Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1882 Vol. 5 N. 16

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
VOL. Y.
NEW YORK, MARCH 20TH, 1882.
No. 16.
"My acquaintance with that man, Freund," said many incidents connected with his attempts in this
Mr. Wheeler, "began not very long after his arriv- direction—"
al in this country. When I met him he had pur-
"Never mind about them at present," said our
chased the Arcadian, a newspaper, the property of representative. "You remember how after he had
A JOURNALISTIC ANACONDA.
Mr. Charles Moss, brother of Theodore Moss, the disposed of The Arcadian, he announced his plan
T H E SPECULATIVE NEWSPAPER DODGE—LOVE AND treasurer of Wallack's Theatre."
of a music trade paper?"
LlTERATTJBE — A N UNBOUNDED STOMACH
' 'Who and what did he seem to you to be, Mr.
"Very well, indeed," replied Mr. Wheeler. "It
CONQUERS ALL THINGS—A THEAT-
Wheeler, when you first met him?"
was
nothing more nor less than a gigantic scheme
RICAL COMBINATION SALIVA-
"Better tell what he claimed to be. Although from the outset to speculate upon human weakness,
TED AND BOLTED
he claimed that he had attained to considerable but it failed disastrously as such a scheme, be-
WHOLE.
celebrity for his literary work in England hit fame cause the speculator lacked the ability to carry
had never reached this country. After he came it through to the end, where another and more
NE afternoon last week two men were seated here his fame became widespread."
able man might have succeeded. Why, I remem-
at a table in the windows at the Fifteenth
"Exactly so," remarked our representative with ber well, just before Freund brought out the
street and Fourth avenue corner of the Union a smile.
Music Trade Review, in 1875, I met him right here
Square Hotel Restaurant. They were dividing
"He boasted," continued Mr. Wheeler, that lie on this corner one day, and he pulled out of his
their attention between the lunch and the contem- had been a successful play-writer in England.
pocket the printed title page of his proposed
plation of the many well known people who were
'' He bought The Arcadian without money, paper, and in his usual indiscreet and effusive
constantly coming into the place for liquid or ran it without money, and sold it out to George manner informed me that he was going to start a
solid refreshments.
Butler. The Arcadian from the moment he new paper, in which there was a good deal more
Ferdinand Dulcken was there of course, fight- touched it was like all papers he handled—a money for him than in dramatic journalism, and
ing his way stolidly through mountains of food. superficial success. He possessed a certain amount that he had a big thing on Steinway & Sons. He
Herrman, the magician, with his low shirt collar of energy and impudence combined. He was also said that they were going to back it. He had
and embroidered pantalettes, looking like a carica- not a literary man in any sense, but knew well nothing more than his title page. 'Now,' he said,
ture of Mephistopheles, was devoting himself to how to avail himself of literary talent in others, 'I am going to take this title page and get adver-
Brother Dam's good cheer.
purchasing it at a low figure, or at no figure at all, tisements on this scheme. I am going to make
Joe Howard, of The Herald, was making things or else paying for it at an extravagant rate in prom- people believe that I am authorized to use William
lively for everybody by poking the lunchers in ises. He spurted The Arcadian by the following Steinway's name. I'll get 34,000 or $5,000 in ad-
the ribs with his cane, while he insisted that all methods: by attacking several conspicuous but in- vertising in, and paid for in advance, and then I'll
hands should join him in the next room where nocent people—Fred'k McCabe, the comic singer start my paper.' And he did start it. It was a
there was a mysterious rattling of ice and a lively and character performer; Kate Field, and others. In mystery to the music trades and the musicians
clinking of glasses. Townsend Percy, of The Miss Field's case, when she appeared at Booth's why he should have such a hold on these people,
Star, just off from a sick bed was poking around theatre in the character of Peg Woffington, in addi- but Freund had no hesitation in declaring to
for matter for his spicy dramatic department, and tion to a violent attack upon her acting, he publish- several people that he did have a hold on them so
his "Man About Town" in that paper.
ed an atrocious and scandalous picture of her. Fred- that they could not avoid paying tribute to him.
