The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 21, 1902, Page 15

There sre plenty of reasons why our sex shouid edopt Erin’s instrument— t go beyond the mere music 8 t r women have rediscovered—that directly into Par- »se beside a harp, once when it was when - Madame Guillame, ber old-time fluttering dra- SUNDAY CALL. THE 13 peries and her prumes and her old-time gentleness and repose, harped at the court of Louis Philippe and was painted by a famcus maker of pictures because of the mere loveliness of her.. Women knew in' those days what was the seduc- ticn of a bare arm tralled across the strings, of tapering pink fingers flashing over them, of the glimpse of a coming- and-going little foot on the pedals, They are recalling these things now. Soclety has taken to the harp. Bome years ago it was to =il intents and pur- poses dead. Soclety had forgotten its irtues and deviltries as well. But it as bound to be revived soms¢ day and now the day has come, It isn’t fair by the women who take their harps seriously to claim that grace- ful posing is at the bottom of every woman's love for the music. There.are plenty of them who have achleved real skill in the quaint art and are doing sometking worth while at it. Others are amateurs and will always be amateurs, but the charm of seeing them play would be encugh to make even the worst dis- cords forgivable. There is nothing quite as delightful for a veranda evening as the music of a harp. The Eastern summer resorts have bken making a point of having a harp on hand this season, and the fashion is only In its infancy. ,Our own mountain end seaside cottages and hotels will he prompt enough in taking it up. The music of its strings floating out over the water is enough to go to the soberest head. And for the winter drawing-room! ‘Why, it is half enough to furnish a room, if it were never played at all. It is one of the most beautiful ornaments that can be found for any drawing-room. Its lines are exquisitely graceful, its sound- ing-board is made of some brilllantly pol- ished, often inlaid and jeweled wood. A woman can hardly sit at it without mak- ing a beauty of herself. Mrs. E. R. Bryant is one of the best amateur performers in San Francisco, and she says she has found more satis- faction in her harp than in any other irstrument. ¢ “It is always popular,” she says, “‘part- ly because the music is delightful and partly because it is unique. Sometime it will be s0 common that this latter virtue will be lost, but at present it is a new thing. & 'm se proud of my harp that I likes to show it to everybody I know. The makers say that it is the finest instru- ment they ever turned out., It has the extension sounding board, which is new. I didn’t go in for jeweled desigus, as you HER FIARP BryanvzT AND see; but I had the board made of curly maple, which I think is pretty enough in itself without being jeweled. The tones which the broader board gives out are infinitely richer and fuller.” What Mrs. Bryant talks about is the beauty of her instrument. Her playing speaks for itself. She has devoted endless hours to her practicing and she says that the satisfaction that she and her friends get out of her skill pays for all the tro ble. “The harp isn’t easy by any means, she says, “but it's delightful, and. it is pleasing without any accompaniment, which is convenient, as one doesn’t al- ways have an accompaniment at hand.” One’s fingers. grow callous with the hours of patient twanging. It is like a guitar, and more so. The practicing is particularly hard for a woman's delicate hands, but that is nothing to keep the plucky ones from it. “Miss Marie Dillon is one of our soclety girls who can coax sweet harmonies from a beautiful harp. She says that it means steady and hard work to reach any skill. “It isn’t the kind of thing that you can take up for an idle hour’s practice,” she says. ‘You may get some amusement out of your guitar or your mandolin or your banjo and not take it seriously at all. But a harp insists on being taken riously, and after all, it pays for every effort you make for its sake.” Miss Morgan is devoted to her harp, and her friends are lkewise. Nobody who has seen her In fluttering white be- fore her harp would dare call it extrava- gance to speak of her as angelic. She is a most head-turning sight when her fin- gers flit over the strings. Miss Jesle Bramel, tall and dark and tropical, makes a picture with her gilded instrument. “I love my harp just as if'it was a real person,” she says. ‘“We have spent so much time together, we know each other so well.” Mrs. Jack Casserly has achieved many nph in her harp playing. BShé is ul performer and & stunning ple- ture as well. Miss Paula Wolff is one of this city's amateurs. She is one of those that the professionals do not dare to sniff at, which is saying much. an