Martinsburg Herald

Wagner In His Gay Moods.

"When not in meditation or roused
to anger by stupidity or impertinence,
Wagner may well be said to have been
boisterously gay," writes Houston
Stewart Chamberlain of "The Personal
Side of Richard Wagner" in The La-
dies' Home Journal. "This was, so to
say, his normal state when in society,
which accounts for his being so much
beloved by children and by animals;
hence also he never could endure the
society of pedants and seekers for no-
toriety. The men he preferred were those
full of fun and repartee. The ready wit
of a peasant entertained him more than
the learned sayings of a savant. He
walked very fast, scrambled up moun-
tains like a chamois, and was particu-
larly fond of long excursions on foot.
Being very small in stature and wiry,
he preserved his extraordinary agility up
to the very end.

"As a youth he was renowned for
gymnastic feats, and at 60 years of age
he used still to climb tall poplar trees
and to frighten his family by all sorts of
daring antics. Even within a year of
his death he would occasionally, when
in high glee, astound his sedate Ger-
man friends by suddenly standing on
his head or by playing leapfrog over
the armchairs of his drawing room."