the hand. It was, perhaps, even more amusing when he placed his flat hand on the table and a coin appeared.

The muscles of the palm could also move things and propel them in a mysterious way. For instance, a coin laid on his upturned palm he would cause to jump up in the air by the action of some obscure muscle. He had the same power in the muscles of his wrist, and he would cause a coin to move from the fingers to the wrist and then disappear altogether without any movement of the hand perceptible to the ordinary human eye."

THE GREATEST SONG-WRITER.

Liszt is said to have characterized Robert Franz as the greatest song-writer of all time. In an interesting sketch of him in the Looker-On Henry T. Finck writes:

"If the father of Robert Franz had not committed the indiscretion of marrying at the age of sixty, more than 200 of the best songs in existence would never have been written. Physiologists tell us that the children of aged parents are peculiarly liable to all sorts of degenerate nervous conditions -epilepsy, insanity, blindness, deafness, etc. Robert Franz's fate did not disprove this doctrine. Before he was thirty years old, his nervous system and his hearing became impaired. In 1848-the year of his marriage-the shrill whistle of a locomotive made matters worse; he suddenly found himself unable to hear the highest tones, and from that time on one tone after another vanished forever, from the highest to the lowest, until 1876-the year of the first Baireuth festival-found him totally deaf. Nor was this all. Three years later his right arm became paralyzed from the shoulder to the thumb, so that he was unable to write any more letters except with lead-pencil. As early as 1867 he had been obliged to give up his positions as organist and conductor. He was suffering at that time from such frightful hallucinations, especially at night, that his friends feared he might become insane. Thus, the experience of Franz corroborates not only the physiological doctrine just referred to, but also the current notion that there is a certain relationship between insanity and genius; for Franz was a genius in the strictest sense of the word."

As for Franz's inspiration in his songs, Mr. Finck writes:

"Franz had a habit, in his letters and in conversation, of always speaking of Bach and of Handel in the same breath, 'Beethoven and Mozart,' he said one day, are nearer to our modern way of feeling; but more powerful, more universal, are Bach and Handel. With them everything is so simple and unerring that we are astonished. Their strength never degenerates into bru. tality nor their tenderness into sentimentality,' If anyone understood the bel canto of the Italians, it was Handel,' he said, on another occasion. I took him for a model in my songs. Therefore, there is real melody

in my songs. The aged Garcia advisedly said that, of the songs of all German composers, mine are best suited for the voice.' He was disappointed because so little notice had been taken by professionals of his arrangement of a number of Handel's operatic arias for the concert-hall, in which he believed them to be peculiarly effective, as they were but loosely connected with their operatic surroundings."

BERNHARDT ON BERNHARDT.

Sarah Bernhardt in a recent contribution to Paris Figaro said:

"It is now twenty-nine years that I have been exposing to the public the vibrations of my soul, the throbbings of my heart, the tears of my eyes. I have interpreted 112 parts, I have created thirty-eight personalities, of which sixteen were the work of poets. I have struggled as no human being ever struggled. Independent by nature, detesting falsehood, I have raised up against myself bitter enemies. Those that I have deigned to fight against I have laid low and conquered. They have become my friends. The mud which the others threw at me fell in dust, dried up by the burning sunlight of my faith and my will. I have willed, I have willed ardently, to reach the highest point in art; I have not yet attained it. I have less time to live than I have already lived, but what matters that? Every step brings me closer to my ideal. The hours that have swept by, taking with them my youth, have left me my courage and my cheerfulness; for my aim remains the same and toward it I am tending. I have crossed the seas, bearing my dream of art within me, and the genius of my nation has triumphed. I have planted the French word in the heart of foreign literature-that is the deed of which I am most proud."

MUSIC IN ILLINOIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Commenting on a significant Thanksgiving program given by the public school children of Englewood, the Chicago TimesHerald lauds the plan of music teaching which makes such an exhibition possible, in these terms:

"There has long been a recognition of the fact that the patriotic songs in our public schools helped to imbue boys and girls of foreign parentage with the true national spirit and to intensify it in those of American birth. But the use of music in the public schools is not limited to the inculcation of patriotism, great as this use is. The kindergartens long ago recognized the value of music as a means of securing order, and the social settlement people as well as city missionaries have been quick to invoke its aid in securing from the varied elements among which they work a cordial cooperation toward good ends. The order of the public schools, at present far from being as spontaneous and free as might be wished, could be greatly improved were all teachers

able to utilize this harmonizing influence. Furthermore, music can be made to lighten the routine of history, to show children, dull-eyed over wearisome text-books, that history deals with real, once-living people, who sang the jolliest and most touching of songs, and to induce them to believe that geography describes places made famous in song. It is possible, through the instrumentality of music and the allied arts of drawing and literature, to make the dry bones of history and geography live again.

