Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-05-06
THE WIRELESS BEETHOVEN.
Some Reasons for Thinking II Well
He Didn't Get Married.

As everyone is well aware the emil
nent German music master, Ludwig
Won Beethovan, lived and died a bach
elor The fact, indeed, could scarcely
! escape the most inattentive for both the
matrimaniacS and the matrimonial
phobes, the wOrshippers of the connu-
bia. state and its fierce critics and OPP
ponents, are cons family hailing poor old
Ludwig into court TO serve as witness,
defendant, or horrible example Among
the matrmaniacs his peevishncss. his
appalling table manners and his Penury
are ascribel to his celibate life, while
the matrimoniaphobes are just as srre
| that the world owes his nine superb
symphonies to the fact that he had no
mot her-in-laW
| Recently one of Beethovens letters,
| long buried in some ancient chest, was
unearthed in London, and it's contents
have set both parties by the ears and
renewed their savage disputation. The
letter was obviously addressed to an
| intimate friend, for in it the great COM
| poser speaks freely of his domestic trib-
ulations. oh, this horrible fourth-Hoor
| rocm"' says he. Zach, Colt! What is
ouse<ecping without wife. My prop
:
STRANGER steals something from me.
How can l write music ard watch the
herrir. barrel?'
| What pathcs in these simple words !!
Here was the greatest musician Of all
time tortured by the mighty surge Of
the ideas within him, planning MASTER
pieces, pressed for time--and yet he
had to keep one eye on his spoons!
When he arose from hlI desk, exhausted
| by Some unprecedented feat of orches-
| tration, stunned by some overpoWering
| inspiration, and sought a slab of pun
| per-pickel to refresh himself, no pun
per-nickel was there. Thieves raideIl
| his collars anu cuffs, selling the rubber
and cellulo;d to junkmcn Servants
| ga;nbled away his groceries and his lin
| gerie. and their innumerable cousins fed
at his table. lie bought rations for an
army corps and dincd himself like q
| shipWrecked sailor
No wonder he cried aloud for help
No wonder his thoughts turned to mat
| rimony, But does it follow that n wife
would have made his life a glad, sweet
song ana doubled his sum of incom-
parable achievement? We rather doubt
| it. His concept of a helpmate, it APP
pears plainly from his letter, was not
| unlike the average mans concept Of a
gendarme. He saw her as an armed
guard. vigilant sentinel, beSkirted
| incarnation of the police power, armed
| to the teeth and giving no quarter. He
| heard her hoarse battlecry, the roar of
her artillery. He heard the ambulance
rafting up to cart away her victims
| Had Beethovan married, with such Il
picture of a wife in his mind, he would
have chosen, it is plain, some inhuman
Amazon, with the physique of Shar-
and the turbulence of the Jesse James
wife, of course, would have rid his
household of it's thieves and spies, but
one fears that her activity would not
have ended there. 1t is far from diff
cult, indeed. to conjure up vision of
appalling combats at the Beethoven
hearth, painful in themselves and of
vast cost to posterity, with Ludwig div
| ing under the bed to save his neck and
! that military wife of his heaving the
manuscript OF the choral symphony in
| to the fire.