JOSEPH TOSSO, THE ARKANSAW
TRAVELER
by OPHIA D. SMITH
The man who made "Arkansaw
Traveler" famous was not an
ordinary country fiddler. He was a
courtly Italian gentleman, a
musical genius who might have become one
of the great violinists
of all time. The melody as well as the
story of the Arkansaw
Traveler was attributed to Joseph Tosso
over and over in the
Cincinnati press during the sixty years
he lived in that city. He
was renowned for his inimitable
rendition of the comic dialogue
between the Traveler and the squatter.1
The piece invariably
delighted an audience. Tosso played it
on many a concert pro-
gram in response to general demand.
From
time to time, Tosso devised similar musical diver-
tissements, among them "A New Way
to Give Music Lessons,"
"Music and Physic," and
"The Story of John Anderson and His
Tune." None of them, however,
achieved the popularity of the
Arkansaw Traveler.
It seems odd that this fine musician,
who had been an out-
standing student of great promise at the
Paris Conservatory, went
about the country reciting and playing
comic pieces. He could
play the standard concert numbers with
flawless technique and
profound feeling, but his audiences
demanded what they could
understand. He could take his violin from beneath his chin,
place it against his breast, begin to
sway rhythmically, and play
a good backwoods tune with just as much
grace as he had the
moment before played a classic. He
composed dance tunes that
set every foot tapping, he composed
fantasies on familiar melodies,
he played airs from the early operas
with variations. He played
1 For a copy of the "Arkansas Traveler,"
as it appeared on the back of a
concert program of the
1860's and as Tosso recited it, see the Appendix,
p. 44. A
good account of the way the Arkansaw Traveler
was played in a Salem, Ohio, tavern
may be found
in the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly, VIII (1900),
296-308.
16
JOSEPH Tosso, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 17
to please his audience, for he thought
it better to create and
encourage a genuine love of music, even
the simplest kind, than
to discourage it by playing classics to
unappreciative ears. Tosso
was not alone in his method. Maurice
Strakosch, in the 1850's,
toured the country performing musical
stunts on the piano to
attract uncultivated audiences. He
played all kinds of descriptive
program music with all the pianistic
fireworks at his command.
Joseph Tosso was of Italian parentage,
born in Mexico City
on August 3, 1802. To confound
inquiring reporters, Tosso liked
to peer out from under his bushy brows
with a puckish glint in
his eye and say: "My father was an
Italian, my mother a French-
woman. I was born on board a Spanish
ship, sailing under an
English flag, in Mexican waters."
This was true only in very
small part. The parents, Charles and
Mary Tosso, lived in
Mexico City two years before their son
Joseph was born. The
babe was christened Jose Anguel
Augustin, his birth registered in
October in the Royal College of the City
of Mexico.
The birth certificate states that Jose
Anguel Augustin was
the son of Don Carlos Tosso,
"native of Lisandria de la Paya en
el Piamonte," and of Dona Maria
Gret, "native of Cassal Mon-
pato en el Piamonte"; that he was
the grandchild of Don Juan
Bautista Tosso and Dona Rosa Vrote. On
the maternal side
Tosso's grandparents were Don Carlos
Gret and Dona Rosa Gret.
Don Carlos Gret was the governor of
Cassal Monpato. Don
Juan Bautista Tosso was an eminent
barrister.
Don Carlos Tosso, father of Joseph, was
a dealer in fine
jewels, a graduate of the University of
Louvain, and a fine
violinist. Don Carlos lived in elegant
leisure, with ample means
at his command, devoting himself to
music and travel. Fre-
quently he traveled with theatrical
troupes and played in the
orchestras of some of the most famous
theatres of the world.
He went to Mexico City in 1800, under a
passport from King
Ferdinand of Spain, going there to look
after a loan made to
the government of Mexico. He took up his
residence there and
played in the orchestra of the national
theatre. Joseph Tosso's
earliest memories were of the theatre in
Mexico City, where
admiring ladies passed him from box to
box to be petted.
18
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
It was soon evident that Joseph had
unusual musical talent.
At the age of six he was considered a
prodigy. His father took
him to Paris and placed him in the care
of Count de Ligney
who secured the best teachers for him.
