wildering mazes. A bonfire of the torches | been heard of in "old masra's " time, and
and a dole of rum finished off the treat I don't believe a single pair of legs in that
always before it became too prolonged. I black company knew how to set about
don't think we ever caused any one trouble kicking out nigger legs though they
through these little festivities-although, were. Poor souls! their days, as long as
regarding them, a surly neighbor who was they could remember, had been passed
notorious for his difficulties with his gang, from earliest morn till latest eve, dragging
used to remonstrate more forcibly than everlastingly across and across these mo-
politely with me. On one occasion we notonous cocoa-grounds, in constant dread
narrowly escaped getting ourselves into a of the cut of the overseer's whip. It was
mess. I had a good many people, nearly plain the dance would have to be set going
all English, visiting me, when, just before for them. Meanwhile Hannan shouts
dinner, somebody remembered that it was from the gallery: "I say, haven't you
the birthday of our good and gracious, blacks ever had a dance before?" Chorus:
and then youthful queen. In accordance" "No, masra." "Wasn't the sainted old
with plantation law a couple of big guns party good to you?" Fortissimo chorus:
stood mounted on carriages outside the "No, masra.' "Did he often have you
portico, ready in case of an insurrection lashed?" Chorus, con fuoco:
"Yes,
of the slaves. It was proposed to fire masra.' O'Hara steps forward: "Here
three salvos in our sovereign lady's honor. you niggers, wouldn't it do you good to
No sooner said than done. Amid much have a dance over the old fellow's grave-
effervescence of British loyalty the three just to have it out? Isn't he buried here
volleys resounded far and wide through somewhere?" Sensation; and Wagne-
the still air of the quickly fading West rian chorus, ad libitum, and incapable of
Indian twilight. In another moment interpretation. Here was a thunderbolt
George was at my side. "Masra, three
guns a signal; quick, masra, another!"
A minute more, and another shot was
echoing along the coast, assuring the sol-
diers of the barracks some miles up that
there was no rising on Santa Sarita.

fallen in the midst of us slave-owners. One white man - slave owner, too, jointly, to the tune of some five hundred souls, proposing a negro dance over the grave of another white man; not to mention relationship and obligation. There was a stampede to the quiet green spot beyond the quarters, where, within the tall, thick lime-hedge, lay the bones of the former master of the place. In the rush none of the excited Irishmen took note of who went or who stayed; and several of us quietly left our apologies with a frightenedlooking elderly negress, who was serving at the buffet. But for the intercession of good-natured acquaintances our Hibernian friends would have had a mauvais quart d'heure with the government. As it was, O'Hara and Hannan got forty-eight hours

It was not until some four years after this that the famous Wyaba revel took place. A rich and grabbing old cocoaplanter further in the interior died, leaving all the property of which he was possessed to three nephews at home in "Ould Ireland"- all cousins whom he had never seen. After some time the three heirs O'Hara, Grady, and Hannan came out to view their inheritance, resolved on having a rattling good time. I met them first in town, where they had got to know everybody; went to the ball at Government House on the king of Hol-in which to quit the colony forever. land's birthday, and by the fascination of their dare-devil "go," had sent all the nicest girls in Paramaribo off their heads. When they had done about enough outré things there, they got tired of town and came down to formally talk over their estate. It was quite in accordance with colonial custom, seeing that they had received so much hospitality, for them to Being on an early occasion after that up have a big gathering on this occasion, and in town I got a friendly hint from officialinvite all the jolliest people they had met. dom that perhaps, for a time, it might be And I will say the Irishmen entertained us better to discontinue small negro festiviroyally. Theirs was a very big plantation, ties. Some of my Dutch neighbors had working a gang nearly double ours - but | preferred growling to speaking frankly to a dull, underfed, scurvy lot. It was part me. For a year or two thereafter I worked of the programme that these people were very hard, carried out various improveto have a dance. Such a thing had never ments and extensions, and introduced

Grady, against whom there was not the charge of active incitement (simply because he hadn't a chance) on payment of a fine was allowed to remain to conclude the legal formalities; a concession which on his speedy marriage with a Dutch lady. was extended to permission to take

up residence.

