The true northerner., 1895-04-12
A MUSICAL MARVEL.
Blind Tom, the Pianist, and HE
Wonde rfll Talent.
The Discovery or Ills Remarkable Gift
and Its Deveiopment-Eccentr
of the sIghtiess Master of
the Piano.

slave boy known as "Blind Tom, has
aroused much public curiosity as to the
disappearance of Tom from view The
best information / have been able to
obtain is that he is passing the closing
days of his life in "a lunatic asylum, his
vagaries having taken on too dangerous
a form to admit of his going freely
about as heretofore.
Tom was born in Muscogee county,
Ga, says a writer in Kate Fields
Washington. His fathers name was
Mingo, and his mother was called by
her owner Aunt Charity. While he
was still boy, and supposed to be a
mere idiot as well as sightless, he used
10 conceal himself in his masters house,
and after midnight creep into the par
lors and play the same airs with
which his young mistress had enter
tanned her guests few hours before,
being cautious to suppress his notes by
holding his foot on the soft pedal. He
was soon detected, however, and repri-
manded. A milder view was taken of
his shortcomings when his master dis
covered that the boys gift might be
turned to profitable account; mean
while, the children of the household.
delighted with his marvellous powers,
had not hesitated to defy the discipline
of their elders and encourage him to
play for them on the sly.
Besides being a remarkable player of
other peoples music, Tom was a COM
poser himself. He was near enough to
90 lNu4t1aGa1Ie af I'LL
To catch the sounds from it, and these
he wove into a piece which his mana
ger entitled, for popular effect: THE
Battle of Manassas. In it the piano is
made to initiate the music of the flies
and drums, the charges of the cavalry,
the thunders of battery, the groans
of the wounded and dying, and all the
incidents of great fight SO faithfully
as to call up a panorama of the scene
before the minds eye of the listener.
One of the feats which Tom was ac-
customed to perform in public to the
amazement of his audiences was the
imitation of any piece of music per-
formed in lIs hearing by stranger.
Some of these pieces made SO great an
impression on him that he carried tlVm
in his mind for long period and then
could reproduce them at will. a story
which seems somewhat apocryphal was
told me by teacher of music in
young ladies' seminary in Maryland,
representing Tom as having carried in
his memory for twenty-one years, note
for note, a German waltz which had
been played before him by my inform
ant in order to test his ability, and which,
as far as known, he never attempted
again during all that period When
suggested that there was a possibility
of Toms having heard the same piece
played by other hands in the interval
and thus kept his memory refreshed,
the professor assured me that this could.
not be so, because before PLAYING it to
Tom he had rewritten the waltz, adapt
ing it from its original German form to
one which contained Il number of varia-
tions and fancy touches of his own.
Tom reproduced all these incidentals
with absolute faithfulness.
The theory that Tom must be of a
gentle disposition because SO given to
music would be very misleading. Sound
rather than harmony, was what APP
pealed to his intellect, such as it was,
and his reproductions were governed
by the rules of accuracy rather than
inspired by artistic genius. 1t used to
be said of him that the crying of a
child afforded him keen delight, and
when he could not draw forth as much
sound as he wanted from his young
companions by ordinary processes, he
would bite and pinch them for the pur-
pose of hearing their shrieks of pain.
AS he matured he developed power
full bone frame and great muscular
strength, which he exerted to the Sc
rious discontinue of anybody who OPP
posed his wishes. If kept away from a
piano when he wanted to play, he
would bang his head against the wall
and throw chairs around the room.
Once, while staying at a hotel on one
of his concert tours, he insisted on
playing loud piece of music in the
middle of the night, regardless of the
comfort of the other guests. His agent
attempted to check him, but was
seized by Tom and thrown out of the
room with great violence. On another
occasion in Washington he was visited
by a man whose presence was distaste-
full to him, and he manifested his dis
like by pitching the poor fellow down
stairs.
Possibly Toms present seclusion has
other reasons behind it besides his in
creasing eccentricities. The legal con-
troll of his time and services has been
for some years the subject of litiga-
tion in the courts. Gen. Bethune
turned the care of the boy over to his
son at one time, and the sons wife
claimed her husbands rights after the
latter's death. l believe the case has
never been finally settled, and il may
be that one or the other party to the
controversy has thought it wise to keep
Tom out of sight until his fate can be
decided.