The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-11-16
BY ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.

| The Germans have something that
we haven't.
Or, indeed, that is not possessed by
any other nation.
It's an instinct for music.
Especially for singing.
And, in the end, it makes for GER
tain culture which is aside from the
latter in it's more comprehensive
sense.
There is nothing more conducive
to social solidarity than a common
interest
| One of the reasons for the disinte-
grating quality of American society is
it's vagueness, detachment, lack of
anchorage.
People float aimlessly together and
as aimlessly float apart.
They wobble and bidder and teeter,
chatter and grin and indulge in feeble
social ineptitudes
Where do you hear good converse
ton nowadays?
When do you listen to an exchange
of intelligent opinions on any subject?
Women carry on "discussions" at
clubs.
But given the attentive ear these
prove to be more or less chaotic and
unintelligible, straying into blind al
leys and going off at strange and I'M
related tangents.
They make more or less manful
struggles to reach a goal.
! But rarely accomplish it.
The trouble is they do not think CO.
herently.
They wander into every mental side
show, stop at every conversational
booth. ot
They go hopping along like canary
birds, their bright little eyes shifting
from this object to that, darting here
to peck at seed, there to detach a
crumb from the fish-bone, flutter to
the swing where they trill few more
or less melodious notes and fly to the
bath where they flutter their wings
Intellectually.
Here and there they skip. snatching
at the air, their hands closing on va
cancy, their feet stumbling into in
tellectual boys.
| And yet they will retire with cheeks
flushed, nerves Frustrated, hands
trembling, thinking they have been
partaking of a banquet when they
have really INDUCED in an orgy.
What we call culture hereabouts is
mostly a surface manifestation, flash
in the pan, an occasional sky-rocket-
ing.
| After the fireworks are over the
party breaks up, goes home, partakes
heavily of fried pancakes and sleeps
the sleep of the uncou.
The occasions are sporadic, have no
continuity and their essence, thin
spread, is not absorbed but skinned
up by the passing breezes and dissolv-
ed into the atmospheric elements.
Now and then it is good to see this
Grass American condition working
out in spots.
| And it is, oftener than not, through
organizations of our foreign-born citi-
| Zens.
Or, at least, those, nationalized, but
of foreign origin.
They have done much for this coun-
probation of good music, for one
thing.
In almost every city you will find
an aggregation of Germans who are
organized for the purpose of the study
and exploitation of ensemble singing
and who support series of concerts
and various musical events.
| In the larger centers these are nu-
cleuses for a musical culture which
permeates the community
| And they have been as largely in
strumental as any other agency in
the development of the musical taste
of this country which manifests itself
largely in the support of the highest
priced opera singers and the most Ella
borately staged opera in the world.
| But with our national tendency to
exaggerations we concentrate on this
phase of music at it's apogee.
| And it is only within the past few
years that more than one of the great
metropolises has established, through
it's public spirited citizens, an, opera
company of it's own.
| When every little German capital
has one supported by the government
or through some civic source.
4 But they are content with the intel
1 iigent Interpretation of the music
4 through more or less unheralded sing
Il ers.
\ We do not think we are getting "our
\ moneys worth" unless we hear a IA
| nous role sung by its most famous
Il exponent in the world
Il And this, for one reason, is the
Il cause of a lack of musical understand
\ ing-which comes from education
\ in this country.
4 If this city. in instance, were will
\ ing to put up guarantee every year
A and bring the Aborn Grand Opera
Il Company here for week-as they go
II to the Murat theatre in Indianapolis
II through the usual theatrical routine
n it would be matter of but a few
Il years before the humblest denizen of
H the town would be conversant with
H the great operate masterpieces.
| While these are sung in English by
The Aborns it is to be doubted wheth-
| ar it adds much to the comprehension
| or endowment