aly.--Takes the Place of Do Beriot by Great Good Luck.--Ole Bull
is most enthusiastically received.--Extended Concert Tour in Italy and
France.--His _Debut_ and Success in England.--One Hundred and Eighty
Concerts in Six Months.--Ole Bull's Gaspar di Salo Violin, and the
Circumstances under which he acquired it.--His Answer to the King of
Sweden.--First Visit and Great Success in America in 1843.--Attempt
to establish a National Theatre.--The Norwegian Colony in
Pennsylvania.--Latter Years of Ole Bull.--His Personal Appearance.--Art
Characteristics.

I.

The life of Olaus Bull, or Ole Bull, as he is generally known to the
world, was not only of much interest in its relation to music, but
singularly full of vicissitude and adventure. He was born at Bergen,
Norway, February 5, 1810, of one of the leading families of that resort
of shippers, timber-dealers, and fishermen. His father, John Storm Bull,
was a pharmaceutist, and among his ancestors he numbered the Norwegian
poet Edward Storm, author of the "Sinclair Lay," an epic on the fate of
Colonel Sinclair, who with a thousand Hebridean and Scotch pirates, made
a descent on the Norwegian coast, thus emulating the Vikingr forefathers
of the Norwegians themselves. The peasants slew them to a man by rolling
rocks down on them from the fearful pass of the Gulbrands Dahl, and
the event has been celebrated both by the poet's lay and the painter's
brush. By the mother's side Ole Bull came of excellent Dutch stock,
three of his uncles being captains in the army and navy, and another a
journalist of repute. A passion for music was inherent in the family,
and the editor had occasional quartet parties at his house, where the
works of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven were given, much to the delight of
young Ole, who was often present at these festive occasions.

The romantic and ardent imagination of the boy was fed by the weird
legends familiar to every Norwegian nursery. The Scheherezade of this
occasion was the boy's own grandmother, who told him with hushed breath
the fairy folk-lore of the mysterious Huldra and the Fossikal, or Spirit
of the Waterfall, and Ole Bull, with his passion for music, was wont
to fancy that the music of the rushing waters was the singing of the
violins played by fairy artists. From an early age this Greek passion
for personifying all the sights and sounds of nature manifested itself
noticeably, but always in some way connected with music. He would fancy