At one table sat the head of the house of Stein- erick McCabe was a man who had undoubted talent, What that 'hold' was, as Freund explained it, I
way k Sons, chatting with Geilfuss, one of his but it was marred by conspicuous vulgarity. It will now give you."
best salesmen, and with his nephew, Charley seems that Freund had a grudge against McCabe
"No; let us take that point up at another time,"
Steinway, who is learning all that is worth know- in England, and he instigated a writer in this
ing about business under the watchful eye of his city to furnish him with an article dilating upon said our representative.
"Well," said Mr. Wheeler, "111 take up another
uncle William.
McCabe's weakest point. The writer was ignorant
The two men at the corner table—one, Mr. A. of Freund's animus, and seeing that McCabe's feature of the case. At this time one of the few
C. Wheeler, the well-known JSfym Crinkle of the vulgarity, as I have said, was conspicuous, wrote piano men of importance who kept aloof from
literary world; the other, a representative of THE a stinging article, which appeared in The Arcadian. Freund and held him in loathing and scorn, was
MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW—happened to McCabe was wild when he read it, but did not re- Albert Weber. It was part of Freund's scheme,
look out of the window at the same moment, just taliate in kind. He swore revenge and then brought and a part that annoyed the Stein ways very much,
as a man with a large abdominal development, a up a number of claims against Freund and forced I am sure, to attack Mr. Weber apparently in the
nose hooked like the beak of a bird of prey, and him into such a corner that he gladly made an interest of Steinway. He made it appear that he
a languishing eye in which there was a mingled ex- abject apology and pusillanimously put the whole was doing this in the interest of Steinway, as you
pression of mush and malevolence, floated volup- onus of the affair on the man who wrote the arti- know it is always his plan to endeavor to cover up
tuously down the street. A remark made by the cle at his instigation. But this is only a slight his tracks so as to make the blame attach, if pos-
representative of THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE episode in the history of Freund's connection sible, to some one besides himself. But Weber was
REVIEW drew the attention of all in the room to with The Arcadian. I could give you a list of a match for him, and got a twist on him through
this apparition, and instinctively every man thrust dates, facts and names if you wished that would McCabe. Then Freund came to me, and with tears
in his eyes begged me to go with him to Albert
his hand into his pocket and grasped his pocket- astonish your readers.
Weber and heal this breach, saying that he could
book, and no one felt safe until the voluptuous
"One at a time, Mr. Wheeler," said our repre- not understand why it was that Weber should be
apparition had passed out of sight.
sentative. "Don't be in a hurry. Some other so bitter against him personally, when it was all
"I will lay a wager," said some one, "that
day I may call upon you for some more facts. somebody else's fault. I took him to Weber's,
the amount that man Freund has bled from
You will remember, of course, that he turned nis and the breach was healed—conditionally. What
the people in this room alone would net the hand-
squirt-gun upon other prominent people."
those conditions were we can consider when we
some sum of about six or eight thousand dollars."
"Call in Andrew J. Dam, the proprietor of this Just at this point Mr. William Humphries, look- have more time to spare. As I was saying, Freund's
hotel," suggested some one, "and he will raise ing as patriarchial as ever, came into the restau- object in starting The Music Trade Review was at
first a purely speculative one, but as he went on
that amount several hundred dollars for wines, rant, and joined the party.
"Yes," said Mr. Wheeler. " He bulldozed with it, it became part of a social scheme. He
liquors and lunches."
"Mr. Wheeler," said our representative, "you dramatic and some other people so easily that he grew to have an inordinate social ambition, and
were well acquainted with the man who has at- thought he could do the same thing with railroad firmly believed that by means of his paper he could
tracted our attention. Where did you first run men, stock brokers, etc., who were wealthier, but make not only money, but a position in society.
in that scheme he failed. I could relate to you His attempts to work out this theory were without
across him ? "
ABDOMINAL MAGNETISM,
O
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
242
THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
March 20th, 1882.
a doubt the most bewilderingly paralyzing and at that time consisted of Brander Mathews, Ste-
idiotic that mankind haa any record of. His rooms phen Fiske, Hugh Craig, William Humphreys, A.
in town, his house at Tarrytown, were all part of E. Lancaster, W. E. Nickerson, Gotthold Carl-
this deliberate scheme."
berg, a female journalist whose name I forget, and
"Well, the efforts of this mastodon journalist myself. Besides these, he had a small army of con-
produced some effect?"
