The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1902-02-01
BLIND TOM IN GRENADA.
A Graphic Description Of This Wonderful
Prodigy.


( The genuine, original Blind Tom,
y the world-famous musical prodigy,
( appeared in Grenada Wednesday
\ night at the College Chapel. 1t has
( been reported that this wonderful
! freak of humanity was dead long ago,
= but tits mistake. He still lives and
5 possesses those wonderful powers
= which have made him so famous.
s Blind Tom, accompanied by his guar
8 dian and managers, arrived Wednesday
8 morning, and though his coming was
= not advertised, except for day, and
( the weather was very rough, fair
y crowd of intelligent, appreciative peo-
< pie were out to see and hear him.
= They were delighted with his wonder
full performance on the piano. This
= is his third visit to Grenada, his first
& being in January, 1888, at which time
S the senior editor of the SENTINEL,
r. Col. j. ]. Williams, (now deceased).
= wrote most graphic and beautiful
if criticism or description of him, which
q has been pronounced by Mrs. Eliza
r. MeLhune, the guardian, to have never
q been surpassed, if equalled. The ar
Y ticle was copied extensively through
x out America and Europe, and has nc
= doubt found place in many scrap
r. book. Below we print the article, as
n it will no doubt be read with great in.
f. terest and pleasure:
s. Anything about Blind Tom Il
n somewhat like writing a thesis or
x education, temperance or virtue-tht
n subject is thread -bare-the field ex
Il, hausted. Yet we heard him and saw
& him for the first time, to full house
y last week, and looked and listened al
" II we were beholding and hearing tn
& plunging cataract of Niagara-t
G deep caverns of the Colorado, the tai
* summit of Chimborazo, or the burning
n crater of Vesuvius, or any other natu
IH raj wonder. When nature makes any
s& thing perfectly beautiful and sym
~ metrical, we say, she worked by es
W tablished laws, but we would like t
IS know what sort OF methods she use
tL(. when Blind Tom issued from her plas
* tic hand. Unwieldly in size, uncout
N in proportions, uncomely in expires
w sions, with his short fat trunk, due
Sk- legs, awkward attitudes, small heat
~ crisp hair, sightless balls, contracte
w face and little frontal sinus, he pr
~ sented a picture of humanity 81
IN. generiis' in all it's make up. Yet wit
sE all these diSagreeable features, thel
~ was something artless and amiable
,t6C his manner that made his presence
S& no means repulsive. This is Blir
~ Tom physically.
w "When he seated himself at the pi
~ no, all these incongruous elemen
MG disappeared, and music that wou
EsE enrapture seraphs followed the grac
IN full motion of his hands. When
NJ. looked at him in his mechanically ed
ISS Gated simplicity, and thought of Il
~ great masters, who had scaled u
&& heights of music with study and to
~ education and genius until the ra
MH, lures of soul seem borrowed fro
SsE stray echoes of Heavens melody
IN wondered, and still the wonder gre
~ that this black child of chance hi
5TSE fallen heir, without any effort, to
IN the profound accomplishments
talents, science and ambition in t
. art of music. Had Blind Tom lived
n "When music heavenly maid was youi
While yet in early Greece she sung"
he would have come down to us wi
the tabled mysteries of Orpheus
l Apollo. When the instrument U
II der his magic touch, laughed, wei
exulted and moaned, whispered a
screamed, sighed and thundered,
asked. what is he like? What thif
III in nature does his art folio
IL Whence the contradictory forces I'll
IL play in artless triumph with sour
III and symbols, that tested the talel
IL of Handel, Beethoven, Mozart a
Others of musical fame? He is uni
ANYTHING that we ever saw, heard
read of. He is like the ocean, lasf
IL into a bowling tempest, without
III strife of conflicting wind, and roll
IL it's mighty pillows to break agai
the distant shore, and die away
IL music as soft and sweet as the Sol
III of an evening lutte. He is ike
III lightning, leaping from the dark
ON of the angry storm cloud,
ii passing unscathed heightened spi
tall minarets and elevated towers
III light upon the dingy iron cross
IL some low medieval convent and u
Ill linger to burn, brighten and spa
III in utter contravention of all mag
Ill ic laws. But in all nature, OF art
III science, he stands alone in the
III eminent absurdity of his own inc
prehensible magnificence.
"Blind Tom may not make Il
angel whose light wings would ha
Ill ruffle the golden locks of the che
III i'm, but when he strikes his harl
niano. there will be music in Hea