Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-28
Regulations Made to Order in
Foreign Marts.
ART OF THE PUFFOLOGIST
New York, Awakening to Actual
Musical Values, Refuses to
Be Imposed Upon.
Special Correspondence of The Star.

Special Correspondence OF The Star.
NEW YORK. December %, 1907.
7HE renowned European musI-
cal celebrities are going down
like ninepins in New York this
season. 1t is a musically fea-
tureless day when the utter
fzzle here of one or more of them is not
recorded by the New York critics of
music.
He or she who runs-even on the piano
ought to be able to read. And that which
stands out. easy enough even for runners
to read, is the fact that this puffery-
wuffery game for musical "virtuosi' who
possess not the merchandise is about dead
and buried over in this town.
The magnification of European musical
nonentities by paid buffers planted at
strategic points on the continent Eu-
rope for the purpose of boosting the
incompetents in the estimation of Ameri-
cans is, obviously, scheme that has at
length been seen through by Americans,
as, in all likelihood, that sort of mean
jugglery has been penetrated by discern
people all over the United States.
The plan of these paid boosters" of
European musical fifth-raters is as SIM
pie as falling downstairs But; for a
long stretch of years, the plan worked out
beautifully.
Some shrewd New York manager,
prowling about Europe during the sum-
mer for the benefit of his health and
pocket, hears, at some obscure conserva-
tory or other, the performance of a lad
who is middling clever in the technique,
say, of the violin.
In addition to his middling or mediocre
cleverness, the lad has a large mop of
hair md the largo hollow
ly possessed by a growing human being,
who practices on an instrument for eight
or ten hours day on more or less short
rationS.
The providing New York manager quick
ly perceiveS the possibilities of the youth,
and he makes haste to come to terms
with the young mans people. This is
easy enough-the boy has never attracted
any particular attention in his own COM
munity. and the very highest fulfllment
his folks expect Of him, at the end of his
long years of incessant instruction and
practice, is that at the wind-Gp of 1t all
he might connect with a fairly profitable
job as concert master or one of the first
Violins with a good orchestra.
Aid of Puffology.
When the Yankee manager fits along.
however, they hold out for what seems,
to them, to be tremendously stiff terms
And they get these terms granted right
out of hand. The terms that seem so
stiffish to them are almost foolish in their
modesty in the view of the American
manager. For he knows by experience
what cap be done by the aid of puffology,
and what a huge money maker the in
fiated subject of the professional pun
ologiSt can be made.
The bargain struck, then. and the mid
dling-good violin-playing boy being un-er
contract to tour the United States oil
America as "virtuoso," the scientlnc
boosting begins.
The manager instantly cables to the
New York papers that he has engaged
for the approaching season 1.-The great,
the phenomenal Koopaloopsky the in
spired Hungarian lad who has amazed
Europe with his masterful violin playing.
who recently played for the car and
afterward was presented by the car with
the Order of the Ump-ta-ar-ra. who walk
ed away with the Notwithstanding
prize at the Prague Conservatory without
half trying, who is said to have resolute-
ly declined the offer of marriage made to
him by one of the princesses of media
tized royal house. who is a living image
of the Able List as the latter looked at
fifteen. and" And so on. ad nause am.
This is the beginning Of it. Then the
Yankee manager in Europe proceeds to
assemble his gang of skillful puffologists,
and these chaps start into toss ingeniously
contrived stories at the New York papers
about the marvellous Koopaloopsky. The
stuff that they manage to get printed
about Koopaloopsky. the fiddling phenom,
is remarkable in character and quantity.
There are sad-and-sweet stories of the
doomed ones infantile days, the poverty
of his early surroundings. the humility
of his poor old wooden-shoed dad (who is
third gardener for a testy grand duke),
the enthusiasm over and belief in koopa-
loopsky's strong-willed mother over her
offspring from his cradle days, the ease
with which he achieved a perfect mastery
of all of the intricacies of VieuXteinps'
etudes when he was only a matter of four
and a half years of age. how. when he
was still under six he so wrought upon
the emotions of the eccentric King OF