successful, all managers have not been Barnum, | The various sentiments of its characters, and of its and all vocalists have not been Jenny Lind. The successive stages, are made subservient to one. impetus given to musical taste may have slackened The genius of the composer preserves a unity from its first violence, and have become confined throughout his work, such as is always fascinating, within definite bounds; but it is constantly mani- and always effective. Whatever of art he has at festing its existence by its every day visible effects. his disposal, whatever of musical wealth he is able Musical Europe ten years, five years ago, looked to dispense, whatever of harmony he can infuse upon us as barbarous, and the advent of even a among the different creations of his intellect or his second-rate foreign vocalist or performer upon our fancy, these are met with in perfection in that style shores was a matter of note. The case at present of mingled musical and dramatic composition to is very different. The European artist, tired for a which we give the name of opera. season of the sameness of his career at home, regards America as the scene of a luxurious and profitable vacation, and makes his Hegira from the old world to the new, with the same certainty of success which attends every one every where, whose calling is in repute, and whose talents in his peculiar calling are eminently noticeable. The success of Parodi, among other facts, amply shows the truth of what we have just said. She is a vocalist of genius, but in no way entitled to rank above any one of a dozen prima donnas who have, in the last few years, proceeded from that country to which she owes her origin. Her singing, however, is such as we rarely hear excelled. Her action is striking, and is the fruit of much careful study. In two characters, Norma and Lucrezia Borgia, she may justly be called eminent. But ten years ago, if she had thought it worth while to come to this country, she would hardly have found an audience, except it might have been obtained for a short season in one or two of our most populous cities. The rich melody of her Italian voice would have passed for jargon; her acting would have seemed strange, and to many distasteful; and unsupported by a trained company, however her concerts might have been received, the operatic performances in which she would have sustained the chief part, would have been at least unappreciated, and it is hardly less safe to say, unsuccessful. But Parodi, if she has not made a half million of money in the short space of a year and six months, has had good reason to be satisfied with her reception. In New-York and Philadelphia she has been warmly applauded by a succession of crowded houses; in her tour through the country she has been greeted by full audiences, even in the minor towns. And whatever disadvantages may attend foreign vocalists, this was peculiar to her, that she was following hard in the wake of the most eminent of singers, who might be supposed to have absorbed all the money which, for a season at least, the public could afford for musical gratification, and with whom all comparisons must of necessity be disparaging. The success of the opera must, after all, be regarded as the criterion of the public taste. The opera is the only full exposition of music. Concerts, no matter how carefully elaborated or judiciously made up, are from necessity scrappy and incomplete. The most scientifically selected concert that could be performed, would be, in comparison with the representation of " Don Giovanni," like the reading of the " Beauties of Shakspeare" to the representation of "Hamlet" or "Othello." An opera, composed by a master of the musical art, we may conceive, possesses all the requisites of music. Its effect is heightened by dramatic action. In a preceding number, we alluded to the ill success that attended the first attempts to establish a permanent opera in this country. This ill success, however much it might have been regretted, was not unaccountable, and had it not then occurred, would have been cause for wonder. At the time of these efforts, we had enjoyed very little musical culture, and had had few opportunities of hearing first-rate artists. To take the first step in such cases is always difficult, and rarely profitable. Did an enthusiastic manager solicit European vocalists to try their fortune in the new world? They were obliged for the offer, but they were very well off in their present situations, and were unwilling to risk certainties for uncertainties. There were plenty of indifferent singers ready at any time to venture any where, but from such material no manager could hope to fill his treasury. Thus, good singers could not be obtained, simply because the experiment of introducing good singers into America had never been tried; and as the inferior rank of vocalists were not warmly patronized, the better class were more unwilling than ever to hazard the expenses and the difficulties of a season in the United States. Palmo, however, opened