nd sped on like a tyrant, crashing
everything in its way and rejoicing in its might. And so we glided
oddly but easily enough into the ballroom, where mirth and
laughter, bright eyes, fairy feet, and all that was good and
pleasant to behold flitted by. It was not all music that Ole Bull's
violin gave out. There were old memories and pleasant ones, ideas
which shaped themselves into all manners of queer visions; and the
main difference between Ole Bull and those I have heard before him
seemed to me to consist in this--that whereas many others may
excite and hold by the button, as it were, the organ of hearing and
the mind therewith immediately connected, Ole Bull awakens the
other senses along with it and occupies them in the field of
imagination."

In 1846 came Sivori, and in 1848 Remenyi, both artists whose desire to
please their audiences took them far from the path of the highest
musical standard. It may be said with truth that the country was hardly
ready for musicianship of the highest quality, and even in 1872, when
Wieniawski came with the great pianist and composer, Rubinstein, the two
were accepted on their reputation rather than on their merits, which
were understood by a comparatively small proportion of their audiences.

Although several violinists endeavoured to copy Paganini's style, or at
least to learn as much as possible from hearing and seeing him play,
there was only one, excepting Catarina Calcagno, who received direct
instruction from him, and on whom his mantle was said, by his admirers,
to have fallen. That one was Camillo Sivori, born at Genoa, June 6,
1817.

[Illustration: CAMILLO SIVORI]

The connecting link between Sivori and Paganini began very early in the
career of the former. Indeed it is said that the excitement of his
mother, on hearing Paganini play at a concert, caused the premature
birth of the future disciple of the great artist. Marvellous stories
are told of Sivori's infancy. At the age of eighteen months, before he
had ever seen or heard a violin player, he continually amused himself by
using two pieces of stick after the manner of the violin and bow, and
singing to himself. It is fair to say that similar precocity in other
children has not always resulted in virtuosity. A case might be cited of
a very young person who amused himself by inverting a small chair, and
imagining that he was a street organist, but he grew