5i;
44
THE SUNDAY OEEGONIAN, PORTIANDt JANUARY 22, 190?.
England's Immigration
Problem Worse Than
Ours
SOME years ago, according to the
statement made by a witness to the
sweating committee of the House o
Lords, two steamships met at Tilbury
docks, London.
One was outward bound to Australia
with 500 lusty, full-blooded young English
men and Englishwomen on Doard. They
were emigrants who were driven to the
colonies because they could not make a
decent living at home.
The other ship was inward bound from
Hamburg with 700 Russian and Polish
Jews, all of them reduced by persecution
to a terrible state of poverty and degrada
tion. There you have England's immigration
-problem in a nutshell! It is infinitely
worse than America's, because immigra
tion into England is absolutely unrestrict
ed. Hungry, destitute, criminal and dis
eased aliens arc at full liberty to flock to
the shores of Albion and reduce the stand
ard of wages and living in the big cities
to such a serious extent that native Brit
ishers arc obliged to seek their fortunes
oversea. Good wine Is being drained out
of the barrel all the time and bad wine
poured in.
The Only Place for the Scum.
Great Britain is the only country In Eu
rope, save Portugal, which makes abso
lutely no provision for preventing the en
trance of undesirable aliens into its territory-
Consequently, It has become the
last refuge of tens of thousands of people
who have been obliged to leave their na
tive land, and who can find admittance
to no other country save England. Portu
gal, of course, is out of the question as a
home for any considerable number of im
migrants. Even the British colonies bar
out undesirable aliens.
America Is the first thought of the Jew
of Eastern Europe, of the Slav, of the
Italian. But if America's doors are shut
sto him, as they are in so many cases, he
naturally turns to Great Britain, thinking
that "tight little island" Is the next best
place for him to go. Thus the seriousness
of the English immigration problem has
been gravely accentuated in recent years
by the rigid enforcement of the Immigra
tion law in this country.
"More than 90 per cent of the undesira
bles you turn back drift to England," said
Sir Howard Vincent, M. P., to the writer
during a recent visit which he paid to this
country.
Sir Howard Vincent is one of the lead
ers of that party in the House of Com
mons which has fought for years to ob
tain restrictive legislation against aliens
on the lines of the Immigration law in the
United States.
Up to the present all attempts to secure
such legislation have failed, because the
majority of British members of Parlia
ment have prided themselves on keeping
their country wide open as a refuge for
the poor and oppressed of all nations. But
the situation has grown so much worse
during the past year or two that a bill to
restrict alien immigration is almost sure
to be passed during the next session of
Parliament. At the least, a desperate
fight will be made for it.
The average Briton, once heartily in
favor of admitting any and everybody
to his country, is now inclined to agree
with Major Evans-Gordon, one of the
members of the Royal Commission on
Allen Immigration, which reported in
favor of restrictive legislation a short
time ago.
"It is not fair to pit our sympathy
with the persecuted in Russia against
our sense of duty to our own people,"
wild the Major, summing up the evidence
given before the commission. " 'Charity
begins at home' sounds a selfish maxim.
But when altruism towards aliens leaves
pome of our poorest folk without homes
and without work it is time to say that
the burden of solving the problems of
Eastern Europe is not to be laid upon
them."
Not a New Problem.
England's immigration problem is not a
new one, although its gravity has in
creased mightily in recent years. Gener
ations ago George Crulkshank drew a fa
mous cartoon showing a map of England
with a notice tagged on to it, "Rubbish
may be shot (dumped) here." Dr. John
son, who was In the habit of keeping his
eyes open when he took "a walk along
Fleet street." wrote the following lines
in imitation of Juvenal:
London, the needy villain's general home.
The common sewer of Paris and of Home,
Condemned by fortune and resistless fate.
Sucks In tho dregs of each corrupted state.
The chief point to which the alien im
migrants flock is, of course, London. It
has been well said that nowadays Lon
don east of -Aldgatc Is a foreign city.
