The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-11-19
BENEVOLENT VERDI.
His Generosity to Old Friends and to
All Aged Musicians.

His Generosity to Old Friends and to
All Aged Musicians.
The population of the little Italian
village where Verdi was born WAS
made I'D of uneducated, hardworking
laborers. and his surroundings were of
the most prosaic kind But the fire
of genius was in the lad, says his biog-
rapher, and these unsympathetic en-
yironments were powerless to eXtln-
guish it
The honor of first drawing attention
to the boys gifts lies with a poor itin-
Grant violinist, Bagasset by name. In
his wanderings he frequently visited
lie Roncole Little Giuseppe and he
struck up friendship. and it was
Bagasset who suggested to the boy S
father that the lad should be allowed
to follow music as a profession. In
after years when Verdi had become
famous be found Bagasset again. then
4 very old man and poor, and, remem-
boring the psst, did all in his power to
help him.
When Verdi was eight years old he
became the proud possessor Of an old
spinet. This instrument he regarded
with the greatest affection, and to the
day Of his death 1t occupied a place of
honor at his estate near Busseto. There
was an interesting and quaint inscrip-
ton written on part of it. 1t gives
particulars of certain repairs which
had been effected and ends: This l do
gratis in consideration of the good dis
position the boy Giuseppe Verdi shows
in learning to play on this instrument.
which quite satisfies me for any trou-
BILE. Stephen Cavaletti. A. d. 1921"
This spinet meant everything in the
world to the boy ut this time. and it
was his enthusiasm in subjecting it to
the expression of the latent music
that was in him that caused the dam
age and necessitated the repairs re-
ferred to.
Once he was playing chords on it
and was delighted at having discovered
the major third and fifth of C. Trying
to repeat this the following day, he
was unable to find the chord again.
Try as he would, he could not succeed,
SO in childish rage he picked up a ham
mer and proceeded to bang the spinet.
His father came upon the scene at
this moment, and. taking the part Of
the Spnet in this unequal encounter,
he gave his son lesson which doubt
less sounded chords in the boys brain
which were a revelation to him.
The benevolence of Verdi after his
success was a byword, and toward
those less fortunate ones of his pro-
fession his help was at all times freely
given. But everything was done in the
most unobstrusive way. When his old
librettist Piare was stricken with pa
ralysis Verdi paid all the costs of his
illness, made him an annual allowance
and at his death met the expenses of
the funeral. In addition to this, he
provided for the support of the old
mans daughter.
One day when he was chatting with
Carducci. the famous poet. an organ
outside struck up an air from .'.Trova-
tore" Thinking that Verdi would be
disturbed. the poet went to the window
to send the man away, but the CON-
poser pushed past himsand, reckoning
to the organ grinder below. threw
handful of silver out, saying to his
friend:
Let him go on; it pleases me. and,
besides, we must all live somehow
The perusal of his will shows that
he never forgot those who had been
kind to him in his struggling days
The bequest which is most widely
known in his own country is the Home
of Rest For Musicians In Milan
1t had always been a great idea of
Verdrs to found some institution for
the care of aged musicians whose la
bors had not resulted in making them
Independent in the years when their
work had come to an end. In his will
he devoted a large share of his proper
ty to this scheme. and his generous
gift affords home 20 100 old musi-
cians.-Youth's Companion.