The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903, 1900-02-24
Up Salt Creek WaY.

OF listeners v no sat in the corner of the
gallery furthest from the stage that
night Of the Event lost none Of the
golden tones. Yet think few OF them
would wish to sit just there again when
Paderewski plays. A nimeless some
thing was dissipated by the distance; no
opera glass could supply it; we felt that
it was there, but out OF our grasp. A
thirst for a real draugh. OF the nectar
grew as the hour slipped by until We
felt that nothing would satisfy unless
We might go and put a hand on the
p aHo. like blind and deaf Helen KEEL
leI. craving the thrill OF the sound The
sensation of far-offnpss, intangible and
hardly analy zsd. seemed to cover US,
and We sat and listened as through q
mist. IL was beautiful. and not 10 any
artistic way failing in effect. But while
musicians euthuse over the stipend rus.
mere, the wonder OF technique. and those
less versed expa,ists upon brilliant
russ and liquid mel, dies. some OF US
felt the fog of distance sti about US.
We shall know better where to place
ourselves another fine v hen Paderewski
plays.
But as for acoustics-well, there are
acoustics aud acoustics. The builders
builded well, but --f,rgot one thing, sp-
parently. The Darwinian tn, DRY does
not seem to have entered into their CAL
culations. am not so sure about man.
kih1, and l fear that womankind has
lost all traces Of the prim-vsl, but am
positive that in b1ykind there still
fingers the cd Lree-climbimg instiu ct.
/ was led to philesophlzs little along
this line the other day when l saw
blind boy who is not DER fond Of ply 81
cal exertion ascend to The highest
branch Of a tall tree. 1t was not the
prairie mans hope Of looking over and
around that .impelled him. for he could
8 nothing 1t must have been, there
fore, the Darwinian theory that led him
SIX, ward.
So proof was aft red that the acous
tics Of the new building are quite ex-
trao, binary. One can hear everything
that goes on inside and outside at the
same time. Mingled with the sweetest
OF harmonies was the rasp ng, crashing
,und of foot steps on a sleeted roof.
The audience had done we'll to get it.
self into any sort of ease after having
been mashed to pulp in the effort to
gain entrances to the hall, aud this ad-
ded torture was almost too much |
imagine that those on the floJr below
and the artist himself did not know how
long that racket hal been kept up-it
began very shortly after the program
opened-for surely someone would have
moved 10 put quietus on it long be-
fote that frantic appeal Of silence.
We're western, but we're very slow
about some things.
Yet though annoyances disturbed,
and for a time dimmed the spIerdor,
the event itself is what We count as un-
forgettable. To the veriest lay man,
unlearned 10 musical lore or terminolo-
gy. who perhaps went with an expecta-
ton OF being bored, the concert must
have been soma. hing of revelation.
like to believe that training in music is
not sine qua non for the erjDyment
OF the harmouies Of the mast rs thrilled
from a masters fingers-though belief
Is not always possible. Discrimination
and the note by noe apI recitation OF
good music is not fur any but those who
sit at the feet O Caliope and labor long.