It Is a Jewish ghetto. All the signs on
the houses and shops arc in Yiddish; a
arge proportion of the pcople still wear
the clothes they wore in Russia. Poland
and Roumanla. and you may pass through
Hie whole streets and not meet with a
wul who can speak English except In the
most broken fashion.
Major Evans-Gordon made a tour
through the districts in Eastern Europe,
rom which the bulk of the immigrants
i cm. "When visiting the towns in Wcst
?rn Russia within tho Jewish pale." he
ald. T was surprised to find mysolf in
the familiar surroundings of the East
Knd. The life, the language, the people,
the shops and their contents were all
the same."
Other cities to which immigrants flock
It great numbers are Leeds, Manchester.
Liverpool and Glasgow. The problem of
Leeds is an extremely serious one. The
immigrants have monopolized the trade
of making cheap boots and clothing, and
whole districts of the city are just as for
eign as the East End of London has be
fcme. In one district the alien Jews are
so numerous that the Roman Catholic
and Wesleyan Churches have had to go
t ut of business and sell their buildings to
Jrw for use as factories. In the East
Knd of London, notably in Spitalfields,
this kind of thing has become quite com
mon. Dozens of churches, chapels and
mission halls have had to be given up,
and are now used as synagogues, work
shops or foreign clubs.
No Anti-Semitism in the Matter.
There Is. however, no trace of antl
Sfmitism in the agitation against unre
stricted alien immigration. It is com
monly said that some popular trades
union leaders, like John Burns and Ben
TillPtt. could raise a "Judenhctz" in the
East End tomorrow that might rival the
horrors of Klshlncff, but they do not care
to do so. There Is no feeling against tho
immigrants because they are. In the main,
Russian, Polish and Roumanian Jews.
You may search through all the speeches
and writings of the agitators for restric
tion, and wade through the voluminous
tomes of evidence given before various
government commissions, and you will not
find the slightest expression of bitterness
against tne alien Jew as a Jew. Indeed,
many of the most prominent and repre
sentative English Jews favor restrictive
legislation heartily. Lord Rothschild was
. member of the last commission which
reported In favor of stopping the flow of
"undesirables."
Jt is plainly not a religious but an eco
nomic question. The wealthy and benev
olent English Jews spend their money
like water to relieve the suffering of their
co-religlonists in the slums of the great
cities, but they are the first to admit thatj
it is almost a hopeless task. They openly
express their doubt whether the Immi
grants are any better off under the thumb
of the sweater In England than they were
under tho cruel governments of Russia
and Rou mania!
Hero Is a case In point which tends to
confirm that doubt. It was reported in
the London Dally Telegraph some timo
ago:
Worse Than Russia or Roumanla!
Adolphe Cashneer. a Russian Jew ap
peared before the Coroner of East London
to testify concerning the death of his in
fant child. He could not speak a word of
English, but explained through an inter
preter that he had- been out of work for
six weeks. He worked at the cheap tail
oring trade, and in that trade any man
who Is out of work for even six days Is
on the ragged edge of starvation.
The mother had no medical attention at
her confinement but another Jewish wom
an acted as midwife. She had no food
except a few cents' worth of milk each
day and a share of chicken which lasted
the entire family five days. To buy the
chicken the husband had to pawn his only
pair of trousers. He had pawned his coat
before. The dead child had no clothes ex
cept a dirty napkin to cover It. It lived
one week, and then died of starvation.
The doctor who went to the garret after
the death was reported stated to the Cor
oner that there was no sheet or blanket
on the bed a mere bundle of filthy straw.
The mother had no proper clothing, and
there was no food In the room except a
cupful of sour milk unfit for human con
sumption. A terrible case, but a sporadic one?
Not at all! The Coroner and the doc
tor knew better. They both said that they
commonly met with such cases in the
course of their dally work. The doctor
was one of those great-hearted, over
worked East End practitioners, whose
regular fee Is 12 cents and who do three
quarters of their work for nothing, be
cause their patients cannot afford to pay
even that insignificant amount.
