The Irish standard., 1886-05-01

violin, to a nights lodging nythe station

violin, to nights lodging in the station
house.
From that night of despair dated the
downfall of his self-respect His habits,
before respectable, lapsed through every
stage from bad to worse and worse.
Losing his standing with musical socie-
ties of the higher rank, Gustave at the
outset did not find it hard to earn live
Hhood. Upon the first occasion when he
was engaged to play for dancing at a sec
ond-rate ball4fttave f1ddled like z mad
man through TIE night, then went home
to shed tessKs upon his desecrated violin.
After work in the orchestras of petty the
atres came music halls, then lower drink
ing-dens. Once when the old musician
came out of one of these haunts to sink
homeward in the gray Of morning, he fell
upon the icy sidewalk, and in trying to
save his violin received severe concl1s-
sion Of the brain.
Getting up from his cot at Bellevue
hospital, after many days of prostration,
something of Gustave's better nature
came back to him. The nurses in his
ward, finding the old fellow expert and
bidable, made quite a pet OF him, and
Gustave, during his convalescence, began
hopping about in the sunshine of human
warmth like a reyiving sparrow.
One day in March. when the winds were
working havoc with t1ues and chimney
draughts, the nurse Of IL pavilion ward
called old Gustaye III to try his skill upon
refractory stove-pipe in her department.
Close by where he was set to work ii
screen surrounded Que Of the beds. ard Il
litter stationed there told too plain'y thar
the "feet of the dead - were about to be
carried out
"Here, Thorez lend 81 hand, will yo,, gu
said his friend, the nurse, coming from,
behind the screen. s'We're short Of 'clp
this morning and Pm III Il hurry to get
this poor creature out Of the ward at once.
Pm all hupset with the night she's given
me. and | can truly say Il more pitifnl
case never fell hu,der my hohseryation ut
'ome or 'ere. Sincy she took the bad turn
yesterday she's done nothing but iab')a1
French and call papa papa.' She amt
got friend on hearth that hever see
and she such a reg liar beauty. Hear1
disease it was and shame and misery, sha;
did the work. Hits all ready, now; take
the feet, will you?"
Gustaye obeyed and mechanically did
the work assigned to him. AS the men
carried their covered burden ont Of the
pavilion through the open yard. Il great
gust of wind, blowing suddenly across the
river, lifted the sheet from off the shroud-
ed form.
Then Gustave saw again the face Of
Gabrielle. When dismissed from the hos
pital, he wandered back to his old lodging,
where. for charity sake, the people gave
him shelter for the night. Until nearly
morning he leaned in q stupor over the
table, resting his cheek upon the violin.
Just before dawn he lifted the instru-
ment and tried to play. It was a faint
and tuneless echo Of the theme from Bach
which Joachim had rendered at the con-
cert OF the Atllenee.
Gustave dropped his bow, and seizing a
fre-iro1, from the hearth, struck with all
his force upon the VIOLIN setting free for
ever the sweet spirit it enshrined.
When a few days after the rushing
river yielded up her dead, the body of
Gnstave Thorez was washed in upon the
Fort Hamilton shore.
Upon high shelf in the cupboard Of
his room beside the wreck of all old
French opera hat, making a dusty and
feeble assertion of remote respectability,
some people Of the house found the shat
tered remnant of the dead musicians
violin, in which q mouse was rearing her
.-TConsrance Cary Harrison, in
Harper's Weekly.