30.—A CONCERT PREACHER.
Hans von Bülow, was considered by the political authorities of Berlin and Leipzig as a great nuisance as well as a great musician. This arose from the fact that he persisted in interpolating in the speeches he frequently made at his concerts, remarks of a political nature, and often they were of a decided incendiary cast.
In the latter city this "concert preacher" as he was called, was compelled by the police to sign a promise not to speak a word at his concerts, not even to announce the date of his next appearance. And this was not two hundred years ago, either, as one might suppose from the denial of the right of speech, but was in our own times, in a supposable free country.
But it was in Berlin that he had a still greater difficulty with the powers that be. Having conceived a strong dislike for the government intendant, that official which had control of the operatic performances, who in this case happened to be Count von Hulsen, he referred to him in one of his impromptu concert speeches in a derogatory way, and to the opera as "the circus that von Hulsen runs." As von Hulsen was a court officer, this brought on Bülow's head the wrath of the court, and he was deposed from his rank as court pianist, and stripped of his medals.
Shortly after, von Hulsen died, and at a commemoration concert his successor gave orders to the ushers that they were not to admit Doctor von Bülow, and furnished them photographs of him that there should be no mistake. So when Herr Doctor arrived he was spotted and summarily ejected.
But the pianist had his revenge. The next night, on his appearance at a concert, when he sat down at the instrument he began to improvise on a theme from Mozart's "Figaro," and immediately the audience broke into laughter and applause. The theme he had chosen was in the opera, set to the words "Will the Count venture on a little dance?"