The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-02-11
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

| From my boyhood days have been an omnivorous reader. If everyone kept up the habit to the same extent that I do. the reading public would consume pa ] pers, magazines and books to far great ] CT extent than at present.
 I confess that I have not always been selective in my reading, but that I have tackled most everything from a Sears Roebuck catalog to the Encyclopedia Britannica. and that never throw away second-class mail, but open and glance through everything which comes to my desk, never knowing when I am going to find new idea or a chance to polish up an old one and get by with it.
 
 I haven't time to go into the various idyosyncrasies of the reading public or to call to mind the curious practices of many of the great who have been bit queer in the books they read. I have a books and manuscripts. not merely for amateurs but for some who get out best sellers, as his Knowledge of English, coupled with his literary acumen, makes his opinion much sought and worth pay ing for. In a moment of confidence he confided to me that when he got chance to read book of his own choosing he always selected a cheap detective story written by one who could give thrills on each page My friend graduated at Harvard in the class in which Theodore Roosevelt graduated, and is one of the greatest critics in America. Teddy himself covers wide range in his read ing.
 Now, l frequently put a book in my grip when I start off on a trip about a subject which I know absolutely noth- ing I realize that this is a strange con- fesscn, coming as it does from one who wishes to create the opinion that he is very versatile and knows little about everything. I wouldn't have made the above revelation had it not been so near the first of the year, when all are SUD- posed to turn over new leaves and be truthful. Well, the book l put in my satchel was How to Master the Violin, by a man whose name l do not expect you either to remember or to spell, for can hardly copy it correctly with the book before me, and as for pronouncing it, you don't do it, you just sneeze and let 1t go at that. Here it is: Bytovetzski. Looks very much like he might in some way be mixed up in the new Russian h,it if only his name that suggests 1t, for he writes most learnedly and charmingly about the king of instruments-the violin. I have always been passionately fond of music, and have heard most of the great operas and enjoyed them only in I a. sensuous way. I have set under the 1 spell of some of the great violinists. remember, after a quarter of century, the playing of Sarasate. I heard him at Vienna Since then have heard many other artists of renown finger the strings and manipulate the bow, but he was a wizard and none have caught me as did he We have some gifted violinists here in Bir- mingham, but I am going back more | than score Ol ycdiS " tiiS NeNS ' "AAS'. | Oliver Chalifoux first came into our midst to delight us with his violin. It, In coniunction with his talented wife as harpest, was one of the first real musical treats that the Magic City got in the days when 1t was in its swaddling clothes, musically speaking.
 l l will remember that Richard F. John- | ston, the managing editor of the Led 1 ger. was in the habit of playing the violin. I roomed with Dick for more
 than a year in the happy old days when we were cutting our teeth as
 new spaper cubs. It was then his am l hilton to be a violinist of note. With out throwing off on his ability as an
 artist I can truthfully say that if per | severance had been all that was need 1 ed he would soon have blossomed out 1 into real star of the first magni- ing and evening rehearsals. He really l had talent. I do not know why he | gave up playing. l remember one morning he was improvising and ne
 said: Frank, as I play, of what are you reminded?' immediately an l swered: "Why. Dick, it's the music of the bees" It seemed to please him very much, as he told me he was thinking of flowers and the open fields.
 But I am about to forget Bytov- otzski and his book, which really in- ] terested me greatly in spite of the 1 fact that I have absolutely no tech nical aptitude for music I was sur prised that it made such difference in the way one held violin or used the fingers, or gave the proper curva- | ture to the arm. It was almost like taking lessons in the art of courting. It was shown that in wooing music I out of the heart of the violin one had to be as gentle and insistent as in handling lady fair with the hope of the reward of a kiss Perhaps this is why the true artist always speaks
 of music as his mistress I reckon I had better drop the parallel right here fer the sake of the ministry, and yet
 ems of beauty and minister to the best that there is in man if he but holds
 them in proper respect
 
 l am not going to lose myself in