Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-19
MUSIC IN THE HOUSE.
A Wholesome Pleasure Within Reach
Of Nearly Everybody.
From the Philadelphia Ledger.

fFoi ihe Philadelphia Ledger
Many a man goes his way each day
complaining disma1ly that there is no
pleasure in life for him He works con-
stantly, and all he earns goes to the bare
maintenance of his family. Neither lie
nor they have means of enjoyment be
cause they cannot afford to pay for the
delights of the theater and the like.
There are myriads of families that thus
make moan, and in many instances they
suffer because they neglect the most
wholesome, the most delightful and the
most lasting of pleasures which are with
In reach of almost everybody.
The point may be illustrated by a mod
ern instance culIed from the lives of two
families dwelling in the same city block.
Both families had been having hard
struggle of it for many years. One of the
households consisted of father, mother,
two boys and two girls, and their total
income was of the mediocre sort which
makes living a struggle to those of cul-
tivated tastes and no faculty for max
ing Il go into s. The hard contest wore
on their nerves, and on account of the
pinched and sour visage of discomfort
which they all displayed their neighbors
referred to them slyly as the mixed
pickles.. distant cousin, who had neg
lected them for many months, met them
all one DAY not long since, and, to his
amaZement, found that the lugubrious
collection We're all smiling and gay, ana
that their faces shonc from afar and
We're round and rubicund. On inquiry he
learned that the family had inherited
$50 900. The good fortune seemed to have
changed their natures: they were all
wreathed in perpetual smiles; they Were
effuSiVe and expansive. good-natured, So
ciable, jolly.
The family that had enjoyed the stroke
of fortune had become under the benign
influence of their wealth almost as happy
and Joyous as the other family which
inc az a. . flT liz
which consisted of the parents and three
children. was known as the little German
band" because each and all played on some
musical instrument and employed almost
every evening in the year in the study and
performance OF some piece of music which
enlisted their interest, enabled them to
pass the time happily and gave them all
the keenest delight. They were never al
a loss to drive dun care away. Melancholy
knew them not. The plano. the cello, the
violin, the flute and the guitar employed
their vacant hours, and Individually and
collectively they extracted solid comfort
and merriment from their anna teur per-
formances.
The family which had inherited the mon
ey had endured for many bitter years
ennui and trouble; they had suffered il
needlessly, and had only been released by
a chance which seldom comes. The other
family had within their grasp even in their
poverty sure means of innocent and de-
lightful enjoyment which never pals nor
wearies. Not everybody can inherit
large sum of money, but nearly every fam
lily can learn enough music to give the
greatest content, and delight at a very
small expense.
Music is one of the purest of pleasures
and one of the finest of the fine arts. Ac-
cording to the Helegian scheme, music is
with the exception of poetry, the highest
and purest of the fine arts, which are
grouped in their order from lowest To high
est terms thus-architecture, sculpture
painting, music and poetry or literature.