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CHAPTER V |
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THE QUEEN CITY OF THE WEST
"The City of Cincinnati.—A beautiful illustration of the cooperation between nature and art."—Daniel Webster.
I.
A
FTER adolescent difficulties made more difficult by a loving family out of sympathy with his musical aspirations, Stephen was finding himself. He had the good fortune now to be on his own in a city whose cultural resources and standards were at once a discipline and a stimulus. Because environment counts so vitally in creative* work, it is pertinent to sketch the background which became Stephen's heritage.
In the era of the 'forties Cincinnati seemed a venerable city. It was more than a half century old, founded at the close of the Revolutionary War and named in honor of those officers of General Washington who formed the Society of the Cincinnati.1 Geographical situation and economic forces formed the foundation, but it was the character of its inhabitants which, upon that foundation, built the commercial and cultural importance of the city.
From its early days Cincinnati had men of energy and shrewdness so that, as James |
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