the visitors.

When Vieuxtemps visited America in 1857, he was associated with
Thalberg, the pianist, and together they visited many towns and cities.
Amongst the gems of American newspaper criticism they no doubt took with
them several copies of the following, which appeared in the local paper
of a town in Tennessee, and was headed "Thalberg and Vieuxtemps:"

"These distinguished individuals are now at Nashville, giving high
pressure concerts, and selling tickets at two dollars apiece, when
convenient. A stage-load and a half or two stage-loads of ladies
and gentlemen went down from this place to hear them. Thalberg is
said to be death, in its most horried shape, on the piano, and it
is probably true; while Vieuxtemps is represented as a fiddler of
considerable skill, considering his opportunities, which he no
doubt is. We haven't heard either of them since they were quite
small, and unless they come out here and reduce the price of their
tickets to their value,--say about sixty-two and a half cents a
dozen,--it is possible that we sha'n't hear them any more. When we
ride forty miles, at an expense of at least ten dollars, extras not
included, to hear a couple of itinerant Dutchmen torture a brace of
unoffending instruments into fits, until the very spirit of music
howls in sympathy, if some one will cave in our head with a
brickbat, we will feel greatly obliged.

"But seriously, Thalberg and Vieuxtemps have never done us any
harm that we know of, and we don't suppose they intend to. We
wouldn't much mind hearing their music, for no doubt it is nearly,
if not quite, as good as that of the average common run of
Dutchmen, which, as the latter will tell you, is saying a good