an opera-house with the best singers he could procure. It was a snug little box in Chambers street, New-York, somewhat like the Astor Place Opera house, on a very reduced scale. He gave us some very good music, and some also that was not very good. Audiences were neither large nor steady. The performances were unmercifully travestied and ridiculed. The low theatres made game of him. He brought out "Zampa," or the "Red Corsair," with all the scenic effect at his command, and entertained hopes of creating a sensation. In less than a week, the audiences of Chatham street were roaring with laughter at a parody, entitled "Sam Parr," or the "Red Coarse Hair." There is a scene in the opera where a statue turns upon its pedestal, and addresses the affrighted Zampa, amid the accompaniments of loud and solemn music. In the travesty, a beer-barrel is made to revolve upon a pivot, and a ragged and hatless loafer within sings a maudlin song in the ears of the drunken hero. Between the enterprises of Palmo and Maretzek, two attempts toward the permanent establishment of the opera were made by Fry and Sanquirico. From various causes, both were unsuccessful. The former, however, did not entirely lose his labor in the sacrifice of his money; for when he abandoned his endeavors, the building in Astor Place had been built, and stood invitingly open to any one sufficiently adventurous to risk his name and his fortune in an enterprise in which all his predecessors had (met with disaster. Maretzek has not entirely succeeded, neither has he failed. He has met with triumphs amid reverses; and by his unremitting energy has shown, that if he could not always command success, he was never undeserving of it. He has made us acquainted with vocalists whom we should never have heard but for his interposition, and has at times shown us what we consider no less beautiful than rare a well-attended, full-dress opera. Ou this point of full dress we may have more to say. Such vestimental regulations do not please the republican tastes of the Americans. The experiment has been satisfactorily tried, and those who were most interested in the establishment of such regulations have fallen far short of doing their part toward carrying them through. We dislike to use the term aristocracy. It is an odious and an indeterminate word, liable to misconstruction, and often significant of ill feeling. But the fact is undeniable, that the peculiar class whom Maretzek wished to conciliate by adopting the opera regulations of the old world, although they professed to like the regulations, and even insisted on them as the condition of their patronage, have neither supported the manager nor his system, and have, by their demands, and by their subsequent neglect, brought the opera into a degree of unpopularity which it will require some time to do away with. The "People's Opera," first introduced by Marti, at Castle Garden; afterwards established by Maretzek, at the same place; and finally localized at Niblo's by the Artists' Union, will, we think, hereafter continue in successful operation during a large season of each year. The arrangements just completed by Mr. Niblo in Europe warrant us in such an expectation. The Royal Opera of London should have its counterpart in the People's Opera on this side the water; and it may happen that the Grisis and the Lablaches of a future period shall find their best encouragement and their most splendid triumphs in the great American cities. Brackett's Wreck. The Shipwrecked Mother and Child is the title of a group of statuary, wrought by Mr. Brackett, an American sculptor, and now on exhibition in the city of New-York. It has also been exhibited in Philadelphia and Boston, and is universally recognized as one of the finest works of art which this country has yet produced. Our range of selections between the creations of American genius is limited. Comparison in the present instance seems to vibrate between the "Wreck" and the "Greek Slave;" but the critical value of this comparison is small. Powers labored abroad; Mr. Brackett, not so fortunate, labored at home. In this country models are rare; facilities for study are deficient; the range among works of art is exceedingly narrow. Upon the greater advantages enjoyed abroad it is unnecessary to enlarge. The production of a work of art like this group of Mr. Brackett's, amid the various deficiencies of observation and study which he must have severely felt, leads us to believe that a residence abroad would place him among the first of modern sculptors. This is our candid impression. We have no intention of flattering. We wish simply to be just, to award praise where it is due, and to criticize as seems necessary. The "Wreck" is a work that fastens attention; it is full of the elements of power. And, what is of equal consequence, it shows correctness of eye and skill of hand in its author. The anatomy of the figure is open only to trivial criticism. Two things alone show the inexperience of the artist: the comparative want of finish