adduced. It is said to be from the church in which Chopin was
christened: "I, the above, have performed the ceremony of
baptizing in water a boy with the double name Frederic Francois,
on the 22d day of February, son of the musicians Nicolai Choppen,
a Frenchman, and Justina de Krzyzanowska his legal spouse. God-
parents: the musicians Franciscus Grembeki and Donna Anna
Skarbekowa, Countess of Zelazowa-Wola." The wrong date was
chiselled upon the monument unveiled October 14, 1894, at
Chopin's birthplace--erected practically through the efforts of
Milia Balakireff the Russian composer. Janotha, whose father
founded the Warsaw Conservatory, informed Finck that the later
date has also been put on other monuments in Poland.

Now Chopin's father was not a musician, neither was his mother. I
cannot trace Grembeki, but we know that the Countess Skarbek,
mother of Chopin's namesake, was not a musician; however, the
title "musician" in the baptismal certificate may have signified
something eulogistic at that time. Besides, the Polish clergy was
not a particularly accurate class. But Janotha has more
testimony: in her controversy with me in 1896 she quoted Father
Bielawski, the present cure of Brochow parish church of Zelazowa-
Wola; this reverend person consulted records and gave as his
opinion that 1810 is authentic. Nevertheless, the biography of
Wojcicki and the statement of the Chopin family contradict him.
And so the case stands. Janotha continues firm in her belief
although authorities do not justify her position.

All this petty pother arose since Niecks' comprehensive biography
appeared. So sure was he of his facts that he disposed of the
pseudo-date in one footnote. Perhaps the composer was to blame;