Missouri Botanical Garden

PETER H. RAVEN LIBRARY

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THE OLD GERMANIA ORCHESTRA.

103

the entire summer. Indeed, for six succes-
sive seasons the musicians found themselves
regularly coming back to Newport again
from their various wanderings ; and it would
not be too much to say that the popularity
of Newport was quite as much due to their
presence as to any other influence.

During this first season their plan was to
play twice a week as one band; the rest
of the time they were divided among the
different hotels. The guests, among whom
were many of their former friends from Bal-
timore, listened most attentively to the mu-
sic, even going so far as almost to give up
dancing during the entire summer. The
cozy evenings at the “Atlantic” and “Belle-
vue ” are still recalled with great pleasure by
the surviving members. The entertainments
resembled promenade concerts. Regular
programmes were made out by the musical
portion of the guests, and the playing drew
crowds of listeners, filling parlors, halls, and
piazzas with an audience far more attentive
than could have been expected under the
circumstances.

The numerous Baltimoreans who were at
Newport that summer had by no means for-
gotten the musicians, nor the warmth with
which they had greeted the orchestra in its
day of obscurity. Now that its reputation
was insured, they were no less anxious to
participate in its triumphs. A subscription
was set on foot, and very soon raised, for a
series of thirty grand concerts to be giveii in
Baltimore during the coming season, thus
insuring the stay of the orchestra during the
entire winter. This unprecedented series of
concerts was given between November 27,
1849, and April 6, 1850. They were all well
attended, and awakened an interest, not only
popular, but unmistakably genuine.

During this long stay in Baltimore, the
members had formed numerous personal
friendships, and the time of parting did not
arrive without bringing many regrets. The
hearts of the young men had not been un-
impressed. It was said in those -days, and
widely believed, that the Germania member,
who should marry, forfeited his membership.
This was not literally the case ; but, recog-
nizing the difficulty of maintaining domestic
ties in a life necessarily so nomadic, the
members, for a long time, refrained from
such ties. The director and the drummer
liad been benedicts before the orchestra came
into being ; the rest remained single.

When the day of departure at length
came, numerous friends assembled to bid
them farewell, and the good wishes of

the* entire community went with them on
their way.

Now followed a tour throughout the East-
ern States and Canada. Splendid success
was met with everywhere. An overwhelm-
ing demonstration greeted them at Mon-
treal, where seven concerts were given.
The best portion of the citizens filled the
house nightly, and the officers of the English
regiments stationed there showed their ap-
preciation and hospitality by giving the
members a standing invitation to their mess,
besides letters of introduction to their bro-
ther officers at other military stations.

The tour which they were now making was
extended to nearly nil the cities of Western
New York, and lasted until the Newport
season opened. It was, at this time, the
custom of the orchestra to give seldom more
than three concerts per week, and thus the
members had large opportunities for social
recreation, as well as for visiting points
of interest in the various places through
which they journeyed. In this way they
gained a most thorough knowledge of the
whole country, and it would be difficult to
select an equally numerous. group of Ameri-
can citizens who know so much of the geog-
raphy of their own country, as did these
peripatetic Germans.

The second season at New York began
and ended with nothing eventful to record.
At the close of the summer, the season of
I ^S°“ 5 I was again passed in Baltimore,
where a second series of thirty concerts had
been subscribed for. At the close of these
concerts, which were fully as successful as
those of the previous winter, the orchestra
went on a four weeks’ trip to the Southern
States with Parodi, Amalia Patti, and Stra-
kosch. Following this engagement was one
with Jenny Lind, for whom they played in
nearly thirty concerts, and when these were
concluded, they repaired to Newport for
the third summer.

At the close of the subscription concerts
in Baltimore, Mr. Lenschow, the original
director of the orchestra, had tendered his
resignation, and Mr. Wilhelm Schultze, the
leader of the violins, was chosen conductor
ad interim. This arrangement continued
with excellent results until the beginning of
their Newport season, when the talents of
Carl Bergmann- — then in New York — becom-
ing known to the members, he was elected
to and accepted this important position.

