Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-29
AS ONE WOMAN SEES 1T
Some interesting Facts Concerning
the Damroseh Family Picked
Up at Luncheon
BY SARAHD- INNNRIE
T. SAT- next to Leopold Damrosci's da,


favored few" luncheon One Of the COM
Portable ways we've borrowed Of late from
john Bun has been these impromptu three.
course rcpasts with convcrsation-gencral
conversation at that.
Men did not use to think they had time
to meet women in the middle OF the day,
or more likely women did not want men at
their elaborate, upholstered ten course mid
dGy feeds.
Did you ever hear one of those lunch
parties In the fun tide of talk! The sound
is as precise and as alarming as battery
OF machine guns. You do not hear the
trolleys. or even the United states mail
autotrucks while It lasts. and you quake
even in the far recesses of the den.
But nowadays when women have con-
descended to cut their luncheons down to
a normal meal, men are grateful to cut their
midday office chores, and there is no hour
better for casual talk.
MRS. SEYMOUR'S talk is nothing If no.
A'A casual. Touch her on one or two points
notably her brothers or her fathcr-and
she runs on pleasantly and informingly with
the evident sense that being public charac-
ters. any light she can throw on them
will be interesting and geographically valu"
able.
You are at once swept into partisan view
without being quite aware just what the old
quarrel was all about
| had murmured something, mild and ap-
prcciativc about what our native land owcd
to these pioneers of music in our bcnightei
years before and after the Centennial-thr
ios and the Sos when people still chatt~l
at concerts. and Wagner was heavy music
and the Musical Fund Hail was mecca for
the subscribers TO thc--thc Orphcus con-
certS! The coupling of the maine of Theodore
Thomas with that of Leopold Damrosch was
what touched DamroSch's daughter off into
"reminiscences of some old quarrel between
tNt tlatI 7 ,nit iUnn nj
Of or had forgotten.
TT APPEARED the two met some years
1 later on board ship sailing for Europe.
Damrosch was sailing to gather in
songbirds for the new opera venture just
started in New York; Thomas was sailing
to augment his orchestra lately started IN
Chicago. no doubt. and tn Damrosch' s think
ing II was the time and place to have rec.
oncilation. So he forthwith went up to
Thomas and offered his hand-and Thomas
refused il.
Leopold Damrosch died not long after. the
triumph of his opera enterprise we'll assured,
md he himself. after his long. plucky struS-
gle to give New York the best and only
the best, was triumphanty backed by money
as well as by tardy appreciation.
But he died too soon to lift his affairs
out of the precarious state of this yeas
income paying last years debts
SO the boys" as Mrs. Seymour called
Frank and Walter DamrosCh had to come
to the rescue of their mother and the young
er members of the family.
WAITER DAMROSCH was a profeS.
w sonal musician even then. but the
elder brother. Frank. was a business m2n
out in Denver. He had. however. beguilcl
the city fathers of Denver into letting him
try out his theories about 'sight reading
and chorus work on the school children. and
his byproduct had proved so successful thft
he presently exchanged his business for it,
and came to Now York to start his school
and his peoples classes
Frank DamrOsch's thcory--or rather il
Nolt of Boston'S theory and Dam
roSch's practice-of teaching sight reading
by the use of the movable do is a source
Of discussion that never dries up when one
or two are gathered together in the name
Of music.
To the uninitiated who pronounce ''Go''
like do and not like dough. it is neither hcre
nor there, but il any one wants to make him
self cozy with a group Of professionals. let
him ask them for their candid opinion on the
theory of the movable ''do''-pronounccd
dough. And then he may sit back and take
it easy.
1t Is like asking tho owner Of new car
how low he can throttle down on high.
T TRIED the movable do on Mrs Sey-
l. morr and she thought ! was fellow
"profesh.' We talked about Walter n. 5
trim with the orchestra to Europe last spring
and we agreed that his way of playing the
Star Spanglcd Banner had more thrill to
il than any other, even than StokOwski'S.
She told me thing about Italy and
Walter Damrosch'S concerts in some of the
Italian cities that interested me more than
il did her II was this: Every time the
boxes and the stalls applaudcd him. the
galleries were colo and sometimes hSScd.
and when the expensive seats were silent
the cheap seats gave him the "hurrLh boys"
The President ought to know that, or
Secretary Colby or Van Santvoord Smith, %"
whoever the chap is that holds down tn"
stool in the Department Of State. because il
puts quite another meaning on the reports
that he was his>"d because he was an Amer
lean As matter of fact the orchestra got
huge applause everywhere. The kissing was
a private affsjr between the Socialists and
the reaCtionistS.
WALTER DAMROSCH'S very magnet"
w personality and the fine enthusiasm
reused by the orchestra excited his audiences
into being themselves. SO they Quarrccd
openly with each other as though it was Il
family party.
America owes great debt to her great
Jews When they have genius it docs nor
como spOradicnlly; it lasts into tho second
and third generations. Frank and Walter
DamroSCh are as great and are moro Src-
ccSsful than their great father, and thc
Damrosch family mRrries well. SO the next
generation should make its mark. Walter
Dnmrosch married Margaret Blaine and his
sister. Clara. married David Names. and
Young Seymour. whom ! saw with his
mother. looks a clever, nice boy. Thoy Gro
all as musical as New Engandcr is con
yCiCntiOuG