Project Gutenberg's The Fifth String, The Conspirators, by John Philip Sousa

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Title: The Fifth String, The Conspirators

Author: John Philip Sousa

Posting Date: July 29, 2008 [EBook #504]
Release Date: April, 1996

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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The Fifth String

By

John Philip Sousa

The Conspirators

By

John Philip Sousa

I

The coming of Diotti to America had awakened more than usual interest
in the man and his work. His marvelous success as violinist in the
leading capitals of Europe, together with many brilliant contributions
to the literature of his instrument, had long been favorably commented
on by the critics of the old world. Many stories of his struggles and
his triumphs had found their way across the ocean and had been read and
re-read with interest.

Therefore, when Mr. Henry Perkins, the well-known impresario, announced
with an air of conscious pride and pardonable enthusiasm that he had
secured Diotti for a "limited" number of concerts, Perkins' friends
assured that wide-awake gentleman that his foresight amounted to
positive genius, and they predicted an unparalleled success for his
star. On account of his wonderful ability as player, Diotti was a
favorite at half the courts of Europe, and the astute Perkins enlarged
upon this fact without regard for the feelings of the courts or the
violinist.

On the night preceding Diotti's debut in New York, he was the center of
attraction at a reception given by Mrs. Llewellyn, a social leader, and
a devoted patron of the arts. The violinist made a deep impression on
those fortunate enough to be near him during the evening. He won the
respect of the men by his observations on matters of international
interest, and the admiration of the gentler sex by his chivalric
estimate of woman's influence in the world's progress, on which subject
he talked with rarest good humor and delicately implied gallantry.

During one of those sudden and unexplainable lulls that always occur in
general d