, 1870-06-22
NEW YORK.:
The Beethoven Festival.
PeterCooper7s Indians
Enterprises, Etc.


[FRQH OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
NEW YoHK, June II.
! have attended the Beethoven festival in
the plank skating rink twies. It was good
deal like q mammoth Sabbath School with
congregational singing; or. better yet, like a
whole camp-meeting come in out Of the rnin
into their biggest booth. As compared to tho
Peace Jubilee in Boston, ali admit that the
affair is inferior. The building ia a sort of
market house Of plain planks, rooted BY the
use of wooden girders, and in the central and
chief portions the people sit On p1ano par
quette, while there is platform extending all
round the sides, and at the far end lieh
stage gives seats to the chorus in tho roar and
on the TANKS, while in tho stage foreground is
the orchestra. A high perch accommodates
the leader Of the orchestra, and through the
open door at the side battery OF large brass
Napoleons ia seen drawn up on vacant lot.
which are fired by q practical youth wearing
freckles and an auburn hrelock, who forces his
thumbs down upon the keys OF a mag
netic battery and detaches spark to mako
the powder harmonious. Tho organ at the
jubilee could never hear going, and grew
skeptical TINT it was a real, raging organ at
all, but imagined it to be
sham thing OF scantling and gilt.
When one entered the big cdilco and
beheld the orchestra and the chorus ut the
further end, all laboHng together, hesupposed
them to bo tuning up merely, and Was greatly
discouraged to find that the enterprise Of noise
could rise no higher. OF seats there wero
plenty to be had; for only once or twice WAS
the etlitlce filled, willie the price Of admission,
two dollars for seats and one dollar for walk
around, had the effect OF mixing the plank
floors tattle with the perpetual tattle Of rest
less feet. New York treated the entertain
ment in q eemi-Buriy way, not being quite
above the proyi1ciallsn Of dialiking anything
for its origins sake, and having notion that
the whole thing WAS Boston notion. Three
tiftLs Of every audience was composed Of Bmil-
ing country people, Above going to theatres,
who were ready to be gladdened, and tickle to
laugh and applaud. So that, toApcak generous
", the audience was always pleasant to
look upon, so American IKE! So
convincing OF the power Of muaic to make
people misccllaneously bctter aud 1ni!der!
III truth, these great musical jubileea are
legitimate outGrowths Of our civilization, COM
bining the German beer garden, the camp
meeting, the political stump, and congrega,,
| tional and school yocalism. Gilmore looked
| like Boston school superintendent, blushing,
| precise, q little exquisite, with the cLirp and
good eelf-orinion Of man raised under tho
shadow Of Faneuil Hall, His brass band il
equal to all praise, and studied the faces Of
his men narrowly to guess their nationality. l
should say that ohe-thi1d Of them we're Ger
manR, another third OF German New England
descent, and third pure Yankees. The female
choruses were about two-thl1ds composed Of
New England church-going people, and the
rest OF German girls from Now York. Tho
male chorissess wero chiefly Germans.
ftnrFS 1A.| $IS1 I'll 1Ir
with Gilmore, and did it in that self
respecting, grave German way which makes q
spectator believe both in the man and his
music: About eight or twelve hundred people
occupied the stage, and Of these, perhaps.
three hundred we're fitllers. Tho capacity Of
many instruments and voices to 1nnko great
noise is exaggerated in these concerts. II ono
comes to be stunned, lie is disappointed, and
the chief benefit III having so many people
performing seemed to be the glow, tho mag
netism. and the force Of a multitude all doing
their best. 1t the same thing, just as Con-
gregational singing always had more vitality
in it and more religion than the chanting OF a
few chonsteEs. It occurred to mo that the
time was at hand when everT city and large
community would have its Gilmore and its
Jubilee, on precise DAYS Of the year, as the
| cities OF the continent Of Europe have their
fixed annual jete days, and that the profits of
the entertainment would not be paid to the
cho1uBeB, but derived from them, each singer
paying for tho privilege Of song. There were
uopeoplo so happy at the Beethoven festival
as those who sang, and was told that most Of
them gave their services freely.
The '1stars" Of this }ete we're Parepa, La
Franc, Brignoli, Kellogg, and Anna Bishop.
1he. latter is now above 50, but she still eings
With spirit and poEar, and lie goodness aud
efforts the faith and credulity Of the listener,
so essential to complete the sympathy Of art.
