The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-02
THE EVENING STORY
His Assistant Organist.
(By Olive Warner.l

(By Olive Warner.)
Colonel Aspen was a man who could
afford to have hobby, and he did
| not deny himself. He was an amateur
that alone does not define his hobby.
| The peculiar feature of his fad was
ms unquenchable desire to play the
organ and direct the music in a
| large and fashionable church.
Large and fashionable congrega-
| lions, as a rule, are not addicted to
amateur organists. In fact anything
that may be obtained free of cost
does not appeal to them. 1t is as dis
tasteful to them to accept the ser
vices of an organist without making
the return of good fat salary as it
would have been for Colonel Aspen to
| take the pay of professional.
Therefore, it was not always an
his pretty fancy, and it required
management. Fortunately for him,
he could manage. In the course of
long experience he had evolved a
charge of church musical matters
which made it possible for him to
expand his hobby to its most graft
| flying extent.
His method was to contribute so
| literally to the support of the church
that no member of the congregation
could find the courage to combat his
| musical ambition. His generosity
gave him sort of proprietorship,
| especially when he went to the length
| of putting in a new organ at his own
| expense and was willing to employ
the most famous soloist without any
| increase in the annual appropriation
| This is what he had done at St
Judith's. So it was little wonder that
he shared SO royalty in the privilege
| of upbuilding the plant that he felt
perfectly secure in his position of
supreme arbiter of matters musical
1t was situation which would have
| made the colonel entirely content
with the business of living had other
! things been equal.
A most annoying thing had hap
pened quite recently, an episode
which, for the time being, took large
ly from the sunny side of the colo
nePs existence and left him disposed
to pick. flaws with. the whole scheme
of creation. His only child, a young
fellow fresh from college and a candi-
date for postgraduate distinction,
while on a visit to England, had be-
come enamored of the daughter of a
struggling rural vicar and had mar
ried her without consulting either
her father or his own. He had cabled
home for his parental blessing and
announced his intention of being on
hand to receive it in person at date
which, as yet, he had been unable to
| fix definitely.
The new arrangement did not ap-
peal to the father, however. He was
| altogether too sensible to quarrel
with his son over something which
was beyond recall. but he did not
| feel equal to meeting him after his
of the family. He cabled a sum of
money which must have gone a long
way toward dulling the sting of the
young couples disappointment, and
| advised Alec and his bride to- remain
| in England until further notice.
But it had interfered seriously with
his capacity for enjoyment, and even
his unquestioned primacy in st.
things seem right. The colonel real
lied, too, that his present mood was
having a very perceptible effect on
the music: that he could not abandon
| himself to it with his customary
! wholeheartedness. When he made
that discovery he decided to secure
an assistant
He advertised and arranged for all
applicants-there were dozens to
come to the church on a certain night
and show their fitness. The colonel
had conceived a plan whereby the
trials might be made so brief as to
consume only a single evening. He
had a theory that any musician
who could play a hymn as it should be
played from his viewpoint, needed no
no further exploitation. He had, there
fore. selected the grand old choral at
tributed to Martin Luther as COM
candidates took their turns in the COM
petition, but the colonel offered no sug-
gestion while the contest was going on.
At last there remained only one I'M
tried of all the anxious crowd. 1t was
getting late and most of the others
| had gone This candidate had ascend
| ed to the loft in obedience to the col
onel's reckoning invitation and was
climbing to the bench. She was a
slight, girIish creature, shy apparently,
and not at home in her present sur
roundings. She was dressed very mod
estly in dark gown and the colonel
| fancied that she might be a foreigner;
she had not spoken, and he recorded a
mental wager that when she did there
would be a tell-tale accent. AS he put
the open hymnal on the rack he said
reassuringly:
TT isn't at all difficult to read, you
know"
1T really know it so well that 1
couldn't make mistake If I should
try" she said, with a little nervous
| laugh.
Then she played it-played 1t so well
| that the shade of the old reformer
must have felt approval even though
| it had no power to manifest it. Be-
! ing mortal, Colonel Aspen had no DIFF
fculty in expressing his satisfaction.
| won't you play something else for
me % he asked with an interest he
had taken in none of the others. do
you know any of the Bach preludes
or fugues? If you like I will get you
| the music
| Don't take the trouble, sir. 1 think
can do without" she said, and with
out further parley she began TO give
out the theme of the great fugue
known popularity as est AIMS AS
she proceeded the colonel was first
amazed, then delighted. The technical
difficulties of the composition were as
| nothing to her. Her finger work was
admirable, and her pedaling was mas
terly. AS the last great chord of the
third movement died away 1t was only