Swarming Like Ants in the Slums.
If the "mmlgrants would spread over
the country their presence would hardly
be noticed and they would certainly be
no serious social evIL The trouble is
that they have the ghetto habit firmly In
grained. They swarm Into the already
overcrowded slums of the big cities, no
tably London and Leeds, with the nat
ural results that they reauce the scale of
wages in the few trades to which they
turn their hands; they drag down the
standard of living to an almost Incredibly
low point, and they send up the rents of
houses In many cases more than 200 per
cent .because of their inveterate tendency
toward overcrowding.
It lsa common thing for 30 unrelated
people men. women and children to
work, sleep, eat and live together in one
small, filthy room.
"To say that these people are living
together like beasts would be an Insult
and libel on the beasts." remarked a
medical officer of Leeds when giving evi
dence before the sweating committee of
the House of Lords. Their rooms are al
ways overcrowded: their beds, if they
have anv. ar& mad nf fmw
sacking: their windows are never opened.
aim mere are seldom any arrangements
for washing. It Is usual for both sexes
to sleep in all their clothes, and the beds.
In many cases, are never empty. Ac
cording to the sworn testimony of numer
ous witnesses It Is a common thing for
one set of people to turn in when thf
other set turns out. that they may go to
work on cheap ready-made garments in
the same room in which they slept.
It seems incredible that people should
consent to live under such, conditions but
It is not surprising when their. life in
their native land and their introduction
to British civilization are taken into
account.
They usually land in London or Hull
absolutely penniless and unable to speak
a word of English. In most cases they
are of poor physique, underfed, broken
splrlted and destitute of any clothing ex
cept the dirty rags on their backs. If
they happen to have a few thalcrs or
roubles they are soon robbed of them by
the East End "hoodlum" a worse edi
tion of the Bowery "tough." They natur
ally fall a prey to the sweaters In the
slums, who are always on the lookout for
these "greeners." as they are called in
Last End -jlang.
The Slave Market of Modern London.
No slave market of ancient times was
evor worse than the East End of Lon
don is today. The sweater, once he has
the "greener" In his clutches, is the
hardest of taskmasters. His prototype on
the East Side of New York lashed his
serfs with whips year ago, before the
trade was organized; but he flogs them
with scorpions. According to the sworn
evidence given by scores of witnesses,
whose truth cannot reasonably be
doubted, he makes them work for 14, 16
and even 18 hours a day and then sleep
in the same filthy den In which thev have
worked. In the majority of cases he
pays them no wages, merely giving them
a place in which to sleep and enough
food to keep body and soul together, so
that they can go on working for lilra.
At the best, the "greener" Is only paid
two or three shillings a week. In time,
of course, he becomes expert at his trade
and -learns the ropes." Then he may
earn six or seven shillings a week, work
ing all day and the greater part of the
night all the seven days of the week.
Meat of the alien immigrants work in
the boot-making and cheap tailoring
trades, and it Is an established fact that
they have reduced tho already miserable
rate of wages in those trades In the dls
tricts where they are thickest by as much
as 40 and 50 per cent.
According to sworn testimony. S cents
was paid to one Russian Jew for sewing,
heeling and putting together a pair of
boots, and he had to find his own nails,
wax and thread. A well-made knlcker
bocker suit, adorned with braid, was
turned out by a woman In the East End
for 11 cents, and she had to provide the
needles, thread and material for binding.
The ordinary price for making a pair of
men's trousers Is 9 cents; for a coat. 15
cents, and for a boy's suit, IS cents.
English workmen have been entlrelv
driven out of the cheap tailoring trade in
London and Leeds, and the hard case of
the English needlewoman in the East
End has been made doubly hard. Their
scanty pay has been cut in half. The
evidence given before the last Royal Com
mission proved beyond a doubt that they
are far worse oft today than they were
when Tom Hood wrote "The Song of the
Shirt" and when the late Sir Walter Be
sant demonstrated. In "Children of Gibe
on." that the East End working woman
could not at best earn an average of more
than elevenpence-halfpenny a day. Many
witnesses testified that a large number of
these English girls and women have been
driven by, pauper foreign competition to
lead lives of shame. This fact, more than
all the others, has awakened somnolent
John Bull to the dangers of alien Immlgra
tlon.
