The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-08
THE LdFE OF CHOPIN.


 Frederick Chopin was born on Feb ruary 22nd, 1899. His father Mich olas Chopin was man of great edu- cation and refinement, by profession a teacher of languages. kFIis mother, who was bright, active and tender hearted; full of folklore and house. hold recipes, was charitable in con- duct, and gentle and courteous in speech. Chopin had three sisters, Amelia, the youngest being his flaw orite She died when she was only fourteen, of the same trouble which was later to carry off her brother.
 Chopin was particularly fortunate in the selection of his parents. A1e9 in choosing his early assocfates. With a scholarly father, a Polish mother rich in womanly, virtues. and a trio of sisters every ready to pet him, the boy grew up in an atmosphere of charming simplicity, love and refine ment. He seems to have been from infancy rather Weak-7a little frail, delicate elf of a boy-Iiszt says that he was fragile and 7sfckiy.''
 Notwith standing his weaKness, he was a. typical boy. He played in ntmerable tricks on bis sisters and his schooI-fellows, ana even on the grown-ups as occasion presented. d.44
 He commenced to play in concert at very early age, by the time he was twelve or thirteen he was playing before some of the most aristocratic audi ences in Russia His improvisa- tions were peculiarly effective-
 Chopin, while he Is always consid- cred a pianist, was also a. very fine organist when his friend Adolpho Nourrit, the opera tenor in a fit of desp dency, committed suicide by throwing himself from a window in Naples Chopin played the organ at the funeral It was false, screaming instrument which had no wind ex- cept for the purpose of being out of tune. but he made the most Of it, talk ing the least shriII stops and playing shuberts s.Les Astres.' not in the en- thusfastic manner that his dead friend, the tenor, used to sing it, but plain lively and softly like the far-on echo from another world.
 Chopin now had his first gEeat ex- perience with love. The young lady stantia Gladowska- She was a vocal ist and student at the Warsaw Conser- yaEoire. That he was very eriouSly in love for the time being. there is no reason to disbelieve.
 When she made her debut upon extravagantly in her praise. When he gave a concert and invited her to sing he became more enraptured than ever. Fate would have done him a real service-perh erhaps-by giving him this evidently admirable girl for a wife. But perhaps marriage and hanging go by destiny.
 Chopin gave his last concert in Warsaw on the 11th of October, 1880. Shortly afterwards he left Russia, never to return. His father he saw once more in life; the mother he never saw again. At Viola, the first village beyond Warsaw. the pupils of the conservatory met him, sang a ea.ntata composed for the occasion, and presented him~with a silver gok- let filled with Polish earth. That same earth was. after a few short years. to be strewn on his coffin in distant Pere Ia Chaise-
 Arrived in Paris. Chopin expert enced the usual vicissitudes Of g yconcert pianist and teacher-the ir- regular living and typica1ly Bohemian existence. In his meagerly furnished apartments however, many of the m oSt eminent men in their specialti es foregathered- Poets. painters, writ CTS scpIptors ard musicians and scientists. It was on one such oc- cassion held this time in the house of a. young professor of anatomy, that Chopin improvised what is now known as his famous Funeral March The party were in that state, somewhat late in the evening, popuIarly known as mellow when the young doctor left the table, went to a cupboard in a corner of the room, and immediate ly came back with an articulated hu- man skeleton, which he proceeded to dispose of in a vacant seat at his side The impressionable mind of Chopin was naomentarily shocked by the suggestion of sitting in reveIry while the. mortal remains of one who perhaps had participated in many such orgies, occupied place at their board.
 Chopin made his way to the piano. and sat down to improvisey with thus spirit engendered by the presence of the skeleton obsessing him. He had laughter and shouts of the revelers ceased as though by magic. and they listened, in hushed, tense silence to what all recognized was a master piece When the plaintive, touching melody which we now know as ''The was hardly 9. dry eye in the room. and shortly after the jewellers broke up, sobered and made thoughtful by thu weird experience.
 Soon after this Chopin met wE man who was to exercise a tremen- was the widow of M. Dudevant and al writer of extraordinary ability better known under her pen name of George Sand. It is paradodca1 that this woman could have influenced Chopin as she did, for she was by na- ture coarse. promiscuous and ani- mally passionate. Perhaps opposites attract, however. At any rate, it is one of the most marked of all the fa- nous love episodes of history.
 They met at a fetS at the house of Marquis de Custne, where most of the aristocracy of Europe assembled from time to time. The weather had effected Chopin's spirits, l4n thinking of something to dispeI the depression, he set out for the house of the Marquis at tenS o'clock at night. AS he passed up the stairs