The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-12

Once He Had a FcIon That Cost Him
Just 100000 Before II Was DispOs-
ed Ollie Told n New York Woman
That lie kept His Hair Long to Az
ford Entertainment.
From the San Francisco Examiner.
The most wonderful pair of hands in the
world are the ten fingers which Pader-
ewsh sends chasing over the keys OF a
piano. From a money-making point OF
view they stand alone. No other pair OF
hands by the simple manipulation of any
one thing can produce as much money in
a given space of time as Paderewski
wonderful fingers. They are worth TO him
as high as $3.50 a hand in the shore
| space of two or three hours.
on a recent Saturday afternoon a 5000
house listened to thoae marvellous hands
glide over the keys in Carnegie Music
hall. New York. and when. the first note
was struck and the hush fen over the
audience there was a struggling. fight
ms line out At the box Office dcnouncing
the police for prohibiting, as measure
of precaution, tho further sale OF tickets
Just as Patti has been debaTred from
certain simple pleasures which might have
/ injured her voice, so the necessity OF re-
tanning the dciicacy Of his touch SHUTS
! Pederowski out from enjoyments that
make IN much Of other people $ pleasures
| He mnst humor ana guard those diglts as
I nFlma donna watches anu NURSES AitA
| voice A sprained joint or a split finger
would mean the loss of thousands. one
| day very inquisitive matror OF the up
| per New York set was introduced TO Hugo
/ Gorlitz Faderewslds manager 1t was
/ near Thanksgiving time, and the conege
colOrs were showing on the streets An,
said madam, affably and with Condescen-
| sion, Il presume that with that head OF
/ hair Mr. Paderewski must be tond oil play
| ing foot ball
/ severity, as he recovered from the shock,
| when Adelina Patti shall yell her throat
/ out in the grand stand Ignace PadereWskl
| will play football.
Even before the low safety bicycle came
into vogue he used TO admire the noise
/ less roll of the big wheel perhaps y
! because / live so much in sound IKE inc
! silent wheel" he used to say, phiiosophi-
! cally. Manager Gorlitz is a deVotee CT
! the wheel, and has cycled over. the best
| roads of Europe More than once when
/ the manager had sprung into the saddle
| for spin down the road Pacerewskl has
| sent him off with the exclamation, "Oh,
/ Hugo, you're a lucky fellow. But the
| temptation will never be strong enough
TO make him forget the experience he had
! one summer several years ago when he
held on a while his teacher asked him how
| he felt "All right" he replied; but oh,
my poor hands," His lament was timely
| HIS right hand had blister as large as a
silver dime. and the other was cramped
| as if paralyzod. 1t was days before the
! old suppleness returned.
the way OF athletics is with light dumb
| bells Of between one and two pounds
| in weight. He gets the value out of them
| by quick movements. Paderewskis hands
| are not what one would think them to be.
! The fingers are not long and slender. On
the contrary they are short and the ends
! are square. They have great muscular
and nervous power and so well does he
| keep them in condition that after his
longest sittings they still have a sonata
| or two left in them, as he loosely said
! one day after playing from to $3.50 p.
| m. almost constantly, doubling the pro-
| gramme with encores to satisfy the tu-
| multuously enthusiastic audience.
Immediately after a long siege at the
| piano he uses an apparatus of sliding
wheels specially made for him, by which
| he exercises the whole body and restores
the normal condition of the joints. His
nails would give a manicure the horrors,
! they are kept cut so short, down to the
| quick, till they look as If he bit them.
1t is to prevent the nails from making
the slightest noise on the .seys that they
are trimmed down with tie greatest care.
His hands are comparatively small, the
| size of his gloves being ~. The spread
| of each hand is ten keys. The right hand
is smaller than the left. This is shown
| by the spread in the jump. The bass
hand covers two and half octaves in
the jump, while the right. can cover only
two.
Paderewski keeps his fingers flexible by
the fve-fnger exercises. He commonly
| practices from five to six hours daily.
| Though the hours of his practice vary,
] generally the pIlnGlpal part OF MS DIdC-
tice work is done before luncheon. He
is not a heavy eater. After a cup OF
coffee he sits down at the piano from 10
till 2 on days when no concert breaks up
the afternoon. After luncheon at 2 he
spends the afternoon walking, of which
he is very fond. on returning from the
walk he practices till or 3 p. m, and
then dimes. From 1880 p. m. till 12:S0
and 1:30 he plays billiards In the hotel
billiard room. His favorte game is pool
and of that he prefers pyramid pool.
The exquisite deicacy of his touch is
shown by the lghtness OF his cue stroke,
which would make wizard Schaefer
envious. In play Paderewski does not
go in much for long, hard drives, but
prefers the fine shots where the balls
are "cut" into the pockets.
PaderewSki had felon not long ago.
He will not forget it for many a year,
nor will the thousands who failed to hear
him play after all the arrangements had
been made. 1t was in February, 1898, that
a felon appeared on the third finger of
the right hand. 1t was operated on by
DIR. LANCE, the specialist. That day Pad
erewslSi was billed to play IN the concert
hall of the Madison Square garden. He
was advised not to- play, as he was in
slight fever resulting from the Ian
cling But he insisted that he could not
disappoint the audience. "Bandage 1t up
inconspicuously," he said, land I'll play
without it, and recalling the day OF gle
Bull, who played on one string of his
violin when the others broke, Paderews-
XII got through the concert, with the third
finger be-raggled and throbbing, held in
the air The agony was so great that af-
ter the performance the pianist nearly
tainted, and with difficulty reached his
room. This kept him in bed the following
ten days He was compelled to miss nine
engagements. Each engagement aver
ages, according to Manager Gorlitz, $500
Thus that felon cost PadereWSkl more
than $4,000.
He is very sensitive about his hands
When out in public he keeps them out of
sight as much as possible. He has fallen
into this habit insensibly from seeing the
curious eye his hands at every opportuni-
ty. This brought about a remark that he
was credited with having made two years
ago at reception in a millionaire's Fifth
avenue mansion. In the course of the
evening he found himself beside a talk
alive and rather ill-bred woman, who APP
peared i'll at ease at his evident disincli-
nation to keep his hands on exhibition
She eyed his hands like a hawk. Finally
she ventured to launch delicately work
ed inquiry as to why he kept his hair sc
long.
Il do it, my dear madam" he replied
so as TO afford entertainment to those