Crime Among the Aliens.
The question of crime among this un
asslmllatcd alien population Is also very
serious. Recently complied statistics show
that over 13.000 aliens have been convicted
of serious crimes In London alone since
the great influx began, after the enforce
ment of the Mav laws nralnst th Rus
sian Jews. It Is. tmat tn.t at pres
SHE GETS ALL THE
SCUM TURNED BACK
FROM OUR SHORES
ent rather less than 3 per cent of the pop
ulation of London Is alien; yet a number
of prominent London magistrates and
-Judges have declared on oath that from
IS to S per cent of the criminals tried
before them are foreigners. Official sta
tistics prove that the increaso of foreign
crime In England during the five years
ending March. 1903, varied from 117 per
cent In the case of Russians and Poles
down through various grades in the other
nationalities to a minimum of S3 per cent
in the case of Americans.
Yet the Russians and Poles are by no
means the most criminal of England's
alien immigrants. More criminals come
from their ranks than from any other
nationality, but that Is only because they
are In an overwhelming majority. Tho
worst offenders are undoubtedly the Ital
ians, who are increasing at an alarming
rate, and are of a much lower grade men
tally, morally and physically than the Ital
ians in America. This is natural, because
they are in most cases men who have
bean barred out of the United States.
A Traffic in Child Slaves.
There exists an iniquitous and wide
spread traffic in child slaves, who are
brought to London from Italy for the
purpose of begglpg. The "padroni." an
Italian who has learned the ropes In Lon
don, goes back to Calabria or the south
of Italy and buys a number of children
from their peasant parents. He brings
them to London and sends them out in
the streets to beg or to turn the handle
of a "hurdy-gurdy" street organ. It Is
easy to understand that the children are
brutally treated, especially If they do not
bring home as much money as the "pa
droni" expects. The London police have
been doing their best to put down this
new form of the slave trade, and several
Italians have been convicted and sent to
jail. In one case It was proved that the
"padroni" had no fewer than 50 boys and
girls of tender years begging for him, and
that he had bought every one of them
from their parents In Italy.
As may be readily imagined, there Is a
far blacker side to this traffic, but it is
needless to dwell upon that. The Italian
Benevolent Society In London, which Is
maintained by respectable Italians, first
brought this gigantic crime to light, and
has been untiring in Its efforts to stamp
it out.
Most of the Italian Immigrants are just
as bad In their mode of living as the Rus
sian and Polish Jews. In a typical case,
an Italian was summoned for sending a
child out into the streets to beg.. The
policeman who went to his tiny garret
found that he lived there with his wife,
six children and a couple of lodgers. They
all herded In one small room, and the
policeman's assertion that it "smelt hor
ribly" is not open to doubt. There was
only one small bed, on which the hus
band and wife slept. Underneath it were
kept the appliances for making ice cream,
which the man vended In the streets at
a farthing a glass. The mixed population
of the room also included a dog, a cat, a
monkey and several white mice.
The statistics as to the number of alien
Immigrants in England arc Inexact and
untrustworthy. Even those compiled In
recent years by the Board of Trade are
admittedly Incomplete. The census of 1E31
showed that there were then about 2M.O0O
foreigners In Great Britain, but it Is be
lieved that the number Is really vastly
greater, many aliens pretending to be
natives. The foreign Jews In London are
estimated to numbed at least 120,000 and
alien immigrants are now coming Into
the country, according to the latest Board
of Trade returns, at the rate of over
103.000 a year.
So far as. numbers go, America receives
vastly more Immigrants than England,
but America gets the cream and England
the skim milk. Then. too. England's fac
ulty of assimilation Is Infinitesimal In
comparison with America's.