some newer machinery, so that entertain- | laid in my path or in that of Fles. Howing was less in my head. At home in ever, Fles would not be so likely to be England many years after, a lady, also on coming from the jetty. I passed by the furlough, told me she had not forgotten object and went straight to the manager's the shock she had received once at my rooms. He and I were the only white table in the earlier days, when in reply to men on the place. He told me he had my question, "How many wives have you, recently, without thinking, committed an George?" the grave reply came prompt indiscretion rare for him. About the from behind my chair, "Seven, sah." grounds near the quarters he had one day George had, of course, been always quite come upon a tub turned up; it was an unabove the gang dances. But when, in tidy object, and he told the mulatto overlater years, I used to come to town period-seer who was with him to have it removed. ically, he set me up in quite an establish- Next day he found it had not been ment, bringing along some dozen male and touched, and he commanded one of the female servants under his command; and negroes, under threat of the lash, to take they did have high times. After a liberal it away. The boy, trembling, turned the appropriation of my garments-including thing over, and thence began slowly to my freshest tie and pair of gloves and uncoil itself a huge aboma, which, luckily equipped with my calling cards and best for Fles and the boy, was half asleep, and cigarette-case, George was really far more glided away listlessly into the guava-grove. irresistible than I could ever dream of The serpent was, of course, a fetish, and becoming. With all the heroism of mute the gang were no doubt furious against resignation, I used to watch him set off to Fles. I, too, recollected that I had been a colored party, escorting the ladies of our wanting in consideration for the religious famity for in town the whole household opinions of my people. One sultry evenowned my patronymic. I once broached ing, a week or two before the occurrence the subject of matrimony to George, but of the toad episode, I was riding up coast he assured me that his good breeding and had one of the boys with me, with bow would not permit of anything in such bad and arrow, to bring down some birds form as his taking precedence of me in whose wings I wanted. We passed a entering the holy estate. So I could only magnificent cocoanut palm, and I told the be silent and sorry for a pretty little boy, who was an unrivalled marksman, to mulatto girl up street. shoot me down some of the refreshing fruit. He entreated me not to ask him, became very nervous and excited, and finally said he should "get masra some much finer ones further on." Insubordination had for some time been very general on plantations throughout the colony. I had determined to put down with an iron hand the first signs of it on our place. I compelled the boy to get me down the fruit. Only when he had shot down as much as we could take along did the idea of a fetish dawn upon me; and as nothing then followed I had thought no more of the matter. Fles and I were both very vigilant during the following days, but nothing unpleasant occurred. The Indians, too, were about us much during that spring. They were staunch friends of the government, and I think Fles must have given a hint to old Pedro, the leader of the tribe, for groups of them seemed to be constantly squatting on the verge of the bush, or paddling up our canals with canoes full of basket-work, and their often not inartistic pottery, for me to inspect. Old Pedro, terra-cotta as to skin, black and lank as to hair, and possessed of broad but intelligent features lit up by marvellous eyes, was a sleuth hound where a

A few years before emancipation was really declared, when, as yet, the StatesGeneral at the Hague held it over our heads like the sword of Damocles, inasmuch as they did not seem to assure us of anything like adequate compensation, the faint tones of the not far-distant jubilee were wafted on the breeze into the quarters of every plantation in Surinam. We had very little trouble indeed. A weaker head got frenzied in anticipation now and then. But after the great day had come and gone, the majority of our people stayed with us as trusted servants. Very occasionally, while emancipation was yet ahead, evil communications from the negroes of other plantations would corrupt the good manners of one or two of the gang. Once, on my way from the canal jetty to the house, after a few days' absence, I encountered a much bedizened big toad, a very loudly got-up creature, indeed, gay in old ribbon and many-hued calico rags. From very early times this has been a danger signal amongst the negroes, generally a warning that your life was to be attempted. As I had returned some days before I was expected, I could not be sure whether the thing had been

