233

A SUMMERTIME MEDLEY

A Young Violin Maker of Omaha and His Work -- One of His Creations.

Nebraska's School for the Deaf and Some of the Things It Has Accomplished.

The Negro Question and a Word for the Indians -- Mrs. Peattie Drops Into Poetry.

Love for a day -- and then, my sweet, farewell!
I would not with one accent, bid you stay.
See, not the semblance of a teardrop fell.
Even when you said 'twas love but for a
day.

Dreams are the dearest things that life may bring.
And knowledge robs us flat of these, you say.
But you will leave me with this flawless thing,
The perfect memory of love a one day.

No, let no purer day on our love dawn.
I fear to see the hideous feet of clay,
Love, go. I shall not weep when you are gone,
To think our kisses lasted but a day.

'In all centuries, at all times," says Oclave Thanet There have been artisans with the artist's soul."

There is no such a one in Omaha. His name is Clinton A. Cane, and he is to be found high up in a certain business block of the city, in a little room about 15x10, standing at his bench.

He is a young man, only 27, and he dresses fastidiously, and wears a tiny gold chain to his eye glasses, and white tie. But he is a workman all the same And his occupation is the making of violins

Long ago -- as a man of 27 counts time -- Mr. Case went to an old violin maker in this town named Fenwick, and asked him to take him for his apprentice. Mr. Fenwick was not particulary interested. He had not himself found violin making a very inspiring occupation and he did not see why anyone else should do so. But the young man insisted on being taught something of the creat. He hung around and pried about, he looked at the old man's tools and examined his woods, and asked questions. He read about tone, and its relations to other things -- its dependence upon form, fiber, space and vibration He read about varnishes, and the lost art of the old masters, and dreamt about the time when he should make a violin with strong lungs, and a beautiful voice that would sing clear and steadfast, and have a range like some great mezzo.

So, presently, he turned out a little violin. It was made flat, as Mr Fenwick had told him to make it, and it had a narrow waist, as Mr. Fenwick had also instructed. The curves were fairly true, the thing well put together, and the varnish was like satin

'I made thirty violins before I made one as good as that," confessed old Fenwick, bending over it and looking at it a little jealously. "As for the varnish, it looks as if it were made of amber"

'So it is" said the novice.

"No!' cried Fenwick. "No one knows nowadays how to make an amber varnish. It is a lost art.'

Young Case smiled back at him

"It is a found art," he said. I have found it Remember, will you, that the first violin I ever made had a coat of amber varnish. And it will grow more beautiful every year."

That was seven years ago -- the ear of the great blizzard, as we designate it out here in Nebraska. And the varnish has grown more beautiful every year

'It is a secret I alone hold," says young Case. 'It is the secret of the old masters. I said I would find it, and I did"

Sir Case has made thirty six violins since then. Some good musicians in this and in other cities possess them. People come from other towns to get these instruments, which already have a pretty fame.

For they are no longer made flat nor narrow in the waist.

'It takes full lungs and a large throat to make a large voice," the violin maker reasoned. So he built his violins with a large swell to them and a very wide waist. And he studied much to make the lines in proportion and to slope the sides of it, so that the hand would slip easily to the harmonics. He became a connoisseur in the texture of wood and a student of the effect of varnishes upon woods, and he learned at last certain laws that govern resonance and tone.

And each violin sang clearer and better, till at length he fashioned of fir and maple -- which were without flaw -- an instrument which is his masterpiece. it is a bit like a Quarnerius in its shape, but still is is original. The sides bulge in a beautiful swell, the edges make a delicate curve, all the more noticeable because the waist is so broad that one might fear a destruction of symmetry. Perhaps the instrument is an eight of an inch longer than is usual. The color is a dark brown, and through the wonderful amber varnish the maple shows its waving lines.

In tone the violin is the great mezzo of which Case used to dream when he first commenced his work. It took him six months to make the violin to his satisfaction. But it is to his satisfaction now -- or almost

It's a lovely thing to the eye, but when Hans Albert takes it in his hands, and stands at the rear of the little shop, and draws his slow bow across it, lovingly, and sweeps up and down in a sudden passion of sound, then the instrument is a voice, proud, and true, and deeply responsive, echoing the moods of the artist's soul, as a mirror would reflect his face.

"He will be one of the greatest makers of violins the world has known," cries Hans who is always an enthusiast.

