'Cbe Conservative *
compauionable and genial man is
evident from his portrait. Those persons
who only knew him as the translator of
the "Big Veda" and as the author of the
introductions to the "Sacred Books of
the East , " -were surprised to find him
.excel in his reminiscences as a raconteur.
Max Mullet could .remember Paganini ,
Sontng Spohr , Felix Mendelssohn and
many more as musical students , passing
through their ordeal at Dessau. Men *
delssohn's visit in particular left a deep
'
impression on his mind. "I was still , "
he says , "a mere child , he a very young
man , and , as I thought , with the head of
an angel. Mendelssohn's was always a
handsome face , but later in life the
sharpness of his features betrayed his
Jewish blood. He excelled ad an organ
player , and while at Dessau he played
on the organ in the Grosse Kirche ,
chiefly extempore. I was standing by
him , when he took me on his knees and
asked me to play a choral while he played
the pedal. I see it all as plainly as if it
had been yesterday , and I felt convinced
at the time that I , too , would be a musi
cian. "
Max Mnller's mother used to des
cribe to him how Weber , when he was
writing his "Freischutz , " would walk
about his room the whole day composing ,
not before the pianoforte , but with a
small guitar , and how she heard every
\ melody gradually emerging from the
twang of his little instrument.
The fact that as he grew up young
Mnller found he had not time to serve
two masters caused him to give up
music as the serious work of his life.
He could not practice and study music
as it ought to be practiced and studied
without neglecting Greek and Latin ,
and as life became more serious his
mind was more and moi e drawn to the
thoughts of antiquity and away from
the delights of harmony and melody.
Nevertheless , music , besides being a
source of the highest enjoyment , often
helped him in his pilgrimage through
life. Both in Paris and London many
a house was open to him which would
have remained closed to a mere scholar.
He heard Liszt when he was still at
school in Leipsio. "It was his first entry
into Germany , and he came like
trinmphater ; he was young , theatrical
and terribly attractive , as ladies , young
and old , used today. His style of play
; ing was then something quite new ; now
every player sets off the same fireworks. '
Liszt appeared in his Hungarian
costume , wild and magnificent. Many
years after Max Muller saw Liszt once
more , at the last visit he paid to Lon
don. He came , it seems , to the Lyceum
to see Irving and Terry acting ' -Faust. '
When the play was over Irving gave a
supper party , and Max Muller sat nex
to Liszt , who nowever was not in good
spirits. A few weeks later his death
was announced in the papers.
One reason why musicians took an
uterest in Max Mnller was because he
was the son of the poet , William Muller ,
whose songs had been set to music not
only by Shubert , but by many other
) opular composers. Ho remembers that
when hetold Jenny Lind whose son ,
le was she held up her hands and said :
'What I The son of the poet of the
Mnlfer lieder. ' Now , sit down , and let
me sing you the 'Schone Mullerin. ' "
She began to sing , and sang all the prin
cipal songs of that pathetic idyl , just
moving her head and hands a little , but
really acting the whole story , as few
actresses could hav brought it out
As Saul saw Samuel and wished he
lad not seen him , so Max Muller once
saw Heine. It was in Paris , in 1846.
"One afternoon as I and my friend were
sitting on the boulevard near the Rue
Richelieu , sipping a cup of coffee. 'Look
there'he said'there comes Heine ! ' I
jumped up to see. My friend stopped
trim and told him who I was. It was a
sad sight. He was bent down and
dragged himself slowly along ; his spare ,
grayish hair was hanging round his
emaciated face ; there was no light in
his eyes. He lifted one of his paralyzed
eyelids with his hands and looked at me.
For a time , like the blue sky breaking
from behind gray October clouds , there
passed a friendly expression across his
face , as if he thought of days long gone
by. Then he moved on , mumbling a
line from Goethe in a deep , broken , yet
clear voice , as if appealing for sympathy :
Das Manlthier sucht in Dnstern sainen
Weg , ' Thus vanished from Max Mnl
ler's ken the most sparkling poet of
Germany.
Max Mnller settled in England in 1847 ,
and married a niece of Mrs. Charles
Kingsley and Mrs. J. A Froude , and ,
consequently , was thrown into intimate
relations with their husbands. Another
man of letters whom he knew intimately
was Matthew Arnold , whose "Olympian
manners began even at Oxford. There
was no harm in them ; they were
natural , not put on. The very sound oi
his voice and the wave of his arm were
Jovelike. " Oarlyle , Tennyson and
Browning are among the immortals with
whom he was on friendly terms. He
has many interesting anecdotes , too
concerning Rnskin , Emerson , James
Rutsel Lowell , Oliver Wendel Holmes
Faraday and Darwin. He often met
Thackeray at Oxford and listened to his
treasures of sarcasm and wit. Indeed
he knew most of the giants among men
of science and men of letters , as well aH
the great musicians contemporaneous
with his remarkable career. Ohioago
Times-Herald.
HAS THE PRESS KILLED CONVER
SATION ?
Why is it that so many educated men
who are fastidious regarding their per
sonal appearance , and bestow upon
their bodies the most solicitous care , are
yet willing to send their minds abroad
n a state of slovenliness , regardless of
ho impression they make ? Is it be
cause , as some suppose , the press has
killed conversation ; bsoause the daily
newspapers , magazines and reviews
today as "thick as autumnal leaves that
strew the brooks in Vallombrosa"
suck up the intellectual elements of our
ife , like so many electric machines
drawing electricity from the atmosphere
into themselves , and thus the subjects
of conversation , preempted by the press ,
have lost all their freshness before men
and women have met in the drawing
room ? Or is it because it is thought ab
surd to regard conversation us an art ,
and that , depending for its excellence
on natural gifts on a capacity of quick
sympathy , mental brightness and a
ready power of expression and , follow
ing the chances of the moment , drift
ing with the temper of the company ,
talk , of all things in the world , ought to
be spontaneous ? Is it not artifice , it is
urged , here detestable ? Does not all the
charm of talk vanish the moment any
one is suspected of talking by rule or ut
tering cut-and-dried impromptus , and
does not talk , almost without exception ,
come from the worst of social culprits
a bore ? " Success.
AMERICAN WINES.
Alluding to the probable fate of Amer
ican wines at the French exposition ,
something ought to be done to place our
magnificent wine industry in its proper
light , before not only the people of this
country , but of the world outside.
No wine expert , worthy of the name ,
can deny that true American cham
pagnes , fermented in the bottle and not
merely carbonated , are worthy to rank ,
if not to outrank , in the world's opin
ions , the best French champagnes. We
have in the genuine champagne business
a group of thoroughly conscientious
and expert men , who take pride in pro
ducing an article of which neither they
nor their fellow-citizens need be asham
ed ; and to this end neither time , atten
tion nor expense is spared. The result
is the production of a champagne which
out-bouquets and outsparkles the best
French brands. 4
There is one merit claimed for the
American champagne which should find
it especial favor , as compared with the
French. It makes and carries its own
honest flavor , which is the result of the
peculiar sort of grape used in the mak
ing ; whereas , it is declared that the
French champagne has no flavor until
it is added through the medium of other
liqueurs at the end of the ferment
ing process. In other words , the
French flavor is made , the American is
born.
If American users of Champagne
would be careful not to confound the
true champagne with the imitation , or
carbonated sort , they would discover
that a very superior quality of cham
pagne is made in their native land.
New York Commercial Journal , June
25 , 1900. -
