ile I was sitting in a Morris chair. He was barely able
to talk, and just prior to my leaving he insisted upon scrawling upon
his visiting card, "Zur freundlichen Errinerung, auf einen sehr spaeten
Abend." (Friendly remembrances of a very late evening.) Since it was
still very early in the morning, it may be realized that he had lost all
idea of his whereabouts. Nevertheless, he sat at the piano keyboard and
played tremendously difficult compositions by Liszt and
Brahms--compositions which compelled his hands to leap from one part of
the keyboard to the other as in the case of the Liszt _Campanella_. He
never missed a note until he lost his balance upon the piano stool and
fell to the floor. Disgusting and pathetic as the exhibition was, I
could not help feeling that I was witnessing a marvelous instance of
automatism, that wonderful power of the mind working through the body to
reproduce, apparently without effort or thought, operations which have
been repeated so many times that they have become "second nature." More
than this, it indicated clearly that while the better part of the man's
body was "dead to the world," the faculty he had cultivated to the
highest extent still remained alive. Some years later this man succumbed
to alcoholism.

THE PIANIST OF TO-DAY

Contrasted with a type of this kind may be mentioned such men as Sauer,
Rachmaninov, d'Albert, Paderewski, Godowsky, Bachaus, Rosenthal, Pauer,
Joseffy, Stojowski, Scharwenka, Gabrilowitsch, Hofmann, Bauer, Lhevinne,
to say nothing of the ladies, Bloomfield-Zeisler, Carreno, Goodson, _et
al._, many of whom are intellectual giants. Most all are exceedingly
regular in their habits, and at least two are strong temperance
advocates. Intellectually, pianists of this class represent a very
remarkable kind of mentality. One is impressed with the surprising
quickness with which their brains operate even in ordinary conversation.
Speaking in alien languages, they find comparatively little difficulty
in expressing themselves with rapidity and fluency. Very few great
singers ever acquire a similar ease. These pianists are wonderfully well
read, many being acquainted with the literature of three or more tongues
in the original. Indeed, it is not unusual to find them skipping through
several languages during ordinary conversation without realizing that
they are performing linguistic feats that would put the average college
graduate to shame. They are familiar with art,