During the season at Newport it was re-
solved to spend the following winter in Bos-
ton. While this resolution was pending,

Garden

104

THE OLD^&MH'TmA ORCHESTRA.

there was much difficulty in making it unani-
mous, and six of the members resigned. An
agent, however, was at once dispatched to
Germany to supply their places, and the new
players arrived just at the close of the New-
port season. A two-months visit through
the Eastern, States served to convert the fresh
arrivals into valuable members, and, thus
equipped, the orchestra began its season in
Boston. By careful management, and the
exertions of friends, a sufficient number of
subscribers was obtained for twenty orchestral
concerts. It was by far more difficult here
than in Baltimore. The Musical Fund Society
and the Boston Quintette Club, two well estab-
lished instrumental organizations, had each
a large subscription list, for the entire winter,
and the Handel and Haydn Society, which
also had its regular subscribers, would of
course employ the home musicians for its
oratorios. Great rivalry now took place be-
tween the organizations. The Germanians
being the better performers, and enjoying,
as a result of their varied experiences, far
more practical management, gradually got
the better of the Musical Fund Orchestra.
Even the Handel and Haydn Society finally
engaged the Germanians for its concerts,
and from that date their professional status
in Boston was unquestioned.

It was at this time that the so-called
“ public rehearsals,” destined to be so ex-
traordinarily popular, were first undertaken,
and here the great contralto, Miss Adelaide
Phillips made her first public appearance,
singing at nearly all of the afternoon con-
certs. These so-called “rehearsals” were
thus named, in part, at least, from the fact
that they were given in the afternoons, and
to avoid using that frequently absurd anach-
ronism, matinee. But the word was doubt-
less shrewdly chosen also, in deference to
that well pronounced disposition of the hu-
man mind to enjoy everything that seems to
be exclusive, or which the masses are presum-
ed not to have the privilege of enjoying. It
was remarked by Charles Dickens that the
greatest happiness of the average human
being, was to go “ dead-head ” to the theater.
It was no doubt partly owing to this tenden-
cy that these “ rehearsals ” were so popular.

At the close of the winter of 1851-52
in Boston, the Germania formed a connec-
tion with Ole Bull, traveling with him very
extensively in the North and West, for
nearly four months. Then, again, a delight-
ful summer (the fourth) at Newport. During
the leisure hours of this summer, plans were
laid of a more ambitious character than here-

tofore, with a view of spending the winter
again in Boston. The Boston Music Hall was
now nearly completed, and in the anticipation
of an increased general interest in the subject
of music, it was determined to enlarge the
orchestra to thirty members, besides securing
additional attractions in the way of soloists.

At the close of the season in Newport,
the month of October was spent in Phila-
delphia. Their arrival was somewhat early
in the musical year, but they were welcomed
with a plentiful display of enthusiasm. They
gave five concerts alone, and seven in com-
bination with Madame Sonntag. These
were the most brilliant concerts that the
orchestra ever gave in Philadelphia, and to
use the words of a member, “ they were a
most astonishing contrast ” to those hapless
entertainments which took place there in
their earlier days.

The Boston Music Hall was now quietly
engaged for every alternate Saturday even-
ing, and for every Wednesday afternoon
during the whole winter. An engagement
with Alfred Jaell, the pianist, and Camilla
Urso, the talented lady violinist, was per-
fected, and thus well prepared the Ger-
mania entered upon the most successful
year of their organization, and one of the
most brilliant in the history of music in
America. In addition to the regular W ednes-
day “ rehearsals ” and ten grand subscription
concerts in Boston, series of three or four
each were given in Charlestown, Taunton,
New Bedford, Lowell, Newburyport, Provi-
dence, Hartford, Worcester, New Haven,
and Portland, with single concerts at smaller
places. Numerous performances were also
given in connection with other artists, Al-
boni, Sonntag, etc., and with the Handel
and Haydn Society.

