The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-17
THE BOSTON JUBILEE.
From the " Y. World.

". .
The Boston Peace Jubilee has at last begun;
and although it is, on general principles, un-
fair to condemn what we have not heard and
although it is not probable that New Workers
will hear even the six thousand anvils, more
or less, and the park of artillery with which
aesthetic Boston purposes to accompany its
vocal emission of Hail Columbia, it is yet
quite safe to say that the Boston Peace Jubi-
lee is a delusion and a snare.
1t has not the appearance of being got up
for any other human purpose than giving an
excellent and cheap advertisement to certain
thrifty burghers of that town, and of filling
the pockets of its projectors and of the pub
hcans of Boston directly, and the pockets of
the whole tradespeople of Boston incidentally.
There is every prospect that, as a musical en-
tertainment, it will issue in a disastrous
failure. The men who are at the head of it
are such as nobody who knows anything about
the matter will for an instant pretend to be
even among the eminent and instructed mu-
sicians of the country It's nominal manager
is known mainly as the leader of ''brass
band which once accompanied Butler
whose personal brass one would think
might have dispensed him from the necessity
of maintaining this brazen adjunct to New
OTleans-and by its performance aggravated
the horrors of war to the unfortunate inhabi-
tants of that much-enduring city. He is
to Boston the lesser analogue of the Dod-
worth or the Grafulla of New York. The
latter two are doubtless most worthy men and
bandmasters: but if they were to propose, on
behalf of the musical culture of New York,
to celebrate the completion of the Pacific
Railroad, or the laying of the French cable,
or the WorldS getting new eight-cylinder
press, OF any other great national event, the
philharmonic and the philanthropic of New
York would doubtless concur in demurrer to
a claim so preposterous: and the aesthetic
cobbler who went thus far beyond his last
would be sternly snubbed, and remitted to his
normal and filter task of furnishing music
for hops, balls, and private parties, or con-
Quoting an orchestra for the first five miles
of the trip of Sound steamer. We ought
to apologize to them both for supposing that
they could be capable of impudence 50 ex-
treme.
Yet an impudence even beyond this is
within the easy reach of the person who full
fills their function for Boston; and this impu-
dence has not encountered the slightest Bos-
tonian snubbing. The more respectable prints
and persons have devoured their disgust in
| silence and the baser sort have shouted ho-
sannas to the enterprise, the artistic spirit
| and the patriotism of this musician who ap-
| plies the maxims of advertising to the prac-
| tice of art. 1t is q p15Ori impossible that an
enormous show like this can issue in any real
| good To anybody. AS means OF teSJneClc
| culture it is absurd to consider it, As a cele-
braton of peace, it passeth all understanding.
| But, as a business device. it is not absurd
and it is perfectly Ineligible. If it were put
upon the same footing that any other mana
| ger would put any other concert on, we would
have no reason to complain We could, to
| be sure, compassionate the auditors
who were so uninstructed as to fancy that
they were listening to the best Interpretation
that could be had in America of the best
music that ever has been written. We could
lament the clap-trap which put forward strange
and hideous clamors and clangors as the con-
summation of divine art But these things
are so common that it would not affect us
with more nausea than we have a chance of
feeling almost every day. But, when the
manager of such show appeals to us in the
character of a patriot and philanthropist,
we have the right and the duty to tell him
That he is no such thing, but only an ordinary
man of business trying to make an extraordi-
nary amount of money by disreputable and
untounded pretensions.
AS to the musical merit of the festival, it is
quite safe to say that New Workers who stay
at home and attend Central Park Garden
every night this week will hear better music
better played than will any of the misguided
beings who have gone to Boston. And other
merit than musical the Boston Peace Jubilee
has none