The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Violinist, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

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Title: The Little Violinist

Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23355]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE VIOLINIST ***

Produced by David Widger

THE LITTLE VIOLINIST.

By Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Boston And New York Houghton Mifflin Company

Copyright, 1873, 1885, and 1901

Weep with me, all you that read
This little story;
And know, for whom a tear you shed,
Death's self is sorry.

Ben Jonson.

This story is no invention of mine. I could not invent anything half
so lovely and pathetic as seems to me the incident which has come
ready-made to my hand.

Some of you, doubtless, have heard of James Speaight, the infant
violinist, or Young Americus, as he was called. He was born in London, I
believe, and was only four years old when his father brought him to this
country, less than three years ago. Since that time he has appeared in
concerts and various entertainments in many of our principal cities,
attracting unusual attention by his musical skill. I confess, however,
that I had not heard of him until last month, though it seems he had
previously given two or three public performances in the city where I
live. I had not heard of him, I say, until last month; but since then I
do not think a day has passed when this child's face has not risen up in
my memory--the little half-sad face, as I saw it once, with its large,
serious eyes and infantile mouth.

I have, I trust, great tenderness for all children; but I know that I
have a special place in my heart for those poor little creatures who
figure in circuses and shows, or elsewhere, as "infant prodigies."
Heaven help such little folk! It was an unkind fate that did not make
them commonplace, stupid, happy girls and boys like our own Fannys and
Charleys and Harrys. Poor little waifs, that never know any babyhood or
childhood--sad human midges, that flutter for a moment in the glare of
the gaslights, and are gone. Pitiful little children, whose tender limbs
and minds a