throughout the entire execution, and the choice of inanimateness in place of the expression of passion. The former, time and practice will remedy. The latter need not be repeated unless the sculptor has a particular design in so doing. By natural laws, a form and face redolent of passion and feeling, interest us more than when devoid of these emotions. In art, the difference is increased, for the reason that no human face can be either as passionless or as full of passion as it can be represented by art. A true picture or statue is always an exaggeration. We involuntarily regard it as such, and our pleasure at beholding it is regulated accordingly. A wax figure can be made into a perfect fac-simile of the character whom it represents, and a wax figure is always monstrous, and in the majority of cases disgusting. But this is a digression. The bearing and the countenance of the "Apollo" express exultation; the forms of "Laocoon and his Sons" writhe in anguish, and their faces are distorted in mortal terror; the "Venus" is contemplative. These statues are alike emotional, and the world will never cease admiring them. The power of representing these various passions raises its possessor to the first grade of artistic excellence. Another artist may handle the chisel equally well, but confines himself to inanimate subjects, to rigid forms, and to features locked in lifeless repose. His task is easier, and his skill is just so much the more limited in its range. The critical value of a comparison, we repeat, is small. We regard the perfect delineation of a form full of life and passion, with enthusiastic pleasure. We look at the perfect delineation of fixed and expressionless repose with simply calm satisfaction. The only comparison that suggests itself-a comparison in whose conclusions we do not solicit implicit credence-is, that the genius involved in the execution of the latter is not of an order equally high with that involved in the creation of the former. Or perhaps, assuming that genius can ascend or descend at will, we should say, that genius would recreate itself over the inanimate statue, while it would be laboriously tasked over the statue whose expression was that of life and emotion. The application of these remarks is obvious. The shipwrecked mother, not dead, but extricating herself and her child from the whirl of the breakers, or gazing from some safe eminence at the tossing fragments of the ship,-hope for the safety of one whom she sees struggling with the waves, yet lively on her countenance, would be a work from which, as to a pleasurable relaxation, the sculptor would turn to moulding the calm, beautiful, passionless features of the sleeping form before us. Hints to Employers. By JOSEPH P. THOMPSON. | wages is not less, and their wares are furnished to New-York: M. W. Dodd. 1852. The Clerk's Journal: a Weekly Gazette, advocal- buyers at vastly lower prices. The amount of distress at present existing in Manchester or Sheffield is no greater, in proportion to the number of workmen within those towns, than it formerly was among the cutlers and spinners scattered throughout York and Lancashire, while the fabrics which they produce are furnished at a price which would formerly have been deemed impossible. The wages paid to competent journeymen in our various manufactories amount to a sum fully as great as would be realized by the average of workmen from the exclusive management of their own industry, while the lessons of order, regularity, and economy, which, in the discreet management of a large establishment, they cannot avoid being taught, are of great practical value to them in the disposal which they may have to make of their surplus time or earnings. Society, it may fairly be said, loses nothing in morals, and gains much in wealth, by the centralization of mechanical industry. proportionately increased; yet it will be found that the average of their wages is hardly inferior to the average profits of the proprietors of the dozen smaller establishments which we have supposed, and might, if we consider the risks and losses to which small proprietors are always subjected, and from which employés are of course free, be called absolutely, and in the long run, equal. Whoever has carefully noted the various "labor movements" that have taken place both in this country and abroad during the last few years, cannot have failed to remark the strong tendency among men of capital toward centralization, and the equally strong antagonism manifested against So, too, in the matter of trade, it is sufficient for it by workingmen and salaried dependants. The us to quote the universal saying, that the largest luxury of power, at all times coveted by men of houses, that is, the houses who transact the greatest every rank, instead of being found, as formerly, in amount of business, are enabled to sell the cheapest. the command of troops of idle retainers or gay A very small portion of arithmetic is required to companions, is manifested at present in the dis- calculate the difference of