One of the greatest pianists was obliged to stay in New York for a while
before attempting the voyage homeward. At the time he was so weak from
the rigors of the tour that he could scarcely write his name. His
haggard face suggested the tortures of a Torquamada rather than Buffalo,
Kansas City, Denver and Pittsburgh. His voice was tired and faltering,
and his chief interest was that of the invalid--getting home as soon as
possible. To have talked with him upon music at that time would have
been an injustice. Accordingly, I led him away from the subject and
dwelt upon the woes of his native Poland, and, much to his surprise,
left him without the educational material of which I had been in quest.
He asked the reason, and I told him that a musical conference at that
time could serve no purpose.

As men and women, aside from the attainments which have made them
illustrious, virtuosos are for the most part very much like ordinary
mortals who have to content themselves at the foot of Parnassus. It has
been my privilege to know thirty or more of the most eminent artists,
and some have become good personal friends. It is interesting to observe
how several very different types of individuals may succeed in winning
public favor as virtuosos. Indeed, except for the long-haired caricature
which the public accepts as the conventional virtuoso there is no
"virtuoso type." Here is a business man, here an artist, here an
engineer, here a jurist, here an actor, here a poet and here a freak,
all of them distinguished performers. Perhaps the enthusiastic
music-lover will resent the idea of a freak becoming famous as a
pianist, but I have known no less than three men who could not possibly
be otherwise described, but who have nevertheless made both fame and
fortune as virtuosos.

FREAK PIANISTS

The anthropologist who chooses to conduct special investigations of
freaks can find no more entertaining field than that of the remarkable
freaks of the brain, shown in the cases of some astonishing performers
whose intelligence and mental capacity in other ways has been
negligible. The classic case of Blind Tom, for instance, was that of a
freak not so very far removed in kind from the Siamese Twins, or General
Tom Thumb. Born a slave in Georgia, and wholly without what teachers
would term a musical education, Blind Tom amazed many of the most
conservative musicians of his time. It was possible for him to repeat
difficult compositions aft