The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1863-02-14
BLIND TOM.
"Only germ in a withered flower
That the rain win bring out-sometine


d Sometime in the year ls5oa tobacco
planter in Southern Georgia-Perry H. Oil
yer by name-bought a likely negro wo.
man, with some other field hands. She
Was stout, toughmuscled, willing, promis-
ed to be a remunerative servant; her baby,
however, boy a few months old, was only
thrown in as make weight to the bargain,
or, rather, because Mr.. Oliver would not
consent to separate mother and child. Char
.itY only could have induced him to take the
picaninBy, in fact, for ne was but lump OF
black flesh, born blind, and with the vacant
grin Of idiocy, they thought, already stamp
ed on his face. 80 81
Mr.. Oliver did his duty we'll to the boy,
being an obserVant and thoroughly-ki kind
master. The plantation was large, heart
some, faced the sun, swarmed with little
black urchins, with plenty to eat and moth
ing to do.
AL that Tom required, as he fattened out
of baby into boyhood, was room in which
TO be warm, on the grass patch or by the
kitchen fires, TO be stupid, fabby, sleepy
kicked and petted alternately by the other
hands. He had habit of crawling up on
the porches and verandas of the mansion,
and squatting there in the sun, waiting for
. kind word or touch from those who went
in and out. He seldom failed to receive it.
Till he was seven years Of age, Tom was
regarded on the plantation as an idiot-not
unjustly; for at the present time his judg
menta and reason rank but as those of child
four years old. He showed dog-hke af-
lection for some members of the household
"a son of Mr.. Oliver especially-and a
keen, nervous sensitiveness to the slightest
blame or praise for them-possessed, too, a
dow animal irritability of temper, giving way
to inarticrlate yelps of passion when pro-
voked.T wTls we" sag
It was not till / 857 that those phenome-
nal powers latent in the boy were suddenly
developed, which stamped him the anomaly
he is to-day.
One night, sometime in the Summer of
that year, Mr.. divers family were waken-
ed by the sound Of music in the drawing
room; not only the simple airs, but the
most difficult exercises usually played, by
his daughters we're repeated again and
again, the touch of the musician being
timid, but singularly true ard delicate. Co.
ing down, they found Tom, who had been
left asleepiu the hall, seated at the piano in
an scstacy Of delight, breaking out at the
end Of each successful fugue into shouts Of
laughter, kicking his heels and clapping his
hands. This was the first time he had
touched the piano.
Naturally. Tom became a nine days
wonder on the plantation. He was brought
in as an after dinner amusement; visitors
asked for him as the show Of the place.
There was hardly conception, however,
in the minds of those who heard him, Of
how deep the cause for wonder lay. The
planters wives and daughters of the neigh
borhood were not people who would be apt
TO comprehend music as a science, or to use
it as language; they only saw in the little
negro, therefore, a remarkable facility for
repeating the airs they drummed on their
pianos--if a different manner from theirs,
1t 10 tTue--Wbieh bewidefed them. They
noticed! too that however the child's fn-
gers fell on the key, cadences followed, bro
ken, wSnderiOg, yet of startling beauty and
pathos. The house servants, looking in
through the open doors at the little black
figure perched up before the instrument,
while unknown, wild harmony drifted
through the evening air, had better con-
ceptiOhJ Of him. He was possessed; some
ghost spoke through HIM; which is fair
enough definition of genius for a Georgian
slave to offer.
The planter began to wonder what kind
of q creature this was which he had bought,
flesh and soul! In what part of the I'M
slightly baby carcass had been slowed away
these old airs, forgotten by every one else,
and some Ofethem .peyer heard by the child
buttWhich be now reproduced, every note
intact, and with whatever quirk or quid-
dity of style belonged to the person who
originally had sung or played them2 Stran-
ger still, the harmonies which be had never
heard-had learned from no man. The
sluggish breath of the old house. being en-
chApted, grew into quaint and delicate
Whims of music, never the came, changing
sVeEy'day. Never glad: uncertain sad mi
nors always, vexing the content of the hear
er-ons inarticulate; unanswered question
of pain in all, making them one. Even the
VuIgarest listener was troubled, hardly
knowing wby--how sorry Toms music
NaSl ff.s4f ,~sa tEs fe5 Hr
The first exhibition of him was given,
think, in Savannah, Georgia; thence be
was lakAna TO Charleston, Richmond, to all
the principal cities and towns in the South
srn States, 49, ~ n. s7-e
No sooner had Tom been brought before
the public than the pretensions put forward
by his master commanded the scrutiny OF
bothVscisnti6c and musical skeptics. His
capacities were subjected to rigorous tests,
fortunately for the boy; for, go tried-harsh-
", tits true, yet skilIfully-they not only
bore the trial. but acknowledged the touch
Is skillful; every day new powers were de-
veloped. till he reached his limit, beyond
which il is not probable he viii ever pass.
That limit, however, establishes him as an
anomaly in musical science. Physically,