tributors and correspondents in and out of town,
"Yes; they afforded as much enjoyment to the and in other rooms a corps of bookkeepers, clerks
public as one of Barnum's circus parades, or any and lackeys. The same plan was carried out in
other form of cheap pageantry. Freund used to his private apartments in town, where he combined
set forth his scheme in this way: 'What the Ameri- a private editorial room, a dining-room, a parlor,
cans want is impudence, show, cheek, brass. They and a rendezvous for certain female admirers,
will pay the largest price to the man who deceives and in which he mingled love and literature with
them most. They like to be taken in. I shall a picturesque grace which, I believe, has never
open a large private establishment on the banks before been equalled. It was in these rooms that
HE other day, at a symphony rehearsal at
of the Hudson, for the purpose of impressing the he first met James Steele Mackaye. I was the
Steinway Hall, I met the genial and talka-
people whom I wish to use. If you want to borrow one who introduced them. It was the meeting tive Lafe Harrison.
$5,000 of a man, the proper way to do is to ask of the anaconda and the ferret. Mackaye The rehearsal was just over and I merely
him to your house to dinner, till him full of expen- quick, impulsive and nervous, evidently study- dropped into room 7 to see how John Lavine was
sive wines, show him your stables and your coach- ing the points of his new acquaintance's getting on.
man in livery, and then borrow the money, a very character; and Freund, sleek, sleepy and slimy,
Says I to Lafe, "Look here, these concerts of
small proportion of which will be sufficient to pay saying to himself, 'Young man, I will coat
Dr. Damrosch must pay very well. They are
for the show you have given him. The same man, you all over with saliva and swallow you so easily
always crowded; both rehearsals and concerts are
if asked in a prosaic way for $5,000 in his office, that you won't know it until it is done.' And he
filled up to seating capacity."
would at once refuse it. Once start an establish- not only salivated Mackaye, but when Mackaye
"Yes," answered Harrison; "they are the only
ment or newspaper on this American basis, and it took his 'Iron Will' Theatrical Combination on the
concerts that pay now. 1 mean concerts like
continues to run by a law of its own. For instance, road, Freund accompanied him for the ostensible
these, gotten up by subscription. The others do
when I open my house and get my carpets, serv- purpose of 'booming' up its affairs, and salivated
not pay."
ants and horses, I can obtain any amount of wines, the whole combination, swallowed them bodily,
I think Lafe is right.
or brie a brnc, or furniture, on five years' time by and then returned to New York alone, placid and
It appears to me that all the efforts of the best
asking the person to dine with me who is to give sleek and slimy as ever, though his abdomen did
managers do not pay, as a rule.
me the credit. Just so with a newspaper. I bring protrude more than usual. And everybody asked,
Lavine one evening a few weeks ago told me the
out a forty-page sheet with a tremendous show of "What has become of Mackaye and his combina-
same thing, and my own observations prove it.
news and advertisements, and immediately every tion?' But nobody knew until Freund had as-
* * *
organ man, and every piauo man, and every cellu- similated the whole affair and was ready for a new
I believe it was Henry Wolfsohn, Joseffy's
loid man will drop into my bag without a flutter.' case of salivation."
When he changed his Manic Trade Review from a "What is your opinion, Mr. Wheeler, of what manager, who used the expression, "Combina-
semi-monthly to a weekly, with an extensive dra Freund is fond of calling his personal, or animal tions are what the people want."
Wolfsohn is a very successful and experienced
matic department, he pursued the same plan. He magnetism?"
manager.
He is the first man who has taken
impressed well-known literary men into his ser-
"I should prefer to call it abdominal magnetism,
vice by the most grandiloquent promises of reward. for I have observed that it is the man with a capa- Joseffy on the road and made the venture pay.
For instance, he telegraphed me once when I was cious stomach that is best able to impress his fel- I was with a friend when we met Wolfsohn, and
on The Star, offering me $1,000 in, cash for a series low men when $5,000 is to be borrowed. Freund's used the above language.
"Why I could jam houses out West if I had a
of ten articles."
abdomen is a tremendous factor in his schemes."
combination."
"Did you get the $1,000 in cash?"
At this point Mr. James Steele Mackaye, the
"No. When we met to talk over the matter, he Delsarte disciple, and Mr. Frank Carpenter, the Wolfsohn has some excellent schemes on hand.
offered me his notes for the amount, saying that I artist, appeared, and the conversation was post- A young flutist living in this city asked Wolf-
sohn the other day where Wilhelmj is at present.
could get them discounted at the Bank of the Me- poned until a more convenient season.
