tone which is scarcely heard at first can be augmented by degrees until it makes the air quiver with its thunders, and then slowly sink again to hushed repose.

This great instrument is placed upon a low platform, the outlines of which are in accordance with its own. Whole height of the organ, about sixty feet; breadth, forty-eight feet; average depth, twentyfour feet; weight, sixty to seventy tons. The beauty of its exterior is such as to call forth the highest enthusiasm of the beholder. Doctor Holmes, in an article such as, perhaps, no other pen could produce, says of it: "The structure is of black walnut, and is covered with carved statues, busts, masks, and figures, in the boldest relief. In the center, a richly ornamented arch contains the niche for the key-boards and

GENIUS OF MUSIC AND ART.

stops. A colossal mask of a singing woman looks from over its summit. The pediment above is surmounted by the bust of Johann Sebastian Bach. Behind this rises the lofty central division containing pipes; and crowning it is a beautiful sitting statue of St. Cecilia, holding her lyre. On each side of her a griffin sits as a guardian. This center is connected by harp-shaped compartments filled with pipes, to the two great round towers, one on each side, and each containing three colossal pipes. These magnificent towers. come boldly forward into the hall, be

ing the most prominent, as they are the highest and stateliest part of the facade. At the base of each, a gigantic half-caryatid, in the style of the ancient hermæ, but finished to the waist, bends beneath the superincumbent weight, like Atlas under the globe. These figures are of wonderful force, the muscular development excessive, but in keeping with their superhuman task. At each side of the base, two lionhermæ share in the task of the giant. Over the base rise the round pillars which support the dome, and enclose the three great pipes already mentioned. Graceful as these look in their positions, half a dozen men might creep into one of them and be hidden. The three great pipes are crowned with a heavily sculptured, ribbed round dome; and this surmounted on each side by two cherubs, whose heads almost touch the lofty ceiling. This whole portion of the sculpture is of eminent beauty. All the reliefs that run around the lower portion of the dome are of singular richness. The whole base of the instrument, in the intervals of the figures described, is also covered with elaborate carvings. Groups of musical instruments, standing out almost detached from the background, occupy the panels. Ancient and modern, clustered with careless grace and quaint variety, from the violin down to a string of sleigh bells, they call up all the echoes of forgotten music, such as the thousandtongued organ blends together in one grand harmony. As we return to the impression produced by the grand facade, we are more and more struck with the subtle art displayed in its adaptations and symbolisms. Never did any structure we have looked upon so fully justify Madame de Staël's definition of architecture, 'frozen music.' The outermost towers, their pillars and domes, are all square, their outlines thus passing without too sudden transition from the sharp square angles of the vaulted ceiling, and the rectangular lines of the walls of the hall itself, into the more central parts of the instrument, where a smoother outline of harmony is predominant. For in the great towers,

which step forward, as it were, to represent the meaning of the entire structure, the lines are all curved, as if the slight discords which give sharpness and variety to its less vital portions were all resolved as we approach its throbbing heart."

It devolved upon Doctor Upham, as chairman of the committee under whose direction the organ was built, to make formal transfer of the instrument to the Music Hall Association, and this happy ceremony took place on the evening of October 31st. At about eight o'clock, strains of sweet music were for the first time heard from the great instrument, which was completely hidden from the gaze by a screen of green, extending from floor to ceiling. So thoroughly rapt were the audience in the rich swelling notes of the organ, that they hardly observed the dimness of the light, which seemed to throw a veil of solemnity over the whole scene. For nearly twenty minutes the audience sat thus; then the music ceased; the gas-lights flashed forth in all their brilliancy, and the huge curtain began to descend. Not a whisper broke the charmed spell. All eyes were riveted on the opening space. First appeared the little cherubs that surmount the domes of the main towers of the structure, then the domes themselves, and the triple columns of great pipes, and quickly upon this the full breadth of the wondrous instrument, resplendent with its burnished columns and golden reliefs, and grand and majestic in. the symmetry of its massive and beautiful architecture, burst upon the view.

