The Topeka state journal., 1905-05-08
TEN-CENT MUSIC LESSONS.
Three Hundred New York Children
Are Taking Them.

Are Taking Them.
That it is big hearted music mas
/ ter was the impression one visitor car
ried away of the Heinrich Won Ende
society," founded this winter by Mrs.
pose Of teaching music to the East side
poor at the rate of ten cents lesson,
says the New York Post. When the
visitor reached the fourth floor of Clin-
ton hall, at No. Isl Clinton street, where
/ the music school is quartered, he was
guided through the corridor by the
/ mOnotonous tinkle Of labored piano
notes to a room full of East side chill
dren clustered about a piano. The
minutest Of them all, pedestaled on the
piano stool beside her teacher, was
dropping out the notes of the scale at
I 15-second intervals. The other children
I gathered around, with the spirit of play
+ ing pranks on the teacher, and the in
i 1ant prodigy half-hushed out of them
/ by the misshaped embryonic music
! Never were they so delighted is now by
/ the most famous VirtuOso of the hurdy
/ gurdy that ever ventured down their al
/ Ieys.
They only paused for a moment, as
! the visitor entered, to cease using their
/ skirts as handkerchifs and let them fall
+ in maidenly amplitude almost down to
/ their knee caps.
| Meantime. in the far corner of the
! room Mrs. Lehman sat by the win
/
Have you come for lesson or for
/ practice ?" she would ask them one by
/ one. For violin? for piano ?"
And the small boys, when she ad-
| dressed them or laid her hand on
their coats. would look confused but
happy.
When Mrs. Liebman was able to
escape from assigning the children,
1 she spoke of the history of her work.
''The object of this school, she said,
| sis to bring to the children and the
working people of the lower East Side
! opportunities for studying music.
They may study here the piano, the
violin, or the cello, at the nominal
cost of ten cents a lesson, and have
1 the privilege of using the instruments
for practice half an hour day alb
solutely free. We are not rivals Of the
| Musical Settlement, for we reach an
/ altogether poorer class. Twenty cents
1 is the price of a lesson at the Musical
] Settlement, and five cents for the
1 privilege of practising. Such prices
mean that the children who go there
/ are comparatively well to do. Indeed,
! to the dWellers of Clinton street, Sec
/ ond avenue and the neighbOrhood of
aristocratic section. Our own field is
so distinct that we don't understand
/ why we should not be welcomed and
/ encouraged by the Musical Settlement.
That our work appeals to the people
/ is shown by the fact that though we
received our first pupil on the Ith OF
February, we have now over 800, and
still they are coming.
How did you think Of beginning
the work ?"
one day in January. while talking
4 with a friend, [ said, I think III
teach music to poor children. 1
never had the idea till I spoke it, and
I didn't imagine then that in a couple
/ Of months I should be in charge of so
many pupils.
sfO57 tho 09rd of January 7 hired
/ empty room here and advertised for
pupils. From the 23rd Of January to the
| 7th of February, not single pupil
/ came. I sat here, day after day, wait
ing and reading and waiting. The peo-
pie wouldn't believe me. They thought
/ my advertisements were fakes!
| $50 one day I grew tired Of waiting,
and decided to open the school, If only
had one pupil. The first thing did
was to order a piano. As soon as the
! inhabitants of Clinton street saw the
/ piano going up, they had faith in the
/ music lessons. They've been pouring in
so fast that we can scarcely take care
! Of them all. We have now six pianos,
I eight violins, and one cello, and six
/ violin teachers and four piano teachers.
+ But our equipment and teaching force
i are not adequate enough, and may
! have to stop admitting any more pupils
/ till we are better prepared. AS it is,
/ we are so busy that one piano teacher
i gives twenty lessons in four hours.
Even more interesting rhan our
+ classes for children are the classes in
the evening for adults. Among our
pupils there are subway employees, street
cleaners, and scrub women"
Can you do anything with pupils
who are so oId?' asked the visitor.
4 You can give them a great deal of
! pleasure. Most of them are men and
women who never, all day long, get out
of sight and sound Of other people. They
tell how much good it does them to get
in room all alone for a while One Of
I my pupils is a. washwoman. Her hands
are stiff and spoiled by her work. Yet
she comes here and plays according to
her ability and to her great pleasure,
sonatos by Mozart. Some of the shop
girls wait till they think the teacher
is out of hearing, and then spend their
practice hour playing the last songs Of
the music hall. But we want them to
play good music here"
Mrs. Liebman spends all her day,
from the morning till ten at night, in
the school Up to three o'clock she
gives about fifteen lessons to school
children. From four to six. the rush
hours. she takes charge of receiving and
distributing the children. In the even
/ ing she teaches the older pupils. In or