Landsberger is among the s here who are devoting their talent to the barp. Madame Ca- is another. Solano is doing all he can to establish the instrument in popular favor. In the East the fashion is under fuller headway than it has yet come to be on this coast. Miss Maud Morgan of New York is the best known performer in the whole cc try. Miss Avis Boxall and Miss Jo: ine Sullivan have reached re- markable skill—skill which is ranked high even in their own great city. Miss Marle Glover Miller is another New Yorker who has made herself an accomplished harp- ist, and her playing s interesting not for itself alone. She is the lucky possessor of the instrument which Thomas Moore used in the composition of his “Irish Mel- odies.” Everybody who sees and hears her play listens also to the story of the old harp and its wonderful history. She has told it so many times that she says the would be tired of it if she didn't love her harp so well. Bochsa taught Miss Elizabeth Sloman, and he taught her so well that she has often been invited to play before Eur pean titles. ‘It made me feel as if I were professio the harpist of some old-time court reim- carnated,” she says. “I could fancy that it was the applause of historical Kings and nobles that I heard.” Mrs. M. A. Frisble another New Yorker who has taken up the fad. Miss Cluss is a well-known professional of ‘Washington, but the art has gone far be- yond professional ranks there. The lega- , tion people have taken to it like ducks to water. Signor Fabriani ‘is an Eastern artist, and Mrs. Dawson of Newark has achieved a reputation. Miss Rientzel is & Philadelphian who has added her name to the long list. Mrs. Harrlet Shaw and Mr. Schnecher are the most prominent Bostonlans. Miss Effie Douglass-Putnam, who studied under Verdalle, has gone so far with her art that she has had the musical compositions of great masters dedicated to her By the way, did you ever think of the origin of the harp? It is so old an in- strument that the first harps are lost track of entirely. It dates back to Bibli- cal times; it originated in Egypt in some unnamed year. Then the harpists bore their instruments on the ‘shoulder, and, judging from the ancient pictures; wers not half as picturesque & lot as the mod- erns. It has been & fad among players to be photographed in Grecian costume with their harps, but, as Mrs. Bryant says, the harp is not characteristically Greclan at all. It s far more associated with old Ireland. Welsh and Irish harps were al- most sacred once upon a time. The old Welsh laws exempted them from seizure for debt. The cost?of the Instrument has done h to keep it oft of popularity for many years, but expense has not kept the plano out of every well regulated home, and the harp may follow its example. It s hard to tune, which is another thing that counts against it; but its virtues are far in the lead. It looks as if it won’t in very truth B4 long before this weary old earth will find itselt a Paradise, inhabited by twanging angels. Which is a pleasing outlook to say the least. S Roughly speaking, the world is &tvided into two classes: Shirkers and workers, and obeying a universal law the helpl fly to the comvetent, the competen cept the burdens of the weak, and so the world go errily round, the velocity of the one spec balancing the supineness of the other, else half of us would spin into space, and the other half pass from human being to veg e ODDEST ROBBERY ON RECORD HORTLY after I was put on the fiy force,” ‘said the old detective, “the chief sent for me. On enter- ing his office I found there a man I recognized as a banker of repute. Since then he Ias become famous. The chief told me to listen to the stor for it was my case. The story was brief. Thg bank- er kept some personal securities in a safe at his own home and some were missing. They had disappeared one by one at ir- regular intervals. The one singular thing was that on one occaslon he had set out to watch the safe all night and between 3 and 4 had dropped asleep for half an hour. In that ‘half hour another had disap- peared. The lock was a combination, the secret of which, so far as he knew, was wholly his own. “I went up to his house and made = careful examination without hitting on any theory that would seem to unravel the mystery. So I sald to the banker that he must go right along in his mode of living, do nothing to let any inmates in the house suppose they were under suspicion or observation and that I would conceal myself and watch the safe. For I was satisfle | that the thief was ome of the family and I fancied it was the son, who was a high roller. *“This the banker agreed to and helped m_ rig up a place where I céuld conceal myself. I began the watching that nigh but nothing came of it for five nights. On the sixth the banker went out to a dinner party, but he