Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-03-27
Dun VISIT no LoUrsvrLLE.

such an extent as to exclude much
that we had prepared for insertion
in that issue. We give a portion OF
it in the present paper, and CONF
mence with some impressions de-
rived from a visit to Louisville; for
] it is a condition of reading the
CHRONICLE that when the editor
travels, his readers have to travel
with him.
Louisville is new city to us. We
knew it in the old days, long before
the war, when Throckmorton kept
the Gait House and received his
guests as an emperor might be sup
posed to give audience to the corps
dipIomdtigue, when the Guthries,
the Ormsbies and the Bullits, as a
genial Oligarchy, ruled its social
arrangements-and. how long that
was ago makes us feel too old to
compute with precision. Since the
war we have paid it but two or
three flying visits ia trdaSitIt, and
seen but little of it. AS we said, it
is new city now; the Gait House
has moved two squares higher up,
and the old families are gone, and
the city is ruled now by railway
kings; Henry Watterson sits in the
seat of Prentice the Great, and in
stead of internecine war between
the Journal and the Courier, they
two are one. The rule of the rail-
way kings seems to be a benefcent
one on the whole. In our time the
Gait House, though two squares
lower down than it is now, was sep
arated by wide interval from the
business part of the city, but now
business houses of the first magni-
tude extend far above it. The fine
old mansions on Walnut and Chest
nut stand where they did, but are
supplemented by innurlerable resi-
dences on Broad street, and the
further part of Fourth eclipsing even
them in beauty. But the streets
alas! alas! they are Louisville's
weak point. The streets themselves
are in a condition astounding to the
visitor. He who wishes to cross
Main street will do well to thrust
his pantaloons into his boots and
then plunge at random. There is
no choice between crossings and the
street in general; indeed, it only
becomes manifest that there ever
were any crossings after a deep geo.
logical exploration through several
superpOsed strata. We have been
accustomed to admire the breadth
of the Louisville streets, but perhaps
this is not an unmixed advantage,
for it adds so much to the expense
of keeping them up that sometimes,
as in the present instance, they are
not kept up at all.
One of our leading purposes in
visiting the city was to hear an
opera or two. The Emma Abbott
Opera Company were performing
there with some operas on their
repertoire which we had never
heard. The two operas we attended
were the Romeo and Juliet of Gou-
nod and Bizet's Carmen, typical of
the recent schools of French opera.
GOunOd's work with the score of
which we were acquainted) con-
tains in an eminent degree the spe-
cial merits of that composer-a re-
fined sentiment in the vocal parts,
illustrated and enhanced by delicate
and recherche instrumentaIe effects. In
rendering these latter the orchestra
Small as it was, being limited to ten
showed itself the
great feature of this company. In
the lark and nightingale duet, with
its alternate effects on the flute and
it fairly divided the in
terest with the singers. With Miss
herself we confess ourselves
Her voice is very
limited in both volume and COM
pass, and though in the pretty bad
image of the first act and tender
sweetness of the balcony scene, she
evinced a pleasing sensibility, she
was overweighted as an actress in
the exacting tragedy of the third |
and fourth acts.
OF Carmen we have only space to
say that its music is saturated with |
the rich, incident rollicking sensu-
which duly characterizes its
1b'dnldtiS persOnOe, who are Spanish
and Gipsies, bull-fighters
and pretty cigar-makers, and Mrs.
Zelda Seguin sung and acted its
gorgeous but vicious heroine to the
life. OF the two tenors, Mr.. Castle
IS the more finished singer, and Mr..
Tom Carl has the fresher voice. The
rest of the vocal company do not
demand separate notice.
We also visited several churches,
.wo Episcopal and one Presbyterian.
In this part of our programme we
we're materially aided by our old
riend Charlie B. Cashier, formerly
/ well-known GAINESVILLE boy, who
oined us on Saturday night and de-
yOted the whole of Sunday to put
ing us through. In the morning I
We went to Calvary Church, which,
o our agreeable surprise, we found
lnder the charge of the Rev. j. G.
name familiar to US
rom having attended his fathers
hurch in Richmond, Va, during
he war. As was to be expected
rom his fathers son, he gave us a
ound orthodox sermon. He has a
church, or will have when
t is finished, and the service is con-
lucted with reverence and dignity.
n the choir we heard a lady sing
whose musical ability surprised us. (
Ne went to Louisville to hear opera,
'ut in Mrs. Davis singing we heard
better voice, a purer information ]
nd sounder vocal method than