Show I I THE GREAT OLE BULL His Son Relates Some Interesting Stories About Him Cradled in a Cello Case His Method Inimitable Inimi-table and WhyA New Anecdote About Ole Bull and Edwin Booth After long years of familiarity with his playing I am almost persuaded that he exercised ex-ercised a species of hypnotism with his violin There is a tradition that very few people could bear him render such a piece for instance as Home Sweet Home or his own composition entitled A Mothers Prayer without being moved to tears Keenly as hefelt the ravishment thronging throng-ing audiences and great as was his power upon the platfrom I do not think that he was ever at his best outside his own home S S ¼ I4i llItHfeliI S S c OLE BOLL AT 19 Owing to his peculiar build he has a method of holding his violin and also of handling his bow which cannot be successfully suc-cessfully imitated by ordinary players His bridge was so nearly flat and his bow so heavy that when occasion required he could play continuously upon four strings of the instrument at once or upon any one of them This required a nicety and precision pre-cision of execution possible only to a man possessed of great muscular power and extreme ex-treme steadiness of nerve When he was in England during his early life an incident occurred which illustrates this remarkable strength with which God has blessed him Malibran was to sing at a great festival in Liverpool Shortly before be-fore its occurrence however she died and the management sent in great haste for my father to take her place as the star of the occasion He was unwilling to go being on a professional tour But as an emolument emolu-ment of ESOO was offered he postponed his engagement and undertook to appear So vast was the auditorium and so great the audience that he found it extremely difficult diffi-cult to make himself heard The physical strain upon him was so great that when he bad finished the blood flowed from beneath his finger nails and from his mouth for some moments after the performance While ho was playing in Russia the sad news of his fathers death came to him That night the favored people of St Petersburg Pe-tersburg heard him play as be had rarely played before The sad intelligence impressed im-pressed him deeply and seemed to give him a new inspiration He was a splritaulist and he had the conviction that his fathers spirit had descended upon his own and reinforced re-inforced its native power Years afterwards after-wards when he came to die himself he uttered most impressive words The morning morn-ing of his death be sent for the daughter of his dearest college friend Well my dear he said they tell me I am going to die and I guess the time has come lam going to spirit land and there I shall meet your dear father and bring him a fresh greeting from you My father was a born violinist As a child ho imitated the motions of a fiddler with two sticks accompanying his movements move-ments by humming the air that was passing pass-ing in his mind Later he began to take lessons on the violin during his visits to his uncles house My great uncle played S S S OLE BULL AT 50 the vlollncello and while ho performed my father when a little boy used to lie in tile great cello case and listen His first instructor was a gentleman who was as much devoted to the flask as to the violin He used tor play in quartettes at the house of my fathers uncle One evening he had been imbibing too freely and my fattier half in jest was invited to take his part which be did to the great amusement o f tho audience upon which his undo gave him a new violin aa a reward for his skill Over twenty years ago when father played for the New York Philharmonic society so-ciety after the presentation of a silk flag combining the Norwegian and American emblems a magnificent emerald ring was sent by Mr Edwin Booth to be returned to the one he esteemed to be the rightful owner Ole Bull The ring had been given to Mr Booth after a performance of Hamlet by a lawyer who said he had received It from Mr Ole Bull After accepting the ring from his dean iJ beloved friend Professor R Ogden Dore mus the president of the Philharmonic society so-ciety father narrated the history of the ring which he had received thirty years before in St Petersburg Early Sunday morning following tho I concert he called on Professor Doremus and in a most enthusiastic manner asked how it would do for him to offer to play for Mr Booth at tile theatre between the acts 1 actsAt the following Philharmonic concert Mr Edwin Booth read Byrons Manfred at the academy of music The large orchestra or-chestra of over 100 performers played Schumanns music and the Liederkranz society and various artists sang The society offered to repeat the music at Mr Booths theatre Professor Dore mus learned that father was in Cincinnati giving concerts and telegram was sent to him asking if he could arrange to play at this parformance of Manfred The reply stated that he yas on a concert con-cert tour and would not return to New York for two months It was signed by his impressario An hour later another telegram was received re-ceived saying III will be there OLE BULL He broko up his concert tour to accomplish accom-plish the desire of his generous heart and to reciprocate the favor of Mr Edwin Booth ALEXANDER BULL |