human life or in attempts in
which the life of the rescuer was
jeopardized. In addition to the medals to
these 59 persons, cash awards were made
for reimbursing loss, for relieving debt on
homes and the buying of home* or for
educational and other worthy purposes ns
needed, amounting to $53.(136. Pensions to
survivors amounting to $315 monthly were
also issued, and for children left with
out support, $5 a mouth was awarded each
to the amount of sso monthly. Of the
rescues, one was of saving a man from a
wild animal. Thirteen of the heroes lost
their lives. Some of the awards fal
low:—
James M. Snyder, bronze medal and
SIO9O for buying of farm. Snyder, aged
51. a farm foreman, rescued Phaeon Haus
man. aged 69, from n bison at Schnecks
ville. Pa.. March 3. 1911. The infuriated
animal was attacking Hausman when
Snyder, at the risk of his life, threw his
overcoat over the bison’s head. Then both
were rescued in safety.
Alexander Fraser, dead, silver medal
to widow. Pension of S4O a month and
•>5 extra for minor child. Fraser was fatal
ly injured attempting to save a man from
burning to death at Allston, January 16,
Howard I. Davis, bronze medal and
$1215 toward buying of home. Davis was
badly burned rescuing a child from a fire
at West Haven, Ct.. March 24. 1909.
Patrick H. Campbell, bronze medal and
SIOOO to improve physical condition. Al
though ill he saved a man from drowning
at Worcester, August 27. 1909.
Alexander Morton. Sr., bronze medal
ami SIOOO to liquidate mortgage. Saved
aman from drowning at Revere, August
Louis V. Bruya, bronze medal and SIOOO
to liquidate indebtedness. Saved an old
man from being run over by train at Mont
pelier, Vt„ May 11. 1910.
Joseph G. Walker, bronze medal and
SSOO toward buying home. Walker
(colored) rescued Edward W. Butler,
mayor and lawyer; Green Thomas, labor
er; William Obear, quartermaster-general.
Georgia militia. Legare H. Ohenr and
Julia H. Obear from a runaway at Madi
son, Ga., June 27. 1909.
GLEANINGS AND GOSSIP.
It is stated at Stockholm, Sweden, that
the Nobel prize for physics will be award
ed this year probably to Thomas A. Edi
son, the American electrician and inventor.
The hatpin problem is still' exercising
New York Why not bring it under the
Sullivan law by which a license must be
taken out for owning or carrying weapons,
whether concealed or not? In this case
concealment is what is demanded —it is the
exposed point that makes trouble.
Mr and Mrs Joseph H. Choate have al
most threatened the gold reserve by hav
ing stayed married half a century. It is
said that the 300 gold gifts sent to Stock
bridge in honor of the jubilee are worth,
at a conservative estimate, SIO,OOO, with
out counting their sentimental value.
Mrs Warren Fairbanks of Chicago, so
cial leader and wife of the son of former
Vice-President Fairbanks, reported to the
police at Chicago this week that a bag
containing jewels worth SIO,OOO had been
taken from her on a Pullman train on the
way from Boston to Chicago a week ago.
North Africa, with its dry air and
equable climate, offers, like Arizona and
Pern, an admirable place for astronomical
work, and a fine observatory is now being
erected on the “hautes plateaux” by the
geographical society of France. After
many experiments the hight of 3609 feet
has been chosen.
Herds of 50 sea elephants, some of the
beasts being over 20 feet long and nearly
as high, and of a species supposed to have
been extinct before history began, were
a pretty good find for the expedition of the
American museum of natural history in
New York, which has just reported oil its
explorations in Guadaloupe. Pretty big
corners of the world, it appears, are vet
to be thoroughly discovered.
The passing of the horse car, one of
New York city's antiquities, is in pros
pect with the introduction of storage-bat
tery electric cars capable of winding 1 in and
out of the labyrinth of narrow. 1 ' crooked
streets downtown. There is a hitch just
. now over the question of whether some of
the franchises of the old horse car lines
have been forfeited by disuse, but the
change is probable before long.
There are a good many folks who. if they
• had as much money as they could sp«m!
would go fishing. So there is "human in
terest” as well as scientific interest in the
exploit of Danforth Ferguson, the 16-years
old grandson of O. H. Armour of Chicago.
Tie has just returned from a fishing expe
dition in Florida waters, which he financed.
He took with him Chapman Grant of
the New York aquarium, and they collect
ed 274 specimens of tropical fish, repre
senting 63 varieties.
Is there a feminine form for academician
in French? If not one will.have to be
invented if the hopes are fulfilled that
Mme Curie will be elected to the academy
of sciences to fill the vacancy left by the
death of the chemist Louis Joseph Troost.
When she wab defeated a year ago the
opposition was largely due to the feeling
that she belonged in the chemistry section
rather than in the section of general sci
ence. Now the opening has coine, and no
one is better entitled to the honor.
Mrs Booth Tarkington, wife of the nov.
elist, and playwright, filed suit for divorce
in the superior court at Indianapolis last
week. She charges the defendant with
cruelty and asks for the custody of their
five-years-old child. “That she always has
been a dutiful wife, but that the defendant
has treated her with great, cruelty,” is the
principal allegation in the complaint, which
is very brief and does not relate any in
stances of the alleged cruel treatment. No
mention of demand for alimony is made.
It is set out that Mr and Mrs Tarkington
have not lived together since last July.
“Shibboleth” and “Sibboleth.” by the
pronunciation of which the Gileadites de
tected and dispatched the Ephraimites, is
recalled by the news of the massacre of
the Manchus at Wuchang. The Manchus,
though similar in appearance to the Chi
nese. have, according to the account, a
pronunciation which differs slightly. The
rebels, therefore, to make sure that their
victims were- Manchus. asked each one to
count, and upon the pronunciation of the
word for “six.” hung life or death.
When the aviator Robinson, who is fly
ing from St Paul to New Orleans along
the Mississippi in a hydroplane, dropped
a bolt from the forward steering wing of
his machine at an altitude of 3000 feet,
it looked to the spectators as though he
were about to fall. He luckily maneuv
ered into safety, but the bolt kept on fall
ing. and not being interfered with it ulti
mately arrived. Now. after falling 3000
feet a heavy- object is moving at the brisk
rate of 440 feet a second, and while thia
may not he quite small caliber low trajec
tory speed, ’twill serve. Brown Boss,
which won at Waterloo, struck no harder
a blow. When aviation becomes a com
mon thing this risk is likely to become
serious, specially along the most frequent
ed air lanes, and this in itself will lie suffi
cient reason for a careful supervision of
aircraft. To drop anv object intentionally
when over inhabited regions should be
made a serious offense, and the coming
loose of a bolt should be reason enough for
taking away an aviator's license unless a
satisfactory excuse can be offered. It will
hardly do to drive people into the cellar
for safety.
Some employers who have had the exas
perating experience of being abandoned
by a competent clerk or stenographer who
selfishly insisted on getting married may
be tempted to sympathize with the New
York lawyer who the other day published
this advertisement:—
Wanted.—Young woman stenographer who
will sign contract not to get married; Ufa
position; best salary. E. s. b.
The "best salary” Is S2O a week, and for
this stipend a young woman is asked to
sign a contract not to attend dances or
to receive "company,” or go with “gentle
man friends” to theaters or places of rec
reation-with friends of her own sex she
may attend once a week—or tn "affect
puffs, ruts, powder, or puint.” No doubt
it was meant for n -joke, though It is not
a very good joke. If seriously intended,
it. would be h niece of monstrous Imtolence
nnd egotism. No man is important enough
to be justified in requiring a woman to
remain single to minister to his conven
ience.