Worcester morning daily spy. (Worcester, Mass.) 1888-1898, 1898-03-15

to our shores. These gentlemen and la
dies generally regard their connection
with us as a severely financial one, and
having pocketed our sheckels depart for
fresh fields and pastures new or else go
home with light heart and undisturbed
conscience. Not so M. Doumic, who has
volunteered to supplement the lectures
he Is delivering at Harvard University
and elsewhere with a lecture for the
benefit of the Associated Charities of
Boston. This is very graceful, as well
as a very generous, act ON the part or
M. Doumlc and is quite in keeping with
the agreeable impression left with those
who met him in Worcester.
Club women will be interested to hear
that Mrs Julia Ward Howe, president
of the Massachusetts state federation,
who is spending the winter in Rome
with her daughter, Mrs. Elliott, has
formed a woman's club in the Eternal
City.
Charles H. woodbury.. Mrs. Marcia
Cakes Woodbury., Miss Sarah NJ. Whit
man. Miss Lucy S. Conant and Ross
Turner are among the contributors to
the water color exhibition at the Art
Club in Boston
We have received the following:
NV Dear Out and About: May l APP
peal to you and the power of the press
in regard to a concert that no one seems
to know about and which fear will fall
through unless the public become aware
of it very soon?
| was told at the box office of the the
atre, that Thomas, with his orchestra
and Isaye, is to be here on Monday next,
but so far as l can find out, no one
knows of it, at least among my friends,
and [ haven't seen 1t in the Spy, l am
sure it couldn't have escaped me if it
had been there
Now I fear that if the thing isn't
known some days beforehand, the
sale will be small and perhaps even in
sufficient to really bring Thomas here
Perhaps this is an absurd view of it,
but l have known of such things before
1t would be a thousand plties that we
should miss the only good concert prom
ised us this year.
(Mr. Theodore Thomas, with his Chi
cago orchestra and Ysaye, will give a
concert in Mechanics Hall next Monday
evening, at SIS O'Clock. Tickets go on
sale Thursday morning at the store OF
S. r. Leland,-Ed.)
The return Of Mr. Theodore Thomas
after an absence of 10 years is an event
of extraordinary interest, and the con-
cert Monday night will easily take fore
most rank among local musical events
of the current season, although one
should hesitate to characterize it as
the only good concert promised us this
year"
1t has been the fashion in some quar-
tiers to belittle Mr.. Thomas, and to COM
pare him to his own disadvantage with
such conductors as Paur, Damrosch and
Seidl. But in his own line of work there
has never been conductor in the coun-
try who has equaled, much less excelled,
him. The spirit, tang, glow, fire-what-
ever you like to call it-of his music has
never been paralleled here. 1t is not ex-
| aggeration to say that Mr.. Thomas has
done more for music than any one man
in this country. Mr.. Thomas was the
sower in a field where the others have
reaped, a pioneer in a land where they
have come in and taken possession.
At the time when Thomas began
travelling with his New York orchestra,
musical education in the United States
was backward, timid, dormant He be-
gan then to educate the people, and this
task is one which during the 80 years
that have interviewed he has never fall
tered in or relinquished. He it was who
/ first accustomed the publics of Boston,
| New York and Philadelphia to the
worlds great music, and it Is amazing
! in reviewing the work of those earlier
| years to observe how high he main
tanned his standard, and how catholic
| his choice. The influence exerted by
| Theodore Thomas may be accounted one
| of the most powerful incentives that LED
to the organization of a permanent or
! chestra in Boston. 1t has been said, and
| well said that Mr.. Thomas dominant
| characteristic has been faithful adher-
| ence to the highest and best that he
| knew. He has kept faith with the ideals
| of his early manhood as few men have
| done. From the first he has refused tC
make concessions to the popular clamor
or to pay tribute to temporary popular
| ity, but has gone on his own way, un.
| disturbed and uninhuenced by carping
or prejudice.
| The orchestra with which Mr.. Thomas
returns to the east is, like the Boston
| Symphony Orchestra, a permanent or
ganiZation That is, it has been main.
| tanned steadily for the past seven years
! by what is known as the Chicago
| Orchestral Association, a society thai
consists Of so members and is governed
| by an executive board of nine trustees
/ 1t is in no sense a western orchestra, fol
as in the Boston Symphony, the men hav,
| been selected by their fitness for theil
work, md as things now stand, Ameri
| ca produces neither the schools nor the
| students for tine higher branches of or
! chestral work.
The Chicago orchestra is organized OIL
the basis of Is first violins, Is secont
yiolins, 8 violas, 10 'cellos and doubl,
basses, and varies from 20 to 100 per
! formers according to the composition t,
/ be played. Mr.. l.. Kramer is the new
concertmaster; Mr., B. Steindel, sol,
cellist; Mr.. Schreurs, first clarionette
Mr.. Quensel first flute; Mr.. Starke
/ first oboe; Mr. De Mare, first horn and
/ of course, Mr.. Edmund Schuecker, frs
! harp, for there are two of these instru
ments.
The Shakspere Club met Monda,
night with Miss Smith of Ashland street
| Mrs. Mary A. Fisher celebrated het
S9th birthday Sunday at her home, anC
the house of her son, 20 Laurel street
She is with one exception, the oldes
member Of Union Church