The success of the public rehearsals on
Wednesday afternoons was something pro-
digious. At one of them there were 3,737
tickets taken at the door, by actual count.
True, the price was low — eight tickets for
one dollar. At one time there were more
than ten thousand tickets issued and in the
hands of the public, while their use was so
general that they have frequently been
given and taken in “ making change.” It is
a curious fact that seven hundred dollars’
worth of these tickets were never redeemed,
although a fund was reserved for a long
time by the members for that purpose, even
after the orchestra had finally separated.
Occasionally afternoon and evening con-
certs were given on the same day, but the
crowds continued undiminished.

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THE OLD GERMANIA ORCHESTRA.

IOI

The same evening the orchestra held a
meeting in a gloomy back room at the
“ White Swan,” and unanimously voted that
affairs were desperate. To extricate them-
selves seemed a very forlorn hope. A num-
ber of propositions were made and rejected,
one of the most amusing proceeding from
the commander of the drums, Herr Njorth.
The worthy drummer was the possessor of a
very charming wife who was, withal, an
“ expert ” at dancing, and Herr Njorth
thought if she would appear between the
parts of the programme in a dance or two it
might produce an effect. Some of the mem-
bers, the more youthful ones, seemed to
favor the proposition. But it was indig-
nantly voted down by the older ones, who
regarded such an innovation with a holy
horror. The meeting ended in nothing,
save a general desire to be home again, and
they separated still undecided as to their
future.

In Philadelphia, as in New York, the few
who were good judges of a musical per-
formance were mortified and indignant at
the wretched success of these concerts.
They justly regarded it a calamity quite
as great in its effects on our own public as
on the visiting musicians. The only repara-
tion in their power took shape, as in New
York, in a complimentary concert, at which
the orchestra was associated with the famous
violoncellist, George Knoop. This concert,
which was one of the finest ever given
in Philadelphia, took place on the 6th of
January. We will add here the programme
entire, since it reveals a degree of richness
totally beyond the experience of music-
lovers at that day:

1 . Overture to “ J essonda ” Spohr.

2. Duo. Violin and Violoncello, on Styrian Airs.

Performed by Messrs. Wm. Schultze and
Geo. Knoop.

3. Septette, opus 20 Beethoven.

4. Overture, C minor Lenschow.

5. Concerto for Violoncello G. Knoop.

6. Concertino for two flutes, from “ Robert le Diable.”

Performed by Messrs. Carl Zerrahn and
P. Pfeiffer.

7. Double Quartette Spohr.

8. Duo. Violin and Violoncello, from “William Tell.”

9. Overture. “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Mendelssohn .

A bill so replete with sterling composi-
tions as the above would be creditable
even in these days. Twenty-three years
ago it was nothing less than a musical mar-
vel; and when given, as it was, before a
crowded and attentive audience, and by

slich conscientious musicians, the effect pro-
duced may be imagined. For years after-
ward the “Germania and Knoop concert”
was a subject of pleasant memories and fre-
quent reference by many who had heard it.
One such success as this, however, could
not bolster up the waning fortunes of the
orchestra. The men were out of money
and out of spirits. After some further de-
liberation they resolved to disband and
each shift for himself. One joined the
United States service as band-master; a
few returned to New York, but the greater
number remained in Philadelphia. If they
had possessed the means it is quite probable
they would have hastened back to their
native land with the utmost expedition.

A few weeks after the orchestra had sepa-
rated, a profitable engagement offered at
Washington, to give four concerts and to
perform at an “Assembly Ball,” and the
grand Inauguration • Ball. The offer was,
of course, accepted, and the dispersed mem-
bers hastily recalled. After the inauguration
festivities the Society concluded to try con-
certs again. This time they fixed upon Bal-
timore, and on the 8th of March gave their
first performance in that city, at Brown’s
building; the more fashionable resort, Car-
roll Hall, being engaged by Gungl’s band,
which performed the same evening.