profit upon a given posal of the greatest possible number of work- amount of sales, if in one case the goods are sold men, or of clerks, attached only by the payment of from a dozen different stores, and in the other are wages, and submissive in proportion to the wealth passed through the door of a single establishment. of the master whom they serve. Manufactories, And although it does not follow in the latter as in the case of the cutlery-rooms of Sheffield, or instance, that because the profits of the proprietor the looms of Manchester and Lowell, have a ten-are larger, the pay of those whom he employs is dency to increase in size rather than in number, and so to centre round a given point, that a few owners shall direct and keep in virtual subjection an indefinite number of operatives. Mercantile establishments, as in the large cities of Europe and America, are constantly enlarging, while their actual number, in proportion to the amount of population they supply, remains comparatively stationary. It follows that the number of persons Whatever may be the amount of dissatisfaction engaged independently in the various industrial constantly exhibited by workmen and operatives, crafts, and in commercial pursuits, is but little and whatever may be the circumstances that jusgreater than many years ago, while journeymen tify it, it will, we think, be difficult for any of the of every trade, and clerks in every branch of busi- class who are employed in mercantile establishness, are much more numerous. Hence arise an-ments, either in our cities or our smaller towns, to tagonisms between capitalist and dependant; disposition on the part of the one to compel as great a quantity of work as possible, and on the part of the other, to escape as much as possible from its performance; mutual dissatisfactions and aversions; secret councils on the part of owners, and "strikes" on the part of operatives; complaints from one side of the inefficiency and idleness to which all dependants are tending, and complaints from the other side of the rapacity and selfishness displayed by all capitalists and employers. find reasons in their own case for similar manifestations of feeling. We should have supposed that no such feeling existed among this class, and that no such comparisons were being instituted between themselves and those engaged in the mechanical arts, were we not furnished the clearest proof to the contrary. We are told at one time of the superior wages enjoyed by the mason or the carpenter; at another, of the vastly smaller portion of time which the artisan is obliged to devote to those pursuits by which he gains his living; and That this state of things is not without many at another, of the various institutions and journals disadvantages, and that for some reasons a great devoted to his interests and his advancement. We manufactory or a great store may be truly styled are not told what we wish were never true, but a "moral evil," we are not disposed to deny. But which, in all fairness, should have been put in as a we cannot admit that the world is the worse, after per contra argument, that the artisan's chances of all, for this constantly increasing centralization of acquiring name, fortune, or high position, are much industry. If the mass of mechanics have not pre-less than those of the clerk; that society-and we cisely that independence which they would enjoy, did each one labor at his last or his loom under the shelter of his own roof, the average of their must take society as it is, however false its decisions may be,-looks down upon the one, while it regards the other with sufferance, if not with kind ness; that the mill-owner will take his salesman or book-keeper into partnership, where he will not admit one of his workmen to a like privilege; that the lawyer's daughter will marry the shopman, when she would feel insulted at an offer from the blacksmith; that the great mass of property about our centres of civilization is owned by men who commenced life behind the desk or the counter; and that the ambition of most young men who do not enter professions is directed by their older friends to business rather than any one of the mechanical arts, as a road to the possession of the enjoyment of the good things and good opinions of the world. Nothing of all this are we told by any one of the eloquent advocates of "clerks' rights," and denunciators of hard-hearted and selfish employers, to whom we are at times forced to listen; and it is for this very reason we are tempted to doubt both the information and the wisdom of such as are foremost in disseminating this dissatisfaction among mercantile subordinates, and to question whether the responses they may receive from the more intelligent portion of their audience will be of precisely that nature on which they may have reckoned. A little misguided enthusiasm, with a reasonable space of time to gather materials on which to employ itself, might be sufficient to conjure up a picture of mercantile servitude such as would appear positively