OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 264

264.—FALLIBLE.
Here is a little incident that illustrates how great composers are not above the slips made by common mortals, and how human ears are not always as infallible as their owners would pretend them to be.
Meyerbeer once went to Stuttgart to conduct the first performance of one of his operas at the court theater. During the rehearsal of the work, he found fault with the clarinet player because he played a certain melody ​on the B flat clarinet when it was written for a clarinet in A. He requested the player to substitute an A clarinet. The clever performer bent forward and placed the instrument on the rack at his feet, then took it up again, blew through it, as if to warm up another clarinet, and began anew on the same B flat instrument. "Listen, gentlemen, listen," cried Meyerbeer; "there is the A clarinet tone color I had in mind!"
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 270

270.—JENNY LIND'S GENEROSITY.
During Jenny Lind's wonderful career, her name became a synonym for generosity. This most talented singer probably gave more money to the cause of charity than any other two singers on record, and the singers of all ages have been proverbially lavish with their gifts.
In 1849, while singing in Germany, she signed a contract with P. T. Barnum, the great showman, for a series of one hundred and fifty concerts in America, at a rate of one thousand dollars per night and all expenses. The tour was to begin the next year. The intervening time she spent in England and on the Continent, and the proceeds of all the concerts given that year she devoted to charitable uses.
When she arrived in New York in 1850, the people were crazy to see and hear this wonderful "Swedish Nightingale." Mr. Barnum had stirred up curiosity in the manner for which he was celebrated, and the "Lind fever" raged as strong in this country as it had previously in England. On her arrival she was greeted by a crowd of thirty thousand people and serenaded by a band of one hundred and fifty instruments. On the day of her first concert, five thousand people stood in the rain to buy tickets, and the first one was sold to an enterprising hatter for six hundred dollars. The proceeds of this first concert, which was attended by seven thousand people, were twenty-six thousand dollars. It is said that her share was ten thousand dollars, every cent of which she gave to benevolent societies of New York city. Her charitable gifts on this American tour were numerous, amounting to fifty thousand dollars. In Germany she had previously scattered thirty thousand florins and in England some sixty thousand pounds in charity.
​Having a difficulty with Mr. Barnum, she paid a forfeit to him of thirty thousand dollars and gave the last sixty concerts of the series on her own management. In 1852, in the city of Boston, she was married to Otto Goldschmidt, her accompanist, and the same year they returned to England, where this famous singer retired to private life.
Besides the fifty thousand dollars given in charity, she had received in America one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and this latter sum she devoted to charities and educational uses in her native country of Sweden. The whole sum of her beneficences has been estimated at one hundred thousand pounds.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 265

265.—A DRESSING-ROOM WAR.
A disturbance took place among some of the prominent singers of the Mapleson company at Chicago, in the season of 1879, that shows the lengths to which selfishness and spite may be carried at the risk of reputation.
The season was opened by Madame Gerster. On each side of the stage were dressing rooms, and though they were alike in every respect, Gerster happened to choose that on the right-hand side. From this fact that room came to be called the "prima donna's room."
On the second night the opera given was Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro," in which Mme. Roze and Minnie Hauk took prominent parts. Thinking to secure the prima donna's room for herself, Miss Hauk went to the theater at three o'clock in the afternoon and had her trunks and dresses placed in it. But at four o'clock Mme. Roze's maid, discovering what had been done, told Roze's husband, and he had Hauk's trunks taken to the opposite room, and his wife's belongings placed in the coveted apartment.
An hour or so later, Minnie Hauk's agent happened in to see if things were all right, and found Roze's costumes where Hauk's were supposed to be. So he ordered the baggage reversed and had a padlock put on the door.
When, at six o'clock, Mme. Roze put in an appearance at her dressing-room and found it locked, she secured ​a locksmith, had the door opened, and ousted Hauk's belongings and proceeded to personally occupy the prima donna's room. On Minnie Hauk's coming early, as she supposed, to steal a march on her rival, she found Roze had outwitted her.
But one thing was left the fair Minnie to do, and this she did. She went back to her hotel and declared she would not sing a note that night. It was only after the manager and his lawyers had labored with the irate songstress for some two hours that she was finally persuaded to go back to the theater and assume her part, after the opera was one-third finished.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 267

