Show en HIS compensation A the story of 01 a music master aby FANNIE HURST 88 v 5 00 by mcclure newspaper by nd leato service IVING in the machine age should L LIVING in n some measure have prepared the director for what was wag coming hundreds of the more astute had seen it in tho the offing tor for years before it actually happened and in many instances had run for the cover of kindred professions or occupations pat ions lons klinger however had stuck as the saying goes like a captain to a sinking ship until the inundation of canned music was something that even his stubborn kind of resistance had to reckon with no doubt about it the day of the theater and moving picture orchestra was gone aman had not a chance to earn any sort of decent living for himself and family it if he depended upon a profession that had literally died in its tracks in vain the perishing vocation fought for its life an organization was formed of which klinger was vice president to combat by news paper and magazine advertising this demise of an honorable profession DO NOT PERMIT CANNED MUSIC TO BE SERVED UP TO YOU THE BEST IS NONE TOO GOOD PUBLIC DEMAND YOUR RIGHTS 1 of course the public did nothing of the sort the sound screen became its own orchestral effect orchestras died out of the theater and at fifty seven otto klinger for thirty years director of a an orchestra in one of the cites largest temples of entertainment i found himself incredible as it might seem out of a job there was the alternative desperately clutched by so many of his men of rushing to the picture studios of california but even had such an opportunity port unity presented itself klinger was not the man to subject his dignity to any such flagellation as that playing on a motion picture lot I 1 otto klinger graduate of aberlin conservatory atory of music onetime one time concert melster mc lster of a orchestra and now for thirty years director of an aggregation of thirty men going hollywood never I 1 fortunately it was at a time of his life when his family containing grown i son sand daughters had agree agreed damon among g themselves it was best for him to retire rearing three girls and three boys on a scale of decent and substantial living had of course not enabled otto to accumulate but when the catastrophe of the dissolution of his orchestra came along there were fortunately tuna tely three out of his six children who were earning firmin firm in and max the two elder boys steady and showing the results of the spartan rearing that had been theirs were both draughtsman draughtsmen draughts draugh tswen men drawing substantial wage mathilde the third daughter a staid careful girl who so far as the modern flapper was concerned did not exist at all was confidential secretary to the german consul so all in all while in the heart of otto calamity had descended his family including his wife was of an opinion secret from him that considering his age and gouty constitution it was just as well for him to retire the Kl Ingers owned their little home on the outskirts of new york there were only three children left at a school age mrs klinger twenty years younger than her husband and of firm heroic build was a housewife of impeccable and amazing capacity for economy the Kl ingers could make out all right but the effect upon the morale of elinger was what troubled them prepared as the alie family was for the letdown let down that inevitably must take place in the somewhat BIs marklan figure of their father who for thirty years had ruled thirty men to say nothing of a household the actual was nothing short of appalling he became a household tyrant domineering over the dally daily routine interfering in his cifes capable regime exercising even more discipline with his children there came a tinie time in that little home when so far as the members of it were concerned the idea of sending otto off to a private hospital at some quiet seaside resort actually be began ganto to present itself that project never took form the were too compact a group for that too grounded in certain rudiments of family faelli solidity but it does doea go to show the extremes to which they were pushed by the overflow of their fathers chagrin into the household then bertha the fourth child hit on a scheme that while it was to increase the household tyranny in many ways was nothing short of stroke of genius secretly so that not even hla his wife or children knew it there had always smoldered in otto bitter disappointment that not one of his children had followed in hla his musical footsteps T they h ey were a practical sensible lot youngsters any parent could be proud of and for that matter each and every one founded in a musical education but among them with the exception of edith who was too young to reckon with not one of the girls or boys had exhibited outstanding musical talent berthas beathas Ber thas idea however was founded on this rather casual musical equipment of the family father F aab er must form a family orchestra and they could practice evenings mother at the piano the three boys at the violin flute and viola respectively bertha and mathlide at tho the harp and cello and little edith who was now eight and taking her first lessons at the violin well somehow the idea caught with klinger like lre and catching did some tantalizing things to family life curtailing the outside activities of the grown boys and girls to such an extent that their souls or their evenings could no longer be called ahelf own bad as was the evening after evening practicing of the group under the surveillance of klinger it was offset by the fact that once more clenched by an interest something of the old good humor and normal geniality of the man revived life in the klinger household was once more livable as the tha Kl inders put it and then there began to develop the aspect of it all that made the idea of bertha seem to blossom into something that was nothing short of genius time and time again conducting this little group of his family orchestra klinger began to find himself amazed and delighted by the musical precocity of the mite of a girl playing the third violin within two months trying to keep down within himself the rising hope and the rising excitement that here in this child was talent he saw the thin little wisp of a girl her delighted first violinist brother playing in his place six months later by arrangement made by klinger edith was taken to the conservatory there to play before the great etcher eicher who pronounced her of outstanding and amazing virtuosity that busted up the klinger orchestra so to speak six hours of each day klinger who has no more time for his family orchestra interested to his fingertips tender of her youth adoring of her talent teaches his youngest and plans for her musical future |