other hand, became tired of clockmaking
after eight years' ill-remunerated grind, and turned his attention to
the family trade.

[Footnote 1: The few fine bows by "Tourte-l'aine," as he was called,
I should think were made after his brother's success in this
direction.]

He, like Dodd, was totally uneducated, but had great gifts of
perception and judgment.

At this time violin playing was becoming every day more distinctive
and prominent. Great players were beginning to understand the _chiar
oscuro_ of music. They were learning expression.

There was in general amongst violinists an anticipation of the grand,
yet simple law set forth by De Beriot in his Violin School that the
human voice was the pure archetype upon which all _played_ music
should be modelled.

It was found that the violin was capable of simulating all the subtle
inflexions of song, whether of passion or tenderness, and players
sighed for an ideal bow that should be tongue-like in its response to
the performer's emotion. A bow that should at once be flexible to
"whisper soft nothings in my lady's ear"; strong--to sound a
clarion-blast of defiance; and, withal, be ready for any
_coquetterie_ or _badinage_ that might suit its owner's whim. This is
what Francois Tourte, the starving clockmaker, gave them.

We fiddlers have to be very thankful that the master clockmakers of
Paris were not more liberal to their employes!

Illiterate as he was he at once grasped all the points of art and
physics involved, and commenced diligently experimenting with a view
to solving the various problems that presented themselves to his
consideration.

To gain facility in the manipulation of his tools, he made countless
bows from old barrel staves; he could not afford to make his first
attempts on anything better. When he had attained sufficient skill in
the actual workmanship, and had satisfied himself as to the most
suitable form, he set to work investigating the question of material.
He tried all kinds of wood, and at last decided that the red wood of
Pernambuco, then largely imported into Europe for dyeing purposes,
was the best. To obtain this in sufficient quantities was no easy
matter, for the Anglo-French wars were interfering seriously with
international commerce; a circumstance that rendered this material
unusually expensive. Then the nature of this wood is not by any means
a bow maker's ideal. Billets and logs amounting to several tons in
weight may be e