Echoes of the sea-depths of that famil

runaway negro was concerned. When he make pretty lace-pins for the wives and
could not bring the fugitive back alive, he daughters of subscribers, but do as cer-
did not fail to bring his scalp to the gov-tainly not induce a rush of shareholders.
ernor, for which he received a stipulated
sum. To see these Indians, with their iar South American coast are borne in
firmly knit but most agile figures, walk upon me as I write. The accents of
along the streets of Paramaribo, you ocean's eternal tongue play through the
would have imagined them the lords of the banana-forests, and, traversing the zones,
place. Not so much as by a glance, not resound dimly in my ears; and with them
even by the shadow of a consciousness of come memories of the dull avalanche-
their existence, would an Indian acknowl- roar of a tropical thunderstorm, and of
edge a negro. In the calm imperturba- the quivering gleam of a West Indian
bility of his loathing, to the red man the moon amid the tamarinds. I go down to
black man was as if he were not. These the beach by my northern home. Instead
children of the forest, unconquered, un- of the weedy surf drifting slowly over the
tamed, are the friends of the white man, oozy cotton-fields, I see the great green.
and can be deferential to the dominant and white waves fling themselves high and
race. But the slave the Indian spurns and higher upon the mighty quartz rocks; but
contemns, holding him infinitely less than it is everywhere the same cadence, be-
the worm wriggling in the clay out of neath the English cliffs or upon tropical
which he moulds his water-bottles and flats. It is the same refrain that Soph-
melon-plates.
ocles heard on the Ægean, that sad Hero
heard by the Hellespont, that Byron heard
everywhere nigh or on ocean, the same
that age after age hears as the waves of

edges drear and naked shingles of the world." Ever and always they "bring the eternal note of sadness in." The last time I saw Santa Sarita it had become a wil derness whereon the foot of man never trod. The estate had been abandoned some years previously, the hands being wanted for a more money-bringing cocoa plantation; a new acquisition, and an undertaking not so subject to the serious delays caused by excessive rains or overflow of bottom-lands, and not involving the frequent necessary replanting. And so nature had been left sole ruler of the old place. At the touch of her sceptre had sprung up all the pomp and splendor of the tropics. From out of the brine that gloated over all, the golden and crimson, and bronzen and empurpled orchids broke forth in wanton luxuriousness. Great gold-dusted sunflowers, water-lilies that shone afar in their pearly radiance; the white gleaming of the lotus and the glistening eau-de-nil of the trembling pitcher-plant; the great scarlet cacti and the star-like blossoms of the myrtle; the sweet, delicate purple or conch-shell pink of the passion-flower; the sheeny green of the huge dracænas and castor-plants and deeper-hued masses of ferny undergrowth

Perhaps it was because of small incidents of the sort mentioned that I remained so very apathetic after listening to a tale related to me by one of the watch-human life flow and ebb "down the vast men. He had been on some errand a considerable way into the interior; and he came to me, hot and elated, immediately on his return, and with gleaming eyes told me that he had seen gold-real, glistening, yellow gold-"over dar by ria" (river). His geography was most elementary, but, from what I could gather, his "find lay some little way within the bush, between a tributary of the Surinam River and the coast. I cannot very well, at this remote time, define or even exactly recall my feelings on receiving his information. Possibly I was much pre-occupied. At any rate I must have felt exceedingly little interest; may have been suspicious, or have utterly disbelieved the story; or supposed that the negro had seen, as is not infrequent in the interior, some gold-dust in the river-bed. I may have had doubts whether it was not a decoy. Certainly I might have organized an equipped expedition; but I troubled no more about the matter. It is at least a coincidence that the Surinam gold-field - of which people connected with the colony have heard so much talk and seen so little result-lies in the exact neigh borhood my negro described to me as the scene of his discovery. It might be worth the while of either the colonial government or an influential company to turn its attention to those mines. Until now, through a bad working system and lack of capital, they have not had a fair chance. Possibly something more gratifying might result than the tiny nuggets, which do certainly

-all mingled and repeated themselves in brilliant carnival, while over everything lingered the fragrance of the young1 limes. Gorgeous butterflies coquetted in their prettiness with those regal floral beauties swaying in the salt surf. A million birds wheeled and flittered and plunge‹l, scream

ing their shrill, vext cries as they hovered | "feeders " of the two musics, and we shall and grouped and darted again across the be aware of a radical difference which dream landscape that quivered through the shimmer of the hot, vaporous haze. To me it was as the border tract that lay without the hedge which guarded the enchanted land of Sleeping Beauty. Only, I no more, but the tossing, trembling sea waves from beyond, were to penetrate this mystic garden of sleep.