The condition of musical taste in Balti-
more at the present day is not very flourish-
ing. The receipts of the symphony concerts,
which were directed by Mr. L. H. Southard,
of the Peabody Institute, for several years,
fell short of the expenses. The field, gener-
ally, has been so far from promising, that
Mr. Southard, after a number of years spent
in trying to cultivate it, some time ago aban-
doned the undertaking and went back to
Boston. The honor, however, was reserved
for Baltimore at that early day, to accord the
first genuine success to the Germania So-
ciety. At the first concert, although the hall
was by no means crowded, the demonstra-
tions of pleasure and approval were more
decided than the players had before heard
anywhere. A second performance, on the
following evening, was still better, and a gen-
eral excitement was created. A mass at the
Cathedral followed on Sunday, and the same
evening a sacred concert was given at Zion
Church with the greatest possible success.
Gungl and his orchestra returned abruptly to
New York, leaving the Germanians in pos-
session of the field, and of Carroll Hall.
But Carroll Hall proved soon to be too
small for the increasing crowds, and the per-

THE OLD GERMANIA ORCHESTRA.

formances were continued at the Holliday
Street Theater.

Now followed success as great as it was
unexpected. Eight concerts were given to
crowded houses, and the members of the
orchestra were wonderfully elated. Many
excellent compositions were now perform-
ed for the first time in America, among
them Beethoven’s Third, Fifth, Sixth, and
Seventh* Symphonies, Spohr’s Consecration
of Tones, overtures by Mozart, Weber,
Mendelssohn and Spohr, a large amount of
chamber music, and, in connection with the
Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, Ros-
sini’s “ Stabat Mater,” and Romberg’s “ Lay
of the Bell.” The business agent of the'
orchestra, Mr. Helmsmuller, was at his wits’
end to plan suitable announcements for many
of these concerts. At the very beginning of
the series, so unexpectedly successful, he had
advertised the “ Farewell Concert.” Now
he was obliged to follow it up with such
titles as “ Grand Symphonic Entertain-
ment ; ” “ By request, One More Concert ; ”
“ Another Farewell Concert ; ” “ They won’t
let us go,” &c. But at last it had to come
to an end, and the posters read “ Most
Positively the last Farewell Concert.”

Having pushed their success in Baltimore
as far as prudence would seem to dictate,
they now resolved upon a visit to Boston.
On the route to that city concerts were given
at New Haven, Hartford, Springfield, Wor-
cester, and Providence, with moderate suc-
cess. They arrived in Boston on the 14th of
April, and played the same evening. Here,
again, a slight misunderstanding of Ameri-
can customs seemed likely to mislead them
and disconcert their plans. The musical
“ season” ends in America while still at its
height in London; and in the continental
cities to which our artists had been accus-
tomed the changes of season were very lit-
tle regarded. But in America, even now,
by the 14th of April, the concert season
may be considered very far spent ; and so
the result of this first Boston concert was
far from encouraging. They made a very
small beginning indeed, the entire receipts
being only twenty-three dollars.

The artistic success of this concert, how-
ever, was complete, and succeeding perform-
ances were more and more encouraging.
The Boston public has enjoyed, for two
generations or more, the reputation of pos-

* It is said, by another authority, that the Seventh
Symphony of Beethoven was first given in Boston
about 1842.

sessing the most refined and enlightened
taste to be found on this continent. With
no disposition to dispute her high artistic
repute, we are inclined to trace it to a some-
what different source than superior judg-
ment and unerring taste. The chief cause
of it rests in the simple fact that what her
people really like they will have, and are
always ready to pay for. While other cities
may be haggling over terms, and other au-
diences are hanging back until prices fall,
Boston, having found a good thing, steps in,
and, outbidding every vacillating competitor,
bears the prize triumphantly within her own
charmed circle. It was very much in this
way that Boston treated the Germania Soci-
ety. The season was virtually over. Accord-
ing to all precedent, the violins should have
been boxed up, the flutes unscrewed, the
kettle-drums hustled into their musty garrets
to keep company with spider-webs, and the
general average of concert-goers prepared
gratefully to button up their pocket-books
and thank God that one expense was over.

