OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 261

261.—PAGANINI'S METHOD OF STUDY.
We can hardly realize at this day of the world the furore created by the marvelous performances of Paganini. The gaunt, cadaverous figure, the eccentric poses, the bewitching music, the undreamed-of technic, seconded by the terrible tales which had been circulated about his selling his soul to the devil in exchange for his wonderful powers—all this created such an interest and excitement as has hardly been paralleled in musical records.
Various fiddlers whom he put sadly in the shade would have almost sold their souls to have captured the secret of his abilities. One of them went so far as to follow him from place to place, hoping to get an inkling of the magic that Paganini used. This man would even engage an adjoining room at the hotel where Paganini was staying, and kept up an unceasing espionage over the virtuoso, even going to the length of peering through the keyhole of the latter's room. On one occasion, when so engaged, he saw Paganini take up his instrument and place it in position as though about to play, but, greatly to his disappointment, not a sound did the player make. He simply moved his left hand up and down the neck for a few moments, as though studying positions, then laid it aside, and that was all.
During his youth Paganini was made to practice many hours per day, and the severe training that he was put through at that time, together with his phenomenal genius for his instrument, so settled his technic that it was not necessary for him to keep a severe and arduous course of practice with fixed regularity. Even when rehearsing with the orchestra, beyond a few isolated snatches, more often than not played pizzicato, he rarely ever played through those compositions which, at his concerts, delighted and astonished his audiences.
But while his technical practice was largely finished ​in his youth, he was throughout his whole life an earnest student.
The works which he performed were such as to demand constant study, for he constantly added new compositions to his repertoire, all of which he memorized. He studied them as one would study a poem, committing them to memory line by line and stanza by stanza, thus relieving himself of constant repetitions. He would so impress the notes, dynamic marks, and bowing upon his memory, that when he came to give the work audible expression, it remained only to apply the physical machinery he could so well control to its demonstration. At the proper moment every note appeared in its place with fitting finish and expression, although the artist may not previously have traced the combinations upon his instrument. An active and discriminating intelligence was at the root of all of his musical performances.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 255

255.—WAGNER'S ACTIVITY.
Richard Wagner was a merry little man, and retained his health and spirits till his last years of life. The two incidents here given show his quick judgment and prompt action, as well as his eccentricity. He was once climbing a precipitous mountain in company with a young friend. When some distance up and walking along a narrow ledge the companion, who was following, called out that he was growing giddy. Wagner turned round on the ledge of the rock, caught his friend and passed him between the rock and himself to the front, where he was safe.
​Ferdinand Praeger, relates an incident of a visit to Wagner at his Swiss home. The two men sat one morning on an ottoman in the drawing-room, talking over the events of the years. Suddenly Wagner, who was sixty years old, rose and stood on his head upon the ottoman. At that moment Wagner's wife entered. Her surprise and alarm caused her to run to her husband, exclaiming; "Ah! Richard! Richard!" Quickly recovering himself, he assured her that he was sane, and wished to show that he could stand on his head at sixty, which was more than Ferdinand could do. Perhaps Wagner wrote some of his music while standing on his head. It certainly reverses many old-time ideas of composition.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 257

257.—AN ERRATIC PRIMA DONNA.
One of the "freaks" of the operatic stage was a lady who was before the public in the time of Lulli, and who bore the name of Madam La Maupin. This versatile lady was given to all sorts of questionable pranks, such as would hardly be tolerated in the present century.
Having secretly learned the art of fencing, she proceeded to seek an opportunity to put her skill to use. She declared a certain opera singer had insulted her; and, donning male attire, she lay in wait for him as he left the theater one night, and challenged him to draw his sword and defend himself. But the fellow was a coward and refused to fight; so she demanded his money and jewelry and then gave him a sound thrashing. The next day when this brave gentleman was boasting to some friends how he had been attacked by three robbers and how he had put them to flight, she coolly produced the plunder and told the whole story.
When only sixteen, this adventuress ran off from her husband and proceeded with a new admirer to Marseilles, where she appeared on the stage in masculine attire; and ​so good a looking man did she make that one young lady in the audience fell violently in love with her. La Maupin, keeping up her disguise, encouraged the love smitten damsel, and the affair grew so serious that the girl's parents placed her in a convent to remove her from the influence of this captivating suitor.
But La Maupin was not so easily frustrated. Donning her proper attire, she applied at the convent for admission and finally was received as a novice, and thus kept up her intimacy with her admirer, who thought her assumption of feminine attire a disguise. But convent life soon lost its attractions for this uncertain person and she quickly hit on a scheme that permitted them both to escape. One of the nuns having just died and having been buried on the grounds, La Maupin, disinterred the poor lady, placed her remains in the infatuated girl's bed; then she set fire to the dormitory and in the confusion which followed they both made their escape. Then tiring of the part she was playing, she discovered her sex to her admirer and sent her home to her mother, sadder, and perhaps wiser.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 258