appalling. For a picture like this the strongest tints need not be disallowed, nor the outlines of facts prohibited from swerving and varying as occasion should require; but a great deal of truth might be incorporated into the coloring, and the sketch still remain to call forth our aversion, and our desire of interference with the circumstances portrayed. In such a picture we might behold the spectacle of thousands of young men engaged from morning till night in the occupation of writing down figures, sitting in uncomfortable positions, breathing an unwholesome atmosphere, unrelieved by relaxation, and cheered by very faint hopes of soon extricating themselves from their burdensome employment; a much larger number endlessly flitting to and fro behind counters, assiduously and yet unwillingly handing up and taking down bundles, rolls, and boxes, displaying wares in which they have no interest, before the eyes of people with whom they can have no possible acquaintance, obliged to talk fine when they would much prefer being silent, to smile whether they feel sober or gay, to appear active when they are ready to drop with fatigue, to overlook all affronts, however insufferable, and to affect pleasure at all witticisms, however dismal, often remaining at their station late at night, and only inhaling the out-door air on Sundays and occasional holidays; another large number in establishments of a somewhat different nature, working amid piles of bales and boxes, compelled to deliver orations to "close buyers" over the superiorities of this or that style, or the cheapness of this or that assortment, hoisting at the ropes like porters whenever there is necessity for such services, working till midnight for weeks and months at a time, and always expected and obliged to appear affable to all with whom they come in contact, and enthusiastic in the performance of their various duties: then we should notice the wages allowed for so much exertion; we should find here and there a lucky man earning a handsome support; a larger number making shift to live without denying themselves necessary comforts or running in debt; a large number gaining a subsistence only by close economy, and still a large number in part or entirely maintained by their parents, and preferring to work for nothing at all rather than to lose their "situation." Then again we should be pointed to the spectacle of old men, with gray hairs, and with shoulders stooped by confinement and hard work, toiling amid those petty and uninteresting details of business which are handed over to them by their employers as too difficult for boys and too tedious for themselves; receiving no more salary than they were receiving a score of years back, and still less able to look forward to competency and retirement; subservient and faithful, manifesting no inclinations of their own, enduring to live in the shadow of men who have been more enterprising or more lucky than themselves, and knowing no higher ambition in life than that of giving “satisfaction." We might be taken home with these men, and be shown how they live, and after what fashion their families are brought up; and we might derive some idea of the limited knowledge they possess of the enjoyments of life, of pleasurable relaxation, of independent enterprise, of travel, of literature, of active benevolence, of refined society, and of mental cultivation. Then we might be shown how much their children have lost in the way in which they have been brought up; how little of free, wholesome, healthy existence they have enjoyed, and how little they were likely to enjoy; and the picture would be one from which we should gladly turn away. But what, after all, is the mercantile system as displayed in our great centres of business? Simply one where the natural selfishness of men finds its widest range; in which his acquisitive faculties may be kept, and are for the most part kept, in unremitted exertion; where incitements to lose sight of the interests of others, and especially of dependants, are most tempting; and in which there are the greatest chances both of success and failure. Men who have been accustomed to rely on others for aid and advice; or who have by nature so much of veneration that they dare never venture into the way of those who are older or richer than themselves; or who have been taught that if they devote their time to the pecuniary interests of others, their own will be reciprocally cared for; or who are conscious that they are not fit to take the foremost rank in a busy, selfish, jostling crowd; such men, if they are wise, will avoid mercantile subordinacy in large towns, and leave that position, which ought never to be one of permanency, for those more ambitious and self-reliant individuals who enter upon its duties only as a means to an end, and who in their turn will give place to others of like stamp. Men of this latter class are the only ones who realize at once the duties and the profits of clerkship. In no case, and in no department of business, has any man a