The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-16

We could set made, and the lettering so
bad that we all felt ashamed 10 show II.
| placed it upon the counter, and there 1t
was permitted to lie, friendlesS, for L
paFer recommended II, and apparently
feeling its poverty and insiSnificance IN
Comparison with the gorgeous autograph
tue pages, and elegantly colored lettering
of the other sheet music by which it was
surrounded, finally without selling a
dozen copies, il was consigned TO the OBJ
l1vlon of the wholesale shelves, where
VII. rtealy and mySeI4 mentally erected d
tombstone inscribed Sacred to the men,
Dry of a poor musician" About a year
passed when a Mr.. Whittemore, teaching
music in the public schools of Chicago,
came in and asked me if 1 thought Mr..
Healy would let him use the Sweet Bye
and Bye" in a Sunday school book he
was then compiling. l said: Certainly,
without doubt, for the song is of no use
to US. 1t has no sale whatever
He went out to the office and presently
MI. Healy called to ME to give Mr.. Whit
temore a copy of the song. Nothing was
thought of the matter till nearly a year
afterwards, when we began to have calls
for the sweet Bye ard bye" L remember
my surprise the first time it was asked
for. little school gir1 not more than
twelve or fifteen years of age, came in
very timidly, being evidently unused to
trading by herself" and standing off
from the counter as though afraid to
come nearer, said: Have you a piece of
music called the Sweet Bye and Bye?'
IL > III MI. w HlSt4IQOrS DOCK.
1t is thus fair to state that to Mr.
Healy's tender nature and 10 Mr.. White
more's recognition of the merits of the
song, the world owes its knowledge of
WebSterS inspiration.
Mr.. Healy's and my own utter failure
to see anything in it is only another in
stance of how human judgment errs, and
this was, in my own case, most keenly
emphasized when after having spent four
years abroad studying. 1 returned to be
greeted in New York on the ferry boats,
steamboats, and railway trains with the
strains of Sweet Bye and Bye"
The last time l saw Webster was in
Milwaukee III the summer of n at Hemp
stead's music store. He was then an in
valid, the almost continued coughing be-
traying the serious nature of the dread
disease. He asked me to play for him, as
l had done when a boy, variations on his
beautiful song 'Lorena," written by Louis
Staab. This I did to his intense delight
and most ELUSIVE thanks. Then I gave
and Bye" which 1 had recently played
in concerts AT the conclusion when I
turned about on the piano stool 1 found
Webster crying copiously, and yet there
was a smile upon his lips, as he exclain-
ed: You have made me the happiest man
in the world. l feel ! have not lived in
vain
He wrung my hand in silence and beg
ged me to play it once more for he said:
You know. Silas. 1 may never hear you
play again." l felt Ass words were true,
and repeated it with all the fervor at my
command adding afterwards an i'm
promptu arrangement of Then You'll
Remember me" With this 1 said good
bye hurriedly and hastily left the store,
for the demonstration of his appreciation
had become so ELUSIVE that I felt most
u0confor ably embarrassed. Webster was
one of natures noblemen; tender hearted,
true, supplemented and honest. Music
was to him the ready medium of pouring
out his longings, his sorrows and aspira-
tons, and who shall say that the offerings
of this great soul expressed in such an
able upon the altar of his God as those
more elaborate works where art embeI-
fishes aad frequently smothers inspira-
ton.