At the age of eight,
Joseph was admitted to the Paris
Conservatory. Among the
members of the admission board were
Auber, Mehul, Gretry, and
Boieldieu. Joseph studied violin with
Maille for a few months
and then became the pupil of Baillot,
the last great exponent of
the classical school of violin playing
in Paris. Baillot had studied
counterpoint and harmony under Cherubini
and passed on to his
gifted pupil his profound knowledge of
this musical science.
For nearly six years, six hours a day,
five days a week, the boy
studied with Baillot. Saturday was a day
of recreation, Sunday
the day to go to mass. At the age of
thirteen Joseph's playing
was sensational. He could read and
transpose anything, no mat-
ter how difficult, at sight.
In 1816 the boy became acquainted, quite
by accident, with
some Americans in Paris, one of whom he
discovered to be one
of his father's best friends. Joseph
became homesick and made up
his mind to go to Philadelphia with his
newly-found friends to
join his parents. When he told his
teacher, Baillot shook his
head in sorrow as he said, "My boy,
I sympathize with your
desire to be with your parents, but I
wanted to make a great
player of you."
Joseph arrived in America in 1817, and
found his parents in
Richmond, Virginia. It is presumed that
the elder Tosso was
playing at the Richmond theatre. Joseph
began playing first
violin in that orchestra for eighteen
dollars a week. In Richmond
he played with Pantien and Chevalier,
the best violinists in the
city. Before the year was out, Dona
Maria Tosso was dead.
Joseph and his father then went to
Baltimore. There they found
Lefolle, whom Joseph had known in Paris,
in charge of the
orchestra at the Gay Street Theatre.
Lefolle had studied with
Rodolphe Kreutzer to whom Beethoven had
dedicated his famous
Kreutzer Sonata. Kreutzer and Baillot,
teachers of Lefolle and
Tosso, had collaborated in the
preparation of the famous Methode
du Violin used at the Paris Conservatory. Lefolle at once placed
JOSEPH Tosso, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 19
Joseph in the first violin section of
his orchestra. He said,
"Tosso, you know no English. Come,
learn it in the theater."
So it was that Joseph learned English
from such distinguished
actors as William Warren, William Wood,
and Joseph Jeffer-
son II. In Baltimore Joseph directed a
noted singing society and
played for three years in a famous
string quartette, of which the
popular Baltimore composer, Meineke, was
a member.
At Baltimore the elder Tosso married
again. His new wife
was Henrietta Fiot, widow of a London
jeweler. Henrietta's
brother, G. W. Walker, lived in
Cincinnati, having charge of the
old steam mill at the foot of Broadway.
When Henrietta ex-
pressed a desire to see her brother, the
Tossos traveled to Pitts-
burgh, where they bought and fitted up a
family boat in which
to make the trip. The party consisted of
Charles (Carlos) and
Henrietta Tosso, two Tosso daughters,
one of them married,
and young Joseph, besides a Mr. and Mrs.
Patusso. Joseph pur-
chased a Navigator, and although
but a boy of eighteen, assumed
command of the boat. Fortunately a
kind-hearted, experienced
captain, who was just leaving with a
ninety-foot barge loaded
with dry goods, called to them to ease
up to his boat and he would
drive them down the river. The voyage
was a gay one. In the
daytime the men amused themselves by
swimming, diving, fishing,
and by going ashore to hunt. Each
evening at dusk they tied
up for the night. Then the fun
began--dancing and music and
a frolic for all.
At Gallipolis they moored the boat for a
day. The Tossos
were just in time. The musicians of the
town were giving a
benefit concert for a poor family that
very night. Would the
Tossos play for it? Reluctantly they
consented. When they
opened the hall that evening, they
discovered that all the players
had excused themselves, modestly
leaving the concert to the
Tossos. It goes without saying that the
concert was a good one.
The Tossos left Pittsburgh on April 20
and arrived at Cin-
cinnati on July I, 1820. They
were met at the wharf by Davis
Carneal whose habit it was to welcome
visitors of note. He had
met the elder Tosso on a previous visit
to Cincinnati. Carneal
20 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
entertained the Tossos for ten days at
Elmwood, his palatial
home at what is now Ludlow, Kentucky.2
From Cincinnati the Tossos went to
Louisville, Kentucky.
