The herald., 1897-07-11

] fourteen, yet what a slender outfit for so
vast an enterprise! What science brings
| so much out of so little? Out of what
poor elements does some great master
| in 1t create his new world! Shall wesay
| that all this exuberant inventlveness is
| a mere ingenuity or trick of art like some
game of fashion of the day, without
reality, without meaning? Is it
possible that that inexhaustible evolu-
| ton and disposition of notes, so rich yet
so simple so intricate yet so regulated, so
various yet so majestic, should be a
mere sound, which is gone and perishes?
| Can 1t be that those mysterious STRINGS
of the heart, and keen emotions, and
strange yearnings after we know not
what, and awful impressions from we
know not whence, should be wrought in
us by what is unsubstantial, and comes
and goes and begins and ends in itself?
1t is not so; it cannot be. No; they have
escaped from some higher sphere; they
are the outpourings Of eternal harmony
in the medium of created sound; they
are echoes from our home; they are the
voices of angels, or the magnificat of
saints, or the living laws of divine gov
ernance, or the divine attributes; some-
thing are they besides themselves, which
we cannot compass, which we cannot ut
ter, though mortal man, and he perhaps
not otherwise distinguished above his
fellow, has the gift Of eliciting them.
If the romantic story which is going
the rounds be accurate, the sympa thy
expressed for Herr Moritz Rosenthal on
the relinqushment of his tour and his
return to his native land is, happily,
more or less superf1uous. The great
pianist, it is true, was for some time Sc
riously ill Of influenza in Chicago, anil
Mr.. Henry Wolfsohn, his manager, en-
gagged nurse, whose credentials were
properly attested by the physicians
That she was very pretty and refined
and model of devotion to the patient
are, fortunately, nothing new where
trained nurses are concerned. The nurse
accompanied him to California for his
convalescence, and it is not astonishing
that Herr Rcsentflal became attracted
by the lady's charms. 1t now turns out
that the fair one is not professional
nurse at all, but a high-sI.rited laa,,
who fell In love with Rosenthal at his
recitals, and on hearing that he was dan
gerously Ill resolved to apply for the
post of his nurse. The romance read.
like page from story book, while if it
be true that the lady is the only daugh-
ter of an American millionaire, so much
the more fortunate for Herr RosenthaI.
1t will make some people in Boston feel
queer to read how anxious the musical
Viennese are to hear the Berlin. Philhar-
monic orchestra under the direction of
the despised Arthur Nikisch. Last year
that orchestra gave few concerts in the
Austrian capital which were so bril-
liantly successful that Mr.. Nikisch de-
cided to repeat the experiment this
year. He announced three concerts. and
every seat for them was subscribed for
elk weeks in advap.ce! Then those who
had been unable to get seats raised such
hullabaloo that the society was COM
PEELED to announce a second series of
three more symphony concerts. And
this is the conductor who was abused in
Boston and driven out with clubs! The
Bostoniars seem to like their Paur, but
in New York Nikisch was much great
er power,
No novelist has ever conceived plot
more romantic and exciting that the
true story of wagner's life. A few of
the details are still In doubt, but light
ID being gradually thrown on them. 1t
IL well known that shortly before King