The Crux of the Problem.
Just as this country shuts her doors
more and more tightly against the refuse
population of the Old World, so. In in
verse ratio, will the troubles of the little
overcrowded Island of Great Britain
Increase.
An instance of the way the thing works
out was afforded some time ago by a
party of Syrian Arabs. They were sent
from Marseilles to New York, with their
passages paid, but they were not allowed
to land, as they were destitute. They
were deportctd to Havre by the ship
which brought them to this country- They
remained there about six weeks, while
their case was under consideration, and
the French authorities then ordered their
deportation.
They drifted to Hamburg, but Germany
also barred them out. England was their
only hope. They were sent on a German
steamship to Liverpool. Immediately
after landing there they had to go to the
workhouse, where they were supported
for several months at the expense of
English taxpayers. Eventually they were
sent back to Syria by a public subscrip
tion among the generous citizens of
Liverpool.
The other day a cablegram appeared In
the American newspapers stating that
largo numbers of Russian Jews were
stranded In Copenhagen. They had paid
for their passage to the United States,
but tho Russian agents had cheated them,
only providing them with tickets to Co
penhagen. "Danish shipping agents are
giving the poorest free tickets to the
United States." said the cablegram.
"Many, however, will not be allowed to
sail for America, it having been found
that they are suffering from trachoma.
It Is expected that these will go to Eng
land." King Edward's Autocratic Power.
What Is to be the remedy? Prominent
public men in England are giving the
question their most earnest consideration.
Many of them have personally Investi
gated the evil conditions in the slums, vis
iting the sweatshops and homes of the
aliens. Chief among these men are Mr.
Chamberlain, Lord Dunraven, Lord
Rothschild, the bishops of Bedford and
London and Sir Howard Vincent. Com
mission after commission has investi
gated the matter, and more than one fu
tile effort at legislation has been made.
The last commission, which was ap
pointed In 1903 and presented its report
some months ago. recommended the es
tablishment of an Immigration depart
ment, similar to that of the United States,
for the purpose of debarring and repatria
ting "undesirables." It also made a cu
rious recommendation for the prevention
of overcrowding, suggesting that aliens
who may land in the future shall be pro
hibited from living or working in the
areas where aliens arc at present thick
est. To enable this regulation to be en
forced, a system of registration of aliens
Is recommended. While all that the com
mission desires may not be done, some re
strictive legislation is probable in the near
future,
Yet. strange as it may seem, no legisla
tion is necessary- There Is an aspect of
the question which all the agitators In
and out of Parliament seem to have lost
sight of.
King Edward has the legal power to
stop the Influx of undesirable aliens into
his dominions whenever be chooses. He
can do it by simply Issuing an order, and
he 'Is under no necessity to seek for the
approval of Parliament. In this one m&tr
ter. at least, the most constitutional of
constitutional monarch; has legal author,
ity for being an autocrat.
In the case of Musgrove vs. Chung Te
ennr Toy (A. C 1721 which waa tried
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in 1S31. it was decided that no alien has
a right enforceable by action to enter the
United Kingdom; that he merely enters
under the comity of nations, and that
the King has a sovereign right to pro
hibit bis entrance. This last point was
most strongly upheld by the court.
Edward Manson, a distinguished English
jurist, declared In a recent article in the
Journal of the Society of Comparative
Jurisprudence that "the crown has power
New York Theatergoers Hear Grand Opera
Wagner's Productions at the Metropolitan Juvenile Violinist Makes a Sensation
NEW YORK. Jan. 16. (Special
Corespondence.) Competition
has run high during the week
between music, opera and the drama.
The question may be raised why I say
music and opera, but those who under
stand the conditions surrounding these
forms of amusement will realize In
stantly that opera Is quite as distinct
from music as it is frpm drama. It is
but natural that It should have rare
attraction for musicians, more, indeed,
than for lovers of the theater, but, on
the whole, those who love music at its
height often find more enjoyment in
the purity of this art Itself than by
the. addition of elements to enhance
and at the same time to detract from
the Interest. It does seem as though
Wagner above all other writers has
more thoroughly .welded music and
drama. This may be because he con
ceived it as a whole Instead of setting
a book to music, as all others have
done.
