he soprano, gently takes his arm and turns him round
to front the acclaiming multitude. There are few in that crowd who,
while they cheer, do not feel the tears stealing down their cheeks at
the sight of the poor lonely man who, from the prison-house of his
affliction, has brought to them the gladness of thought so divine.
Unmoved, he bowed his acknowledgment, and quietly left the building.

His later years were embittered with troubles about his nephew Carl, a
youth to whom he was fondly attached, but who shamefully repaid the
love of the desolate old man. Letters like the following, to the
teacher in whose house the boy lived, show the constant thought and
affection given to this boy: "Your estimable lady is politely
requested to let the undersigned know as soon as possible (that I may
not be obliged to keep it all in my head) how many pairs of stockings,
trousers, shoes, and drawers are required, and how many yards of
kerseymere to make a pair of black trousers for my tall nephew."

His death was the result of a cold which produced inflammation of the
lungs. On the morning of March 24, 1827, he took the sacrament and
when the clergyman was gone and his friends stood round his bed, he
muttered. "_Plaudite amici, comedia finita est._" He then fell into an
agony so intense that he could no longer articulate, and thus
continued until the evening of the 26th. A violent thunder-storm
arose; one of his friends, watching by his bedside when the thunder
was rolling and a vivid flash of lightning lit up the room, saw him
suddenly open his eyes, lift his right hand upward for some
seconds--as if in defiance of the powers of evil--with clenched fist
and a stern, solemn expression on his face; and then he sank back and
died.

PAGANINI

(1784-1840)

[Illustration: Paganini.]

Nicolo Paganini, whose European fame as a violinist entitles him to a
notice here, was born at Genoa in 1784. His father, a commission-broker,
played on the mandolin; but fully aware of the inferiority of an
instrument so limited in power, he put a violin into his son's hands,
and initiated him in the principles of music. The child succeeded so
well under parental tuition, that at eight years of age he played three
times a week in the church, as well as in the public saloons. At the
same period he composed a sonata. In his ninth year he was placed under
the instruction of Costa, first violoncellist of Genoa; then had lessons
of Rolla, a famous