Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-04-19
SALEM MAN WRITES
OF WALTER DAMROSCH
Tells of His Experience and of the
Strenuous Versatility of the
Master Musician.

ary matters, brought to mind the ap-
pearance of Walter Damrosch, Madam
Gadsky and David Bispham in Port
land several years ago at the Mar
guam grand theatre.
That was in the days when the
Southern Pacific company operated
open.end passenger cars and burned
wood in the engine. 1t was quite Gus
tomary then, when we country boys
went to the metropolis, to feel that we
always had to heroically stand on the
platform and, incidentally, get cinders
in our eyes.
Believing in supporting high.class
entertainments, / borrowed white
shirt from wealthy relative, with
whom l was on friendly terms, and
went down to the concert. l arrived
about 6 O'Clock in the evening. My
hands, face and clothes were covered
with hydrocarbonates from the engine.
Feeding myself at some obscure toast.
factory, | went after the tickets. The
hour Of leisure l had before the per.
formance ! wasted in lettering about
the great city. l so very much wished
that | might find some place where /
could wash my hands and face and
brush my clothes of the stains of travel,
but not being acquainted at the big
hotels and not being in the habit of
patronizing the saloon (the only place,
by the way, where strangers are wei.
Gomez, / mopped what l could away
with my new polka dot handkerchief.
If / had had any idea of the kind of
ar audience l was to sit with that
night, would have dared all for the
wash. basin, or stayed away from the
show.
entered the theatre before eight.
! sat near the front row of the bal.
cony. Such an aggregation of wealth
and display l had never before seen.
| suppose the row that l sat in must
have had several individuals worth
millions, so prOfuse were their dia.
monds and so fragrant their cologne.
| sat between two finely dressed la,
dies, so elegantly attred that l folded
myself up like a jack.knife to keep
from brushing any cinders on them.
| felt, figuratively speaking, of course,
extremely out of place in my conserva.
tive suit, although my relatives shirt
| noticed ranked well with some that
| saw here and there.
The concert began promptly at eight
q clock and ended exactly at twelve
No one in the theatre was more sorry
to have it come to an end than was
Mr.. Damrosch, The performance was
an attempt to incorporate into one
nights entertainment a five nights
discourse upon Wagner's "Ring of the
Nibelung," and it took just four hour,
to do it. Mr. Damrosch punctuated hi.
musical lecture, now and then, will
Illustrative fragments Of song by Mr.
Bispham and Madame Gadsky, boil
singing in the original tongue.
Mr.. Damrosch began by giving I
synopsis Of the construction of tn,
Nibelung" lie told the story of th
water nymphs from "Das Rheingold, ;
who got tangled up with giants, nix
les mysterious divinities and the crys
tai floods Of the river Rhine In spit
of his broken English, you could al
most imagine You were padding in tn
Rhine yourself, 1t may, perhaps, hav
been that the neighboring cologn
from the river Rhine made me so i'm
agine, or slight intoxicatiOn fron
thinking Of the wine made there. Turn
ing suddenly to the piano, Mr.. Dam
rosch would illustrate an intricat
fragment of the score built upon tn
simple chord of &C." and how Rich
ard Wagner riotously tore through tn
gamut of noisy musical so6nds. Taliul
each opera of the "Ring," DamroscI
first gave the story and then playe,