Among- this week's operas Wagner
has been brought forward as though
to make up for the lost time earlier In
the season. With the Meistcrsingers
on Monday night. Tristan and Isolda
on Wednesday night. Die Walkurc on
Thursday night and Lohengrin Satur
day afternoon, there is surely no cause
for complaint, even though this holds
off Caruse for the time. But. Instead,
it serves to bring forward Knote, the
great German, star, wrio has achieved
wonderful distinction in bis own
country and who has succeeded in
pleasing a New York audience,
which, be It understood. Is in
finitely harder to satisfy than Is the
most critical audience of Europe. This
is not because New Yorkers under
stand more about It or that they aro
more musical. It merely signifies that
they arc great fault-finders and. many
people who are able to see the blem-,
ishes do not understand the magnitude
of an art.
The performance of Tristan and
Isolde was the first this season, and a
beautiful one It was, especially with
Nordlca as Isolde, which is regarded,
as her greatest role,. and Knotc, who
appeared for the first time in this
country as Tristan. The rest of tho
cast was notable in fact. It Is well
known that the galaxy of stars of the
Metropolitan Opera-House is so large
that almost every name Is well known
and a favorite of the enormous clientele
that support opera In New York City.
The production was not as smooth,
however, as it will be after It has
been mounted several times, for it Is a
peculiar fact that no first performance,
however It may have been rehearsed,
runs with the smoothness that' It does
after It has been on several times. The
gowning of the audience was some
thing fairly beyond description, but it
must havo been rather unsatisfying- for
those who went to all that trouble to
sit the entire evening with all the
lights out, as Is the custom during a
Wagnerian production.
Before leaving the subject of opera
it is interesting to note that the score
and parts of D Albert's opera have been
sent for. and while this great pianist
Is in America it Is likely that his work,
will be given a.t-tke MclronoUtac Op
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by its prerogative, in the Interests of the
public, to prevent an alien from landing
unless he complies with the conditions it
may think proper to prescribe." The fa
mous Lord Ellenborough affirmed that
right strongly, and It has even been con
tended by some English jurists that the
crown has power to expel aliens already
settled In the country, although that has
always been done In modern times "by
special acts of Parliament.
era-House, as was Paderewski's Manru
a few years ago while that pianist was
in the country, or, to be more exact,
he came to be present at the produc
tion. After the degree of expectation to
which the people had been wrought up
on the subject of Franz van "Vescey,
the Il-year-old violinist, who, having
aroused the entire continent of Eu
rope, interested Daniel Frohman suf
ficiently to move that notable manager
to the desire of presenting him in
America, It was not surprising that
Carnegie Hall was filled to its utmost
capacity on Tuesday night. Upon this
occasion America had Its first oppor
tunity to judge for itself that which
had set staid old Europe to marvelling
that such things can be..
Summed up. he is In "the truest ac
ceptance of the word a "wonder child."
The first thing which constitutes vio
lin playing as an art is tone, as it must
not be forgotten that many have tho
facility of fingers, otherwise known as
technique, and lacking tone can never
be regarded otherwise than as mediocre
violinists. But young- Yescey has such
tone as can only come from perfect
mastery in the use of tho bow, which
is a mental as well as a physical mani
festation. From his marvelous tech
nique you can never get away, as there
is no shade of difficulty which he does
not dispatch with the utmost ease and
such intonation as might well causa
the envy of some of the greatest vio
linists before the public of both con
tinents. In short, his intonation is
perfect and the ease with which he
dispatches the most intense difficulties
proves conclusively that It is due to
his unconsciousness and fearlessness.