May be. Anyway, whether he reaches such an eminence or not he evidently expects to He is sure of himself, and intoxicated with his work. His whole healthy life is concentrated on his trade. And he has made, without doubt, the best violin ever made in this town.

* * * * * * *

Mr Holman, who, when he is not objecting, is abolishing, now proposes to abolish the board of Indian commissioners. He objects to the small appropriation of $5 000 needed to cover the traveling expenses of this board when on business for the government Mr Dennis T Flynn of Oklahoma made the argument that the board should be abolished because "there is scarcely a matter ever broached in congress or in the department in reference to the Indian service that these people (the commissioners) are not around nosing in" Seeing that this nosing" has been the best protection of the Indian, and that it has been the means of preventing jobbery and frauds, people in general will not have a bad opinion of these nosers.

Mr. Holman has also shown a singular inconsistency in refusing to approve the small appropriation of $5,000 for the commissioners, and in introducing a bill for creating a commission of six to investigate and report from time to time, for which he asks an appropriation of $20 000. He is willing to enlarge the political machine, in fact, and to increase political patronage, but he is not willing to permit the investigations of a number of disinterested persons whose motives are disinterested, and who have no political trading to do He is bidding shamelessly for a return of the "ring" methods. And if this obtains, it will simply mean more defrauding of the Indian, more supplying of unfit and insufficient food, and more absurd proportionment of supplies.

The Washington Post says "Prior to the formation of the board of Indian commissioners there was no branch of the public service so rich in scandal or so profitable to the members of the ring as that of Indian affairs, but with the incoming of this organization the thieves who had fattened at the expense of both the appropriative source and those who were supposed to be benefited were driven either into other fields, or into discreditable obscurity."

Yet the attempt is openly made to reinstate this shameless crew, whose reason for being will be to absorb the money the people appropriate and to which the Indian is entitled.

* * * * * * *

Rev. John Albert Williams rector of the church of St. Phillip the Deacon, in a letter of kindly criticism concerning the article which appeared in the WORLD-HERALD last sunday, says

"There is a portion of your article from which I dissent. It is this. 'There is not a drawing room in this country where the negro community comes as a friend of the family, although in church, or political or educational work he may occasionally associated with those of social position'

'[?] This puts the case too strongly There are many drawing rooms in this country where individuals do commonly come as friends of the family -- not on suffrance, but as friends, drawn together by like tastes and like pursuits It is when we are associated with those of social position in church, or political, or educational work that we feel too often that we are there by tolerance or suffrance merely, so far as certain individuals are concerned. But so far as rights or immunities are concerned we are there by sovereign right which he may dispute who will, but which we refuse to surrender. There are many drawing rooms where we are welcomed as friends, and not as co-workers in certain lines of thought or activity."

This comes from a man who is certainly in a position to know whereof he speaks, and I am glad he has found and enjoyed the friendship to which his accomplishments and his sincere life and upward purpose entitle him. He is among the most energetic of our clergymen, and is held in deep affection among his own people and parish, and in admiring respect by all who know him I infer from his remarks that he does not feel himself debarred from the privileges which should be his, and it gives me pleasure to know it.

* * * * * * *

Mr. and Mrs. Gillispe, the superintendent and matron of the Nebraska Institute for the Deaf, have left for Chatauqua, N. Y ,accompanied by a class of pupils which will illustrate their work in aural development. As those know well who are acquainted with the progress made at our institute for the deaf these two instructors have made a specialty of the development of latent hearing Indeed, they may be said to have invented the system of aural development, and, with their assistants, Mr. and Mrs Taylor, have brought int communication with the world many an unfortunate who would otherwise have been immured in silence as long as life lasted.

The pupils who are to go to Chautauqua are three in number, one being a young man who has received five years' instruction, and the others two little girls 6 years of age, who have had about a years instruction. These two little things are very pretty. Mabel Scanlan, who comes from Kearney, is a blond, with a vivacious temperament Helen Oliver, who is from Lincoln, is a grave and very attractive brunette. They are about the same height, and famous friends When they came to the institute they were excellent examples of children well born, well cared for, and yet, by reason of their terrible affliction of deafness, almost undeveloped in their faculties. Immured in that prison of silence, with only their eyes to assist them in becoming acquainted with the world around them, without means of communicating their ideas or formulating their ideas by means of words, with their curiosity awake, their natures continually irritated by their inability to correspond with any about them, they were in many respects like animals, with instincts, desires, but no modes of expression But they suffered, without doubt, as animals can never suffer, and this suffering was, in the nature of things, in a fair way to produce ill-nature, or, perhaps even a worse form of mental viciousness This would be almost inevitable.