There, in 1820, Joseph began to teach
music. From Louisville
Joseph made many a long concert trip. It
was during those early
Louisville days that Joseph Tosso
discovered Joseph Neef, one of
the famous educators of New Harmony,
Indiana. One day while
riding horseback through the Kentucky
woods, he stopped at a
farm house, about twenty-five miles from
Louisville, to rest. This
house was different. It contained
shelves with books on them.
It contained sheets of music and a
piano, a violin hanging on the
wall. A near-sighted man sat reading
with his nose in a book,
paying no heed to his visitor until
Tosso tuned the violin and
"swept the strings with
Paganini." Delighted, the man forgot his
look and ran to embrace this stranger
who could play the violin
so exquisitely. When Tosso answered him
in French, then indeed
did Neef rejoice. Thus began a lifelong
friendship. Tosso told
the Neefs many an anecdote of his
childhood in Paris. He could
remember, especially, the wedding
procession of Napoleon and
Maria Louisa of Austria. Little Joseph,
only eight years old,
had broken through the ranks of soldiers
and looked right into
the royal coach. He could remember
distinctly just how Napoleon
and his bride looked and what they wore.3
At Louisville the course of Joseph
Tosso's life was changed.
There he met a tall black-eyed girl
whose name was Caroline
D'Arcambal, daughter of the French
consul-general. Father and
son quarreled over the girl. Don Carlos
thought pretty black-eyed
girls were plentiful in any part of the
world, that Joseph was
entirely too young to marry.
Furthermore, he said, Joseph would
receive not one cent from him if he
married the girl. Father and
son parted never to meet again.4 In
spite of paternal objections,
2 Undated clipping in Family Scrapbook, which quotes
Tosso's reminiscences.
3 Caroline Dale Snedeker, The Town of the Fearless (New York, 1931), 87-88.
4 Don
Carlos with his wife returned to Mexico. During the next twelve years
Don Carlos married again, perhaps
twice. At any rate, Don Carlos and his wife fell
ill with cholera and died on the same September
day in 1833, although tenderly
nursed by the wife of the governor of the
district of Mexico.
After the father's death, Joseph
received his father's watch, snuffbox, and
violin. The wife of General Mexia,
sister-in-law of Don Carlos Tosso, wrote of the
violin to Joseph: "You will no
doubt keep it as long as you live. Your father
thought more of it than anything he ever
possessed. It was his companion for many
years. Nothing could ever have separated
him from it,"
JOSEPH TOSSO, THE
ARKANSAW TRAVELER 21
Joseph Tosso married
Caroline D'Arcambal when he was only
nineteen years old.
Seven daughters and two sons were born
to them.5
In 1824 Tosso joined a
troop of horse called the Lafayette
Guards, which was
organized to escort General Lafayette through
Kentucky on his
triumphal tour of the United States. General
Lafayette came to
Louisville on May II, 1825. It is probable
that Tosso directed
the music at the "splendid ball" given in honor
of the General. The
Lafayette Guards, after receiving a stand of
colors from the
General, accompanied him to Frankfort. There
the governor of
Kentucky appointed Tosso as aide to General
Lafayette. While
studying at the conservatory Joseph had occa-
sionally seen
Lafayette in Paris. Tosso's brother-in-law, Henry
Guibert, served as
aide to the governor. From Frankfort to Ver-
sailles, from
Versailles to Lexington, the nation's guest traveled
with full military
escort. In "soldierly appearance, correct dis-
cipline and uniform
orderly conduct, none of the military escort
exceeded the Lafayette
Guards from Louisville." At Lexington
Tosso and Guibert were
persuaded by Captain Leslie Coombs
to play for the grand
ball given in honor of the General. About
eight hundred ladies
and gentlemen attended the ball.