"In Australia," said Wolfsuhn.
tropolis. But the Bank of the Metropolis took a
"Doyou still manage him?" was the eager ques-
different view of the matter, and I finally agreed to
tion of the terrestrial youth.
write the articles for him for $50 each instead of
The absurdity of the question was intensified
$100, and to this day he owes me for the last
by
the effort the man made to justify it. Wolf-
article."
sohn says he often meets animals like Wittgarstein
WHEKE
IS
EDWIN
J.
BUTLER.—Can
any
of
our
"You may be thankful, Mr. Wheeler, that you
readers furnish us with the address of Mr. Edwin or Rindsvich. I think that is what he called him.
got off so easily."
J. Butler, late of Boston or Charlestown,Mass., and
"When he organized his paper on a dramatic, as formerly of Ottawa, Canada, where he was musi-
•well as musical basis, he employed ten editors, a cal director of the Ottawa Ladies' College?
The managers, advance agents, libretto furn-
larger editorial staff than on any daily paper, and
ishers, etc., are found at all the musical enter-
BLANCHE ROOSEVELT'S WEAKNESS.—Miss Blanche
paid, or agreed to pay them, double the salaries Roosevelt
is reported as finishing her "Reminis- tainments, and, together with the critics and
they would receive anywhere else. He provided cences of a Poet's Home Life." The poet is chronic deadheads that do not know why they
his editors with escritoires, Turkey rugs, and gild- Longfellow, and when Miss Roosevelt visited him attend, fill up quite a large space of a large hall.
ed pens, and then brought in all the men whom he at Nahant, in 1880, she put down many things I never made an attempt to ascertain how many
him in her little note-book. These domestic
wished to overpower with a sense of his magnifi- about
matters she now proposes to disclose to a curious tickets were placed on the "free list" of Maple-
cence, leading them up and down the room, some- literary public. Whether she can write better son's operas.
thing after the manner of the showman before his than she can sing remains to be seen; but the book
The number must be somewhere among the
wild beast cages, and pointing out his editors as will hardly be a fair criterion of her literary ability, hundreds. A great many of these tickets are
Longfellow will correct its grammar and or- sent or given to men who are necessarily adjuncts
they sat at their work surrounded by more than as
thography before it goes to the printers.
Oriental magnificence. And such was the weak-
to the performances.
ness of poor human nature, that he would generally GERSTER'S ILLNESS.—Mme. Gerster, of the Stra- Such are the critics especially; then the men
catch his visitor for a full page advertisement be- kosch Company, was taken so seriously ill in Chi- who in various capacities have a kind of business
fore he got out of the room. Whereupon the sleek cago, on March 10, that she was unable to fill her relation with the management; then those who
Milwaukee engagement. She improved rapidly,
and eloquent Mr. Freund would invariably turn however, and was able to appear in St. Louis the confer favors upon the management.
around to his editorial staff as his visitor was about following Monday night.
But a large class are "friends," and these
to leave the room, and with a wink of his eye,
"friends"
are a dead loss to the management.
THROUGH THE SOUTH.—Miss Letitia Louise Fritch
would say: 'Boys, you see how the thing works.' and Mr. Louis Blumenberg, violoncellist, are at The courtesy ot the profession and such as
The candor of Freund in such matters contributed present in South Carolina and Georgia. These ar- exists between managers makes an exchange of
to his downfall, for he was so impressed with his tists have been engaged for a series of concerts in compliments necessary, and this also adds to the
own cleverness, and his vanity was so great, that he Columbia and Charleston, S. C, and Augusta, free-list.
could not refrain from calling the attention of peo- Savannah, and Atlanta, Ga.
I noticed quite a large complement of free-list
TERESINA SINGER'S SUCCESS.—Teresina Singer has attendants at the first "Fidelio" performance.
ple to his trickery, so long as he thought himself
made an immense success in Palermo in "Aida" They just lined the outer circle and occupied
able to keep out of trouble in the matter."
and "Robert le Diable." She has been secured as
"Let me see," continued Mr. Wheeler, throwing the star for the coming winter season at St. Peters- many reserved seats.
back his head and chuckling. "Hia editorial staft burg, Russia.
At the Philharmonic concerts there are not so
T
TALK OF THE DAY

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