But the first concert of the Germania
Musical Society opened the Bostonian eyes,
and the unfastening of the Bostonian purse
followed as a matter of course. They did
not stay to ask whether it was May or
November. Twenty-two concerts were now
given in rapid succession, and the unabated
enthusiasm was highly encouraging to the
members. The last five concerts were play-
ed in connection with the then famous vocal-
ist, Fortuneda Tedesca, and the hall was
invariably filled to overflowing. It is a
fact worth recording that at these twenty-
two concerts the overture to “ Midsummer
Night’s Dream” was played entire forty-four
times , the audience in every instance insist-
ing upon a repetition.

The high-road to success was now at length
reached, and despite the near approach of
summer, engagements from other cities flow-
ed in rapidly. Good, paying concerts were
given in Lowell, Taunton, and New Bed-
ford, directly following the Boston series ;
and even New York, which had so decidedly
given the cold shoulder to this enterprise,'
now offered an engagement to play at “ sum-
mer festivals ” in Castle Garden. This offer
was accepted, and by the end of the series
summer had come in good earnest.

About this time some of the more influ-
ential pioneer visitors at Newport had set
about the project of making that resort a
fashionable watering-place. Their artistic
taste and judgment were well shown in their
engagement of the Germania Orchestra for

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HENRY EHRHARDT,

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Gi Engslmann Papers

CULTURE AND PROGRESS.

*35

that the “ average man ” is well contented with either.
“ He likes sense and information, if they are not put
in such a way as to tire or shock him. He is will-
ing enough to put up with commonplace which imi-
tates originality, for he finds nothing to object to in
the commonplaces ; but he has not sufficient confi-
dence in his own judgment to detect the counterfeit
originality. But it is a mistake to imagine that there
is always a popular demand for any foolish fashion
of writing which happens to exist. That very lack
of discrimination which marks the uneducated man
renders him quite as ready to accept sense as non-
sense. But as nonsense only is given him, he accepts
nonsense. Who is he that he should set up his
opinion against persons who express themselves in
such fine and confident words, whose sentences are
printed in such elegant type, in papers sold at such
grand hotels, and scattered by the thousand in such
great cities ? What is known as a popular demand
might be more accurately described as a popular
acquiescence. It seems very formidable when we
think of the immense number of persons who form
it; but then it is only skin-deep. Instead of a
popular state of mind being, as we are apt to think
it, a recondite and almost inscrutable matter, it is
oftener the result of an obvious and even contempti-
ble cause. Instead of there being a deep-seated and
characteristic taste with which public caterers must
comply, the fashion is often given the people from
above. After the fashion is fixed, men write in
accordance with it, and explain its existence by the
fiction of a demand.”

Mr. Nadal has given us a very delightful volume,
— full of good things that one feels like marking
with the pencil, or reading aloud, or quoting in a
“book notice; ” but we confess that these “Impres-
sions ” most interest us by the promise of their
qualities. There are phases of American life, — and
one of them at least he himself points out in the
paper on “ English Sundays and London Churches,”
— which are waiting for appropriate treatment at the
hands of a writer whose tone is so high and reverent
of truth, who has just such quick and subtile in-
sight, just such exquisite poetic feeling, free from
all taint of sentimentality.