In order to accomplish this, teachers must have a wide knowledge of music, and be able to employ it outside of set hours. Should a teacher be so unfortunate as to have no ear and no voice for music, it is yet possible for him to know the educational value of it and get the children to do the singing and the listening. What is needed is not that music should be taken out of the public schools, but that it should be put in -put in so deep that it would be a part of every day's work and be taught by the everyday teacher. The duty of the special teachers should be to train the grade teachers and leave them to deal with the children."

"What I am," the late Mrs. Scott-Siddons once said in an interview, "I inherited from my illustrious ancestors. The dramatic instinct was born in me, not put in by instruction. It is impossible to inculcate genius. The fire must be there to begin with. The power to portray what is felt so keenly that it will be told and can not be hushed, that is dramatic talent. I think it is little short of robbery for teachers to take into a school of elocution hosts of young girls who are vain enough and frivolous enough to presume that they can amuse and elevate the public. The public is nauseated with the efforts of such graduates. The field is ruined for those who have genius. Do not think that I am trying to keep these people out of my way, but it is a presumption for women who have nothing but vanity to impel them to try to make a success of this art. Candidly, I think very little of my own sex when I consider the hosts of silly creatures it embraces; and I think the instructors who encourage such silliness are little short of robbers. These applicants for honors, who have no evidences of talent, will sooner or later be obliged to sink into obscurity. Why, then, bore the public with them at all? Why not give one sharp twinge to their vanity and have it over with? They would then sink into their proper sphere and would fill in a fitting manner some humbler position. Wouldn't that be wiser? No one has a right to make a business of an art. If he wants to make a living, let him do something that will not nauseate people, but will be a useful and helpful occupation. I do not like to say pessimistic things to young people, but the knife is the best thing for some physical troubles, and if used judiciously it will save a great deal of doctoring.

"I believe that it is owing to the use of all her faculties that an actress remains young for so long. She keeps them rubbed up, as it were, and lets no part of her nature rust. She leads a most irregular life, what with travel and with appearance before the public; but she is interested in her work, is growing and expanding every day, and there is no chance for decay."

SCHUMANN AS A LYRICAL POET.

Schumann's position and rank among musicians have been subjects of violent controversy. Mr. J. Sohn, in the Forum, reviews this controversy and tries to define Schumann's status with impartiality and precision. He finds that Schumann was a lyrical poet, and he judges his music from this point of view:

There are individuals in whom the fusion of the poetic and the musical elements is so perfect that it is extremely difficult at first glance to trace their point of union. Robert Schumann is undoubtedly the most striking example of such an organization. In him the poetic and the musical, the emotional and the intellectual, elements were wonderfully blended; yet, judging him by the rule which I have just quoted, he was, strictly speaking, a poet and not a musician. When I consider the productions of Schumann in their entirety (and I refer here more directly to his independent instrumental compositions, which were purely his own invention), I recognize in him one of the greatest lyrical poets of Germany, who, owing to the intense fervency of his nature, chose tones, instead of words, as his medium of expression.

Upon Schumann, at the moment of inspiration, all the ideas and feelings inspired by the subject rushed at once in such rich profusion as to overwhelm him completely. He could find no time for words; but was compelled at once to seek utterance in the intensified accents of speech, in the tones of which I have just spoken.

It is

astonishing how completely our conception of Schumann becomes transformed, as soon as we judge him calmly, dispassionately, thoughtfully, i. e., from the strictly objective point of view. We shall marvel at the fairly kaleidoscopic variety of subjects presented, most of which, however, may be termed genre pictures gleaned from German life. In one poem we listen to the artless prattle of a child; in another, we see a group of old crones shaking their heads together as they exchange gossip; in another, the swinging, rattling couplets of a rollicking ditty are dashed off with a swagger. Frequently we find ourselves amid the mirth and the uproar of a German festival. Some poems are characterized by an extraordinary power of invention, and others again by bold and dazzling imagery. We shall not only be astonished at the great variety of subjects presented, but we shall also marvel at the faculties called into play in shaping them. We shall realize that in many of Schumann's more pretentious

poems a great number of elements are involved (sounds, sights, emotions, ideas, and actions), and that all these various elements are, by reason of his marvelous power of condensation, blended into a homogeneous entity,-into that marvel of beauty and harmony, the lyrical stanza."

