PAGANINI'S PET.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1205, 8 December 1882, Page 2

PAGANINI'S PET.

+ (From' The Year Round.') One day, while approaching Paris in a diligence, after his visit to England, Paganini had the mortification of seeing his beloved Guanerius fall from the roof of the coach. The delicate instrumentjreceived a palpable injury, and had to be taken to Vuillaume,the famous maker and repair of violins established in the French capital. Vullaurae not only mended it — as the story goes — but made'an exact fac-simile of it, taking both to the Italian virtuoso with the remark that the two instruments, lying side by side in his laboratory, had puzzled him as to their identity. The dismayed musician seized first one and then the other, played upon both, and carefully examined them, together and apart and ended by exclaiming in distress that he could not decide which was his own. He strode about the room wild ecstatic, and in tears — faith and fury alike struggling for the mastery in him till the honest Parisian, overcome by the sight of a grief and a bewilderment so genuine, and never from the first intending to deceive his client, asked him to keep both violins as a pledge of his esteen and admation, at the same time pointing out the sham Guanerius for which he begged an honorable place in Paganini's household. Who can doubt after this that new violin may be made to look, and speak, a well as one ones.