East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-01-31
SKETCH OF BLIND TOM
THE MUSICAL PROGIDY.

Many years before the war when
the chief wealth of the south. lay in
its slaves and cotton fields. a little
blind baby was born in the quarters"
Of one Of the big plantations. says
Belle Moses in a current magazine
He was as black as the ace of
spades, and with his huge mouth and
flat nose and wide-open, unscelng
eyes he was indeed a grotesque look
ng object, As he grew older he
grew uglier. and worst of all, his
mind was stunted, so poor little
Blind Tom" was not looked upon as
a valuable possession, and very little
notice was taken of him, for he was
allowed to roam where he would, and
many a time he skipped the "quar-
ters" altogether, only to be caught
stealthily creeping into the big
house" and hauled ignominiously
back to where he belonged.
Still he persisted, and at last one
day when no one was looking he
succeeded in crossing the threshold
and 1t did not take his simple mind
long to determine where ne wished
to go. He went straight to the par
lor. where a piano stood wide open
some one had been playing. for Blind
Tom had been listening outside, just
ringing in his ears when he crept in.
He climbed upon the piano stool
and began to finger the black and
white keys timidly. for he was afraid
of being caught; at first he picked
out the tune he had just heard-note
by note. then by degrees the whole
melody rushed to his small and grim
my finger tips and Blind Tom. his
big bullet head thrown back, let him
self go into ecstacy, and forgot
there was such things as forbidden
premises-forgot everything. in short,
save the music which was waking the
echoes of the quiet, drowsy house.
one Of the yonung ladies of the
fam ly heard the unusual sound and
crept down stairs to listen; when she
saw Tom at the piano she stole softly
away and called the others-the
half-witted child seemed inspired,
and played on and on. astounding
everybody by his brilliant perform
ance.
That was the beginning of Blind
| Toms caraar. i,a hacan , ca1ahrot ta 4
figure in the musical world through
his heaven-sent gift Of i'm 'tation. a
piece of music once played was for
ever impressed on Toms imperfect
brain, and the result was marvellous.
He turned out to be the most
priceless treasure his white folks
owned, and even after freedom he
stayed with them, going from city to
city on concert tours, where he made
immense sums of money.
His nature, like his brain, was Of
strange mold; he was particularly
cruel; he loved to hear of pain and
sickness and even death, and though
he had the best of masters, he could
not bear correction patiently, and
thought no more of knocking down a
teacher who was brave enough to
find fault with his playing than of
turning around on the music stool
That was his way of showing dis
pleasure and after some specially
brilliant performances, when an en-
thusiastic audience went W Id. Blind
Tom always applauded himself and
danced around the stage in an ecstacy
Of glee.
For many years he toured the
country and always accompanied by
one of the same family, always
showing the same marvellous air and
wonderful knowledge of music, and,
although today there are many hnu-
sical prodigies. there has never risen
one quite as remarkable as our un-
calmly, ugly, half-witted old Blind
Tom"