267.—THE HEBREW IN MUSIC.
Prior to this century we find in musical history no great names of Jewish origin. Doubtless there were many professional musicians of Hebrew origin before the times of Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, and Moscheles, but the fact remains that they are the first with Jewish blood in their veins to make a name in the musical world. After these three great "Ms" we find the number continually increasing, and if we subtract from musical literature that which Jewish blood has added, we leave the world much poorer. A brilliant array of Hebrew names is there upon the page of modern music,—Goldmark, Jadassohn, Rubinstein, Cowen, Joachim, ​Wieniawski, Damrosch, Ernst, David, Costa, Hiller, Halevy, and even Offenbach. Truly, an array to be proud of. Among these we find men that have been in the very first rank as composers of symphony, opera, and all other musical forms; and we also find conductors and performers of almost unexcelled merit. The two great faiths, the Catholic and the Hebrew, have done more for the art than the world is willing to acknowledge.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 271

271.—BEETHOVEN, BRAIN-OWNER.
Beethoven's relatives have not come down to us lauded as examples of sobriety or kindliness. His brother, Johann, was in many ways the opposite of the composer, Ludwig van Beethoven was possessed of genius, Johann had none; Ludwig had little of this world's goods, Johann had considerable; Ludwig had knowledge instead of business talent, while Johann could turn what he touched into gold and despised his brother's lack of money making. But with all this, the world worships at Ludwig's shrine and has no cause to remember that Johann ever lived.
Johann used to delight in refreshing his brother's memory as to his success in life—a proceeding which we may imagine did not add to the musician's sweetness of temper. On one occasion, however, Ludwig rather got the upper hand of his purse-proud brother, but we may question whether the latter saw the point. Johann having purchased a piece of land, felt rather elated at being a landlord, and sent to his brother on New Year's a card with his name inscribed:—
"Johann van Beethoven, Land-owner."
​On receiving it, the composer snatched it up and hastily wrote on the back of the card:—
"Ludwig van Beethoven, Brain-owner," and sent it back to his proud relative.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Irvin, William W.

Edition of 1900.
​IRVIN, William W., jurist, b. in Albemarle county, Va., in 1778; d. in Lancaster, Ohio, 19 April, 1842. He studied law, practised in Lancaster, Ohio, held various local offices, was sent several times to the legislature, and was judge of the Ohio supreme court in 1809-'15. He was elected as a Jackson Democrat to congress in 1828, and re-elected in 1830, but defeated in 1832.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Ingrande, Jose Domingo

Edition of 1892. No confirmation of this person's existence outside of Appletons' and derived sources has as yet been located, but there is also no verifiable source which states the person is one of Appletons' fictitious entries. Use this information with extra caution.
​INGRANDE, Jose Domingo (in-gran'-day), Argentine historian, b. in Montevideo in 1759 ; d. there in 1817. He entered the Spanish army in 1778, served several years in Europe, and was a major when he resigned in 1786 and returned to his country. His tastes were for historical re- search, and while in Spain he had formed a valu- able collection of documents on the discovery of America. He went in 1803 to the United States, where he remained five years, visiting all the large cities, and lecturing in Boston and Philadelphia on South American history and the political condition of that country. He also contributed papers to the reviews, and, when he returned to Montevideo, founded the journal " El Nacional " in 1810, which afterward took an active part in the struggles that preceded the independence of the country. He died suddenly, just at a time when his country needed his vigorous journalistic talent in the agitations for independence. He published " Viajero Universal " (Montevideo, 1797) ; " Historia de America " (4 vols., 1801): and "Monografia de Montevideo," which is yet considered a standard work on the early history of that city (1816).
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Ixtlilcuechahua

Edition of 1900. The name is a misspelling of Ixtlilcuechahauac, who was Toltec king, the son of Chalchiuhtlanetzin, and who was succeeded by Huetzin.
​IXTLILCUECHAHUA (isst-leel-quay-chah'-wah), Toltec king, b. about 734; d. about 825. He was the son of Chalchiuhtlanetzin, first Toltec king and founder of that monarchy. Ixtlilcuechahua ascended the throne of Tula in 771, inherited the wisdom and prudence of his father, and was beloved by his subjects. Though he did his best to maintain peace with the neighboring nations, he defended his own and enlarged his dominions by conquest of the countries that attacked Tula. He made great exertions to civilize his kingdom, establishing schools for teaching useful arts and industries, and appointed Huematzin as chronicler of the kingdom, giving him the special charge of collecting the historical paintings which his nation had preserved through all its peregrinations and which afterward formed the celebrated Teomaxtli. He reigned fifty-two years, and, according to the Toltec law, resigned in favor of his immediate heir, Huetzin, in 823.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Imlay, Gilbert

