Private Reception

“Much bedeviled with sick headache yesterday and went in the evening to one of Barnard’s receptions, 49^th St. Rooms well filled--their aspect refined and elegant.  Barnard and his wife “entertain” with a very simple, agreeable heartiness of manner. I esteem him more and more highly. . . A lot of Trinity Chorister boys, who sang as effectively as they could without the tenors or basses of the choir, who made default. . . M. Du Barry (?) sang ‘Il mio Tesoro’ very well, though annoyed and put out by the gabble around him, and no wonder. ‘ Our civilization is still of low grade. ‘ An assemblage of average New Yorkers will gossip and cackle during one of Mozart’s melodies or Beethoven’s symphonies, and thus display not only indifference to the noblest art, but brutal disregard to the minority that appreciates and enjoys it.”