was compelled
to earn the money for his own education and for his musical studies.
From Dudley Buck and, later, C.C. Muller, of New York, he has had his
only musical instruction. He lived abroad for some time, teaching the
voice in Paris, then returned to live in Chicago. He has written two
operas, one of them having been produced by the Bostonians.

Mr. Neidlinger builds his songs upon one guiding principle, that is,
faithfulness to elocutionary accent and intonation. As he neatly
phrases it, his songs are "colored sketches on a poet's engravings."

The usual simplicity of Mr. Neidlinger's songs does not forbid a
dramatic outburst at the proper time, as in the fine mood, "A Leaf;"
or the sombre depth of "Night," "Nocturne," and "Solitude;" or yet the
sustainedly poignant anguish of "The Pine-tree." Occasionally the
accompaniment is developed with elaborateness, as in the bird-flutings
of "The Robin," and "Memories," an extremely rich work, with its
mellow brook-music and a hint of nightingale complaint in the minor.
"Evening Song," a bit of inspired tenderness, is one of Mr.
Neidlinger's best works. Almost better is "Sunshine," a streak of
brilliant fire quenched with a sudden cloud at the end. Other valuable
works are "Messages," the happy little Scotch song, "Laddie," and
"Dreaming," which is now sombre, now fierce with outbursts of agony,
but always a melody, always ariose.

Mr. Neidlinger has made a special study of music for children, his
book, "Small Songs for Small Children," being much used in
kindergarten work. A book of his, devoted to a synthetic philosophy of
song, is completed for publication; he calls it "Spenser, Darwin,
Tyndall, etc., in sugar-coated pills; geography, electricity, and
hundreds of other things in song."

_The Cleveland Colony._

The city of Cleveland contains a musical colony which is certainly
more important than that of any town of its size. About the tenth of
our cities in population, it is at least fourth, and possibly third,
in productiveness in valuable composition.

[Illustration: WILSON G. SMITH.]

The most widely known of Cleveland composers is Wilson G. Smith. He
has been especially fortunate in hitting the golden mean between
forbidding abstruseness and trivial popularity, and consequently
enjoys the esteem of those learned in music as well as of those merely
happy in it.

[Illustration: Autograph of Wilson G. Smith]

His erudition has persuaded him to a large s