The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-02-28
POol BLIND TON.
How the Once uoted Iusiciau Passes
the Summer.

I @ -- So
How the Once ueted Musician Passes
| the Summer.
In old fashioned st. Mark . place,
just east of the bustling Bowery,
stands an old-fashioned. marble
stopped dwelling that is a marked
spot in that noisy quarter of the
town. At varying intervals daily
the music of q sweet toned piano
floats softly from the interior of the
old house and mingles delightful
harmony with the dull hum of traffic
in the populous thoroughfare. Men
and women hurrying to and fro in
the street stop often and listen to
the strains. The fingers that so
deftly touch the keys and draw such
wondrous symphonies from the in
strument are those of a strapping
big negro who sits at the piano in
the spacious back parlor, and for
hours sometimes those residents
who are fortunate enough to have
living quarters in the houses in
Ninth street whose back windows
look upon the rear porch of the old
fashioned dwelling have rare and
delightful treat.
Every once in q while the stall
wart African will start up from his
seat and rush out upon the porch,
and pace up and down like an inn
prisoned animal, beating his chest
and moaning piteously. A railing
that reaches above his waist COM
pletely cuts off egress to the little
garden patch that blooms in the
back yard, and he runs his hand
along as if he were trying to find
stairway to the garden.
"How are you, Tom? What's the
matter?" some one who has been
listening is sure to say when the
musician makes such sudden ap-
pearances on the porch. Their
greeting is always CHEEKY, for oil
the listeners know we'll that the big
chested negro is none other than
Blind Tom, the famous Ethiopian.
pianist. Tom never appears in
public. He is suffering from some
nervous complaint that renders a
repetition of his stage performances
impossible.
For hours daily he tramps up
and down the porch in his slippered
feet, clad in blue trousers and a
dark flannel yachting shirt, bare
headed and uneasy. He behaves
like an imprisoned bear, at times
crouching on all fours or dancing
up and down in a mysterious delir-
ium. He has worn a ridge in the
floor of the porch near. the hand
rail by his restless promenade to
and fro. Music or harmonious
sounds seem to be the only influ-
ences that ever divert him from
these capers on the porch.
One Sunday recently the chimes
in Grace Church steeple on Broad
way began to ring, and the echoes,
softened by the distance they had
traversed, struck Toms ear with a
sweet Naturalization that repro
duced note by note the beautiful
hymn, Nearer my God to Thee"
In an instant the blinded giant
ceased his tramp on the porch, and,
resting his hand on the railing,
raised his sightless eyes to the sky,
and, turning his head in the direc-
ton of the chimes, stood like
statue, listening with rapt attention
to the melody. The echoes died
away finally, and, waiting some mo-
ments to hear if they would con-
tinue, he groped his way through
the open window into the parlor,
and, seating himself at the piano.
ran his fingers over the keys in
sudden inspiration. What he played
was an imitation, as perfect as the
piano would allow, of the music of
the chimes. Tom repeated the same
stirring imitation, when little later
the chimes again rang out upon the
June breeze.
Then he rose from the piano, went
out on the porch and listened in .
curiously intent way, to the noise
made by the Tapping wings of q
flock of pigeons, whose cote is built
against the wall of an adjoining
house.
The sun meantime rose so that
its hot rays broke past the shade of
a tree in the garden and beat against
the side partition of the porch.
The big negro leaned on bis hand
against the partition. He withdrew
it the moment he felt the heat. The
sensation seemed to puzzle him, for
he placed his hand on the partition
again, withdrew it q second time
and begsn to stroke it and to pom
der. He stood in this way stroking |
his hand for many moments. Then |
he looked up and smiled. 1t had
upon him at last what he
had felt was sunshine. He held
both hands aloft and groped in the
air until he discovered by his sense
of feeling that he was standing in
the rays of the sun. He remained
on the spot motionless, with his
sightless orbs opened wide to the
Golden raua and lan1hed NTH the