The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-05-12
TENNEssEE's BLIND PRODIGY.
A Veritable Musical Marvel of the Noun
Iains- Little Maud Cook.
ATLANTA Constitution

ATLANTA constitutional
MANCHESTER, Ten, Nav I'm the heart
of the mountains of This region so fertile in
the strange iancieS OF nature for the unique,
as witness her lofty ellis AMI craggy mOun-
tain sices-Eer more than beautiful valleys,
her crystal springs, her CLASSY streams and
her conuaband mountain dew, there lives
ptl haus one of the greatest wonders OF the
ninsteenih century. in little Maud Cook.
sged nlre years. Delicate of physique, fraii
constitution, and deprived OF sight, she pre-
senis at once an object of compassionate
sympathy. But her cheerful disposition,
allied to most wonderful talents, would
SET M to compensate her for the loss of her
orgsDs of sight: and in that mental opera
OF which her mind is composed she seems To
dream of nothing but music; and 50 her
days are passed in the comranio nship of al
orchestral choir, made up OF angels, whose
! armonious notes she but echoes in the
fl nit of her genius as a composer, for she is
composer rs well as musician, AMI the
youngest living. She is OF family of seven
children, three of whom, including herself,
were born blind. She began to sing at the
early age of sixteen months, when the notes
of the average infant are generally of the
most discOrdant sort; and at four years of
age was q composer Her published pieces
are five in number, namely, "Cleveland's
| March, Hendricks Funeral March"
'leAas Gallop," and song Let the An
tears TO the eyes of almost any one who
| heard her. Your coTresI ondent has the pleas
| ure last night. when she played over ali of
| her compositions besides many Others IN Jst
| difficult OF executiol-except TO her. Music
| SEEMS actually to Tgn # her finger ends,
vino can almcSt hp seen to give expression
and emphasis to the notes as the keys are
| touched. But with 1t all she is not bit
proud, this characteristic being absorbed by
| the town which has the honor of claiming
| her. 1t matters not if the village has no
elaborate system of waterworkS, nor pro.
jected line of road to tide water. nor any
thing of that kind. Suffice 1t that when any
OF these things are mentioned the Manches-
ter citizen will proudly wave them all aside
and ask the country at large TO produce any
| thing TO equal or compare with Little Maud
| Cook She is the pride of the village, and
| 10 enconium is too exalted TO bestow upon
her.
The writer Is not musical critic perhap.-
that is, not a classical musical critic-but
when it comes down 20 Simon pure malO iy,
| sOul-inSpiring and heart-meltiug music, he is
there; and when the little blind child took
| her Sc at at the organ-One made especially
| for heT-and ran her fingers over the keys, 1t
| needed no refinement of education to tell
| that the soul of melody was in her, And to
| see her absorption In what she was doing
| her complete abStTaCtion-an unconscious
| ness of everything else around her save the
| instrument and tie sound il gave, it was not
| difficult to imagine that she must be in men
tai correspondence Wit the very AU.h?r VI
| harmony and receive her instructions from
| Him. 1t is useless to aitemptto describe her
| performance; nothing but an audience with
her can convcy an idea o!
What she can do. It is said of
her that in many respects she surp4sses
| Blind Tom. Certainly she has the advanta ,e
| of intelligence over, him. and the talent of
| nd ;ol,
| limiiGG-as is the case with Tom. At any
rale, Size bids fair tn astOnish the must al
| world and The wonder is that she has NJ
| long Ance tosn before the public. Tnis is
| eS planned, however. in the secluded section
| of country in which she was born, Though
her father, NJ. l.. 5 Cook, very intelligent
gentleman, says inst two years ago he had
an offer of $4,000 for her the party wIIt-
| irg him to surrender all control, which
amounted to a sale virtually, and sIid
Mr. Cook, you know could not do tn 1t;
could lot give up my child
Here is a letter" he continued after
Mud had cor cluden her performance of
| Hendricks fun raj fnarch, that she received
| FRI IN Mrs. Hendricks. which we prize very
| highly. Her Cleveland March, We never
| heard from. I suppose it must have beer
lost in the mail. | sent it to Miss Cleveland
| but dare say she never received it,.
MRS HENDRICKS LETTER.
Alter reading the letter OF Mrs hendricks,
| tie privilege OF copying it was granted, aud
| 1t Is as follows:
"INDIAHAPoLIS, February IL. Is 6.
| Mis-, Maud OoS, Manchester. Tenn:
al thank you for your kind letter and the piece
| OF music sent me. appreciate your thought Tor
husband as expressed in your music, aud
| thank you very sincerely. Very truly,
dE> ]. \. HENDRICKS.'
The march is a very len er and grandly
| so emn, though very simple production. In-
deed the great merit OF her compositions is
in their simplicity, after the manner of
Home, SWEEP Home" the simplest and yet
| the grand6 st thing in musical rumbers. Jui
what the Little Blind Marvei's future will
be. there is no telling She can tell instant
ly just what keys of a chord are strack, and
if a steam whistle blows, or bird strikes up
tune. she will at once name the note with
which they started. Everything is music to
heI-every sound and it is not too much to
say of her and her powers that she is. with
| out exception. the greatest living wonder of
the age of her kind.
She has very sweet and intelligent fare
and makes ia u friend of every one who
meets her. Ste is sssuredly musical mar
vel, and from ne standpoint of neGspaDrr
scribe there j. money in her for the man
who will PROF" Fly place her before the pub
| lie, as she has o rival South. She is alto
gether agreeah tn the disposition of her
| talents and c, italnly the public have some
thing like a right To the enjoyment al so
rare gift as this little blind girl possesses.
| Why can't Atlanta come to the front with
| the nan and lie means?
ATERRIBLE TEMPTATION