Edition of 1900.
​IMLAY, Gilbert, author, b. in New Jersey about 1750. He was a captain in the American army during the Revolutionary war, and after its termination emigrated to Kentucky, where he was appointed a deputy surveyor under George May, at Louisville. Subsequently he went to Europe, and while in Paris lived unmarried, in mutual pledges of constancy, with Mary Wollstonecraft, the English author. Shortly before the birth of a child, Imlay deserted her, under pretext of being called to a distant country. Her plaintive letters to him were answered evasively, and, after an attempt at suicide, she turned again to literature for support, writing her "Letters from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark" (1796). She afterward married William Godwin, and a daughter, the fruit of this union, became the wife of Shelley, the poet. During his stay in Kentucky, Imlay wrote glowing descriptions of the country in a series of letters to a friend in England. These were revised and embodied in a volume styled "A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America" (London, 1792; enlarged ed., 1795; with supplement by John Filson, 2 vols., New York, 1793: 2d enlarged ed., London, 1797). Imlay was also the author of "The Emigrants, or the History of an Exiled Family," a novel (3 vols., London, 1793).
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Ingenhous, Jean Simon

Edition of 1892. This is a fictitious person. This article has been copied to a large extent from the article on Jean Ingenhousz in the Biographie Universelle. There is also a marked incompatibility in that the subject was supposedly Dutch, but two of the titles of alleged literary works are written in French and German.
​INGENHOUS, Jean Simon (ing-en-hows), Dutch explorer, b. in Maestrich in 1701 ; d. in Rotterdam in 1769. His father was a famous surgeon, and the son was also graduated in surgery, obtaining an appointment in 1723 on a ship that belonged to the Indian company. On returning to Amsterdam the vessel foundered at sea, and the crew, after several days of suffering in an open boat, was rescued by a passing Spanish man-of-war that was bound for Buenos Ayres. In that city Ingenhous was taken sick with fever and brought to the hospital of the Jesuits, who saw at once the opportunity of attaching to their order a physician of repute. They nursed him with the best care, and when he was convalescent took him to a villa in the country. Ingenhous at last succumbed to their suggestions, and having abjured the Reformed church in 1725, became a Jesuit in 1728. In the following years he was attached to the missions of the Para, and resided several years on the borders of the river Tocantin. In 1742 he was elected provincial of the Uruguay missions, and greatly benefited the condition of the Indians in those countries, altogether increasing the influence of the order. But he had retained doubts regarding his change of religion, and, on the expulsion of the Jesuits from South America in 1767, returned to Amsterdam, where he abjured the Roman Catholic ​faith and was appointed librarian of the museum of Rotterdam. He held that office till his death, and published " De la naturaleza y virtudes de los arboles, plantas y animales de la America, de que se aprovecha la medicina " (Rotterdam, 1761): "Rerum medicinalium Novi Orbis thesaurus" (3 vols.. 1763); "Lehrbuch der amerikanischen Geographic" (1764); and "Description geographique et statistique des missions des Jesuites du Para et de l'Uruguay" (1765).
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Iselin, Jacob Christian

