MUSIC


The musical young woman who dropped her peekaboo waist in the piano

player and turned out a Beethoven sonata, has her equal in the lady who

stood in front of a five-bar fence and sang all the dots on her veil.





A thief broke into a Madison avenue mansion early the other morning and

found himself in the music-room. Hearing footsteps approaching, he took

refuge behind a screen.



Fr
m eight to nine o'clock the eldest daughter had a singing lesson.



From nine to ten o'clock the second daughter took a piano lesson.



From ten to eleven o'clock the eldest son had a violin lesson.



From eleven to twelve o'clock the other son had a lesson on the flute.



At twelve-fifteen all the brothers and sisters assembled and studied an

ear-splitting piece for voice, piano, violin and flute.



The thief staggered out from behind the screen at twelve-forty-five, and

falling at their feet, cried:



"For Heaven's sake, have me arrested!"





A lady told Swinburne that she would render on the piano a very ancient

Florentine retornello which had just been discovered. She then played

"Three blind mice" and Swinburne was enchanted. He found that it

reflected to perfection the cruel beauty of the Medicis--which, perhaps,

it does.--_Edmund Gosse_.





The accomplished and obliging pianist had rendered several selections,

when one of the admiring group of listeners in the hotel parlor

suggested Mozart's Twelfth Mass. Several people echoed the request, but

one lady was particularly desirous of hearing the piece, explaining that

her husband had belonged to that very regiment.





Dinner was a little late. A guest asked the hostess to play something.

Seating herself at the piano, the good woman executed a Chopin nocturne

with precision. She finished, and there was still an interval of waiting

to be bridged. In the grim silence she turned to an old gentleman on her

right and said:



"Would you like a sonata before going in to dinner?"



He gave a start of surprise and pleasure as he responded briskly:



"Why, yes, thanks! I had a couple on my way here, but I could stand

another."





Music is the universal language of mankind.--_Longfellow_.





I even think that, sentimentally, I am disposed to harmony. But

organically I am incapable of a tune.--_Charles Lamb_.





There's music in the sighing of a reed;

There's music in the gushing of a rill;

There's music in all things, if men had ears:

Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.



--_Byron_.



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