to him, the feverish agitation of our
Northern society. Go and talk of the funds, of the landed interest, of
stock-jobbing, to this Sybarite lord of the wilderness, who can live all
the year round on luscious bananas and delicious cocoa-nuts which he
is not even at the trouble of planting; who has the best tobacco in
the world to smoke; who replaces today the horse he had yesterday by a
better one, chosen from the first _calallada_ he meets; who requires no
further protection from the cold than a pair of linen trousers, in that
favored clime where the seasons roll on in one perennial summer; who,
more than all this, finds at eve, under the rustling palm-trees, pensive
beauties, eager to reward with their smiles the one who murmurs in their
ears those three words, ever new, ever beautiful, 'Yo te quiero.'"

VI.

Mr. Gottschalk's return to America in February, 1862, was celebrated by
a concert in Irving Hall, on the anniversary of his _debut_ in New York.
This was the beginning of another brilliant musical series, in pursuance
of which he appeared in every prominent city of the country. While
many found fault with Gottschalk for descending to pure "claptrap" and
bravura playing, for using his great powers to merely superficial and
unworthy ends, he seemed to retain as great a hold as ever over the
masses of concert-goers. Gottschalk himself, with his epicurean,
easy-going nature, laughed at the lectures read him by the critics and
connoisseurs, who would have him follow out ideals for which he had no
taste. It was like asking the butterfly to live the life of the bee.
Great as were the gifts of the artist, it was not to be expected that
these would be pursued in lines not consistent with the limitations
of his temperament. Gottschalk appears to have had no desire except to
amuse and delight the world, and to have been foreign to any loftier
musical aspiration, if we may judge by his own recorded words. He passed
through life as would a splendid wild singing-bird, making music
because it was the law of his being, but never directing that talent
with conscious energy to some purpose beyond itself.

In 1863 family misfortunes and severe illness of himself cooperated to
make the year vacant of musical doings, but instantly he recovered he
was engaged by M. Strakosch to give another series of concerts in the
leading Eastern cities. Without attempting to linger over his career for
the next two years, let us pass to his seco