St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1903-07-25
! TEST OF eMys1lAL Ear.



"The fact that I was never able 70
whistle a tune correctly saved my dad
many dollar and spared me many
useless hour Of hard work when l
was boy said middle-aged Wash
ingtonian, according to the Post.
grew up over in old Georgetown, and
when I was a hoy of nine my father
got it into his head somehow or an
other thatI should learn how TO per-
form on the vioiin.a That wasa short
time before the civil war. Ny sisters
were all being educated in music, two
of themson the piano and another on
the harp, and my father determined
that I, the only boy, should not go
without musical training, and he chose
the violin for me.
SAT that time there was living ip
Georgetown az brilliant freshman, 2
man of superior education and accom-
plishments, who gave lessons on the
violin, of which he was as perfect a
master as ever I heard perform. He
was some sort of political refugee,
and he disappeared from Georgetown
as mysteriously,d during the war as he
had arrived there. Tosthiss mar my
father took me when He deed ed that
I should take up the violin. The Irish
man, a handsome, prematurely gray
man, with bluff way of speaking,
sized me up, and then he said to me:
q" Boy, can you whistle tune 2 FL
"I was abashed; but told him that I
thought could. Gts 500
Whistle one, them said the Irish
man. Any sort of a tune that you
know.
swell, I puckered up my lips and
wentaaheas.s Ben Bolt vas apopular
air OF tire day thens and that was the
tune selected. The Irishman listened
until had fnished,, and then. shak-
ing HIS head, he4turned to my father.sa''
"'Sir.' he said, in his richest brogue,
I should be imposing upon your cred
nifty as wen as upon your generosity
LII accepted this boy of yours as syio-
lin pupil, 70. he is absolutely lacking
III a musical ear
elbow do you make that out? ? in
quired my father. bit miffed.
Because said the 1rishman, he
cannot swhist1escorrectly That il the
thing. A boy, or girl. or man, or wom-
an who cannot whistle plain tune
properly, without cluttering the piece
with false n otess has nosbusiness TO ats
tempt toIearn mqsic-itis sheeridler
ness. Proper whistling is OF the ear,
of course, but it is instructive, and 1t
infallibly denotes the musical sense.
The boy who whistles incorrectly will
never learn to play correctly, no mat
ter how much teaching he gets, nor
how hard he works. He may master
the mere mechanics Of playing, but he
can never develop the muscial sense,
which is innate. Inherent, Unborn. I
charge, as you know, two dollars for
violin lessons. WelEI could take this
boy and 80 on teaching him, but /
should be doing you aswrong and sub
jecting the lad to needless and hope
Tess endeavor sInevers knewsthew whist
ling test to fail. Your boy would never
learn how to play the violin even ac-
ceptab bly,
.The. mans frank and 'nonsoridid
way Of expressing the matter con-
WINGED by dad of his squareness, and
he thanked the Irishman for his can
did Judgment and brought me away.
there is no manner of doubt that
that Irish violin teacher was correct
in his opinion. applied the test to
my own large family of children when
they were growing up. When they
reached the age at which it was proper
10 start them off in music Iachose the
ones that, according to my wifess opin-
ion, could whistle assimple tune with
perfect correctness-Ic could not act as
Judge. myself, because not only can i
not whistle a tAne properly, but /
can't even judge whether any body else
is whistling an air correctly. Those OF
my childrenswhose .whiStling performs
ances were SO grotesquely inaccurate
that my wife had to put her fingers in
her ears after they began to whistle
decided to give some other accom-.
plishment than music, and those that
could whistle correctly had take up
various instruments; and, until they
ali went OF ana got married, IHhddsa
houseful of pretty clever musicians"
POTENCY Or EoosE cHArcE. ]
II IL tie ~Nfcksis and Dimes Thaa
RuiId I'm the Great Rank