d soul. In what part of the unsightly baby-carcass
had been stowed away these old airs, forgotten by every one else,
and some of them never heard by the child but once, but which he now
reproduced, every note intact, and with whatever quirk or quiddity of
style belonged to the person who originally had sung or played them?
Stranger still the harmonies which he had never heard, had learned from
no man. The sluggish breath of the old house, being enchanted, grew into
quaint and delicate whims of music, never the same, changing every day.
Never glad: uncertain, sad minors always, vexing the content of the
hearer,--one inarticulate, unanswered question of pain in all, making
them one. Even the vulgarest listener was troubled, hardly knowing
why,--how sorry Tom's music was!

At last the time came when the door was to be opened, when some
listener, not vulgar, recognizing the child as God made him, induced his
master to remove him from the plantation. Something ought to be done for
him; the world ought not to be cheated of this pleasure; besides--the
money that could be made! So Mr. Oliver, with a kindly feeling for Tom,
proud, too, of this agreeable monster which his plantation had grown,
and sensible that it was a more fruitful source of revenue than
tobacco-fields, set out with the boy, literally to seek their fortune.

The first exhibition of him was given, I think, in Savannah, Georgia;
thence he was taken to Charleston, Richmond, to all the principal cities
and towns in the Southern States.

This was in 1858. From that time until the present Tom has lived
constantly an open life, petted, feted, his real talent befogged by
exaggeration, and so pampered and coddled that one might suppose the
only purpose was to corrupt and wear it out. For these reasons this
statement is purposely guarded, restricted to plain, known facts.

No sooner had Tom been brought before the public than the pretensions
put forward by his master commanded the scrutiny of both scientific
and musical skeptics. His capacities were subjected to rigorous tests.
Fortunately for the boy: for, so tried,--harshly, it is true, yet
skilfully,--they not only bore the trial, but acknowledged the touch
as skilful; every day new powers were developed, until he reached his
limit, beyond which it is not probable he will ever pass. That limit,
however, establishes him as an anomaly in musical science.

Physically, and in animal temperament, this negro ranks next