Miss Phelps’s “ Poetic Studies.” *

Only those whose occupation it is to listen closely
to all the utterances and echoes of the period, in imag-
inative literature, can fully know the relief that comes
with hearing unexpectedly, amid the uproar, a single
note of genuine, spontaneous song. Such a note we
seem to distinguish in Miss Phelps’s modest volume,
though the manner of uttering it is not quite so much
her own as we could wish it to be, seeing how fine
and how distinctive is the quality of her feeling. It
is not that one blames a poet for resemblances which
may be as natural as that close friends should have
kindred tastes, and members of one family develop
like features; and, if Miss Phelps’s poetic accent

* Poetic Studies. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Author of
“The Gates Ajar,” etc. Boston: James R. Osgood & Com-
pany.

recalls, here and there, the time of Browning or
Emerson, it is no less a ground for pride that she
can write in their modern strain two poems like
“What the Shore says to the Sea” and “ What the
Sea says to the Shore.” It is, perhaps, not doing
Miss Phelps justice to call attention first to these
hints of poetic kinship ; but rather the offering of a
crumb to very strict literary consciences. The maxim
of some readers as well as critics seems to be, “ First
catch your poet: ” we have shown them how to do
it in this case. But even in “ Petronilla,” a poem,
the peculiar lace-like texture of which we should be
tempted most strongly to call Point of Browning,
we find a strange, visionary effect in the description
of miracle, which seems quite new and very nota-
ble.

The most simply pleasing, and possibly therefore
the healthiest verses in the book are, we think,
those called “Did you speak?” They relate a
childish anecdote of the sort which women poets
have brought into literature ; and we owe humble
thanks for the simple, naive, hearty sweetness im-
parted through them. Of “ The Light that never was
on Sea or Land,” we must speak in a very different
tone. This is a poem which brings criticism into
the attitude of silent awe ; not so much for its art
(though that is singularly subtle) as for its pure,
far-reaching feminine holiness. Here again is a
revelation which only a woman could have made,
because she alone knows the depths of feeling
whence it came.

If we speak solely of literary value, we must think
Miss Phelps wise in calling her poems “studies.”
In the main, they are simply this, — not, of course,
cold, mechanical studies, but efforts in certain direc-
tions carried only to a given point. Some go farther
than others, and several deserve a degree higher
than that assigned by the title. But if these also are
only “ studies,” we look with great hope for “works ”
to follow.

“An. Idyl of Work.”*

A defense maybe found for the • strict literary
conscience which we have alluded to in speaking of
Miss Phelps. It is this. The alien notes in a poet’s
singing come there in two ways, — either through a
semi-unconscious demand of a voice strong enough
to carry them without hurt, or through adoption on
theory. In the first case, of course, the defect
excuses itself, in a measure. In the second, though
the theory may be as unconscious as the distinctive
demand was in the first case, it proves itself theory by
the weakness of the voice, and cannot excuse itself —
can only be excused.

When a poem in blank verse, something over four
thousand lines long, is about to be written, it is
advisable to reflect long and seriously whether the
subject-matter takes the proposed form voluntarily,
and whether it has in itself the peculiar elements
and tendencies which will uphold the ponderous
shaping, and keep it buoyant and battle-proof to the
last. It seems to us that this was not safely to be

* An Idyl of Work. By Lucy Larcom. Boston : James R.
Osgood & Company.

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predicated in the case of Miss Larcom’s work, and
a thorough reading of it has made us wish that, with
such high intentions, and such a knowledge of the
life to be described, the poetess had cast her story in
a more elastic form. All along through this tale of
mill-girls’ life there are gleams of that austere, pa-
thetic kind of beauty which has made the far more
meager peasant-life of Norway, for example, famous.

A natural error seems to have led to the adop-
tion of the (in some ways) most poetic of all forms
but the pure dramatic, in order to escape a strong
sub-current of prosiness in the scenery. But this has
only emphasized the obstacles. The verses are
broken on the mill-ivheels, as it were, at every
turn ; whereas a strong, musical prose would have
put a spell on the machinery, and made the com-
monplace forcible and attractive in spite of itself.
Take this scrap of talk :

She might be— my third cousin.”

“ May be— is”

“That is her native State.”

