New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1909-03-31

Frederic Chopin There is no ac-
counting for even a titled brothers
taste, whether his object was revenge
or cash.
That extraordinary woman and pow
erful writer, George Sand, came into
Chopin's life when he was nearing
thirty, she being five years his senior.
A strong minded and far from beauti-
full girl Of eighteen, educated in a con-
vent, she became the wife of Baron
Dudevant, military man much older
than herself and of opposite tastes
After nine unhappy years she formed
a partnership with Jules Sandeau, and
their novel made its mark. Then she
wrote Indiana the first of her sixty
stories, adopting the first half of his
surname as her pseudonym. In this
book she ventilated extreme opinions
on social questions and dared public
criticism by carrying them into prac-
tice
Around her brilliant lamp clustered
young men of intellectual distinction,
dazzled by her philosophy more than
by any charms and willingly dominat-
ed by her masterful personality. AL
fred de Musset and Chopin were among
the devotees. Chopin's feminine nature
needed virile intellect to lean upon.
George Sand, like George Eliot, felt
she could be the oak round which the
tender vines of genius might Irvine and
gain power. Chopin's physical health
needed special care. Together they So
journed at Majorca.
On first seeing her portrait Chopin
declared that it repealed him. Such
were her powers or arts within few
weeks they spent two years together
in their new Eden. He wrote: II am
among palms, cedars, cactuses aloes,
olive, orange, lemon and pomegranate
trees. The sky is like turquoise, the
are like emeralds. The air? The air is
just as in heaven"
The trail of the serpent was there
none the less. Their first house eXper-
fments were dismal failures. For the
winter they took a ruined monastery,
ed by musty damps, by owls and bats.
and Chopin shiveringly swore there
were ghosts. The masculine minded
madame had to condescend to cook, as
each meal made him i'll. Paradise was
getting lost. The lady writes: ''The
tient. He became completely demora!-
lied. He bore pain bravely, but his
mind was upset, and his Imagination
too. He saw phantoms" Also a few
realities. The malarious life brought
him near death. They returned to
France in 1889. He was not much
happier for it. He composed many
pieces, and in them all is the wall of q
heart aching for blessed peace that
never comes. He took to heart" she
tells us, "his exclusion from our fami-
~ life," for she had let him have part
of her house as his little kingdom. On
these broken lines ran his life till 1847,
some eight years Of relationship unen-
durable to any man of fiber and stout
heart. He said to some one that the
dame was an angel, but her wings
sometimes hurt him. When he was SO
far oblivfous to his serfdom as to at
tempt show Of paternal authority in
the matter of her daughters choice of
husband, George Sand jumped at the
good opportunity to end a friendship
that had sunk into a tragical farce.
Chopin tried change of surroundings
In England. He was lionized in Lon.
don, but saw no sunshine for a week.
then back to his beloved Paris, this
time under the loving care Of his chief
pupil and friend Gutman, where not
consumption only, but silent heart.
break, undermined body and spirit
George Sand called, being the polite
thing for so true a Frenchwoman tc
do, but Gutman took a leaf out of he,
book and excluded her from thei,
family life" the pair of faithful
friends. Chopin's last words were
"She told me I would die in no arms
but hers
List wrote a loving life of bis
friend, whose genius he adored. him
self a marvellous pianist, as lovers OF
his all but impossible Hungarian rhap.
sodies know. He tells how Chopin
grew worse each year after 1910. In
his last two years he did scarcely any
walking. Going
W 81 n sin. The sh s'sx