Adieu

Lamed in his right shoulder by a motor smash, an attack of neuritis and overmuch work, Conductor Leopold Stokowski of the Philadelphia Orchestra departed his audience last week for an 18-month vacation. It was the end of his 15th season in the city of old families and new gossip. The auditorium crashed with more than perfunctory hand-clapping.

But Mr. Stokowski obviously did not wish to make a speech. He bowed and retreated a dozen times, feeling, perhaps, that the eloquence of 15 years, during which he had patiently fashioned the orchestra into an outstanding U. S. institution, could not be improved upon by extemporaneous phrases at a perfunctory moment. Or perhaps, knowing his people, he was heightening his effect.

Scarcely a person left the academy, however, before he finally opened his mouth. He said it would be a long time before he would see the Philadelphians again, "and, incidentally, hear you," he added. He marveled that the newspapers should have divined that he would never return, since he had never had such a thought himself. He raised a fresh storm of applause by saying he and his men had, he believed, succeeded "as well as is humanly possible." He lamented that his Orchestra had not been sent to exhibit its excellence in Europe.

Wagging his long silky locks, Mr. Stokowski discussed the audience. A balcony voice cried out, "Thank all of us!" but the silky locks wagged again. No, Mr. Stokowski was going to make distinctions. He looked up at the cheapest seats and said: "I have frequently ridden past the Academy two or three hours before a concert, and seen you standing there ... in cold, snow, sleet and rain. This shows you love music. . . . It has meant a lot to me. . . . Encouraged me. . . .

"But one thing I cannot understand. How can you always be here, not only on time but some-times several hours ahead, while you--" and he glared at the expensive parquet and balcony-- "with automobiles and every convenience in the world, are utterly unable to do the same thing?"

The locks wagged with stern finality. Conductor Stokowski bade Philadelphia goodbye "for a long time."

"And I hope," he added, with pensive Polish afterwit, "your colds will all be better!"