right to complain. It is one of the most practical of our every-day remarks that this is a free country, and it is every one's privilege to choose his calling for himself. We confess, that to suffer injustice, are as binding as on the other, and would be equally recognized, did not the lack of capital and the pressing necessity of present subsistence stupify the discernment of that large part of society who would be most benefited by promptly acting up to this proposition. So long as men are selfish, we may expect to find many individuals dissatisfied with the treatment they receive at the hands of those who possess authority. Clerks, undoubtedly, come in for their full share of the incitements to this discontentment; and the only recipe for the evil is self-denial and hard work. With this specific, and in this rich, republican country, no man need be long blaming fortune because he is a subordinate. amid all our sympathy for the discomforts and the | obligations on one side, to be considerate and not positive hardships to which many of our clerks are subjected, and our sincerest wishes that all practicable measures for their alleviation may be speedily brought about, we cannot enter into their complaints, or lend an open ear to the recital of their wrongs. In this country-and we are not now speaking of any other-each individual's place is of his own choosing. If he is born and brought up amid city walls, he has it in his option to enter business or to earn his living by the plough or the plane; or if he possesses the requisite talent, and will make the necessary sacrifices, he is free to undertake any one of the professions: if he has been educated in the country, his facilities for disposing his own course are equally good. Circumstances | may control him for a while, but his time of election will always come. There is always one time in a man's existence when he chooses his pathway for life with his eyes open; and no matter how rigorously he may have been kept down before that event, for all after disadvantages of position he has chiefly to thank himself. We can hardly conceive of any degree of healthiness in that state of mind in which an individual shall remain, year after year, blaming others because he is not advanced, when he has been the sole means of placing himself and keeping himself where he is, and when he has allowed others, with no greater advantages than he might have possessed, to pass by and to rise above him. This is very far from being a perfect world; and in the relations of master and subordinate, employer and employed, there is a vast deal of tyranny and selfishness displayed by those who enjoy the superior power. But in the immense majority of instances, the subordinate is partly to blame for this. A man who is worth the wages paid him does wrong, unless he is hampered by contracts such as very few Americans are willing to make, when he gives his time and labor to a tyrannical master, and he is justly punished in the endurance of inflictions from which it is his duty to escape. The question of demand and supply enters largely into the readiness with which this principle is acted on, but its ethics are the same every where. When labor is scarce, employers will be considerate and gracious; when it is plen tiful, they are apt to be imperious and exacting; but there is a vice versa to this proposition also; and the laborer who submits to insults or injuries when labor is plentiful, is as much to blame as the employer who puts up with injustice or fraud on the part of his men, when labor is scarce. The "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, Hydropathic Management. By JOEL SHEW, M.D. To those who wish to be posted up in measles, croup, whooping-cough, and other infantine diseases, this is an interesting work. We had no idea they could be made so pleasant. Our readers, however, must not misunderstand us. We recommend the volume, not the complaints in question. Scarlatina. It cannot be too extensively read. It We particularly admire the 27th chapter, on has touches of the poetical worthy the pen of Mr. Willis. Indeed, we suspect, if he were accused of it to his face, his blushes would be the frontispiece of scarlatina. Agents for the Review. GEORGE R. SMITH, GENERAL AGENT. MR. C. W. JAMES, No. 1 Harrison street, Cincinnati, Ohio, is our General Traveling Agent for the Western States, assisted by JOHN T. DENT, Dr. J. A. WADSWORTH, ALEXANDER R. LAWS, JAMES RUTHERFORD, Dr. LOTT EDWARDS, C. M. L. WISEMAN, and H. J. THOMAS. Mr. HENRY M. LEWIS, Montgomery, Ala., is our General Traveling Agent for the States of Alabama and Tennessee, assisted by C. F. LEWIS, JAMES O. LEWIS, and SAMUEL D. LEWIS. Mr. ISRAEL E. JAMES, No. 182 South Tenth street, Philadelphia, is our General Traveling Agent, assisted by WM. H. WELD, JOHN COLLINS, JAMES DEERING, A. KIRK WELLING TON, E. A. EVANS, PERRIN LOCKE, GEORGE P. BUTTON, JOSEPH BUTTON, D. R. GOODWIN, WILLIAM J. COXEY, ISAAC M. BODINE, and WALTER D. THOMPSON. HENRY B. CHAPIN, for Connecticut and Western New-York. |