BHgnoli is nervous and sensitive, and he
shows the marks Of an uncomfortable temper
upon his otherwise handsome and intellectual
face, but his soft, mellow, exquisite notes
eeem to hare suffered no deterioration, and
his long residence amongst US gives him the
license and the popularity OF which not even
himself can rob liinsclf. I remember him "a
he first appeared in this country, the
Apollo Of the opera in all bnt motion for he
is singularly ungTaceful With his feot. and Is
tlought over the errors, the disappo,ntmenta,
the tAnta1izations, and Notifications Of pro
fessional life such as his, d feeling Of respect
and sad pity mingled with my delight Of list
! air. He Gang very thoughtfujly, like ono
anxious 10 please, aud preferred him as an
/ intellectual study to his dnshing young rival
La Franc, who vaulted into the highest attics
Of Goupod, and shot into the heavens fke
wild bird, rioting in voice and beautiful mis-
chief.
But Pa1epR WAS the very Muse Of song, the
lyric Goddess, in shape and faculty, the FOUR
tain and reservoir OF sound and the chorus, the
orlestra, the very cannons deferred to hcr pow
CT. Her vuice could be heard above the battle Of
strings ard yiols, ringing like bugle, and It
ssked for no sympathy nor encouragement,
but conquered by conscious supremacy, Tbs
| tenderness, the attention; the curiosity which
had deferred to her rivals, relaxed when she
nnclesped her lips, and, like the wish Of Archi
mp arms, hats, and huzzas, and the brass can
mons beloved their approval.
Such seemed to me the festival in honor Of
| Beethoven, who Was BON one hundred years
ago, on the banks Of the Rhine, astonished
and embistered bis contemporaries by his
genius. and then retired into perfect deafness,
| perfect seclusion, perfect solitude for nearly
! a ecore Of years, the slave and the master Of
| his one mighty faculty, the victim Of his gift,
| the restaI to his fame. It was high and
solemn thing to see his portrait looking down
upon all those gtrings lips, and reeds con
| signing his symphonies to tho second century,
| and those thousand musicians making glad
| ness that he had lived.
! OTHER SHOWS.
I WAS at the Fisk's Grand Opera House on
Tuesday night wiis-- Rod Clouds band en-
tered, twenty or thirty in number. The re-
rowncd Chief est in a private box, and to!-
] lowed the performance for an hour. He looked
| to me like yellow Mustang pony, his nose
being long md with equine nostTlls, and he
| watched the piece in pleased, crisicizing, yot
| semi-sensual way, his braves and squaws mean-
time sitting in another part Of the house. Fisk
| was not present, but saw him on Monday
night al the other theatre he controls-Daiy's
| or the Fifth Avenue. On Thursday at noon
Red Clouds baud held . reception and speech
making at the Cooper Institute, and we're re-
galed BY old Peter Cooper himself, an eccen-
tric Humanitarian who corresponds to the az
count of Ste1ne:
'Ie could unmoVel hungry Christian pass,
To shed his tears upon dying ass"
have little doubt, from all that I could
gain, that the public sentiment of New York
!s in sympathy With the Indiana. Secretary
Coz, holding to the present Indian policy, car
ries with him most Of the administration in
fluence, and this showing Of the Indians
through the great cities Of the East gives them
opportunities to be lionized and to reach vast
nlultitudes with their pathetic speeches.
came IN contact, however, with squad Of
Western men at tho Fifth Avenue Hotel, who
wcre committed to the Coz policy on the In
dian question, without being able to grow eu-
tLusiastic about it. These informed me that
Governor McCook, Of Colorado, and Governor
Campbell Of ri W5gW%in%g, Wds%,n,d had i cdn.sn been
upon The threatening position Of things; that
both Governors Aad expressed graTe doubts
as TO the Indinn character bcing fair and stable
enough to acquit itself well in matters Of
treaty, and that McCook had offered to accept
the tender Of the Uses to thrcsh tho predatory
Arrapa1ocs, but had been rcbukea from WaEh-
ipgton. Tie Utes were desperately flogged by
the government some two years ago, and they
are now getting over their fright and showing
inao1ence.
Two theories arc broached as to Rod Clouds
position; one that he Is in favor Of peaco, be-
cause he il growing weak in bis tnbe, the
young warriors feeling impatient to 70 horse
stealing and scalp-huntiDg; second theory be-
ing that He'd Cloud wants to hasten home to
take advantage OF 4 foli moon, and go on a