258.—WHEN THEY BEGAN.
It is generally thought that a man must begin his career before the public at a very early age if he is to reach a high point in the world's list of celebrities. But the perusal of the following list shows that some have begun their musical career late in life. In this list we do not refer to the date of the first entrance of the musician into the field of composition or of his first public appearance, but give the age at which he stepped out into earnest work, his preliminary studies being completed.
Mozart began his career at the age of 12; Weber at 14; Rossini at 18; Handel, Cherubini, and Donizetti at 20; Scarlatti and Meyerbeer at 21; Bellini and Wagner at 23; Grétry and Massenet at 25; Thomas and Verdi ​at 26; Gluck at 28; Gounod at 33; Lulli at 39; and Rameau at 50.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Boernstein, Henry

Edition of 1900.
​BOERNSTEIN, Henry (bairnstine), journalist, b. in Hamburg, 4 Nov., 1805; d. in Vienna, Austria, 10 Sept., 1892. His parents removed to Lemberg, where he received a medical education. After serving in the Austrian army, he was some years connected with the stage in Vienna; became manager of the German opera at Paris in 1842, and a playwright, and came to the United States in December, 1848. In March, 1850, he became editor and proprietor of the “Anzeiger des Westens,” published in St. Louis.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Boise, James Robinson

Edition of 1900.
​BOISE, James Robinson, educator, b. in Blandford, Mass., 27 Jan., 1815; d. in Chicago, 9 Feb., 1895. He was graduated at Brown in 1840, became a tutor of Latin and Greek in that college, and in 1843 professor of Greek, which chair he held until 1850. From 1852 to 1868 he was professor of Greek in the university of Michigan, and after 1868 in the university of Chicago. He published in Chicago Xenophon's “Anabasis,” with English notes, the first six books of Homer's “Iliad,” “Greek Syntax,” “First Lessons in Greek,” and other text-books, and in 1884 “Notes Critical and Explanatory on St. Paul's Epistles.”
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bolton, Sarah Knowles

Edition of 1900.
​BOLTON, Sarah Knowles, author, b. in Farmington, Conn., 15 Sept., 1841. Her maiden name was Knowles. She married Charles E. Bolton, a merchant and philanthropist. She has written extensively for the press, was one of the first corresponding secretaries of the Woman's national temperance union, was for three years associate editor of the Boston “Congregationalist,” and travelled for two years in Europe, studying profit-sharing, female higher education, and other social questions. Her published works are “Orlean Lamar, and other poems” (New York, 1863); “The Present Problem,” a novelette (1874); “How Success is Won” (Boston, 1884); “Lives of Poor Boys who became Famous” (New York, 1885); “Girls who became Famous” (1886); “Social Studies in England” {Boston, 1886); and a collection of short stories under the title “Stories from Life” (New York, 1886). She presented a paper on “Employers and Employed” to the Social science association. She was engaged in 1886 on a joint collection of poems by herself and her son, Charles Knowles Bolton.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bonaparte, Charles Lucien Jules Laurent