Edition of 1892. This is a fictitious person. There is a serious grammatical error in the title of one of the alleged literary works that precludes it from being the title of a work, and this entry has been partially copied from the entry of Jean-Rodolphe Iselin in the Biographie Universelle.
​ISELIN, Jacob Christian (e-ze-leen), Swiss explorer, b. in Basle in 1753; d. in Freiburg in 1811. He studied in Geneva, and was professor of history in the University of Basle, when, in 1785, he inherited a large estate from an uncle, and resolved to explore the New World. He visited the Canary islands, Brazil, Chili, Peru, the Marquesas islands, Pomata, and Tahiti, and afterward went by land from California to Texas, descended thence to Mexico and via the isthmus of Panama to South America, where he remained altogether twenty-two years. He returned in 1806 to Europe with a large number of documents, maps, and notes, which he deposited in the public library of his native town, and devoted the remainder of his life to researches among the public libraries of Europe, thus gathering a huge collection of original documents on America. He published “Analecta Peruviana seu genera et species plantarum in Peruvia crescentium” (2 vols., Geneva, 1808); “Monografía de las voces compuestas de Chile” (2 vols., Basle, 1809); “Ascencion du Pichincha et Chimborazo” (Geneva, 1810); “Du mouvement religieuse dans l'Amérique du Sud” (Basle, 1809); “Histoire de la conquête et de la domination Espagnole dans l'Amérique du Sud,” which was for a long time a standard work on the conquests and explorations of European adventurers (6 vols., Basle. 1811, with charts).
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Iwert, Sebold

Edition of 1892. No confirmation of this person's existence outside of Appletons' and derived sources has as yet been located, but there is also no verifiable source which states the person is one of Appletons' fictitious entries. Use this information with extra caution. There is a marked incompatibility in that the subject was supposedly Dutch, but the title of the alleged literary work is written in French. This entry has also been to a large extent copied from that of Sebald de Weert, who also appears in the Cyclopædia.
​IWERT, Sebald (e'-vert), Dutch navigator, b. in Antwerp in 1558 ; d. in Magellan in 1603. He became chief of staff to Simon de Cordes when the latter succeeded, on the death of Admiral Jacques, to the command of the Dutch South American exploring expedition of 1598. The expedition arrived in Buenos Ayres in December, and anchored in April, 1599, inside the Strait of Magellan, near the Penguin islands, in a bay that they named Mussel bay. A few days later they advanced 300 miles and entered a water which they named Green bay. After remaining here three months and suffering greatly from cold and sickness, they left at the end of August, and after various other adventures sailed for Antwerp in February, 1600. On 28 Feb., 120 miles from the continent, Iwert discovered a group of three islands which he named the Sebald islands. In 1603 he went again to Magellan, to join the expedition of Olivier de Noort, but died a few days after reaching the Penguin islands. He made a valuable chart of parts of the South American coast, and published " Relation du voyage des Amiraux Mahn et Simon de Cordes au detroit de Magellan " (Leyden, 1603, with charts).
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Ingersoll, Ernest

Edition of 1892.
​INGERSOLL, Ernest, naturalist, b. in Monroe, Mich., 13 March, 1852. His grandfather was one of the earliest emigrants to the Western Reserve of Ohio. He spent his youth in ranging the fields and marshes in search of natural-history objects, pursued an irregular course in Oberlin college, chiefly devoting himself to science, and was made curator of the college museum. He afterward became a special student in the Harvard museum of comparative zoölogy, devoting himself to the study of birds. He spent the summer of 1873 with Louis Agassiz in his seaside school on Penikese, and after the death of Agassiz served as naturalist and collector with the Hayden survey in the west, and during 1874 contributed scientific articles and sketches of travel to the New York “Tribune.” He made a second trip to the west in 1877, corresponding with the “New York Herald.” He became a member of the U. S. fish commission, and a special agent of the tenth census in 1880, for the investigation of the American oyster industries, and in 1883 he was sent to California to prepare articles for “Harper's Magazine.” Mr. Ingersoll is now (1887) editor of the publications of the Canadian Pacific railway, residing in Montreal. He has made investigations in conchology and other branches of natural history, and is the author of “A Natural History of the Nests and Eggs of American Birds” (seven parts, Salem, 1879); “Birds' Nesting” (1881); a report on the “History and Present Condition of the Oyster Industries of the United States” (Washington, 1881); “Friends Worth Knowing: Glimpses of American Natural History” (New York, 1881); “Knocking 'Round the Rockies” (1882); “The Crest of the Continent” (1883); “Old Ocean” (Boston, 1883); “Country Cousins” (New York, 1884); “The Ice Queen” (1885); “To the Shenandoah and Beyond” (1885); “The Strange Ventures of a Stowaway” (Philadelphia, 1886); “Down East Latch-Strings” (Boston, 1887); several pamphlets; and a series of books on natural history for the young.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Isambert, Henry