After analyzing Schumann's work to prove his thesis, the writer concludes:

"I consider it no derogation to say that Schumann was not a musician. It is true that he has diverted music from its proper channels, and in this way set a bad example to mediocre imitators. Yet this circumstance can be traced, first, to the fact that the relation between the arts was very little understood in the time of Schumann; and, second, to the nature of the man himself. Have the wranglings between the socalled disciples of the Wagnerian school and the supporters of Schumann-wranglings distinguished by blind passion and prejudice-given us an insight into the nature of the latter? None whatever. Now, the spirit of a man manifests itself directly in his productions, and these but radiate from his inmost soul as the rays of light from the prism-they all focus in the nature of the man. It is only when we can fully grasp the individuality of Schumann, when we can behold the man as he actually was, stripped of all the conventionalities and artificialities that modern investigation has woven about him, that we begin to appreciate his true greatness."

AMERICAN PRONUNCIATION OF U.

A discussion has been carried on recently in the New York Sun, regarding the American habit of pronouncing u as 00. One writer, trying to justify it, says:

"I find that clergymen, lawyers, physicians, college professors, business men have this pronunciation. I do not say this by way of derogation (for the practice is defensible and proper), but simply as a fact. In our courts, if the statutes and the reports of Nyoo' York are cited once, those of Noo' York are cited ten times. Let anyone listen to some of our widely-known lawyers as they bring 'soot.' (Only occasionally are 'syoots' brought.) In the banks the words dyoo' and 'matyoority' are not often heard. Of the students of medicine, law, science, art, how many would call themselves styoodents'? Very few, indeed.

cutionists, many teachers, especially during class hours, and many foreigners whose books teach them this pedantry for accurate speech. The average citizen, if he ventures to say Nyoo' York, can not conceal his self-consciousness and probably proposes not to do so again. The pronunciation in America is noo,' whatever it may be in England, and even there it has a great deal of respectable support.' Besides, American English, being spoken by more persons than British English and over a far wider area, and being spoken with more uniformity, for we have no real dialects, and being spoken by a people of higher average education, and being used much more extensively in the great art-preservative, it can well claim to be the standard of the English speech.

"In America, whether confessedly or not, we say oo for u; not in every case, but in a large class of cases. The distinction follows scientific lines. It is based on phonetic principles, and none the less so because we apply the rules naturally and unconsciously. This pronunciation being on a reasonable basis and actually established, let us recognize the fact and not hold to a fiction."

CHARACTERISTICS OF SHAKESPEARE.

In a very elaborate and scholarly article in the Contemporary Review Edward Caird, the well-known philosophical writer, attempts to define the nature of Shakespeare's genius and to express the character of his influence upon thought and upon literature. After critical examination of his plays, the writer says:

"We have now two great notes or characteristics of the mind of Shakespeare. On the one hand, that all but unlimited passivity of sympathy, which enables him for the time to lose himself in the life of others; and, on the other hand, the fact that the reaction or reassertion of himself comes not in the form of a self-defensive return upon his own individuality, or upon any favorite idea or interest of his own, but through a consciousness of the law of life, which, for Shakespeare, is hidden in every particular character and revealed in its evolution. The essence of the dramatic movement is that particular persons, by the collision of their special interests and passions, should reveal the universal meaning of human existence. Shakespeare was the ideal dramatic poet, just because his all-tolerant soul set up no barriers between him and other men. are, therefore, entitled to say that he was the very reverse of a man of action, that he was one whose strength grew out of what might be called his weakness and impersonality of nature. For sympathies so open and impartial could not fail in the end to become just, and so to liberate him from the toils in which they seemed to ensnare him."

