148 WITH MR. CHAMBERLAIN IN THE 



That infant phenomenon Josef Hofman came to 

 the Arlington early in February. He was a dear 

 little boy ten years old, and I remember giving him, 

 much to his delight, a bunch of roses from a pile 

 which adorned our dining-room on the eve of one 

 of our banquets. His piano-playing was something 

 marvellous. I went with Miss Gwynn to her box 

 at Albaugh's Opera House on February 6, which 

 was crammed. He played among other things 

 Weber's Concertstiick ; Beethoven's Moonlight 

 Sonata ; a Chopin waltz and polonaise ; a gigue by 

 Bach ; a pastorale by Scarlatti ; besides improvising 

 all sorts of variations on given themes. There 

 never was such a prodigy, and his reception was 

 most enthusiastic. He had already appeared in 

 London, and taken the town by storm. Some time 

 later he was seriously ill for a lengthened period. 

 Whether he ever developed into a musician of such 

 eminence as his childhood foreshadowed I have 

 failed to ascertain. Stokes' Cyclopcedia of Music 

 and Musicians, beyond observing that he recovered 

 from his illness in 1894, supplies no details of his 

 later career. If this should meet the eye of any 

 reader who is in a position to supplement this infor- 

 mation, I should be grateful to receive it. 



I have alluded to our concluding weeks being, 



