Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-01-23
KARL BERGER'S PUPH
BY G., A. COPELAND.

Karl Berger went to Milan at just the
right time, 1t had become quite the
fashion to run down the Italian method
OF instrumental instruction, and to extol
the method Of their Northern compeers.
Karl Berger came. His name sounded
like aGerman's, and he played music like
master, and that was all that was
needed. Pupils tlocked to him. and he
set his own prices. Even the city itself,
through its governors, agreed to place
three pupils with him annually, at its
own expense, as long as he should remain
there. This was triumph enough to
turn the head of a much older man, and
Karl himself was only three and twenty
years old. He sat in his room one night
about two weeks after his arrival, smok-
ing his big pipe with china bowl, and
congratulated himself. Here was sue
cess indeed
He wondered what his old teacher,
the Herr Kapelmeister, would say to his
success. He looked around the room,
furnished as comfortably as most in the
city, and felt grim satisfaction inknow-
ing that the plebeian Karl Berger was
taking his ease in the very chamber where
Caesar Borgia had once slept. His was
a nobility as high as his ancient pre-
decessor, he said to himself, and he
laughed grimly, for the young Swede
had but little respect for nobility, and he
often spoke of his ancestors, the Berger
Jarls and Vikings, as thieves and cut
throats.
While he sat musing, lazily watching
the smoke curling up toward the blotch-
ed and crumbled, almost oblterated
frescoes of the vaulted ceiling above, a
servant brought in a note to "Ill Maestro
Berger" The City of Milan informed
his excellency, the Maestro, that the last
of the three pupils had been chosen, and
the pupil, the Contessa Lucia Vinella,
would attend him whenever the Maestro
would be pleased to receive her. Signor
Berger scowled and shrugged his
shoulders. He had already, in the short
time he had been in Milan, heard several
''contessas" play, and he had not been
tavorably impressed by their genius, and,
indeed, it must be admitted that the
ladies in question had a greater desire to
see the handsome foreigner than to make
any progress in music. He had forgot
ten that the three pupils were too poor
to pay for their tuition and were there
fore given their musical education by
the charity of the city. However, he
sent back an answer that he would give
the contessa her first lesson at 3 O'Clock
the next afternoon, and then he took up
his violin, and the contessa and Milan
and success and the Kapelmeister
passed from his mind, while the music
scared in tremulous vibrations through
the room.
The next day everything went wrong.
lie had yet to learn the patience neces-
sary for teacher, and the countless mis-
takes of bis pupils, the jarring discords
and the seeming stupidity rendered him
nearly furious. At o'clock the charity
pupil, Contessa Lucia, was ushered into
his presence, followed by an old woman,
her escort. The contessa did not look
very alistocratic in her dress. Every
thing she had on was cheap. In fact,
except that her dress was neater and
more tastefully arranged, it was abo 1t
the same as the servants. The maestro
was walkingTup and down the room with
an ominous frown on his face. He
wheeled around and looked at her.
"Well, Signora, what do you wish2
he said, Grossly.
II have come for my lesson, Signor, u
she replied, timidly.
He.looked at his tablets.
"You are either too early OF" toe
late There is Contessa Vinella who
comes now. But if she does not come -
II am the contessa, signor," and
she proceeded to unwrap
her violin from its greer
covering, while the servant hobbled tc
the nearest chair.
you came to amuse yourself in
dilettante way on the violin"
Il came to learn to play, Maestro; tc
be able to teach music some day. Who
knowsF and she laughed little nerv
ously.
"Contessas don't teach music" HI
said, scornfully. 1T is only poor plebei
ans who do that. Let me hear you play. )
She nestled the violin on her shoulder
caressingly, anG obedicntly commenced
The air was simple, pleasant lullaby, il
minor key, soft and sad, which hac
been sung by many Roman mothers tC
their children. One of those airs, which
like the German Lieder, one finds among
the people, its author and origin lost il
antiquity, yet everlasting from its patho
and tenderness. The violin was fit tC
be its interpreter, an old Cremona almos