Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

DEPPE AND SCHARWENCKA 135
two of my sisters had been sent for a year or two to
relations who lived far away, and while there had got
a little smattering of pianoforte-playing— just enough
to bungle through waltzes, pots-pourris, and the like.
My parents bought an old piano for them, and
when I was still a small child, I used to listen with
awe-stricken admiration to their performances on it.
It was to me quite enchanted ground, and as I grew
bigger it was the greatest joy of my life to be allowed
to try and learn some of my sisters' pieces. Having
made these my own, I began after awhile to hunger
for more. Several odd chances so favoured me at
different times, that I gradually got hold of many
pieces by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn.
When I was about twelve years old my parents began
to turn over many plans in their minds for my future,
and finally deciding that I was to learn the book-
business, sent me for the purpose to a distant town,
where I would have the advantage of living in the
house of a near relation during the years of my
apprenticeship. It was then that I first heard of
Liszt, and, some of his compositions falling into my
hands, I threaded my way through them, and actually
believed that I was on the road to playing them so as
to astonish the public. I say I believed myself to be
on the road to excellence,' continued Mr. Steinecke-
Clarke, ' but my musical instincts told me that I
should not reach the goal to which I aspired without
help. In Germany, the land of music—in Leipzig,