It felt chill. The awakening night wind began to moan softly. I turned my face towards the quickly setting sun, and retraced my steps riverwards to where my boat was slowly rocking in the shallow, with muffled gurgle and rippling monotone. LOUIS PHILIP.

From The National Review. ENGLISH AND GERMAN MUSIC.

could not but_result in such diversity as we have mentioned. Most of our English composers begin by being the organists to churches. From thence they rise to be conductors of choral societies; and ultimately, if fortune favors them, they become professors at colleges. Their talents, nursed in such an atmosphere as this, naturally seek expression in musical forms congenial thereto. Their typical compositions are anthems, services, cantatas, oratorios, forms of music to which habit has inured them, which are practically useful to them in their duties, and which they are easily able to get performed with the certainty of an appreciative audience. Such are the genuine English professional musicians. We speak not of the foreign interlopers who come pushing among us, and, by benefit of a German name and an imperfect knowledge of our language (two great recommendations in the eyes of the honest public), contrive to palm themselves off as superior people, and perpetuate here the customs of music and composition which they have learnt abroad, to the great detriment of our national development.

Meanwhile, what are the English ama

ground of English amateurs is the choral society. Almost every amateur musician belongs or has belonged to one in his or her time. Every town in England, almost every hamlet, possesses its choral society. The choral society is the focus of all the musical life of the place. What the choral society will perform, how it is progressing, how best it can be supported, form the leading topics of conversation among the lovers of music in the locality. It is pre

GERMAN music has so long enjoyed the monopoly of ascendency in public estimation and English music the reproach of utter inferiority, that the maintenance of an opposite view may excite incredulity, and in its first stages will doubtless be covered with a flood of ridicule. Yet a common glance at the two conflicting mu-teurs? The central point and gathering sics (if people would but take this homely way of looking at things) will show that any arrogation of superiority in the abstract is about as unfair as if one were to say that history must be inferior to poetry because it is not written in verse, or that architecture was confessedly a lower art than sculpture, because its subject-matter is not the delineation of the human body. The two things are indeed entirely distinct. German music is founded on the symphony; English music on the orato-sided over by the principal organist in the rio or cantata. German music reposes on the orchestra, English music on the choral society. German music is instrumental, English music is vocal, or rather it is vocal and instrumental combined. Who will say that the German theory of music is preferable to the English, because it works with the symphony, the orchestra, and instrumental sound? On the contrary, the opposite view might with far greater justice be maintained, that, if it comes to a question of abstract decision, English music has the conspicuous pre-eminence, because the two spheres of the art are therein united, and with greater resources greater results must likewise ensue.

In order to view the diametrical contrast of English music and German in as strong a light as possible, let us consider for a moment, if we may use the term, the

district, and its performances consist of
Handel's "Messiah," oratorios by our lead-
ing English composers, anthems, cantatas
by the same, and, last not least, works by
the excellent musician who sustains the
duties of conductor. We have said that
these choral societies overspread En-
gland; we might say with greater empha-
sis that they honeycomb the country.
There are choral societies for all grades
of society; there are choral societies for
all proportions of population. Ladies in
Belgravia have their choral society; fac-
tory hands in Manchester have theirs.
Rough colliers meet together at Newcastle
and sing the "Messiah," in a
which would put to shame any German
rendering of that oratorio. The Yorkshire
basses are the finest in Europe; and
throughout the length and breadth of

manner

garden it passes to the concert-saal, without losing in the slightest anything of its original character. It is bound to be instrumental and indefinite, because people are talking all the time, drinking, eating, and amusing themselves; and any studied expression of definite feeling, such as vocal music gives utterance to, would be entirely out of place.

mental pieces, all more or less indefinite and meaningless, and ultimately passes over from the atmosphere of the beer-garden to amaze and electrify England. Here it meets with very different associations. People do not talk, drink, and smoke at our concerts, and consequently it falls very flat; but, being something strange and prodigious, never fails to command attention, which a higher and truer form of the art is unable to obtain.