We

How did Shakespeare view his own art? Did he intend to lift the stage to the world, or to lower the world to the stage, by his

162

repeated allusions to the world as a stage, Mr. Caird says:

"

For Shakespeare, the tender, sympathetic outlook upon life, the peaceful glow of imagination and the quiet resignation and self-control with which he lays down his poetic office, gather round his last work, Shake'The Tempest,' an evening halo, as of summer clouds around the setting sun. He cerspeare is no dogmatist or theorist. tainly tells us nothing of his views as to the ordinary religious creed of his day, and some have even called him an agnostic, but, in any deeper sense, it would be altogether untrue to call him so, for, even in his darkest tragedy, it is a moral principle which rules the evolution of events and brings on the tragic crisis. It would be the reverse of the truth to assert that, in its ultimate outcome, his view of life is sceptical or despairing. On the contrary, we are able to say that the man who most profoundly measured all the heights and the depths of human nature and saw most fully all the humor and pathos, all the comedy and tragedy of the lot of man upon earth, was not embittered nor hopelessly saddened by his knowledge, but brought out of it all in the end a serene and charitable view of existence, a free sympathy with every joy and sorrow of humanity, and a conviction that good is stronger than ill and that the 'great soul of the world is just.'

66

44

The

The Ratcatcher of Hamelin' and 'Don Quixote; Calixa Lavallée, The Widow;' J. Eichberg, The Doctor of Alcantara' and The Two Cadis;' Charles Jarvis, The Swiss Family Robinson; Mrs. Jenks, Robinson Crusoe;' Thomas Ward, The Gypsy's Frolic, or Flora;' G. Operti, Daniel Druce;' Caryl Florio, Uncle Tom's Cabin;' Charles Puerner, The Trumpeter of New Amsterdam' and 'The Pyramids;' A. Belz, Tailor of Ulm;' Wayman McCreery, 'L'Afrique;' A. de Kouski, The Sultan of Zanzibar;' G. W. Gould, The Arctic Ocean;' C. Fradel, Gush; E. C. Phelps, David, Son of Jesse;' Leavitt, Saul;' T. J. Lloyd, Mme. Pomposa;' S. Woolson Morse, Cinderella at School,' 'Wang,' 'Mme. Piper,' and Panjandrum;' Philip Sousa, El Capitan;' W. H. Darling, The Jolly Bachelors' and Big Pony;' Frank van der Stücken, Vlaska; Gedney, The Culprit Fay;' G. Rizzo, The Elixir of Youth;' Willard Spen• Princess cer, The Little Tycoon' and Bonnie;' F. S. Darley, Don Fortunio;' W. E. Moore, Mootia;' Rudolph Aronson, 'Captain Kidd;' B. E. Wolf, Pounce & Co. and Westward Ho!;' Harley Newcomb, The Hermit of Cashel;' G. H. Shephard, Penekese;' J. B. Grant, The Mystic Isle;' W. B. Vandewater, King Klaamzobul; P. W. Turnbull, The Arctic;' A. J. Davis, The Last of the Mohicans' and Phyllis;' Speck, The Smith Family;' Reinhold Herman, 'Launcelot' and 'Wildrid;' Reginald de Koven, Begum,' Don Quix ote,' Robin Hood,' Rob Roy,' The Fencing Master,' Knickerbockers,' and The 'Tzigane,' 'The Algerians,' Mandarin;' Antony Reiff, two operas (names have escaped me); Oscar Hammerstein, Kohinoor' and Santa Maria;' T. Pearsall Thorne, The Mint;' E. S. Kelly, Puritania; Oscar Weil, In Mexico; G. W. Chadwick, Tabasco;' John K. Paine, one opera (not yet baptized); Thompson of Boston, two operas (names have escaped me): Walter Damrosch, The Scarlet Letter;' A. B. Sloane, Jack and the Beanstalk.'

་

The

Here, then, are the titles of ninety operas by native born Americans or naturalized foreign musicians, most of these works having been written within twenty five years. Doubtless many others might be added of which I have not heard, and yet the late 'American' Opera Company Thurber wrestled valiantly for three years with translated European operas at a loss of $490,000 (official figures) because no Amer

ican opera could be found,' the conductor being nevertheless, the same man that W. H. Fry engaged to direct his 'Esmeralda' in 1863."