And now the silence was broken by one universal cheer, given with genuine enthusiasm. The audience rose to their feet, positively enraptured, and cheers upon cheers marked the auspicious moment. The scene, so grandly impressive, was worthy an occasion so memorable. After three rousing cheers for Doctor Upham, and after the tumult of applause had subsided, Mr. Morgan, the organist of Grace church, New York, was introduced, and performed the William Tell overture (Rossini), at the conclusion of which he

Doctor

retired amid hearty applause. Upham then stepped forward and read the report of the seven years' labor of the building committee. After this, Mr. Lang was introduced and played some beautiful light music, giving a choice extract from Mendelssohn and a bit of Rink's flute concerto; to him succeeded Mr. Paine, who gave Bach's Toccata in D minor; Mr. Thayer, of Worcester, who played a Marche Triumphale, of his own composition; and Mr. Wilcox, who chose several selections, nicely adapted for displaying the solo stops and ingenious adaptations.

The public inauguration of this most magnificent elaboration of artistic genius and beauty was fixed for the evening of November 2, 1863, and the event took place at that time, in the presence of an audience which, for numbers and distinction, has seldom if ever been matched in this country, so remarkable for its popular gatherings. The programme for the occasion was prepared with great care, with a view to represent, so far as time and opportunity admitted, the principal worthy schools of organ music; above all, to reveal something of the proper grandeur and beauty of the organ in its impersonality.

The vast hall was crowded to overflowing, every foot of space being occupied by men and women renowned in intellectual, scientific, and artistic attainments. The exercises of the evening commenced with an original ode, written for the occasion by Mrs. James T. Fields, and recited by Miss Charlotte Cushman, who paused in her route to Rome to assist at this festival. Then followed the musical part of the programme, the opening performance being appropriately delegated to Herr Friedrich Walcker, son of the eminent organ-builder, E. Fr. Walcker, of Ludwigsburg, kingdom of Wurtemburg. And then followed performances by Messrs. Paine, Thayer, Morgan, Lang, Tuckerman, and Wilcox, the whole concluding with Handel's magnificent Hallelujah Chorus. The music ended, there was a general flocking of the company toward the stage, for a nearer examination of the beautiful details of the work.

They seemed a crowd of worshipers going | up to a cathedral; and the bronze Beethoven, looking down benignly in the very focus of all that architectural beauty, seemed like the idol of their homage. All mouths were warm in praise of Doctor Upham, for his original conception of the enterprise, his admirable wisdom in devising means for carrying it into execution,-in a word, for his intelligent, enthusiastic direction and oversight of the work in general and in detail, from its beginning to its successful completion.

It would be impossible to portray the effect produced upon the audience by the grand harmonies of this majestic instrument, when thus handled by the masters of musical science. Suffice it to say, that, Suffice it to say, that, in all that brilliant multitude, composed largely of musical performers, critics, and connoisseurs, there was no dissenting opinion in regard to the qualities of the instrument, all agreeing as to its vast volume of tone-so evenly balanced through its entire compass, so full and rich in every part, and supported and sustained by the pedale of twenty stops; all agreeing, too, as to the beauty of tone of such stops as could be displayed on an occasion like this, and as to the perfection of the mechanism which permitted a first performance marked by no accident and no failure.

One of the most intelligent critics connected with the New York press, in writing an account of this instrument, spoke of it as the last best gift of the Old World to the New. "There is nothing on the continent comparable with it; and I should

hold it not a sin to worship it, or rather The case worship at its sacred shrine. has been minutely described, but not adequately; it never can be. Seen last night, in the mingled gas and electric light, it was like a vision. The full scope of the design is known only by careful study, and the perfection of it is no less wonderful than the instrument itself." Another correspondent of the press of that city wrote, in relation to the same point: "As I looked at it again and again, during the evening, I found new beauties. In the softened gas-light and the dazzling glare of the electric light, burning on the pol ished pipes, I hardly thought of its being real. But on ascending the stage afterwards, and standing by the two figures which support the two groups of large pipes, I saw the majesty of the design. It is only by standing close by, that an idea of the scope and marvelous creation in it can be fully attained; for this facade is a creation, a thing of perfect beauty. In itself alone we might behold art enshrined; but when there is behind all this, as its lord and occasion, a thousand-tongued soul, we may be reverently glad at having on American soil what is at least, if not the largest, as perfect an organ as any in the world." Such, indeed, was the involuntary and enthusiastic testimony borne by all those whose good fortune it was to be present on this occasion, and such, too, has been the verdict of the great public, who, in ceaseless throngs and untold numbers, have from that day to the present, made the GREAT ORGAN the object of their glad. pilgrimage.