When wc deal with Interpretation we
have in hand a very diflicult. subject,
for there is probably no way of meas
uring the different degrees nor to dif
ferentiate between what Is Imitation,
assimilation, reproduction or natural
expression of the child himself. That
the child's memory Is equal to such tre
mendous feats of memorizing as is the
case with young Vescey is proof enough
that it is also able to remember ths.
minutest details of finest models -and
of its instruction. There were mo
ments, notably in the Bach Air on the
G string-, and at times In the Faust
Fantasie of Wleniawskl, when he seem
ed to show bursts of Inspiration, but
otherwise it was difficult to lose the
impression that he was reproducing he
Interpretations of his great teachers.
This In Itself Is enough of an achieve
ment, and whether the child grows to
be the artist which he promises to be
or not, he has accomplished more than
most artists who are in fullest ma
turity. Of the child, be it understood .that he
is a child In the fullest acceptation of
the term, and he had hardly landed from
the steamer before he started, wanted to
started for California, anything to keep
going. He has the most intense mania for
traveling. All he can see In this tour Is
the possibility of traveling a great deal
and of going great distances. For this
reason, it will be more tf a disappoint
ment to the child himself, even than to
the people of "San Francisco, to learn that
he Is not going to the Coast this season,
as his contract only reads for CO con
certs, and the Gerry Society will not per
mit him to play more than three times a
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Chief Justice Jeffreys, In one of his
many great decisions of points of consti
tutional law, said: "The King hath. I con
ceive, the absolute ,wer to forbid for
eigners, whether merchants or others,
from coming within his dominions." Lord
Hale, affirming the same right, remarked:
"The crown Is the bearer of the keys of
all the ports and havens of the country."
King Edward could Issue an order In
Council tomorrow if he wished, framed
week all the time he is in America. He
has also developed an inordinate love for
playing with matches, much to the hor
ror of Mr. Frohman, who can see from
$1500 to $2000 or more' vanishing into thin
air on account of a burnt finger. An
other amusement to the boy has been to
see the illustrations in the' American
dailies, and also the enormous posters
which are well distributed throughout the
city, advertising of this nature being al
most exclusively American. He Is very
unassuming, and this interest is not so
much pleasure at seeing himself thus
heralded as it is a sense of humor. It
strikes him as exceedingly funny that he
should be displayed In this manner. The
accompanying picture represents the child
exactly as he is at the present time, and
is not a photograph that was taken some
five or six years ago. A consensus of
opinion is that he is the greatest prodigy
since the day of Josef Hofmann, who, by
the way, was one of the most interested
in the great audience.
People arc still talking of the excep
tional merit of the last philharmonic
concert under Wassill Safonoff, Of Mos
cow, whose personality Is of utmost In
terest. I had a long and interesting visit
with this remarkable man. In the first
place he made a startling departure from
all other conductors in discarding alto
gether the baton, and this makes his con
ducting absolutely unique, as he seems to
pick .out his effects with his very fin
gers. I said: "Is it not a very great
strain to be without the baton?"
"But I am not without a baton." he
said; "instead I .have ten," and ho
waved those expressive fingers in such a
manner that I could again hear the de
lightful strains of hl3 music. He declares
that the conductor gets what he gives,
and that as he gives more of himself he
gets more from the orchestra. He used
this experiment here for the first time,
and he states that he will never again
resume the baton.
Speaking of getting effects from the
orchestra, I must still quote another
bright remark before leaving that sub
ject, Safonoff talks English very well
Indeed, very remarkably, for he has not
been In England to any extent. 1 was
trying to find out whether he knew the
workings of the Society of Psychical Re
search, and In the first place he strug
gled pretty hard at the spelling of the
word "psychical." saying: "Your Eng
lish is a very remarkable language You
spell It Manchester and pronounce It Liv
erpool. However. I will tell you that, all
by myselft I am a Society of Psychical
Research.' The psychical is what I am
after In every man In my orchestra. If I
do not get it, I am not a great con
ductoryes? I need not try to get his
fingers. They must be there if I can
get his mind, his soul, hi3 spirit."
