MONUMENT TO PAGANINI.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2817, 2 August 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

MONUMENT TO PAGANINI.

Pacaxini is to have his monument in Paris, due to a subscription nisod among first-fiddles. Ho claimed to havo received his coronation of " King of the Violin," at the hands of the Pari-ians. It will be curious to witnoss how tho artist will deal with l'aganini's head—divine and infernal at once—of that monarch, so strange that its owner was called a. demon, and that Moffuiaun introduced a diabolical element intj ono of his fee-faw-fum fantasies. I'aganini, solely with his Stradivarius, could attract crowds to his concerts. He loved his violin, bravos and bank notes. His banking account—with the Itothohilds—vas three million francs, a sum that ho left to his son. lie was ' close " with his money, that which made Jules Janin call him a "miser." He would never give a

eigh from his violiu, or a few scrapes of his bow for nothing— not even for a work of charity. Ho wns reproached with his Ha"pagoniam, that which embittered his lile. Vet lie liked to be stung by hostility ; tha the said was a necessity fcr his intellectual and moral health. A little bitterness corrects excessive sin ctness. The popular legend was that l'.iyanini was Ueclzebiili, or Mephistophelcs, or Laciter. lie laughed sardonically, and his conversation was diabolical. l'aganini was not a gambler, though he played constantly— on the violin. Musicians followed him— Meyerbeer anion;; others—to leirn his secrets, lint L'aganiiii never studied ; it was only when he appeared before the public that he practised and improvised. When he executed his Ihutse drs rtut/cx, in the old Opera house, the audience was literally intoxicated with enthusiasm, and ladies heaped boiupiets at his feet.