Edition of 1900.
​BONAPARTE, Charles Lucien Jules Laurent, prince of Canino and Musignano, ornithologist, b. in Paris, 24 May, 1803; d. there, 30 July, 1857. He was the eldest son of Lucien Bonaparte, and in 1822 married a daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, king of Spain. Soon afterward he settled with his father-in-law in Philadelphia, and during his residence in the United States studied the ​ornithology of the country. In 1828 he removed to Italy, in the revolution of 1848 was a leader of the republican party in Rome, and in 1849 was chosen vice-president of the constituent assembly. After the occupation of Rome by French troops, he returned to France, but was expelled by order of Louis Napoleon. Permitted to return to Paris in 1850, he became in 1854 director of the Jardin des Plantes. He published in the United States a supplement to Wilson's “Ornithology,” entitled “American Ornithology, or History of the Birds of the United States” (4 vols., Philadelphia, 1825-'33), containing more than 100 new species discovered by himself; also “Observations on the Nomenclature of Wilson's ‘Ornithology,’” printed in the “Journal” of the academy of Philadelphia; a “Synopsis of the Birds of the United States” in the “Annals” of the lyceum of New York; a “Catalogue of the Birds of the United States” in the “Contributions” of the Maclurian lyceum of Philadelphia; and other papers on the same subject. In Italy he was the originator of several scientific congresses, and lectured and wrote extensively on American and European ornithology and other branches of natural history. He published “Specchio Comparativo delle Ornithologie di Roma e di Filadelfia” (Pisa, 1827), presenting a comparison between birds of the latitude of Philadelphia and Italian species; “Iconografia della Fauna Italica” (Rome, 1833-'41), an elaborate illustrated work on the fauna of Italy; “List of the Birds of Europe and North America” (1838); “Conspectus Generum Avium” (Leyden, 1850); “Revue critique de l'ornithologie Européenne” (Brussels, 1850); in collaboration with H. Schlegel, “Monographie des loxiens” (Leyden, 1850); and, after his return to Paris, “Catalogue des oiseaux d'Europe” (Paris, 1856); also a descriptive catalogue of pigeons and one of parrots, prepared in conjunction with M. de Pouancé and published after his death. His “Memoirs,” written by himself, appeared in New York in 1836.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bohlen, Henry

Edition of 1900.
​BOHLEN, Henry, soldier, b. in Bremen, Germany, 22 Oct., 1810; killed near Rappahannock Station, Va., 22 Aug., 1862. He came to the United States when young, and settled as a liquor merchant in Philadelphia, acquiring wealth in that trade. In 1861 he became colonel of the 75th Pennsylvania (German) volunteers, and was attached to Gen. Blenker's command, was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 28 April, 1862, and served under Frémont in western Virginia, distinguishing himself at the battle of Cross Keys, 8 June, when Gen. Frémont attacked “Stonewall Jackson” and drove him from a strong position beyond Harrisonburg. He was also specially commended for his services in the Shenandoah valley under Gen. Sigel. He covered the retreat of the army of Virginia across the Rappahannock, and fell while directing the movements of his brigade in a skirmish near that river. He led his brigade across the river to attack a detachment of Longstreet's division, but was assailed by superior numbers, and re-crossed under cover of the batteries.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bollman, Eric

Edition of 1900.
​BOLLMAN, Eric, physician, b. in Hoya, Hanover, in 1769; d. in Jamaica, W. I., 9 Dec., 1821. He studied medicine at Göttingen, and practised in Carlsruhe and in Paris, where he settled at the beginning of the French revolution. He accompanied Count Narbonne, who fled to England in 1792, and in London fell in with Lally-Tollendal, who induced him to go to Austria and endeavor to find out where Gen. Lafayette was kept in confinement. He established himself as a physician in Vienna. Learning that Lafayette was a prisoner at Olmütz, he formed a plan to rescue him with the assistance of Francis Kinlock Huger, a young American. Communicating with the prisoner through the prison surgeon, the two fell upon his guards while he was taking exercise in a carriage, and succeeded in getting him away on a horse; but he rode in the wrong direction and was recaptured. Dr. Bollman escaped to Prussia, but was handed over to the Austrian authorities, who kept him in prison for nearly a year, and then released him on condition that he should leave the country. He came to the United States and was well received; but in 1806 was implicated in Aaron Burr's conspiracy and was Burr's agent in New Orleans. In 1814 he returned to Europe, and, after another visit to the United States, took up his residence in London. He published “Paragraphs on Banks” (2d ed., Philadelphia, 1811); “Improved System of the Money Concerns of the Union” (1816); and “Strictures on the Theories of M. Ricardo.”
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bolton, Henry Carrington