From Lexington the
Lafayette Guards, on their snow-white
horses, accompanied
Governor Desha and General Lafayette to
Cincinnati. Tosso and Guibert were among "the
respectable
convoy of gentlemen
from Kentucky." Tosso rode on the right
of the open barouche
as aide to General Lafayette and Henry
Guibert rode on the
left as aide to Governor Desha. The party
stopped for the night
at a little town about twenty miles from
Cincinnati. Since
there were eighty people and only ten beds,
only the dignitaries
slept. Tosso and Guibert, with the other
bedless gentlemen, sat
up all night, playing cards, singing, talking,
and taking liquid
refreshment.
5 Adele m.
Frank Spining, January 9, 1851.
Mary m.
Col. Philip Stanhope.
Louise m.
Dan Ruttle.
Matilda Died in her twenties, unmarried.
Caroline m. Richard Reynolds, artist, a direct
descendant of Sir Joshua
Reynolds.
The sons, Julius
and Joseph, were in the scale-manufacturing business in Cin-
cinnati. Two daughters,
younger than the two sons, died in childhood.
22 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
A fine six-oared barge brought Lafayette
and his entourage
from
Covington to the foot of Broadway in Cincinnati where a
carpet was spread from the landing to
the carriage that was to
convey the General to Colonel Mack's
Hotel. Tosso afterward
related how Lafayette stepped around the
carpet, saying the soil
of America was good enough for him to
walk on. The crowd of
citizens and visitors was immense. All houses adjacent to the
hotel were given over to the ladies who
crowded the doors and
windows to wave their handkerchiefs in
token of grateful respect
to the hero.6
Tosso told the story of how Lafayette
asked for Morgan
Neville, whose father had been on the
General's staff during the
Revolutionary War. Poor Neville was at
home shivering with
the ague, too ill to deliver the two
long addresses, one in verse,
which he had prepared for the Masonic
ceremonies attending the
induction of the General into the
Lafayette Lodge of Free
Masons. Lafayette visited Neville and
made him a substantial
gift of United States Bank stock,
slipping it under the sick man's
pillow.7
Tired of the prodigious labor involved
in concert work,
Joseph Tosso loaded his family and
household goods on the little
boat Speedwell and embarked for
Cincinnati in 1827. There he
hoped to teach and study and remain at
home with his family.
The Saturday Evening Chronicle on
September 8 announced that
the lovers of harmony would be gratified
to learn that Mr. Tosso
of Louisville, "so justly admired
for his musical skill and per-
formances," had established himself
permanently in Cincinnati.
"An able professor of music"
had "long been wanted" in that city.
In an advertisement in the same paper
Tosso declared his
intentions to teach "Piano Forte,
Violin, Viola, Violincello, Guitar,
Harp, and also Vocal Music."
Students might leave their names at
6 Edgar Ewing Brandon, A Pilgrimage
of Liberty A Contemporary Account of
the Triumphal Tour of General
Lafayette Through the Southern and Western States
in 1825, as Reported by the Local
Newspapers (Athens, Ohio, 1944), 272,
312-346;
undated clipping in Family Scrapbook.
There is a tradition that Tosso led the
orchestra at the Lafayette Ball in
Cincinnati. He did not mention it in his reminis-
cences of Lafayette's visit to
Cincinnati. Contemporary newspapers do not mention
him in that connection.
7 William H. Venable, Beginnings of
Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley (Cin-
cinnati, 1891), 375.
JOSEPH Tosso, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 23
Dorfeuille's Museum. He promised parents
who might entrust
their children to his tuition that he
would use every exertion to
promote their progress in the science;
he hoped "by unremitting
attention to the duties of his
profession to merit a share of public
patronage." A month later he
announced that he had opened his
school at his residence next door to Dr.
Locke's Female Academy.8
He soon had thirty pupils. During his
long teaching career, he
had as pupils some of the most
distinguished citizens of Cincinnati,
among them Charles Beecher.
Tosso almost immediately took charge of
the orchestra at the
Cincinnati Theatre, and continued as its
conductor for four years.
He had a set of books with fifty pieces
in it, all numbered. Num-
ber Four came to be known as "The
Beefsteak." It was so called
because a butcher in the audience one
evening was so pleased with
Number Four that he asked for it to be
repeated. The next day,
in appreciation of Tosso's gracious
compliance with his request,
he gave Tosso a fine thick steak.