was back home shortly af- ter midnight and the house quieted down by 1 o’'clock. An hour and a half later I heard a soft step in the room adjoining the library and presently a form stgle into the room and going ta the safe, swiftly unlocked it and abstracted a single se- curity, closing the safe again. “The room was so dark that I could dis- tinguish only the outlines of the form, but the darkness enabled me to follows ths thiéf as he turned from the safe. I did 80, and with a step as stealthy as his own. He led ma through the adjoining room, out into the hall, down the basement steps and into a lumber-room, where there was an old box for firewood. To this box the thief went, and, lifting the cover, put the security in it. “Then he turned, and so quickly that he near struck me, and hurried up the stairs. I was close behind him, and at his heels when he climbed up to the second tory, where there was a night lamp In the hall, giving sufficient light for me to recognize the features of the man who had taken the security. From here he turned into a room, closing the door after him. I went down ‘into the library and found the easfest chalir for a nap. “The next morning as the banker ap- peared for breakfast I took him down- stairs, saying to him: ‘Examine that box and see what you find." “To his amazement he found every ene of the missing securities and some papers besides which he had not missed. He was dumfounded. After a moment's hesita- tion he turned to me with & severs and most stern alr and asked: “‘Who is the thief? “You are,’ I replied complacently. “He started violently, and for a moment® I thought he would strike me. But he asked instead, ferociously: *“ “What do you mean by that? “‘Only that you are a sleepwalker,” I replied. ‘That's all. I followed and saw you take the paper and place it here.’ “He stood still, as one paralyzed. Thes he said: “ ‘Keep my counsel, Say nothing. “A week later he sent for me to his of- fice to tell me that his physician had told him that it was a case of dyspepsia and that when he had come to look back he found thdt it was only after a late-course cinner that a paper has been missed. Then he added: “ ‘You've been dlscreet so far. Continue to be and you will see that you will not lose by it. “T continued to be, and that's the reason why I have retired so early, can drive down the road just as fast a stepping pair as any one does’ and can have an auto= mobile i£.I want one.”—Brooklyn Eagle. Ty P e g ” POINTERS FOR THE HOUSEKEEPER. HE term *“double cream™ is more in use among chefs than cooking teachers or housekeepers. Where it is specified in a recipe it means eream which is very thick—the top cream taken from new milk which has been allowed to stand undisturbed for from 24 to 36 hours, and which, when whipped, will make a froth so compact and heavy that it can be cut with a knife. For whipping, cream should be thor- oughly chilled, else there is great danger of its turning to buttér. Where only a small amount—say, & cupful or less— is to be whipped an ordinary egg beater, such as the Dover, can be used, but it takes longer than if you have a regular créam whip or churn. Of the latter there are several on the market; the syllabub or old-tashioned cream whip, which con- sists of a tin cylinder about eight inches in length, Into which is fitted a perforated dasher with a long handle or plunger; a can in the shape of a miniature churn, with wire paddles or dashers, and se eral patented articles varying In construec- tion, but resembling one or the other of the two described. In any case, it is wisest to chill the churn before using. ‘Where the churn is such as to necessi- tate using a bowl for the cream it will be found wise In very hot weather to stand the bowl in a pan of cracked fce, turn In the cream and let stand for about five minutes, that the temperaturs may be thoroughly lowered. Place the churn in the cream, tilt it slightly and take short, sharp strokes with the dasher. Do not ‘work too rapidly at first, but let the dowrward strokes be made quickly and forcefully. If a light, fluffy whip is de- sired, as for rlotte russe, skim off the whip as’ it accumulates on the sur- face and lay it on a fine sleve which is standing on a plate; such liquid cream as drips through is to be turned back nto the bowl; continue to whip and skim until no more froth will rise. If the eream Is not very thick, only about half of the quantity can be taken off, the rest thine ning too much to permit of its frothing, It the cream Is very thick and heavy and a solid froth is desired, beat under the froth which first rises and repeat unmtil the whole mass becomes thick. When it is so stiff that a knife can be run through it and come out quite clean whipping should be‘discontinued, or, despite the low temperature, it may turn to butter.— Table Talk.