Edition of 1892. No confirmation of this person's existence outside of Appletons' and derived sources has as yet been located, but there is also no verifiable source which states the person is one of Appletons' fictitious entries. Use this information with extra caution.
​ISAMBERT, Henry (e-zam'-bair), French sol- dier, b. in Cahors in 1749; d. in Santo Domingo in December, 1800. He served in the colonial troops from 1769 till 1792, and commanded the Royal Martinique regiment in Santo Domingo at the beginning of the French revolution in 1789. He took an active part in the repression of the troubles that the new democratic principles caused in the island among the slaves, advising the sum- mary execution of the rioters, and sometimes de- nying them even a trial. He was recalled in 1792, and imprisoned during the reign of terror on sus- gicion of being a royalist; but the downfall of Robespierre, which happened the day before his proposed execution, saved him, and he was after- ward released. He was elected a member of the council of the ancients in 1796, but was again ar- rested and transported, with other distinguished victims of the reaction, to Guiana. His faithful wife, a Creole of Martinique, joined him, and he bought an estate to avert suspicion, but in June, 1798, escaped to the Dutch city of Paramaribo and sailed for London. Having obtained his par- don in the following year, Isambert returned to France, where Bonaparte reinstated him in the army with the rank of major-general, and attached him to the staff of Gen. Rochambeau, who was preparing to sail for Santo Domingo. There he distinguished himself against the rebel negroes, and was killed in an engagement near Caves. He published " Journal des faits relatifs a la journee du 18 f ructidor, du transport, du sejour et de Inva- sion des deportes, suivi d'un abrege historique sur la Guiane Francaise" (2 vols., London, 1799), and " Histoire de Saint Domingue, l'element noir et la colonisation Francaise " (Sinnimari, 1798).
# An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Knorre

| Expand abbreviations An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Knorre | Random word Special:RandomInCategory/Kluge's Etymological Dictionary of the German Language |
​ Knorre, m., ‘knotty excrescence,’ from MidHG. knorre, m., with the equiv. variant knûre, m., ‘knot, protuberance’ (on trees, the body, &c.); knûre also signifies ‘rock, cliff, summit’; in the sense of ‘cuff, push,’ it is connected with MidHG. knüsen (from *knusjan), ‘to push, strike.’ For the other meanings too we must probably proceed from a Goth. word with s (z), as the dial. forms indicate, Suab. Knaus, ‘knob on a loaf,’ Swiss knus, ‘knot, excrescence.’ E. knar, ‘knot in wood,’ MidE. knarre, with the variant knorre, ‘knot, excrescence.’ — OHG. has only the adj. chniurig, ‘knotty, stout, firm,’ derived from *knûr. — Comp. Knospe and Knust.
# An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Knortz

| Expand abbreviations An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Knortz | Random word Special:RandomInCategory/Kluge's Etymological Dictionary of the German Language |
​ Knortz, m., ‘snag,’ from MidHG. and OHG. knorz, ‘excrescence, knot’; Dan. knort, Swed. knórt. Allied to the preceding word?.
# An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Knoten

| Expand abbreviations An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Knoten | Random word Special:RandomInCategory/Kluge's Etymological Dictionary of the German Language |
​ Knoten, m., ‘knot,’ from MidHG. knote, knode, m., ‘natural knot (on the body and plants), artificial knot in a thread, noose’; OHG. chnodo, chnoto, m. (the OHG. and MidHG. doublets with t and d appear in Knote and Knödel even as late as ModHG.). Allied to AS. cnotta, m., E. knot, with differently related dentals; comp. OIc. ú-knytter, ‘dirty tricks, and MidHG. knotze, f., ‘protuberance’; E. to knit, AS. cnyttan, LG. (Voss) knütte, f., ‘knitting-needles,’ &c. OIc. knútr, m., ‘knot,’ knúta, f., ‘dice’; they are related to AS. knotta, like Goth. *knaupa- to *knuppa- (comp. Knauf and Knopf), and just as a form with a in the stem (AS. cnœpp) is connected with these words, so is OIc. knǫttr (Goth. *knattus), m., ‘ball,’ related to the cognates of Knoten. No indubitably allied term can be adduced from the other Aryan languages. Comp. also Knüttel.