Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-03-17

meanest origin, than to arise from the
, slightest fall 4
, was conductor of the orchestra in the
royal opera Of. / had fought my way
to that station from the kettle drums.
directed the finest orchestra in Italy, and
/ was called the first conductor In Europe.
Here was enough to have satisfied the
ambition of any musician. Honors fell
; around me thicker than could gather
but was miserable. had filed my
heart with a single passion, until it ex-
cluded even vanity. This passion was
not love it was something intenser and
more terrible-it was hate.
Among my players were two men
whom I distinguished from all others.
The first whiteheaded, broad featured
German, was my Second Violin. He
gave me more trouble than my whole or
chestra. His style of playing was as
broad and heavy as his face. Do what
might, never could teach him a plan
iSSinO movement that satisfied my ear.
No reasoning could convince him that it
was in his power to mar the effect of a
performance. Scold him, for 1 sometimes
raved at him, and he would point with a
glOrifed expression, at some laudatory
newspaper article. Flatter him, and he
would blush like girl under her first kiss,
denying himself all claim to individual
merit. Yet that man loved l would
not have parted with his dull, heavy hand
to save Bellini from ruin. He, too, had
an unbounded respect for me. l may at
tempt to describe the FIRST Cornet to you /;
but would not excite in you the emo
tions which his appearance produced on
my mind, to save myself from worse
degradation than the present.
The,First Comets features were beau
tiful. One side of his face might have
served as a study of severe classical beau
ty, in which even Raphael could have re-
cognized his ideal. There was all that
harmonious melting of feature into feature
that thoughtful, imaginative, yet tender
expression of power, in the eye, after
which the popil of Perugino labored in his
heads of the Savior. But the other side
of the face-how terrible The eye
for L have examined it with patient micro
scopic care, in the vain effort to fathom
its secret-round, open, projecting; the
ball of blurred, opeque leaden white,
imprisoned within a net work of angry
red veins and blind-perfectly blind,
He could not detect the faintest ray of
light with the ocular monster. The hor-
ror of the thing was not in its external
appearance, but in its expression. have
seen his beautiful lips convulsed with ag-
ony for which they could not shape a
sound, yet the deformity would grow
merrier and merrier as his passion rose,
until they could almost hear it laugh.
The First Cornet was great musician.
His playing was almost faultless. Many
and many a time has the clear, hearty,
triumphant burst of his instrument ral-
lied my struggling orchestra, banded
their hesitating powers, and saved me
from impending disgrace. His tone, be-
fore the painful events which am about
to~relate, was peculiar. 1t was instinct
with spirit of full animal life, joyous
ness whose center was in mere being /;
such as we see exhibited in children, who
are happy because it is the morning Of
their life, because the dews of heaven are
yet upon them, because they have known
neither the MONDAY heat nor the solemn
sunset. AS my dislike became aversion,
and my aversion hate, the eye began to
assume terrible share and meaning in
my thoughts. At first it only troubled
me, then it fascinated me, last it aroused
my restraint passions, gradually deepen
ing them into insane fury.
Il Among the audience at the Opera
House there was one who, without any
personal acquaintance with the FIRST Cor
net, was in intimate sympathy with him.
The person to whom refer was large,
red faced, sensual looking Englishman,
of immense wealth, and therefore of pro-
portionate influence in the city of N.
He attended every performance of the op-
era, and was accounted a cOnnoiSSeur
among the dHettanti. l could never raise
my head without catching glimpse Of
his rocking features staring into the
orchestra, like one of those grotesque
cathedral sculptures representing soul
in Purgatory.
AS | have said there was q close sym
pathy between the English and the First
Cornet. l could not turn to see the eye
mock me, for some unlucky false note of
the Second Violin's, without hearing a
smothered hiss, as of plethoric serpent,
from the rolling head. There was no
Cornet solo to which the red face did not
give a bravo! At length he picked out
the First Cornet from among all the 9TH
er instruments, and followed it alone.
Such persistive zeal never saw. The
First Cornet became everything to him.
People told me he talked of nothing else.
Lastly, he discovered the secret of the
eve and could see him answer it glance
for glance, with awful intelligence. 1t
became his railing star. He followed it,
and carried out all its suggestions with
the affectionate tenderness of newborn
love. Now, indeed, my misery began.
The eye had an ally-a powerful cOrpo-