Yorkshire choral societies are as thick as
factories. Are all these noble enthusiasts
to be set down as inferior creatures, be-
cause the music they elect to perform is
not that of the symphony, the trio, the
suite, the rhapsody, delivered on a phalanx
of strings with little meaning but much
show. Are all our great composers to be
depreciated and disparaged, and pro-
nounced second-rate, in comparison with Taking its ground-form from such sur-
Herr Schmitz, Herr Müller, Herr Breit-roundings, the German music rises to
mann, and others of that crew, because symphonies, rhapsodies, and other instru-
they write oratorios and not symphonies,
cantatas and not Phantasiestücks, anthems
and not Abendlieds, services, chants, and
not Liederkreises, Liedertafels, and what
not? Yet such is the tendency of the hon-
est public at the present moment. They
say, "Your English cantata by an English
musician and performed by an English
choir is all very well, and we will come to
bear it if you send us tickets for nothing.
But when we want to listen to really fine
music, give us Herr Schmitz's symphony
or Herr Breitmann's new quartet. We
will pay ten shillings readily for stalls,
provided the seats are soft, and we can
go to sleep without attracting attention."
An English composer," say the public,
"is very meritorious no doubt in his way,
but to get our money's worth give us a
good German Jew, Herr Mosses, or Herr
Aron, or Herr Ezekiel. It is something
to say we have heard such music as his,
although we confess we would as lief hear
the street organs play, for all the interest
we take in it."

Meanwhile, while English music has had this genesis and this development, what sort of source or origin has been that of its German rival, which has encroached so terribly upon it of late years, to the great prejudice of national art? English music springs primarily from the Church; hence its semi-vocal, semi-instrumental character, hence the large proportion of the sacred element among the compositions which make it up, hence the dignity, the gravity, the sound musicianship of our native composers, whose training-school has ever been the Church, and its offshoot the choral society. The Germans, who are nearly all atheists, can certainly not appeal to the Church for the origin of their music. Unlike ours, the German music is bred and born in the beer-garden; hence its purely instrumental character. In its simplest and commonest form it is not intended to accompany sacred rites or to provide the edification of orderly and cultivated listeners, but to drown the chatter of drinkers and to stimulate brains clouded with beer and tobacco. From the beer

Let us now pass from denunciation, and regard the question thus: What is the reason why German music is so highly esteemed in this country, while English music is so much disparaged and ignored? First and foremost, German music has had a great past. The names of Beet hoven, Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Weber can never be forgotten while the art of music lasts. But all this belongs to a vanished greatness, and is now no more. The Germans, | however, have been trading on their prestige ever since. The symphony, which in the hands of Beethoven, Haydn, and the other great masters was a clear, beautiful, and symmetrical expression of musical form, has passed, under Schmitz, Breitmann, Müller, and Stosch, into a vague, indefinite chaos of sound, which has neither beginning, end, nor middle, which seems entirely objectless and aimless in every part, and has the solitary virtue to recommend it that it was written by a countryman of Beethoven. Yet because of the rooted idea in the public mind that since a thing is German it must necessarily be good, such wanderings of thought as these are accepted as high art, while the good work of our own composers is rele. gated to a second place. Because, Germany's excellence in the past was in the domain of instrumental music, therefore instrumental music, such as symphonies, trios, quartets, suites, concertos, rhapsodies, in which the Germans principally expand themselves, are ranked on a higher level of merit than an honest anthem, a sound cantata, a well-constructed oratorio, in which, instead of a number of Germans