The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-18 00:00:00

1,,

A MISTAKEN VOCATION.

Christian Urban, first alto of the Royal Academy of
Music, expired at Paris last week. He was a consummate
musician, and highly esteemed in the musical world. Short,
ill-shaped, invariably wearing a sky-blue coat, and dining
every day at the same table at the Café Anglais, Urban was
well known for his originality. But what, above all, dist in
'guisbed him was his extreme devotion, the minute practices
of which he scrupulously followed. He went to mass every
day of the week, and on Sundays attended every service.
At night he brought with him to the Opera orchestra pious
books, which he read with unction whenever he was per-
mitted to quit his bow for a moment, you will ask why so
devout an artist had engaged at the Opera. He deplored it, but
had been obliged to enter the band. Urban had at first devoted
his talents to sacred music, but it had not yielded him
enough to live upon, and necessity had thrown him into the
dramatic world a theatrical musician. All the resources of

his mind were employed in reconciling hia ideas with the 1
exigencies of his pr,feseion. Whilst accompanying
l- ee4'L
ioiin the song and the dance, he had rowe- ...r his
.
stranger to the spectacle, and to its - —eu a complete
attractions, He had made it
his pomp and fascinating
- a rule to keep his head eon-
tautly bent on
and his eves lowered on his music
or prayer-bT,'..c. On no account would he have infringed the
duty,
,ne unposed en himself, for the slightest infraction
woo iii 4've been to him an enormous sin. Never did lri
eyZis venture across the proscenium ; never did he see the
end of the foot, or the lower part of the leg of a dancer, even
when she executed her liveliest pirouettes or most celestial
entrechats. He had a holy horror of such abominations. We
do not exaggerate ; it is literally true that Christian Urban
was many years in the Opera orchestra without ever having
seen the stage. He was unacquainted with the cantatrice:
as with the danseuses. One day, in a drawing-room, he
met a young and pretty woman, who addressed him as a
person whom one often sees, and complimented him on his
talents in flattering terms. "Who is that lady?" asked
Urban. "What, don't you know her?" replied the master
of the house. " I have never seen her." " Impossible!
look at her well." "In vain do I look at her," reiterated
Urban ; " I assura you that I have never seen her before.'
He told the truth, and it was necessary to name Madame
Dorus, whom he actually saw for the first time, although he
had heard her sing for the last ten years. Urban knew no
faces on the Opera stage, and knew as little of the plays as 0
the performers; he carefully avoided paying the least atten-
tion to those works of Satan, and the pious meditations
into which he was plunged prevented his hearin,, the words
of the lyric drama. Several modern works have exhi-
bited on the stage the ceremonies and pomp of the
Church. Urban considered it a profanatioe, and shud-
dered when be heard the chorus utter Church music.
One evening, whilst a procession moved across the stage,
he was seen to kneel in the orchestra, cross himself, and
pray with joined hands, as if he had been at Notre Dame.
At the moment death struck him, Urban was about
to retire on a pension, and devote himself to monastic life.,
which promised him unmingled felicity. He has died, leav-
ing the reputation of a very intelligent man, who, during 25
years never missed a single performance at the Opera, and
never saw Guillaume Tell, Robert le Diable, the Huguenots,
the Juire, Sylphide, nor Giselle—of a musician of the Opera
band who was faithfully at his post every night during those
years, and who, though provided with excellent eyes,
never saw Mademoiselles Falcon, Nourrit, Taglioni, Madame
Stoltz, Duprez, Carlotta Grisi, or any other of the gods and
goddesses of either song or ballet.—Paris paper.

Some apprehensions were felt of heavy derange
ments upon the Hull Stock Exchange in the early part ol
the week, but we are happy to ascertain, from well-informed
quarters, that they are.likely to prove groundless. Rumour,
with her hundred tongues, did some mischief; and the terrors
of small speculators bad a tendency at one time to create a
local panic. But gradually more temperate councils began
to prevail; and at present there is a prospect of a very
general re-action in favour of the holders of local stock.—
Hull Advertiser. _ _ _