which the violin is capable, have
resolved to become far more than mere "fiddlers;" and are therefore
conscientiously and patiently addressing themselves to an endeavor to
overcome its difficulties, and to take rank as real violinists. To
many of this number a good if not a perfect degree of success must
come, as it ever surely comes to the earnest, persevering student of
any art.

To all such, then, the writer tenders his best wishes; while he
earnestly commends the above examples to all who may have a desire to
learn to develop the beautiful harmonic mysteries of this expressive,
soulful instrument.

XVII.

JOSEPH WHITE,

THE EMINENT VIOLINIST AND COMPOSER.

"Across my hands thou liest mute and still:
Thou wilt not breathe to me thy secret fine;
Thy matchless tones the eager air shall thrill
To no entreaty or command of mine.

But comes thy master: lo! thou yieldest all,--
Passion and pathos, rapture and despair:
To the soul's needs thy searching voice doth call
In language exquisite beyond compare."

_"The Violin:" Harper's Magazine._

Mr. Joseph White[14] is a child of the New World. He was born in
Matanzas, Cuba. His first steps in art were made in his native town.

[Footnote 14: By permission of Mr. White, I quote now, and to some
extent shall do so hereafter, from his Biography, published in Paris
in 1874 by Paul Dupont. For the excellent translation used I am much
indebted to my friend Mr. Joseph W. Hendricks of Boston.]

His father, an amateur in music, thought he had recognized from the
early infancy of the great artist a more than ordinary taste for art.
When the child heard the tones of a violin, he used to leave off play,
and run in the direction where the instrument was singing, his eyes
never losing sight of the virtuoso. Indeed, by his actions at
such times, he seemed not to belong to this world.

[Illustration: JOSEPH WHITE.]

As soon as his hands were large enough to hold a violin, they gave him
one; and were much astonished, when, at the end of a few months, he
presented himself before a large audience, striking the same with
amazement by the manner, entirely magisterial, in which he so early
attacked the instrument.

He continued his studies until the year 1855, when, at the suggestion
of the famous Gottschalk, who had noticed the signs of genius in the
young man, he started for Paris, the city of wonders, and centre of