at women are the inspirers of music. As critics they
are more judicial and more appreciative. Without women there would be no
Symphony Concerts, any more than there would be churches.

Women take men to the Grand Opera and to Musical Festivals--and I am
glad.

* * * * *

Clara Wieck was only ten years old, with dresses that came to her knees,
when Robert Schumann first began to take lessons of her father. She was
tall for her age, and had a habit of brushing her hair from her eyes as
she played, that impressed the young man as very funny. She could not
remember a time when she did not play: and she showed such ease and
abandon that her father used to call her in and have her illustrate his
ideas on the keyboard.

Robert didn't like the child--she was needlessly talented. She could do,
just as a matter of course, the things that he could scarcely accomplish
with great effort. He didn't like her.

Already Clara had played in various concerts, and was a great favorite
with the local public. Soon her father planned little tours, when he
gave performances assisted by his two daughters, who could play both
violin and piano. Their fame grew and fortune smiled. Wieck took a
larger house and raised his prices for pupils.

Robert Schumann wandered over to Zwickau to visit his folks, then went
on down the Rhine to Heidelberg to see Rosen. It was nearly a year
before he got back to Leipzig, resolved to continue his music studies.
Wieck had a front room vacant, and so the young man took lodgings with
his teacher.

It was not so very long before Clara was wearing her dresses a little
longer. She now dressed her hair in two braids instead of one, and
these braids were tied with ribbons instead of a shoe-string. More
concerts were being arranged, and the attendance was larger--people were
saying that Clara Wieck was an Infant Phenomenon.

Robert was progressing, but not so rapidly as he wished. To aid matters
a bit, he invented a brace and extension to his middle finger. It gave
him a farther reach and a stronger stroke, he thought. In secret he
practised for hours with this "corset" on his finger; he didn't know
that a corset means weakness, not strength. After three straight hours
of practise one day, he took the machine from his hand and was
astonished to see the finger curl up like a pretzel. He hurried to a
physician and was told that the member was paralyzed. Various forms of
treatment wer