A newspaper account gives a glimpse of
one of these early
theatrical performances. Mr. Whittaker,
organist for the New
Jerusalem Singing Society, played the piano
and arranged much
of the music. On one occasion Mrs. Ball
sang the French air,
"Since Then I'm Doomed" in the
play, The Spoiled Child. She
pitched her voice too high. Whittaker
transposed and followed.
"Tosso sat upon thorns; Winter
looked dark as December and
Whittaker bit his lip ad libitum."
Tosso himself was a noted
arranger of music. He made famous his
arrangement of The
Little Wanderer.9 That child of misery brought forth many a
falling tear.
The theatre audiences were not
particularly cultivated in that
early day. The Saturday Evening
Chronicle, December 8, 1827,
8 Saturday Evening Chronicle of General Literature, Morals and the
Arts
(Cincinnati), September 22, 1827, from
notes made by Donald Smalley, University of
Indiana; Cincinnati Gazette, October
5, 1827, from notes collected by Harry R.
Stevens, University of Cincinnati.
9 Another well-loved song arranged by
Tosso was The Grey Old Sycamore.
The two songs may be found in the
Library of Congress. Other compositions in the
Library of Congress are The Wave
Waltz, arranged for pianoforte and dedicated to
Mrs. J. W. Coleman; Tosso's Bank Lick
Reel with Variations, Being a Sympathetic
Response to the Arkansas Traveler; and the Leap Year Polka. There is a copy of the
Leap Year Polka in the Cincinnati Public Library. The author has in her
Tosso
collection the Swiss March in
which is "introduced the Swiss National Air, Com-
posed for and dedicated'to Miss Mary
Bartlett."
24
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
complained that the great need of the
theatre was courtesy. Men
sat with their high-crowned beaver hats
on and obscured the
view of what was going on on the stage.
If gentlemen would
only pay "the ordinary deference to
the presence of the other
sex," the enlargement of "the
sphere of operations both of sound
and vision" would have been
gratifying.
In May 1828 Tosso gave a concert and
ball at Watson's
Hotel, thus supplementing his income
from teaching and playing
at private parties. He began to play the
organ at the St. Xavier
Church in a year or two after he came to
town. He made the
St. Xavier choir the best and most
fashionable in town.
A few months after arriving in
Cincinnati, Tosso respectfully
informed the ladies and gentlemen of
that city that he had just
received for sale several superior
pianofortes, among which was
"a very splendid cabinet upright
pianoforte." These instruments
might be seen at his residence at Number
72 Lower Market
Street.10
For twelve years Tosso was professor of
music at Dr. Locke's
Female Seminary. It was his pleasant
duty to award the gold and
silver medals for excellence in music.
In 1830 Tosso began to
teach also at the French and English
Boarding School of Mr.
and Mrs. Montagnier, lately removed from
Covington.11
In addition to his professorships at the
two schools, Tosso
formed a partnership with a
newly-arrived dancing teacher by
the name of Pius. They opened a music
and dancing academy
in Mrs. Trollope's Bazaar in April 1830.
The ballroom had been
completely renovated and embellished for
them. Practising balls
and cotillion parties were given in
addition to public assemblies
"on any scale required." The
fee for dancing lessons was eight
dollars a quarter. On the evening of May
6 they gave their first
cotillion party, the tickets selling for
two dollars apiece.12 The
ballroom in the Bazaar was a famous one.
According to tradi-
tion, it had the first gas lights ever
to brighten a Cincinnati edifice.
10 Cincinnati Gazette, February 28, 1828. From notes collected by Harry R
Stevens.
11 Ibid., July 31 and October 7, 1830.
12 Ibid., April and May, 1830.
JOSEPH Tosso, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 25
The Cincinnati Directory of 1829 described
this ballroom as
follows:
Above the Bazaar is a magnificent
ballroom, the front of which
looking upon the street, will receive
the rays of the sun, or emit rival
splendors of its gas-illumined walls, by
three ample arabesque windows,
which give an unrivalled lightness and
grace to the festive hall. The
walls and the arched and lofty ceiling
of this delectable apartment are
to be decorated by the powerful pencil
of Mr. Hervieu. The rear of the
room is occupied by an orchestral
gallery whence dulcet music will guide
the light fantastic toe in the mazes of
the giddy dance.
