The dollar weekly bulletin. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1862-1864, 1863-10-29

misplaced. The selections of music bY
which this power of Tom tested, two years
ago, were sometimes fourteen aud sixteen
pages in length; on one occasion, at an exhi
bition at the White House, after long cor-
lcert, he was tried with two pieces-one
thirteen, the other twenty pages long-aud
was successful.
We know of no parallel case to this in
musical history. Grimm tells as, as one of
1 the most remarkable manifestations OF Mo-
zarts infant geniQs, that at the age of nine
he was required to give an accompaniment
to an aria which he had never heard before,
and without notes. There were false ac-
cords in the attempt, he acknowledged; but
the second was pure. When the music to
which Tom plays secondo is strictly classical,
he sometimes balks for an instant in pass.
ages; to do otherwise would argue creative
power equal to that of the matter composers;
but when any chordant b armouy runs through
it Con which the glowing negro soul can
seize, you know, there are no "false ac-
cords,'' as with the infant Mozart. I wish
to call especial attention to this power of the
boy, not only because it is, so far as know,
nmatched in the development of any mu-
sical talent, but because considere in the
contest of his entire intellectual structure, it
involves a curious problem. The mere repe-
tition of music heard but once, even when,
as IN Toms case, it is given with such in
| credible fidelity, and after the lapse of years,
dem ands only a command of mechanical
skill. and an abnormal condition of the power
of memory; but to play. secondo to music
never heard or seen, infers the comprehen-
sion of the full drift Of the symphony in its
I eurrent-a capacity to create. in short. Yet
such attempts as Tom has made to dictate
music for publication do not sustain any such
inference. They are only a few light
marches, galops. and the like, simple and
plaintive enough, but with easily de-
tected traces Of remembered harmonies.-
Very different from the strange, weird i'm
provisations of every day; one would fancy
that the mere attempt to bring this mysteri-
Gus genius within him in bodily presence
before the outer world. woke. too, the idiotic
nature to utter its reproachful, unable cry
Nor is this the only bar by which poor Toms
soul is put in mind of its foul prison. After
any too prolonged effort, such as those L
have alluded to, his whole bodily frame
gives way, and a complete exhaustion of
the brain follows. accompanied with cpl
leptie spasms. The trial at the White
House, mentioned before, was successful
but was followed by days Of illness.
Being a slave, Tom never was taken into
a Free State; for the same reason his master
refused advantageous offers from European
which his concerts were given, were Balti-
more and the Upper Virginia towns.
heard him sometime in 1860. He rem aimed
a week or two In the town, playing every
! night. The concerts were unique enough.
They were given in great barn of room,
gaudy with hot SCOT, stained frescoes, chan :
deliers, and walls splotched with gilt. The
audience was large, always; such as pro-
vim cial towns affords. Not the purest bench
of musical criticism before which to bring
poor Toni Beaux and bellies, siftings of old
country families, whose grandfathers trapped
and traded and married with the Indians
the savage thickening of whose blood told
itself in high cheek bones, flashing jawelry,
cham pagne-bibbing, a compreheus OF the
tom-tom music of schottisches and polkas;
money-made men and their wives cooped
up by responsibility, taking concerts when
they were given in town, taking the White
Sulphur or Cape May in summer. taking
beef for dinner. taking the pork-tr in
winter-tout Ia vie en- programme; the debris
of town, the roughs, the boys, school
children. The stage was broad, planked
with drop-curtain behind-subject, tn g
, Doge marrying the sea. believe-in front,
J piano and chair. Presently Mr.. Oliver, a
well natured looking man Zone thought of
thaD, came forward, leading and coaxing
along little black boy, dressed in white
linen, little black boy somewhat fat and
stubborn in build. Tom was not in good
humor that night; the evening before he had
refused to play altogether; 50 his master
perspired anxiously before he could get him
placed in rule before the audience, and re-
peat his own little speech, which sounded
like a Georgia after dinner gossip. The
boys h cad, as l said, rested on his back his
, mouth wide open constantly; his great blub
ber lips and shining teeth, therefore. were
all you saw when be faced you. He re-
quired to be petted and bought. like any
, other weak minded child. The concert was
a mixture of music, whining, coaking, and
promised candy aud cake.
) He seated himself at last before piano, a
. full half-yard distant, stretching out his
j arms full length, like an ape clawing for
food; his feet, when not on the pedals, twist
3 ing ncessantly, he answering some joke of
his masters with a loud "Yhai yha!'
Nothing indexes the brain like the laugh;
} this was idiotic. "Now, Tom, boy. some
thing we like from Verdi" The head fell
further back, the claws began to work. and
those of the composers harmnnies which
) you would have chosenSas the purest ex-
pouents of passion began to float through the
room; Selections of Weber, Beethoven, ,land
others whom 1 have forgotten, followed
AT the close oi eacn piece, Iom, Wltnou'
: waiting for the audience. would applaud
/. himself violently. kicking, pounding his
hands toge .her, turning always to his niaste
for the approving pat on the head. Songs
recitationS such as | have described, filled
up the first part of the evening; then a mu-
sician from the audiences went upon the stage
to put the boys powers to the final test
Songs aud intricate symphonies were gwen
which it was most i'm probable the boy cou Id
: ever have heard; he remained standing. Ut
+arlv r,o,;onl.s. rntil thew were finished