The task of establishing a means of commnication, of indicating the nature of a word and at last of awaking in the silence with which they were surrounded, some idea of sound, its distinctions and meaning is a task so enormous that those who have never tried it may be well pardoned if they cannot appreciate entirely what it means.

These children were to all intents and purposes deaf. They had never heard a sound. Yet they were not, in the scientific sense of the word, entirely deaf. The sense of hearing was latent to them. And by the system of ear education which Mr Gillispie has introduced they were taught to hear violent sound, then to distinguish one sound from another, and finally to hear the voice and to distinguish words. What endless patience this instruction takes no one can say. It means months of ceaseless work. And even at best it must be limited. The word knowledge cannot be extensive. But, after all, the world has been made audible for the and expressible and enjoyable. It is the difference between darkness and light, between misery and joy, between living death and throbbing life

There are eighteen in the class of aural development, but these little ones were chosen to go because their parents could afford it and were willing to have them go on the long journey, and because the girls work together so well, and make such a charming picture in their similarities and contrasts.

The young man is an example of what can be done with five years' training From being a mere unhappy animal, he has become an interesting and ambitious young man, with a desire to fit himself for active work in the way of cabinet making or some similar occupation having developed a talent for designing and for joining, and other fine carpentering.

It is almost the same as making a sense -- this developing of one that, but for the outputting of such extraordinary and unselfish energy, would have lain dormant And the instructors at the institute may well expect to win credit at the New York, Chautauqua, and to thus bring within reach of this development hundreds of other afflicted creatures.

Already this system of aural development, which was first instigated by Mr.

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Gillispie, has now found its way into fifteen or twenty institutions for the deaf.

It is safe to say that such success would never have been obtained at the Nebraska institute had the superintendent had less capable assistants. But the youth, energy, nervous force and friendliness with which both Mr and Mrs Taylor are endowed has made it possible for them to control and teach these unfortunates. And the result is beautiful -- it is like watching the manufacture of thinking, happy men and women out of mere physical matter. Indeed, that is exactly what it is

ELIA W. PEATTIE.

THE OSTERGARD WOOD.

Newman Grove's Pleasure Grounds -- Woodman Spare That Tree.

NEWMAN GROVE, Neb , June 28 -- [Specail.] -- If every traveling man who makes the Scribner branch of the Elkhorn road knew what handsome pleasure grounds lay near to Newman grove, what excellent boating there was between the town and the wood, and what jolly, hospitable people were to be found in that enterprising little city, many of them would surely lay their plants so that they might spend a Sunday at this place.

Accompanying is found an engraving giving a representative view of the many beautiful landscapes that are to be found

[Drawing]
THE OSTERG

in the course of three miles'rowing from the boat house near the city to the park.

The boating is on a mill pond, and a four-mile stretch of the finest water in the state is open to those who enjoy such scenery.

At every turn in the winding stream such beautiful views as the above are encountered.

The picnic grounds are about three miles from the boat house and are located on what is known as Hackberry Island. This island is heavily timbered with hackberry, oak and elm. There are some exceptionally fine oak trees, estimated to be from 300 to 400 years old.

The town of Newman Grove is under obligations to Colonel Thomas Ostergard, a true lover of nature, for the pleasures of this beautiful park. A few years ago the grounds belonged to a man with no artistic tastes, but whose only desire was to clear off the woods as quietly as possible and put theground into corn Colonel OStergard made frequent pilgrimages to these woods, and every time he noted with regret that some tree that had been a prime favorite of his had fallen beneath the spoilers ax. At last he could stand it no longer and purchased the grounds for $4,000. Since then the underbrush has been cleared out, flowers planted and cared for, the channel of the stream has been kept clear, landings have been put in, boats purchased and boat houses erected, and today there are no finer pleasure grounds to be found in Nebraska.

The WORLD-HERALD's representatives will not forget for many a year the very pleasant Sunday spent in Newman grove where he enjoyed the hospitalities of Colonel Ostergard in this beautiful park.