Edition of 1900.
​BOLTON, Henry Carrington, chemist, b. in New York city, 28 Jan., 1843. He was graduated at Columbia in 1862, and then studied chemistry in Paris under Wurtz and Dumas, in Heidelberg under Bunsen, in Göttingen under Wohler, and in Berlin under Hofmann. In 1866 he received the degree of Ph. D. from the University of Göttingen, his thesis being on the “Fluorine Compounds of Uranium.” He then spent some years in travel, and from 1872 till 1877 was assistant in quantitative analysis in the Columbia School of Mines. In 1874 he was called to the chair of chemistry in the Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary, which ​he resigned in 1877, when he became professor of chemistry and natural science in Trinity College. The celebration of the centennial of chemistry at Northumberland, Pa., the home of Joseph Priestley, who discovered oxygen in 1774, was suggested and brought about by Dr. Bolton. Among his investigations, that of the action of organic acids on minerals is perhaps the most important; but most of his work has been literary, and his private collection of early chemical books is not surpassed in the United States. Dr. Bolton is a prominent member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was its general secretary in 1878 and 1879, and vice-president of the chemical section in 1882. For several years he was corresponding secretary of the New York Academy of Sciences. He has been a large contributor to chemical literature, and his numerous papers may be found in the “American Chemist,” “Proceedings of the New York Academy of Sciences,” “Chemical News” (London), and similar periodicals. In 1883 he began the annual preparation of a “Record of the Progress of Chemistry” for the annual reports of the Smithsonian institution. Among his compilations are “Literature of Uranium” (1870, revised ed., 1886); “Literature of Manganese” (1877); and an extensive “Catalogue of Scientific and Technical Periodicals, 1665-1882” (Smithsonian institution, Washington, 1885). He is the author of “Student's Guide in Quantitative Analysis” (New York, 1879), and has edited several minor chemical text-books.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bolton, Sarah Tittle

Edition of 1900. The 1891 edition notes that she had written verses for the newspaper whose editor she married.
​BOLTON, Sarah Tittle, poet, b. in Newport, Ky., 18 Dec., 1815; d. in Indianapolis, Ind., 4 Aug., 1893. Her father, Jonathan B. Barrett, removed to Indiana. At sixteen she married an editor, Nathaniel Bolton. In 1855 her husband was appointed consul at Geneva, and during the two years that she spent abroad she wrote letters to American newspapers. She contributed numerous short poems to periodicals, among them “Paddle Your Own Canoe” and “Left on the Battlefield.” A volume of her poems was published in New York in 1865, and a complete collection, with a life by Jonathan W. Gordon (Indianapolis, 1886).
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bomberger, John Henry Augustus

Edition of 1900. The 1891 edition notes that he graduated from Marshall college and Mercersburg theological seminary in 1837 and 1838 respectively.
​BOMBERGER, John Henry Augustus, clergyman, b. in Lancaster, Pa., 13 Jan., 1817; d. in Collegeville, Pa., 19 Aug., 1890. He was graduated at Marshall college and at Mercersburg seminary, became a minister of the German Reformed church in 1838, was a pastor at Waynesborough, Pa., in 1840-'5, at Easton, Pa., in 1845-'54, and in the 1st Reformed church of Philadelphia from 1854 till 1870, when he became president of Ursinus college, at Collegeville, Pa. He translated six volumes of Herzog's “Protestant Theological and Ecclesiastical Encyclopaedia,” condensed into two volumes (Philadelphia, 1856-'8), and published “Five Years at Race Street Church” (1859); “The Revised Liturgy” (1866); “Reformed not Ritualistic” (1867).
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bomford, George

