The sun. (Wilmington, Del.) 1897-19??, 1901-07-01
MUSIC OF THE NIGHT.

A war department clerk whose voting
place was Chicago, Cook county, ILL.,, had
spoken derogatorily. of the young lady who |
lived next door to his boarding. house and
put in ten hours OF the day and night, as he
asserted without affidavit, humping away |
at poor, helpless piano, when we'll
known Washington musician came CALAMITY
to the young lady's rescue by changing the
subject to story out Of his experience.
This experience with what may be called
neighborhood music" he said, reminds me
OF time % years ago; when our young
and supersentive friend here was hardly
in his first trousers. ! was living then In
a boarding. house in st. Lo.iswhich, ]
hope, he will not hold against meand paid
for my board and other expenses of life
in an interior town by Spying the violin
in the old De Bar opera house orchestra at
a small monthly stipend, Increased ut inter-
walls by engagements, after the thedter, 81
balls, private dances and other social fes
tivities. | was pretty fair musician ih
those days, and | hadi as roommate q
teacher, who If his life had been spared
think would have become one Of the
really great teachers Of the world. There
were other boarders in the house, but nond
of any especial interest, except one, and
ut OILY DccduSt cuulu ltidht ptDTet Inu
sic on the violin than any one ever heard
attempt it, notwithstanding he had mag
nfcent instrument that | believe would
have played itself if It had been given half
a chance,
His room was next to ours, and know
whereof | speak, for he had d terrible en-.
ergy and tireless industry, with a soul
for music not excelled by that Of one OF
fha tapy n.,I IN IayntIf him,
and his failure to express what was in him
was slowly but surely sapping his very
vtals. There was look in his eyes of ond
who searched day and night for what re.
manned hidden, and every nerve and mus
Gle showed the terrible tension of a per-
petual striving for the unattainuble. Some
times when listening to me as | played
something that | could do very well in.
deed, l noticed that he lifted himself and
threw back his head as if ne would fly into
the empyrean of the harmonies. Then he
would drop back again with d sigh, and
there would come over his face and his Zig.
ure the slow WEAKNESS of longing that
seemed as if it could never be gratifed.
| Usually when came in with my roommate
| at night, for he taught late, our next-door
neighbor would be saving away on his
!, violin, and he would stop when he heard
us; but on the night of which this story
narrates he was sound asleep when WE came.
for we could hear him snoring heavily,
Fifteen minutes after we got IN we
heard him moving about his room, and then
1 we heard the first touch of the bow to the
strings, and we wondered if he could be
| cruel enough to commence operations on us
at that time of night. We looked at each
| other in dismay as the first notes of the
music came uncertainty forth, but in a min.
ute or two our dismay changed into amaze
ment, for he, or whoever held the instru-
ment, began playing as we had never before
heard him play. Five minutes later we
were listening to such playing as neither Of
us had ever heard from anybody, and We
had heard some of the greatest players OF
the world during our time. 1t seemed as
f there were in the strains OF the instru
ment all the agony of a pent-up soul striyy
ing to break from its bonds, and then "
burst forth in perfect storm and whirl
wind of liberated cohsohance, and all the
pieces we had so often heard our neigh
Dor numbering came swinging from the
bow as if some inspired being were breath
ing on the strings of the violin,
1.-The Witches Dance, with its Difficult
ties and Its beauties; Memberships Con
ovens, with its grandeur; Bach's Chaconne
with its wilderness of melody; Ernst
Hungarian airs, with their rhythm ant
melodic sentiment; the Carnival of Ven
ice,' as Ole Bull could not have played 1t
the music OF Vieuxtemps, of Saint Saens
Of Iaub of Spohr, and dozens of others, a
paganini might have rendered it, and 81
on in a sequence no less beautiful than wer
the selections composing 1t, the man playe'
with power OF feeling and beauty o
technique | have never heard equaled. w
listened spellbound for two hours, an'
when at last he stopped from sheer ex
haustion, we made rush for his room t.
: congratulate him on his wonderful per
Torrance, but the door was locked and w
|, could not net In. The room was perfectl
dark, as we could see over the transom
and though we heard him moving about
we could get no response to our calls, am
at last left our neighbor to his own med
tations. We talked it over until we wen
to sleep, and the very first thing in TIL
morning, when we heard him up and about
we went banging into his room to extern
our applause, although 1t might be it'll
+ ute. You know musician doesn't so 500
: as that forget what good music is, and h
ia the most generous of all people in hi
expressions Oh appreciation VI WHdt
really good music. We went in on hin
with whirl when he opened the door t
+. us, and when we began in our enthusiast
fashion to congratulate him he looked "A
us blankly and said he had not been playing
: Then we thought perhaps it might hay
been some one else but that could not BIZ
for both windows and door We're Locked
and we insisted that it could not have bee
anyone else, and that he was playing whcti
err he was willing to acknowledge it or not
t You see the poor fellow knew what W
thought of his ordinary performances, an
he had an idea we We're trying to guy hin
We assured him to the contrary, however
and at last he told us that he had dreame
that he was playing at a great concert an
had played just as he wnted to play, jus
as he hoped to play. His face flushed whe
he told us this and there was a CLEAN {
h hope in the restless eyes that had locke
/ so long for what was never to come.
+ 1--WE knew, then, that he had been pla,
ing in his sleep And why shouldn't h
play so? He knew the music perfectly, an
how it should be played, for he had given
= all his thought and labor and love, an
d surely there should be some respons
4 Strange powers had come TO other men
visions Of the night, and why not to him
+ And it had come to him, but it never can
n again, for although we watched and wal
:, ed many nights by his side as he slept, /
gave no sign of the powers that lay with
2 him, yet beyond his reach. We even WEI
SO far as to try. to influence him in his slice
but it was quite in vain, and one nigl
=, when Ire rose feyerishly from his bed, an
,,a thought the momant of insuirat ion hs