In this spacious ballroom, "the
magic violin of Jose Tosso dig-
nified the quadrille without degrading
musical art."13
The Bazaar was opened to the public on
Thursday evening,
October 15, 1829. The ballroom was sixty
by thirty-eight feet,
with an arched ceiling and arabesque
windows. Across the south
end and immediately over the entrance to
it was "an elegant
orchestra, supported by four Corinthian
columns." Lavish deco-
rations by Hervieu were "unique and
splendid." The ballroom
was supposed to be in the style of the
Alhambra. The sides of
the room represented a double row of
marble pilasters, with
windows between richly draped with
crimson curtains through
which a variety of Spanish scenery might
be seen.
The music gallery had the appearance of
leading to an upper
apartment from which it was divided by a
damask curtain. Below
this gallery were niches containing
figures of infant boys holding
standards on which were patriotic
inscriptions. Over the windows
in front were two female figures
representing the Muses of danc-
ing and music. Between the windows were
a variety of arabesque
ornaments in mosaic. Seneca Palmer,
Cincinnati architect, had
designed elaborately if not well.14
Tosso knew the owner of the Bazaar very
well. For a long
time he avoided an introduction to Mrs.
Trollope because he
detested her ugly bonnets and shawls and
because he loathed ugly
women. But one day he had to meet her.
He found her to be
a very clever woman, so charming in
conversation that he re-
13 Venable, Beginnings of Literary
Culture, 354-355.
14 Cincinnati Chronicle and Literary Gazette, October 17, 1829.
26
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
mained two hours. In his late years
Tosso said that Mrs. Trollope
was ahead of her time, that she had a
soul "as big as an ox."
According to Tosso, Anthony Trollope was
as clever as his
mother. Anthony was "The Invisible
Girl" at Dorfeuille's Mu-
seum who delivered oracular responses to
questions every after-
noon for two hours. Mrs. Trollope lived
at Gano's Lodge, a new
house just outside the city. Tosso
described a party given by
Mrs. Trollope for about one hundred
guests. Two plays were
given--"Les Deux Amis" and
"The Merry Wives of Windsor."
Mrs. Trollope, Dr. Price, Morgan
Neville, Mrs. Ameling, and
Anthony Trollope, all speaking excellent
French, carried off "Les
Deux Amis" with distinction. In the Shakespearean play,
Anthony took the part of Falstaff, using
a small feather bed for
his capacious belly. Having drunk too
much wine, he was up-
roariously funny in the part. After the
plays and the supper, the
guests danced till daylight to the music
of Joseph Tosso (first
violin), Morgan Neville (second violin),
and John Douglass
(cello).15
Tosso & Pius assisted traveling
artists in. concerts at the
Bazaar, sometimes giving a ball after
the concert. Whenever the
newspapers stated that a visiting artist
would be assisted by
"Musical Professors and Amateurs of
the city," Tosso was usu-
ally one of those
"Professors." Distinguished artists from Europe
and the leading theatres of the United
States appeared there.
Tosso took part in the programs of
practically all the musical
organizations of the city. Tosso &
Pius advertised that they had
"the most splendid ballroom and the
Most Classical Music for
those refined amusements west of the
mountains." They smugly
averred that they would, of course, be
patronized by those "who
know how to appreciate these important
advantages &c &c."16
Henry Guibert, who kept a dancing
academy at the Cincin-
nati Hotel, had an answer to that
advertisement in the very same
issue of the Gazette:
"CLASSICAL MUSIC"--Parents and
guardians of pupils under my
tuition may be assured that no other
music has ever been performed in my
15 Saturday Evening Chronicle, March 22, 1828; Family Scrapbook.
16 Cincinnati
Gazette, September 27, 1830.
JOSEPH TOSSO, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 27
academy, but the one generally adapted
and well calculated to give to the
pupils a correct idea of keeping good
time, as well as to improve them in
the delightful accomplishment derived
from an easy and graceful deportment.
