The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-27
rHn 1ATEsr FASHION I'M MUSIC.

Two years ago, when half the town ran
madly after her rollicking Highness of Gerol-
stein, and clapped their hands for Joy that in
the new French Apollo they had greater god
than any of the old Italians whose lays had
charmed us before, few sober people who
bad not been caught by the prevailing mania
cried out that the musical art had got its
death blow, and we were all rushing to moral
and aesthetic destruction. And it seemed, in
deed, for while as if they might be right
From the Grand Duchess to the fair Helen
was only one step, and from Troy to Brabant
was another. While the revels of Oifenbach
ragged fast and furious at one end of Four
teenth street, the faces of musicians grew sad
and anxious at the otker. Artists raised
their voices in vain amid the solitudes of
the Academy while shapely women were
Haunting their skirts and saying naughty things
on the boards of the French Theatre. So
the doors of the opera house were locked
one day, the cotton covers were drawn over
the gilded boxes, and dust was left to settle
on the great stage until such time as the
world should get through with its frolic and
recover its senses. Mr.. Grant White and
others might well believe that art was depart
ing forever from the stage, and mere non
sense and frivolity coming to permanently
take its place. AT last, however, the frolic be-
came so daring that innocent eyes were
opened to its real significance, and ladies
found out that the Fair Helen and the un-
happy Genevieve were not very good COM
pany for them, and then the reaction began.
So much money was lost in opera bouffe, and
such a marked change took place in the cha
racter Of its patrons, that after the second
season not vestige of that style of entertain
ment was to be found in the whole city.
1t was a serious question at first, however,
whether the true art and the false had not
both been overthrown Very few supposed
that musical taste would revive without at
least year or two of depression. But fash
ion is as tickle in music as she is in skirts and
bonnets, and goes back as readily to a dis
carded composer as she does to an abandoned
petticoat. We dare say the great Jubilee at
Boston has had its effect in turning the public
away from their false gods, and convincing
them that they can worship with quite as
much pleasure and quite as much style at the
feet of Rossini as at the calves of Tostee.
Be this as it may, fashion has set violently
and suddenly towards the legitimate in the
art of music. seat at the Philharmonic
Concert is an unpurchasable luxury for which
New York belle would sacrifice the best ball
of the season. The centenary of Beethoven
is to be celebrated here with grandeur which
will make Boston blush with modification and
howl with envy. One English opera company
has sung for us and gone away with full
pockets, and another follows 10 with the same
| success. And finally, Italian opera, thought
to be the most hopelessly PROSTATE of all lyric
| enterprises, basks i'll such a sunshine of favor
| that manager and singers must be amazed at
their own prosperity. All these successes are
well deserved, but they are not the less re-
markable for all that A good performance
| Of William Tel is blessing which descends
upon America only once in decade or so;
and performance with such an ''Arnoldo'
as the new tenor who has now fired the
town would mark an epoch in the musical
sistory of ahy city; yet music is so seldom
rewarded as it should be that there is per-
| haps more reason to be surprised
at the fashionable enthusiasm than if it wasted
itself upon the dyed locks and stuffed anato-
| my of the ladies of the ballet. Frankly, we
must say that Fashion has shown a degree of
sense for which we were quite unprepared.
Let us take the good the gods provide and be
thankful. Taste will grow from experience.
| The fair danes and polished cavaliers who go
| to the opera now because some mysterious,
awful, unseen autocrat has decreed that the
opera shall be patronized because the boxes
are we'll arranged for Irritation, and the balco-
| MES are unrivaled for the exhibition of silks
and pearl powder, will learn to go pretty soon
| for love of art itself, to keep silence during
| the soft music, to pat their hands and cry bis!
| BIS! in the right place, and to remember with
a sort of shame the barbarous days when an
opera season could be made by an accident
and ruined by whim.
THE INCOME TAX-ANOTHER BLUM
DER OF GENERAL GRANTS.
From the NJ Y. Sum-
A series of articles on the income tax has
lately appeared in the New York Times, which
if not written by Mr.. A. r. Corbin, contain
strong internal evidence of having beer
authorized or inspired by President Grant
The Times has always supported the income
tax, unjust and unpopular as it is; but this
fact was never of the slightest account SO lonl
as the ideas were only the productions of thu
various conductors of that sheet. Now, how
ever, that the advocacy of the income tal
through its columns comes from high officia
sources, and from the Presidents brother-in
law, if not from the President himself it il
worthy of notice. There seems to be no hesi
tation on the part of the Times in urging tn,
continuance of the tax directly in the face o
the law.
We are further informed that the Secretary
of the Treasury and the Commissioner of In
ternal Revenue favor a renewal of the presen
income tax at the next session of Congress
and it is stated also that the President in hi
message will recommend a continuance of lal
the present revenue laws. If he does this, h,
will ask Congress to break most solemn
promise, and one which cannot be violated
without dishonor.
The income tax was imposed at time o
the greatest danger this country has eve
known. The people did not like it, but the,
submitted to it for the sake of national safet
and success. The law was universally re
garded as a war measure, or it never coul,
l..