The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-17
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

I think one reason I keep young Is because I am continually getting interested in some new subject. I get an idea and just revel in following it and seeing its qualifications.
 This one came to me late in life, but it's good one, and can be classed under the general classification of Education Through Music" It is l2eedless to state that Mrs. Francis E. C!ark's visit to Birmingham is re- sponsible for my latest fad.
 When I get a hobby I usually ride it to death or get thrown off the horse and tackle something else. I am just awakening to the fact that about one per cent of our population has a .or- nal education beyond the age of IA. These figures covered the situation a decade ago. I hope there is a change for the better now.
 
 If we take into consideration that -te musical instruction that is given during the period before the schoiars get promoted to the nigh schools cov- CTS about l99 per cent of the boys and girls in the United States. 1t is easy l to see that the little time given to music is of the utmost importance and should 5e spent in the most effective way; but it will take an intensive propa- ganda to get parents behind the move- mcnt.
 | It Is but truism 10 say that of all arts. music is the least universally I cor1prebended, and the reason for 1t is | easy to find Painting and sculpture l do not require even to be translated, tecause the objects on which these are based are the same throughout the wotld. Trees. water. sky and land are similar in Paris and Peking | though it is true that the French artist and the Japanese artists may paint them somewhat differently. Bat while this is true, there is such d thing as the interrelation of the arts Architecture, sculpture and painting are chased as material; literature and music as immaterial, not in the full 1 sense. however, that those rigid terms might imply%without an explanation. They merely mean thsr in the first group ideas are conveyed through vis- | iole and tangible objects, while in the second they are transmitted more di- rectly from mind to mind It is nec- essary furthermore, to state that lit- | erature seeks primarily to express ex- a't thought while music 1an express only abstract sentiments Or feeling, dependent upon strictly stonal elects
 
 l am glad that is cut of~ny system. for l was rapidly getting out of my Ccpth, but I had to wade in or you would have thought that I was afraid of getting drowned in a sea of tech rical words. Music developed later than the other arts. It has always been mystery to me how the human intellect devised an alphabetical sys- tern by which 1t became possible for man to set down his thoughts on the printed page and make them clear and intelligible to other minds. To me A E is no simple thing.
 Frequently have beard negroes ask oLe another. Can you read?" and | sometimes the answer is, q can read rrint, but I can't read writing" and We rather pity their ignorance; but here I am supposed to be an educated man, and yet I am woefully ignorant in the reals of the fifth art, for while II can read print and writing, I can't read a single note of music, and to save other boys and girls from grow ing up as ignorant as| am. is my reason for striving to add my bit to tEcse who are at work to give the public school lads and lassies chance t, become educated jn music.
 ss I've wrestled with shorthand, I have seen the hieroglyphics carved in stone, I have looked over an old Hebrew Testament. I have glanced at Russian trying to translate German schrift, I )hnve been lost in the mazes of the Greek text, I have seen Syriac copies Of the Bible, and I have among my treasured papers a Turkish passport with its singular letters; but any or all of them are much more intelligible to me than are the notations on a slieet of music. I never cease to mar vei at those who have the ability to read music at sight
 I haven't the remotest idea of the sig nificance between round or shaped cotes in music. In fact, about the only kind of note that I am really acquainted with is a long, slow note," the kind the bankers refer facetiously to as of the storage variety" I'll never be able to read my title clear to mansions in the sky If they are set to music, for when it comes to any knowledge of accurate notation in musical sense, I can prove several crimson alibis."
 I am in mo mans land" when the question of how by selecting certain notes a musical system was devised by being formed into scales: of how rotation came into use: of how means for the production of music, vocal and Instrumental were elaborated; how forms satisfying the demands of ar. were slowly worked out; and finally now great movements were carried on by individuals. resulting in the de- velopment and perfection of various kinds and styles of music.