Edition of 1900.
​BOMFORD, George, military officer, b. in New York in 1780 : d. in Boston, Mass., 25 March. 1848. He entered West Point from New York, was graduated in 1805, and became lieutenant in the corps of engineers. He served as assistant engineer on the fortifications of New York harbor in 1805-'8, then on the defences of Chesapeake bay from 1808 till 1810, and as superintending engineer of the works on Governor's island from 1810 till 1812. During the war of 1812-'5 with Great Britain he served in the ordnance department, with the rank of major on the staff, was appointed assistant commissary-general of ordnance, 18 June, 1812, and attached to the corps of engineers, 6 July, 1812. He introduced bomb cannons, made on a pattern of his own invention, which were called columbiads, a form of heavy gun combining the qualities of gun, howitzer, and mortar. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel, 9 Feb., 1815, and was continued on ordnance duty, though attached to the artillery after the reorganization of the army in 1821. On the organization of the ordnance corps he was promoted colonel, and appointed chief of ordnance, 30 May, 1832. He was in command of the ordnance corps and bureau at Washington until 1 Feb., 1842, when he became inspector of arsenals, ordnance, arms, and munitions of war, in which duty he continued until his death. The cannons invented by him were further developed by Dahlgren, but were superseded by the Rodman type about the beginning of the civil war. In July, 1841, he conducted experiments to ascertain the expansive force of powder in a gun by firing bullets through tubes inserted in the sides. — His son, James Y., b. on Governor's island. New York harbor, 5 Oct., 1811 ; d. in Elizabeth, N. J., 6 Jan., 1892, was graduated at West Point in 1832, and served as first lieutenant in Texas, and as captain in the war with Mexico. He was engaged in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Monterey, the siege of Vera Cruz, the battle of Cerro Gordo, the capture of San Antonio, and the battle of Churubusco, receiving the brevet of major, 20 Aug., 1847, for gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco. He was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Molino del Rey, distinguished himself at the storming of Chapultepec, and was present at the capture of Mexico. Serving on frontier duty in Texas at the beginning of the civil war, he was promoted major, 17 Oct., 1860, and was prisoner of war from 9 May, 1861, till 9 April, 1862, On 10 Jan., 1862, he was made a lieutenant-colonel, and, after his return to his regiment, was engaged in the movements of Gen. Buell's army in Alabama and Kentucky. At the battle of Perryville he served as chief of staff to Gen. McCook," and received the brevet of colonel for meritorious services in that action. He was retii-ed from active service 8 June, 1872.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Unnever, John Gerhard

Edition of 1900. Supplement.
UNNEVER, John Gerhard, sculptor, b. in Copenhagen, Denmark, 16 July, 1822; d. in New York city, 12 Feb., 1893. He was a pupil of Thorwaldsen, under whose direction he produced many classical figures, including Apollo, Hebe, and Venus. When the gigantic figures of the Twelve Apostles were sent from Thorwaldsen's museum to the New York crystal palace in 1853 Mr. Unnever was selected as their custodian. He also received from the great sculptor the exclusive privilege of reproducing the figures and of using his models. Under this concession he opened a studio in New York, where he duplicated in plaster many of his master's greatest works. Mr. Unnever edited and illustrated two volumes on his friend Bertel Thorwaldsen's life and artistic work.
# Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Urfe, Louis Edouard d'

Edition of 1889. This is a fictitious person. There are spelling errors in one of the titles of the alleged literary works.
​URFE, Louis Edouard d', West Indian mis- sionary, b. in Les Saintes, Guadeloupe, in 1699 ; d. in Leghorn in 1762. He was educated in the col- lege of the Jesuits at Bordeaux, entered that order in 1727, and was sent in the following year to Guadeloupe, where he resided several years and had charge of the parish of Capesterre. In 1742 he went to Cayenne, founded several missions among the Galibi Indians, explored Guiana and the basin of the Orinoco, and in 1760 became visitor of his order. He died at Leghorn during a voyage for the purpose of conferring with the gen- eral of the Jesuits. Urfe's works include " Gram- maire Galibi " (Paris, 1755) : " Dictionnaire Galibi " (1757) ; and " Histoire des etablissements de la foi fondes dans la Guiane ou Nouvelle France meri- dionale"(1762).