Favorite Songs and Hymns For School and Home, page: 0278

450 Of The World's Best Songs And Hymns, With Lyrics & Sheet music for voice & piano.

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	We are inclined to think that all the great violins of the famous makers are well known. Most of the celebrated instruments are given names of distinction, such as the Yellow Stradivarius, the Blood Red Knight Guarnerius, the De Beriot Magini, the Gen�eral Kidd Stradivarius Violoncello, the Servais Stra�divarius Violoncello, and others. The reason why Italian instruments are so superior to all otiiers must be ascribed to their exquisite make, the careful adjust-	ment of the various thicknesses of wood and the varnish, the secret of which appears gone for ever. Perhaps another reason may be named in the wood being so ripe and dry as to permit free vibration. The Cremonese obtained their color in oil. The modems get it in spirit, which imparts a hardness to the tone. Compare a Cremona with the German and other imitations. The former is mellow and rich�the latter too often flinty and harsh. This arises no doubt
	O WHAT CAN YOU TELL?		J. C. Lowry, 1820. Rossithr W. Raymond by per.
	from the varnish, which, including the color, it seems impossible to imitate. None of the famous makers seem to have adhered to one color only. Now a fine violin appears of a deep, rich yellow, almost approach�ing orange; another is a fine red, having something of a most lovely light cherry tint; again, these colors are mixed by the best makers with amber varnish of die purest and clearest consistency, and both colors	and varnish are perfectly free from that clouded ap�pearance which so often disfigures modern instruments. The effect is that of perfect transparency. You look at a clear, perfect, rich color, as it were, through the purest crystal. This is one of the certain indications of a genuine instrument. The moderns, as has been said, seem unfortunately to have lost the secret of making this lovely, transparent, clear-colored varnish.