The San Francisco call., 1899-05-14
EDITORIAL VARIATIONS.
Observation-Disclosures
BY JOHN McNHUGHT.

ance of such songs in this country is
to be found in what the cowboy said
to the Boston tourist whom he saw
wearing eve glasses: what do you
wear them specks for?" asked the cow
boy. Because of my misfortune" an
swered the Boston man; Il am near
sighted" The cowboy sized him up
with one glance. Misfortune, noth-
ing" he said; 'it's your derned igno-
rance"
We accept the crude, coarse melodies
of the day simply because we are mu-
sically ignorant and are sufficiently
lazy to be content with ignorance
Every immigrant to the United States
brought with him the melodies of his
fatherland. All the sweet songs Of the
British islands, of Germany, France,
Italy and Spain are ours by inherit
ance; and we, their descendants, have
traded off that rich store of popular
music for such a mess of pottage as
'coon songs" simply from our 1gnor-
ance of the value of the heritage. We
are musically uneducated and are
therefore Indifferent to musical values,
yet we know good music by instinct
as we'll as any people on earth.
1t is a striking illustration of the un-
educated. uniformed public sentiment
as regards music in America that while
we tolerate the prevalence of the lowest
form of melody known to civilized man,
yet we willingly pay higher prices for
good music than any other people on
earth. Notwithstanding the immense
subsidies granted by the governments
of the nations of continental Europe
to sustain grand opera and other mu-
sical performances we by popular sup
port alone, unaided by any subsidy,
draw to our concert halls and to our
opera-houses a greater number of great
artists than any other nation.
The New York papers recently pub
lished the official statement submitted
to the stockholders of the Metropoli-
tan Opera house, showing in detail the
receipts and expenditures for the sea-
son of the Grau company, and as an
evidence of what single American
citv does to sustain a single opera COM
pany for single season, the figures
are worth considering for as long a
time at any rate as it takes to read
them.
A summary Of the salient points of
the statement runs thus: The receipts
were over $4,000 and the profits $780,
900, of which Grau will receive half, the
other half going to stockholders as an
unexpected dividend. Jean de Reszke
was paid for the seasons work $4,000;
Van Dyck, $4,000; Edouard de Reszke,
$2S, 900; Van Rooy and Plancon, $12, 900
each; Saleza, $4,000; Dippel. $4,000; Bis
PLAN, $500, and Maurel and Albers,
$4,000 each. Nine. Sembrich received
S2S, 800; Nine. Lehman, s26, 900; Nord-
lea, $4,000; Eames, $4,000; Brema, $10,-
600; Nine. Schumann-H -Heink, $4,000; En-
gel, Saville and Mantilli, $4,000 each, and
Suzanne Adams, $500.
1t is not within the glittering circles
of wealth alone that good music is val
ued in the United States. Among our
immigrant population fresh from Eu-
rope, and cherishing still the Old World
respect for music, there is to be found
a right appreciation of the true stand
ards of musical accomplishment. Not
long ago 1 dined at restaurant pa
tronized mainly by Italian fishermen.
1t is not a bohemian place in any re-
spect 1t is the dining place and lodg-
ing-house of hard-working men who
have no time for the delights and the
depravities of bohemia. After their
dinner, while waiting for the tide, the
fishermen began to sing to pass the
time away, and in every instance the
songs were the arias or the choruseS of
the grand operas that have made Ital-
ian genius renowned in every land on
earth where there are people capable
of appreciating genius. These fisher
men are not educated men in the ordi-
nary sense of the word, at least not in
the American sense of it. They would
not be ranked by Bostonians as per
sons of culture" Their children will
be full -hedged Americans; they will be
brought up in our public schools; they
will find their amusement in our concert
halls, and if they sing at all they will
make tne welkin tinkle like a tin pan
to the tune of "A Hot Time in the Old
Town Tonight"
About nine Americans out of ten have
persuaded themselves they have no ear
for music and could not distinguish
good from evil; and so they never try.
Accepting the assumed physical disa-
bility as a fact, they resign themselves
to live in ignorance of the ever flow
ing streams of music around them as
if the ignorance were inevitable and
not to be overcome. That is something
like taking the DEVILS offspring, indo-
Ience, baptizing it with the Christian
name, resignation" and passing 1t off
as a child of Providence, a dispensa-
ton from heaven. 1t is not easy to