Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-03-03

The hrst time I stopped wassEl S0oollect
In front 81 8 large desached hoass, whose
lower windows were all lighted mp, and
ia which could plainly hear laughing
voices. had Just united the usual green
taize WRAPPER I'm which earned my
guitar, and already sounded . geltle trial
dord. which almost frightened M OF my
proiect-it was 20 dreadful actually to hear
ones self playing a. mendicans-a!l this
vas going on, and 20. too, was ry heart
and my lfps and nostrils, even dieting for
breath, when . group OF young men and
girls coming up the street stoppef behind
me-attracted, no doubt By ~ feeble
trial chords my trembling hnefs had
struck. was Standing inside he front
garden gate, which had unlatcAed, and
the people were, Of course, outside; %
that / had really nothing TO fear on the
score Of being recognized. But win BE
believcdi even before such . small
audience a. had gathered I couldn't 90 on.
/ felt could not And not, mind you,
because I had never before played and
sang before people. Quite the contrary !;
for / had frequently performed - IN
amateur, not only at parties and balls, but
even in the concert.TOom. No; had
none Of the orthodox deb,Itanfs weak
ness. simply felt powerless TO make the
terrible plunge, and actually begin to
perform as mendicant musician What,
then, did I do? for another horror, and .
worse one, came over me at that moment.
What if I should be arrested az q vagrant,
now was IN gentleman's grounds?
would have given twenty pounds at the
moment to have been able To turn and
run away-sway anywhere. But I | had
gone past the now increased group at the
gate had gone off without playing, or
In some way making my presence known
to the inmates OF the hOuse-migktl not
be suspected of being spy for burglars,
or thief myself under the guise Of a
musician, and followed and arrested But
Necessity has q mother Invention. l
pretended that my instrument was out of
order at the pegs; gave muttered "Cos.
petto I" or two and, kneeling on one knee
to support my guitar well on the other, /
fidgcted long with it to weary out my
watchers. 30 away they went, slowly
enough, a. thought. And II why l FOL.
lowed them quickly enough, can tell
you, and never stopped until had reached
the lonely sea beach, where sat down on
a heap Of gravel, and--what? well, then,
cried-gasped, or sobbed, or whatever
else you like to call it! was going to
say nothing about this part of the bust
ness; but recollecting that in the history
of such narrative as mine, it is beet TO
say exactly what Occurred-nO more, and
certainly no less Il confess that fairly
broke down-why,I cannot say.
must have sat on that heap of gravel
for more than half an hour reasoning with
myself, and hard battle had in that rea-
soning. AT one time l fairly "jibbed,"
and would have "given the world" as
they say, If it had in earnest rained, as it
had all the evening been threatening to do.
But it did mt rain and before I got up l
was glad it did not. And having got
stronger hearted, l determined to see my
adventure out that night, come what might.
Retracing my steps, got to one OF the
terraces facing the sea. This, however,
would not suit, because Of the long gar
dens in front Besides, had sense enough
to know that il chose spot where sew
eral houses stood together unseparated by
fencing, I could play to them all at once,
and should thus have an equal claim on
the inmates of each. By-and-by-for
may as we'll confess it, my heart began
dancirk about again, and my fingers, too,
trembGd, and l loitered dreadMlly--l
came in front of three houses in one block,
and without front gardens. There was a
light in the drawing-roOm windowsofth0
middle one, and this determined would
be the very place for me- stood-O,
did mt that shaking Of the legs come on
then !-pulled out my guitar, drew my
sombrsro well over my brow, lifted my
coat collar high on my neck. looked fur
lively up and down the street to see
whether anybody was coming, and then
up at the lighted windows, and then. my
instrument having been tuned while sat
on the beach, gave roalade on the strings
to see that all was right. My song was to
be Neapolitan air, well enough known
to Travellers" Tote voglio ben assai." But
will It be credited latter had played
the prelude, and had actually taken the
usual preliminary full inspiration, | found
TO my dismay that could not recollect 80
much as the first line Of my song.
wait" I thought. Courage! and in a
minute or two, when this horrible dane.
Ing of tho heart ceases somewhat, all will
be right" 30 waited bit and thought
hard. But all remained wrong instead Of
coming right, for before half minute had
passed my dOwn-tnrned eyes saw the path
way suddenly darken, and looking up,
found the lights in the windows were gone
away. af
!; / followed them. on.
Here was panic number two. The third
q the charm, they say, and go 1t was in
nv case. Now, the last panic wasn't near
y 80 bad as the first, and In one respect,
/ did much good, inAsmuch a. it taught
ne by defeat how TO conquer. Itshowed
ne, what I had not until then suspected,
hat was not certain tonight Of being
.ble TO recollect the words Of my songs.
have since those days often thought that
4 had not learned this when ! really
lid make my debut should have fatally
collapsed during my search for missing
words, and fed In dismay, never to appear
more In public. Well, a. ] walked slow.
" towards another street, the terrible
words, " must do something in order to |
i've" kept, thank Heaven, repeating
themselves In my mind they strengthen
d my resolves, and fixed my vscillating
BY and by ] had TO give up In
despair al hope of recalling the words Of
nv Italian aria, 10 / pitched upon and
began repeating to myself the words Of
that shoTt and delightful song Of Norma's,
20 ma sn,, II y T~hfch nhOuld have