The Portland daily press., 1880-03-17
The Musical Tramp.
TIMOTHY TRULL GIVES A CONCERT
IN PORTLAND.
What He Says About Our Musical
People.

Last summer Jerome Hopkins, of New
York, gave concert in this city at Union
Hall. Mr.. Hopkins is the man who founded
what were called the Orpheon Free Choir
Schools in the metropolis, but which New
York churches, musicians, and the New York
Board of Education did not think worthy of
patronage. Not but what the idea was good
enough. The fault lay in the crankness and
unftness Of the founder which were only
equalled by his conceit. Mr.. Hopkins has pub
lished letter lately in the N. Y. Philharmon-
ic Journal and Advertiser, a paper owned and
run by himself, descriptive of his Portland
VISIT 1t is curious to notice that in this letter
he throws mud upon our best musicians in one
place and praises them in another. The re-
marks however will amuse our readers and we
give them for publications
Portland is situated on an oblong plot of
land which rises high above the sea. The
Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Bishop Nee
ly's) is the finest church in Portland. The
architect is Mr.. Charles Haight of this city.
1t has an excellent organ, and a young man of
natural musical talent, poorly developed, is
the organist. His name is Mr.. G. w. Goold.
The choir is of boys and men and to tell the
truth is rather shaky. But it was summer
when was there, and was, of course, the
most unfortunate time to hear it. 1t is doubt
less far better at other seasons.
Portland although an American city in the
most New Englandish of all our States and
where the natives brag loudest and strut
proudest over their loyalty" "independ-
ence," true Puritanical "Americanism" and
cognate virtues) still presented to me the most
singular instance of German musical-fetish
or. SO Mr.. Blank has lived there as music
teacher, organist, and conductor, and the way
he is looked up to as a demi-god is certainly
ludiicrous. Not that he is not a good musi-
clan for he is a clever and amiable gentleman
(sic) but musically he is no more than such as
can be picked up IN New York by the cart
load every day. The good people of Portland
however, talk of him asif he were combina-
ton of all the talents of all the great music
ians who ever lived, and no more think of
venturing an opinion oil music without con-
sulting him than of poking their noses in To-
connective smoke-stack to see if the steam is up.
When arrived at Portland Prof. Blank
was absent, and so l had the pleasure of hear
ing good deal about him before meeting him.
Ny operations began by applying for the First
Baptist church for my lecture-concert on
"Church Music" with organ solos, but the
old codger who had the say about it referred
me to another old ccdger in the lime-cement
business, one Deacon Morse. l went to see
him about the loan of his church, but he sent
me to the pastor, kind and courteous gentle
man. He finally confessed he had no voice in
the matter and sent me with commendatory
note to another of the board of trustees;
think he was deacon too. This was similar
to my experience everywhere. The pastors
wrote themselves down mere hirelings rather
than true pastors, and this set me to thinking
what queer flock of sheep it would be, all
the rams of which were called deacons and
who uniformly "bossed" the shepherd. 1
the Second Parish, controlled BY Deacon
Owen. Well, I went to see Deacon Owen and
found him to be a tall, cadaverOuS, vinegar
faced, hatchet-nosed, tiabby-cheeked, putty
complexioned, clammy sort of a man, slow of
speech, and seemingly one of the most stiff
necked and hide-bound, furiously virtuous of
all possible dcacons. He was in the soap bust
ness, and the writer gives long conversation,
the result of which was that as Prof Blank
played afternoons in the edifice it might Of
have the church.
$50 this is Portland, is it?'' said to myself.
What wicked waste of good powder! No
wonder that Mr.. John X. Paine got away from
it as soon as he could after having stayed just
long enough to be born. Having thus been
disappointed in churches turned to concert
halls. tried first for Rossini Hall, but was
told that it was controlled by very curious
club Of ladies known as the "Rossini Club;'
we would call it a hen club. | at once gave
gave up all idea of getting their hall as it
would require talking business to each mem
Der and to talk business to charming woman,
and all these hens subsequently discovered
were charming, was not for a moment to be
thought of
Then follows a long account of an attempt
to secure Mr.. Furbush' S piano ware-rooms. 1t
appears that Mr.. Furbush at first consented to
his request. Then he suggested the Mer-
camille Library rooms, and after Mr. Hopkins
had been all over town to see the trustees, and
finally secured the rooms, Mr.. Furbush charged
him a dollar to wheel square piano through
doorway into the hall. This charge sickened
Hopkins and he gave that room up. He next
applied for Union Hail. controlled by the
Haydns, of which Mr.. Blank was conductor.
Mr.. Coyle, an admirable basso and courteous
gentleman, gave him the use of the hall pro-
vided the concert was given Monday. Then
he found he must pay rent because the Haydns
were in vacation That matter settled he
found an admirable Steinway piano in the
hall and asked if he could use it. But here he
discovered the Haydns owned the piano. and
Mr.. Blank, the conductor, might take offence
and he was out of town. Finally he made
friends with the janitor and practiced all he
wanted to before the concert
Despite my various tribulations in ADVANCE
my Piano Lecture Concert in Portland was
not a success. The evening was excessively
warm and only few persons came out and all
sat at the further end of the hall where the
seats were raised like steps, and kept as far
from my end as possible, just as if they were
afraid that would bite them if they ventured
too near. 1 hurried through the programme,
as quickly as 1 decently could, feeling like
Charles Lamb at an oratOrio when he wrote,
81 sit at oratorios
Ito