Baltimore Evening Sun (23 January 1914): 6.

No need to preach against all-star casts: there are too many in the congregation who have suffered the agony of them. Even in opera the Carusos and the Farrars often disappoint: the most satisfactory performances, taking one with another, are those in which there are no warring celebrities to make common cause against the music. But last night’s concert at the Lyric was one of the rare and massive exceptions to the rule. Here were three stars of the first magnitude, each long accustomed to the whole stage--and yet the net effect of their joint playing was that of perfect harmony, of the utmost delicacy and good feeling, of ever-so-discreet subordination. Such concerts are not to be forgotten in a day.

On what ground the New York critics attacked Godowsky for overasserting himself must remain a mystery to those who heard him in the Beethoven and Saint-Saens trios last night. Can it be that these critics are so unfamiliar with chamber music that they do not know that many trios are really piano solos with string accompaniment? Certainly there was no excess of the piano in the two heard at the Lyric. On the contrary, Godowsky kept an infinite lightness in his flying fingers. They slid over the keys, if one may venture upon so grotesque a figure, like greased feathers. Not once was there the slightest oufgestion of that thumping so dear to all pianists, the great no less than the small. Not once did the piano rise up and drown the fiddles. Not a single one of the superbly beautiful phrases of the Beethoven No. 7 was lost. And even in the Saint-Saens trio, with its pianistic brilliance and its easy temptations to show off, Godowsky played liked the cherub that he looks.

Looking back upon such a concert, one inevitably compares composers as well as performers. Nearly every note in the classical range of styles and emotions was represented--the solemn elevation of Bach, the serene dignity of Handel, the showy brilliance of Lizst, the sentimentality of Chopin, the gentlemanly facility of Mendelssohn, the romanticism of Wagner, the Frenchy dexterity and demonstrativeness of Salut-Saens, the pure beauty of Beethoven. Who won the race of styles? As for me, I cast all of my votes for old Ludwig. He had what the vaudevillians call the “curtain turn.” He had to break the ice, to set the scene, to quiet the house, to fix the mood for the evening. Twice he was halted by late-comers, feet-shufflers, whisperers, sneezers. But for all that, what a ravishing half hour of music he provided! How he towered by many heads over all that came after him--all save Johann Sebastian!

According to the chronology in Vincent D’Indy’s “Beethoven” (an excellent book, by the way, lately translated into English and assuredly worth reading), the trio in B flat was written in 1791, eight years before the First Symphony. No doubt it was revised later, like the early piano concertos, but at all events it must have reached its final form by 1804, the year of the Eroica, and of the Waldstein and Appassionata sonata. Last night, a century after, 4,000 miles away and in a city that Beethoven probably never heard of, an audience of more than 2,000 persons listened to it in enchantment. Over the years and the empty spaces came the undying charm and beauty of that supreme artist. Here is immortality for you! Here is achievement that adds something genuine and permanent to the happiness of man! Who was Emperor of Austria in 1791? Who were the nobs and magnificoes of that day, the captains and millionaires, the idols of the rabble--as the Germans put it, the big animals? If any of them is remembered today, it is because he was favored with the notice of Ludwig van Beethoven.

The Rev. Dr. Carlton D. Harris in the estimable Baltimore Southern Methodist:

We have long regarded the Free Lance, etc., etc. * * * but did not know that he possessed such a knowledge of theology as to entitle him to a place among theologians. Who will authenticate this new claim for him?

It is a pleasure to refer, by permission, to the Rev. Dr. Charles M. Levister, editor of the American Issue and one of my old pupils. If the Rev. Dr. Levister is a recognized specialist in morbid theology today, then I claim some credit for his eminence. True enough, he brought natural talents of a high order to his studies, but without my careful tutoring in the science, those talents would have gone for naught. I mention the fact, not in boasting, but merely in defense of a hard-earned professional reputation. Theology is anything but child’s play. The man who has mastered it has just cause for satisfaction.

Cost of the old-fashioned House of Delegates of 1912, as reported by the Sunpaper:

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$120,776.50

Cost of the progressive House of Delegates of 1914, as estimated by the Sunpaper:

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$125,000.00

Moral: The uplift stingeth like an adder!

Two great schools of advanced healing now sweat and struggle for my trade and for that of all other psychological forward-lookers. One is the eminent American College of Mechano-Therapy, at 81 West Randolph street, Chicago, to which I have frequently referred with veneration. The other, a more recent but no less pertinacious seminary, is the Macfadden College of Psycultopathy, at Grand boulevard and Forty-second street, in the same fair city. By this morning’s mail comes a notice that the Macfadden College has just lengthened its course of study for the doctorate in psyccultopathy from one year to two. Says the estimable dean in his letter:

Think what this means in the value and effectiveness of the course! Besides giving more time for personal instructions from the individual members of the faculty and more experience in practical teaching, the change has enabled us to add many new objects to our curriculum.

Then follows a list of the subjects, perhaps 25 in all. I append a few of them, for the benefit of prospective students:

Osteopathy. Parliamentary law. Vocal harmony. Embryology. Orthopedics. Delsarte. Word study. Obstetrics.

Observe the sweet fitness of these combinations. Osteopathy and parliamentary law! Vocal harmony and embryology! Word study and obstetrics! And all for one price–with humane provision, I make no doubt, for payments on the installment plan. Let the low-flung Johns Hopkins Medical School hide its diminished head!