mary doom which at last overtook her in an engagement with the United States gun-boat Kearsarge, commanded by Capt. John A. Winslow, U. S. N., will here form the subject of a few pages. The engagement which at last sealed her doom, took place Sunday forenoon, June 19, 1864, off Cherbourg, in the English channel, in plain sight of the two great maritime powers of Europe.

Originally known as the "290," this vessel was built by Mr. Laird, the eminent ship-builder, at Liverpool, or Birkenhead, and presented the following peculiarities in her make, appointments, and management: Of about twelve hundred tons burden; draught some fourteen feet; engines by Laird and Sons, Birkenhead, 1862. She was a wooden vessel, propelled by a screw, copper bottom, two hundred and ten feet length on water-line, rather narrow, painted black outside and drab inside; had a round stern, billet head, very little shear, flush deck fore and aft; a bridge forward of the smoke-stack carried two large black boats on cranes amidships forward of the main rigging; two black quarter-boats between the main and mizzen masts, one small black boat over the stern, on cranes; the spare spars, on a gallows between the bridge and foremast, showed above the rail.

In respect to armament, she carried three long thirty-two pounders on a side, and was pierced for two more amidships; had a one hundred pound rifled pivot gun forward of the bridge, and a sixty-eight pound pivot on the main deck; also, a pivot bowgun, and a pivot stern chaser. This was her armament when she began her career, her guns being of the well-known Blakely pattern, manufactured in Liverpool, in 1862.

She was bark-rigged; had very long, bright lower masts, and black mast-heads; yards black, long yard-arms, short polesabout one to two feet-with small dogvanes on each, and a pendant to the main; studding-sail booms on the fore and main, and wire rigging. Carried on her foremast a square foresail; large try-sail with

two reefs, and a bonnet top-sail with two reefs, top-gallant sail and royal. On the mizzen-mast a very large spanker and a short three-cornered gaff top-sail; a fore and foretop-mast stay-sail and jib; no stay-sail to the main or mizzen mast bent or royal yards aloft. On the mainmast a large try-sail with two reefs and a bonnet. No square main-sail bent, top-sail two reefs, top-gallant sail and royal.

Of her appearance and management at sea, she was rated, in respect to speed, at thirteen knots under canvas and fifteen under steam; could get steam in twenty minutes, but seldom used it except in a chase or emergency. Had all national flags, but usually set the St. George's cross on approaching a vessel. Her complement of men varied from one hundred to considerably more than that number. A man was kept at the mast-head from daylight until sunset. Her sails were of hemp canvas, made very roaching; the top-sails had twenty cloths on the head and thirty on the foot. The general appearance of the hull and sails was decidedly English. She was generally under two top-sails, fore and main try-sails; fore and foretop-mast stay-sails; sometimes top-gallant sails and jib, but seldom any sails on the mizzen except while in charge of a vessel. She was very slow in stays; generally wore ship. Being built. expressly for a privateer, she was adapted, in all respects, to destroy, fight, or run, according as the character of her opponent might be.

She left Birkenhead, towards the end of July, ostensibly on a trial trip, having on board a large party of ladies and gentlemen. On getting out of the Mersey, this party was sent back in a tug-boat, and the 290, as had been previously arranged, neglected to return to Birkenhead, but steamed direct for the island in the Atlantic where she was to take in her guns, ammunition, etc.

On leaving England, the privateer had a crew of ninety-three men, for the most part belonging to the English naval reserve, all being trained gunners, and the