To this list another Sun correspondent adds three of Mr. Hopkins's operas that were not only composed but produced, each a departure from the beaten track. "In 1877 Mr. Hopkins brought out his Bible opera of Samuel and the Witch of Endor;' in 1878, Dumb Love' (from Museus), which has two overtures; and in 1883 his curious and unique school or 'toy-opera' of Toffee and Old Munch,' all the libretti being his own work, and none of them 'stolen plunder.'

GOOD VS. BAD MUSIC.

"That there is no special gift required for the appreciation of good music," says Philip Woolf,in the Boston Leader, "is abundantly shown in the education of children. As a rule, it is just as easy to teach the child to enjoy good as bad music. In either case, he assimilates what he hears; and before he is contaminated by bad examples he as readily assimilates good as he assimilates bad music. It is our conviction that it is far easier to teach a child to appreciate good music than it is to teach him how to write well. But to teach either children or adults, it is essential that the teacher shouldp ossess common sense, untainted by sentimentalism; that he should lecture on music in the same spirit that he would lecture on physiology or on astronomy. The modern gush' system of teaching music is opposed to all rational principles of education. It makes gushing musicians and gushing essayists."

THE ART OF ORATORY NOT DYING OUT.

Discussing the alleged decadence of oratory in connection with the late campaign, the Springfield Republican points out that, at all events, the general interest in oratory has not declined, judging by the number of books and essays lately written on the subject. As for the future of the art, it says:

"The lack is more of men than of opportunities. Genius moves in cycles, and while we may never have another Georgian age of oratory, any more than another Elizabethan age of drama, there is no telling when the stress of popular feeling may loosen again the tongue of eloquence. The greatest danger which seems to threaten oratory for the future is not the congelation in the icy calm of printed letters, which some have taken to be its end, as the tendency toward a lower plane in addressing the people. It is regarded as sagacious and commendable to drop to the level of the audience, or a little below it. Successful lawyers of to-day no longer indulge in eloquence; they even assume a grotesque rusticity and awkwardness, which they think will put the jury on their side. Popular orators base their arguments on selfish motives and couch them in vulgar phrase. The very tones and cadences which used to be consecrated to

oratory are now nearly monopolized by the more ignorant and empty-headed speakers, who hope to make up for lack of thought by an orotund voice. This is not the spirit from which masterpieces come. The great orator, as well as the great author, must be above the level of his hearers; he must have the power to raise them to his own height, not seduce them by falling to theirown. The monumental speeches of Edmund Burke, which are the classics of spoken English, were above the level of the Parliament which he addressed. He sometimes puzzled but he always inspired his hearers. If he had been practical,' if he had based his orations on expediency instead of on broad philosophical principles, and couched them in slangy and vulgar colloquialisms, he might have carried his point equally well, but our literature would have been deprived of some of its noblest treasures. If oratory fails to rise to those heights again, it will not be because there is no demand for it, but because orators have wantonly debased their art."

"ANGLICIZATION

OF THE AMERICAN STAGE.

A writer in the London Theatre has recently endeavored to prove that America is so destitute of dramatic and histrionic ⚫ talent that every dependence must be placed on British authors and actors. The dramatic critic of the Chicago TimesHerald, L. B. Glover, resents this charge and attempts to prove the contrary, as follows:

"Probably it would not be amiss to say that ninety percentage of the contemporaneous plays and players engaged in this country are of American origin. The plays with which the Lyceum Company earned success were written in this country. Charles Frohman earned more money with 'Shenandoah,' Held by the Enemy,' Too Much Johnson,' and 'Secret Service' than he ever did with a like number of English plays. Augustin Daly never borrowed anything from England except the classic drama. Mr. Palmer achieved his greatest success with plays originating in France and in America, Jim the Penman' being the only important play that he ever brought from London. The Banker's Daughter,' 'Alabama,' and Trilby are three plays calculated to disprove this ridiculous theory, and there are plenty of others. The dramatization of The Prisoner of Zenda' was an American suggestion, scouted, as 'Trilby' was, by London critics, until these plays made the success of the season in the British metropolis.

Where, indeed, is that indebtedness to the British playwright under which we are said to be laboring? Is it for Michael and His Lost Angel.' 'The Benefit of the Doubt,'The Seats of the Mighty,' or some other equally conspicuous failure? Except 'Rosemary, our stars have found nothing to interest them of late in the tight little isle. Scarcely one success has come from that direction since Tanqueray,' certainly