editors and teachers are
constantly plied. Can one who for years has waged a battle for the
American teacher and American musical education answer this question
without bias? Can we who trace the roots of our lineage back to barren
Plymouth or stolid New Netherland judge the question fairly and
honestly?

One case suffices to show the road which the American virtuoso is likely
to travel. She is still a young woman, in her twenties. Among her
teachers was one who ranks among the very best in America. Her general
education was excellent,--in fact far superior to that of the average
young lady of good family in continental Europe. While in her early
teens she became the leading feature at conservatory concerts. Her
teacher won many a profitable pupil through her brilliant playing. She
studies, as do so many American pupils, without making a regular
business of it. Compared with the six year all day, week in and week out
course which Nathan pursued in Odessa our little compatriot was at a
decided disadvantage. But who ever heard of a music student making a
regular business of learning the profession as would a doctor or a
lawyer? Have not students contented themselves with two lessons a week
since time immemorial? Need we go further to discover one of the flaws
in our own educational system,--a flaw that is not due to the teacher or
to the methods of instruction, but rather to our time-old custom. Two
lessons a week are adequate for the student who does not aspire to
become a professional, but altogether insufficient for the student who
must accomplish a vast amount of work in a comparatively small number of
years. She requires constant advice, regular daily instruction and
careful attention under experienced instructors. Teachers are not to be
blamed if she does not receive this kind of attention, as there are
abundant opportunities now in America to receive systematic training
under teachers as thorough, as able and as inspiring as may be found in
Europe. The excuse that the expense is greater in America falls when we
learn the very high prices charged by leading teachers in Germany,
Austria and France.

To go back to our particular case, the young lady is informed at the end
of a course of two or three lessons a week during two or three years,
that she is a full-fledged virtuoso and may now enter the concert field
to compete with Carreno, Bloomfield-Zeisler or Goodson. Her playing is
obviously superior to that of her c