I asked Safonoff whether he knew any
thing at all about the American com
poser or American music, and he an
swered: "What is it you mean? That
music which I hear in the hotels and
the theaters? Oh, lhat is strange music,
and its rhythm is just like the whirl of
this New York life strenuous, you call
It? But I like it I would not like to
teach It. but It amuses me. I never heard
anything like It before." I told him I
hoped he never would again, but I did not
mean that class of music at all. I meant
the works of McDowell and Huss and
Foote. He Immediately became very
much Interested, and said that, In the
$1.00 down
50c per week
on the lines of those which have been al
ready issued restricting Immigration into
some of the British crown colonies, and
it would effect all that Is necessary. No
body would have a constitutional right
to object. Nevertheless, His Majesty Is
likely to leave the matter to Parlia
ment, although he, has shown a disposi
tion to do things "off his own bat" lately.
(Copyright, 1905. "WILLIAM THORP.
capacity of director of the Conservatory
of Moscow, he had taught a McDowell
sonata, but that he would regard it as a
very great favor If these composers would
have their publishers send him some of
the things which he should see, and that
there was no reason why he should, not
take back to Russia some tangible souve
nir of this beautiful country. Of two
things Safonoff is very proud the one is
of his beautiful family of eight children
and the other is of his nationality. He
said: "Napoleon said that If you scratch
a Russian, you will find a Cossack every
time. You do not have to scratch me to
find a Cossack; that is what I am."
This was the week of the Boston Sym
phony visit to New York, presenting the
three concerts, two in New York and one
in Brooklyn. The first concert in New
York was made notable by the appear
ance of Rafael Joseffy as soloist, an event
which Is always received with the wildest
enthusiasm. The entire programme was
one which made as many demands upon
the audience as upon the musicians of the
orchestra, and to say that everybody in
the audience comprehended either the
Symphony of Vincent d'Indy or the
Brahms' Second Concerto, played by Jo
seffy, would not be true In fact. It is a
good deal more probable that very few
understood either work. To pass an opin
ion of a work like the d'Indy Symphony
would hardly be fair, because it is one-of
those things which has to be heard again
and again before any one is able to ar
rive at any degree of understanding of Its
intentions, notwithstanding many inter
esting spots, which In many cases coma
like oases in a desert. The day of in
volved writing seems to be upon us, and
whereas some of these works may bo
worth while hearing often In order to de
rive anything out of them. It would seem
as though we were getting rather far
from the mission of true music. Nor was
the Concerto of Brahms much less In
volved In writing, notwithstanding the ex
quisite art of Joseffy, whose first and
greatest attribute Is that of elucidating
the most difficult writing and making It
clear and smooth. What any one else ex
cept Joseffy would have made out of this
Concerto would be hard to say, but this
marvelous artist riveted the attention of
the very large audience' and delighted
them accordingly. The welcome accord
ed Joseffy was one which left no room for
doubt as to the position that he occupies
in the musical world of New York.
Tho soloist for the Brooklyn, as also for
the afternoon concert for New York, was
Miss Muriel Foster, an English contralto,
of whom I spoke last year, she having
"been the one who was prevented from
making an appearance with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra on account of a
tooth having been broken by the dentist
the day before the concert, and a strange
coincidence Is that it was Joseffy who ap
peared in her stead at that time.
Henry Wolfsohn just Informs me that
he has engaged Emma Eames for a con
cert tour, which will take her to all
points of the Pacific Coast next season.
He has not yet decided what assistants he
will give her.
EMILIE FRANCES BAUER.
Origin of "Tips."
The origin of the word tip. which now
passes muster in the language without
quotation marks, may not Inappropriate
ly be recalled. It Is nothing more or less
than a compound of the initial letters of
the three words, "to Insure promptness"
at once a hint and an invitation. Thi
Inscription appeared formerly on money
boxes placed lntaverns for the benefit of
the staff as a whole.. Now we prefer to
give our douceur to "tho particular Indi
vidual who ministers to us. That is all
the difference.