To call upon her with you.”

This is clear and unrelieved prose, and is by no
means an exceptional passage. Yet we sympathize
entirely with Miss Larcom’s brave effort to rescue,
even by a mistaken method, the recondite and valu-
able romance of obscure lives; and we must add
that, not only is her sentiment always true and dig-
nified, but often her expression is very fortunate.
These two facts, two extracts will prove :

“Woman can rise no higher than womanhood,
Whatever be her title.”

This has the right luster, but in a more successful
setting it might have met readier recognition.

“One baby sister blossoms like a
Among her thorny brothers, all
With farm-work,”

rough

ing New England. Mr. Shook thus acquired a com-
mon law right of property in the manuscript, just
the same as he would in a lot of scenery or costumes-
purchased in Paris. The Court protected this right
as a common law right, and not under the copyright
statutes. This general principle of law was not dis-
puted by Mr. Daly, but he had also bought a copy
of the manuscript which purported to come from an
alleged assignee of the author in England. The
question, therefore, before the Court was, whether
Daly’s title was good as against Shook’s, and the
decision was in favor of the latter. Daly, therefore,,
himself claiming title from the author, was not in a
position to raise the question whether the public
representation of the play in Paris was an abandon-
ment of the author’s rights. If this issue had been
raised, it could have been argued only on the
ground that the play had been obtained through the
memory of one or more persons who had witnessed
the performance in Paris. But it is probable that
even this theory will never again meet with any
favor in our courts, which will, doubtless, hold to
the better doctrine, that the representation of a
manuscript play is not a publication destructive of
the author’s proprietary rights.

Some of the comments on the decision in the case
of “ Rose Michel ” assume that the rights here ac-
corded to a foreign dramatist are withheld from other
foreign authors. This, however, is not so. Any
foreign author has the right to make exclusive pub-
lic use of his work in this country, provided it be
kept in manuscript. The same protection thrown
around the play of “ Rose Michel ” will be extended
to a lecture or a musical composition given from
manuscript to the public, or to an original painting
on exhibition, notwithstanding they are foreign pro-
ductions. Mr. Charles Reade may read in public a
manuscript novel from New York to San Francisco,
and his common law right of property therein will
be protected by our courts.

is like a breath of pure country air.

The plot is light and vague, but, with more dis-
tinctness and a poetic pitch more clearly sustained,
the book might have been what we may still look
to its author for, a long lever to advance American
poetry on its true path.

A Reading-Room for the Blind.

To the Editor of “Scribner's Monthly” : Within the
limits of New York city, there are now about six hundred blind.
Nearly all of the children thus afflicted are in the Institution for
the Blind on Ninth Avenue, near Thirty-fourth street ; a few
are in the Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. Of the men, most
have become blind since they reached manhood, and sadly

“ Foreign Dramatists under American Laws.’

The recent case in the New York Superior Court,
brought by Mr. Sheridan Shook of the Union Square
Theater, to prevent Mr. Augustin Daly from pro-
ducing at the Fifth Avenue Theater the French
play “ Rose Michel,” is the same in its main features
as those discussed in our article on “ Foreign Dram-
atists under American Laws.” “Rose Michel” is
a manuscript play from the pen of M. Blum, a
French dramatist. It has been represented in Paris,
but has not been printed there or here. A copy of
the French manuscript, and one of the English
translation, were purchased from the assignee of the
author by Mr. Shook, with the exclusive privilege
of representing the play in the United States, except-

volumes of this print are cumbrous and expensive, the Bible
consisting of some eight volumes, of a total weight of fifty
pounds. Despite the greatest care of experienced attendants,
the raised letter often becomes flattened by finger-reading, and
wholly illegible to the blind. To the greater number of those
who are educated in it, finger-reading is a process too slow and

and can spare neither the money to buy such books, nor the
time to read them to their sightless friends, were the books pro-
vided. Very few are self-supporting ; their life is one of enforced'

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