ch means that the man has stuck to one task
so long that he is unable to meet his brother men on a respectful
equality.

The artist is the voluptuary of labor, and his fantastic tricks often
seem to be only Nature's way of equalizing matters, and showing the
world that he is very common clay, after all. To be modest and gentle
and kind, as we all can be, is just as much to God as to be learned and
talented, and yet be a cad.

Still, instances of great talent and becoming modesty are sometimes
found; and in no great musician was the balance of virtues held more
gracefully than with Mozart. He had humor.

Ah! that is it--he knew values--had a sense of proportion, and realized
that there is a time to laugh. And a good time to laugh is when you see
a mighty bundle of pretense and affectation coming down the street.
Dignity is the mask behind which we hide our ignorance; and our forced
dignity is what makes the imps of comedy, who sit aloft in the sky, hold
their sides in merriment when they behold us demanding obeisance because
we have fallen heir to tuppence worth of talent.

* * * * *

Laporte: Mozart had a sense of humor. He knew a big thing from a little
one. When yet a child the tendency to comedy was strong upon him. When
nine years of age he once played at a private musicale where the
Empress, Maria Theresa, was present. The lad even then was a consummate
violinist. He had just played a piece that contained such a tender,
mournful, minor strain that several of the ladies were in tears. The boy
seeing this, relentingly dashed off into a "barnyard symphony," where
donkeys brayed, hens cackled, pigs squealed and cows mooed, all ending
with a terrific cat-fight on a wood-shed roof. This done, the boy threw
his violin down, ran across the room, climbed into the lap of the
Empress and throwing his arms around the neck of the good lady, kissed
her a resounding smack first on one cheek, then on the other. It was all
very much like that performance of Liszt, who one day, when he was
playing the piano, suddenly shouted, "Pitch everything out of the
windows!" and then proceeded to do it--on the keyboard, of course.

On the same visit to the palace, when Mozart saluted Maria Theresa in
his playful way, he had the misfortune to slip and fall on the waxed
floor.

Marie Antoinette, daughter of Maria Theresa, just budding into
womanhood, ran and picked him up and rubbed his knee where it was hu