THE LAUGH OF A CHILD..

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 339, 28 October 1908, Page 3

THE LAUGH OF A CHILD..

• All tho bolls ;of heaven may ring, All the birds of heaven may sing, .. All the wells on earth may spring, All the winds' on earth may bring, All 'sweet sounds together. Sweeter far than all things heard, Haiid of harper, tone of bird, Sounds of wood at sundown stirred, ' ■ Welling waters, winsome word, •; '*Wiiid hi-warm, wan weather.' .One thing yet there is, that none i •'Hearing ere its chimc be done, Knows not well tho sweetest one ■"'Heard of man beneath the sun, Hoped in heaven, hereafter. Soft, and strong and loud and light, Very sound of very light, Heard from mofuing's rosiest height, When the soul , of 'all delight . Fills, a child's clear laughter.' . —Algernon Charles Swinburne.' HISTORY OF THE WALTZ.

Wrapped in mystery as great as the mystery of its supremo fascination, is the origin of the waltz, says, a writer in an American magazine. But what matter, since'follow ill its train so many of: the lovely' things of life: pleasure, beauty, freedom from care,'and the spirit of youth?' The; key to the is the power of rhythm, for rhythm is the heart-beat of the world. Through its mesmeric force may be stilled all sense of pain. The whirling dervish-of the-East,..in his pas seul, turns and turns in a lonely and monotonous dance, while the ugly world becomes to him a blur of beauty, and' though he slash his body with a sharp' knife he. .feels no'pain, Tjeing lulled to ecstasy;'/ -' -r : ' .'JS6 too, through 'this subtle sense of measured. .cadehce, the snako is charmed by music; the swaying movements of his sinuous curve's, reveal, the magic of his subjugation. Both .the; Germans and the French, have Bought ,in 'rivalry.,.'to , claim the Waltz as their own, biit the. spirit of the waltz cannot be bound,' to all mankind. It is impartial. a,s . the. sunshine, imperial, seductive, gay 'like the essence of life itself, and has a dwelling place in the centre of the human. heart:: It needs but tho swaying of the branches ,of trees, stirred by some vagrant-breeze; some sound of distant music, to arouse the I ' dreamy elf. Then, exit care and ennui—enter ■ love and the poetry of motion. ' I

Wearied with "Ach du lieher Augustin," which was one of the first , tunes to which the modern waltz, was.danced, and seeking a more cosmopolitan atmosphere, the Bohemian waltz first appeared in Vienna) where it yjw given a warm . welcome. 1 Straightway the waltz-sprite. danced in tho ' Viennese heart; and ever since, through the magic of her spell;- has Vienna preserved tho tradit.on .of producing its irresistible waltzes. Crabb Robinson recounts in his "Diary'" /Tie manner in which lao saw it danced at irankfort in 1880:— •

The man places the-palms of his hands gently, against the. sides of his partner, not tar from the armpits. His partner does the same; and instantly, with a.s much velocity as possible, they, turn round and at the samo time gradually glide round the room." dance,;'in his own England, had not then boon long introduced, and was being danced with enthusiasm and more or less fury to sucn music. a.s "Tho New ?VaZu AV H » 3n , d ',' The ■' Princess days rare ' ™ tunes in thos e

ftr ? Pft!ai tliose masters of'music, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, paid homage to> .its popularity - by.,their slow-rhythmed waltzes, written for tho Viennese in tlie early. days of the dance's career. In the first part of tho nineteenth century, the comer* i elv da " Cing " aS entirely with the Viennose composers rup^ as Johann Strauss, tho elder, who it is snk first introduced the novelty of RiW^Ln' axeTtt CS! " d ? at l'"s sorely the '"Senility of musical posterity