ENE BETHUNE,

OTHERWISE KNOWN AS

"BLIND TOM," THE WONDERFUL PIANIST

"Who ran
Through each mode of the lyre, and was master
Of all."

MOORE.

"Bright gem instinct with music."

WORDSWORTH.

He is unquestionably and conspicuously the most wonderful musician the
world has ever known. No one has ever equalled him in quickness and
depth of musical insight and feeling, nor in the constancy with which
he bears within himself, in all its fulness, that mysterious power
which can be called by no truer name than _musical inspiration_. He is
an absolute master in the comprehension and retention of all sound
(and in _all_ sound _he_ finds music); a being in whose sympathetic
soul lies the ready, the perfect correlative of every note of melody
in nature or in art that is caught by his marvellously sensitive ear.
We often speak of those who have an "ear for music." Here is a
musician who surpasses all others in all the world in the possession
of this quality; for his is a _perfect_ ear. You may sit down to the
piano-forte, and strike any note or chord or discord, or a great
number of them; and he will at once give their proper names, and,
taking your place, reproduce them. Complete master of the piano-forte
keyboard, he calls to his melodious uses, with most consummate ease,
all of its resources that are known to skilful performers, as well as
constantly discovers and applies those that are new. Under his
magnetic touch, this instrument may become, at his will, a
_music-box_, a _hand-organ_, a _harp_ or a _bagpipe_, a "_Scotch
fiddle_," a _church-organ_, a _guitar_, or a _banjo_: it may imitate
the "stump speaker" as he delivers his glowing harangue; or, being
brought back to its legitimate tones, it may be made to sing two
melodies at once, while the performer with his voice delivers a third,
all three in different time and keys, all in perfect tune and time,
and each one easily distinguishable from the other! It would be vain
to call such performances as these mere tricks. They are far, far
more; since they show a musical intuition, and an orderly disposition
and marshalling of the stores of the mind, quite beyond the powers of
the performer of mere musical tricks. But, even were they such, this
wonderful musician would not need to depend upon their performance for
the greatness of his fame; for there is no work of the great masters
too difficult for his easy co