Since Tosso and Guibert were married to
sisters, the sisters
D'Arcambal, the little quarrel was soon
patched up. A few
weeks later, Guibert & Tosso were
advertising their new part-
nership at the Bazaar. They gave their
first cotillion party on
December 7.
Before the advertisement came out,
however, Guibert &
Tosso were busy with an important
affair. That was the Lafay-
ette Supper that celebrated the outcome
of the "July Revolution"
in Paris. The Lafayette (Masonic) Lodge
of Cincinnati, of
which General Lafayette was an honorary
member, determined
"to give some public demonstration
of the gratification they felt
at the prominent and efficient part
taken by 'the great Apostle
of Liberty' in the late glorious change
in the French government."
They invited non-members to enter into
the festivities with them
and sent out invitations to
distinguished men of Ohio and Ken-
tucky.
At sunrise on the appointed day,
November 25, 1830, twenty-
one guns roared out a salute; at noon,
thirteen guns, and at sun-
down, twenty-four. At three o'clock in
the afternoon, uniformed
citizens "paraded in Broadway"
and "made a very handsome
display." All day long the tricolor
flag flew over the Bazaar, the
"noble building" lately. taken
by Guibert & Tosso. At night "the
most splendid supper ever seen in the
Western country" was served
under the direction of the proprietors
of the Bazaar. About 125
gentlemen assembled in the ballroom and
adjourned to the bril-
liantly illuminated Banquet Room at
eight o'clock. The talents
of those seated around the convivial
board were exhibited in
oratory and song. A band of music was in
attendance through-
out the evening, under the able
direction of Tosso.17 Morgan
Neville presided and Allison Owen was
master of ceremonies.
Morgan Neville in rounded periods
praised Lafayette and
17 The numbers played between toasts were the "Marsellaise Hymn,"
"Andante
Movement," "Hail
Columbia," "How Sleeps the Brave and Yankee Doodle as a
Rondo" (probably a solo by Tosso),
"Pleyel's Hymn," and "Slow Music." Tosso fre-
quently played his own arrangement of
Pleyel's Hymn and of Yankee Doodle.
28 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
prophesied that
"the European poet" would some day be "descant-
ing on the Patriot of
the Grange" and would say that Lafayette
imbibed his first
lessons in the school of Washington. "Gentle-
men," he said,
"I offer you a name dear to humanity, dear to
benevolence, dear to
every advocate of rational liberty--THE
NAME OF
LAFAYETTE."18
A list of supplies
bought of J. Forbes by Joseph Tosso for
the Lafayette supper
is owned by a great-granddaughter of Tosso,
Mrs. Frank Thompson of
Cincinnati. It reads:
Nov 22d 12 lb Havana Sugar 2.00
1 lb ginger .25
6 bottles capers 3.00
6 "
olives 3.00
1 lb mustard .50
1 lb pepper .25
12 bottles of cayenne
pepper 2.00
3 "
olive oil 1.87
1/2
1 box table salt .25
1 gal vinegar .25
23 1/4 tb loaf
(sugar?) 4.65
6 lb brown sugar .66
14 Java coffee 2.80
Nov 24 41 1/16 loaf sugar 8.29
1/4 box Spanish Segars 4.00
1 bottle olive oil .62
1/2
6 lb Princes almond 1.87
1/2
66 lb sperm candles @
30c and
2 boxes @ 50c 20.30
Total $56.57
In the spring Henry
Guibert decided to retire from the
Bazaar. Some idea of
the furnishings may be gleaned from the
list of articles
advertised for sale at auction at that time: one
elegant pianoforte,
one sideboard, carpets and rugs, looking-
glasses, card tables,
dining tables suitable for public purposes,
breakfast tables,
clothes presses, damask linen and cotton table-
cloths and napkins,
britannia ware, table and teaspoons, sugar
tongs, one dozen table
casters, 45 sets of knives and forks, and-
irons, shovels and
tongs and fenders, bronze lamps, plated can-
18 Cincinnati
Gazette, November 17, 30, 1830.
JOSEPH Tosso, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 29
diesticks, entry lamps, one wine safe,
venetian blinds, curtains,
cut glass, and a variety of kitchen
utensils.19 The very next day
a notice appeared in the Gazette that
Guibert had decided not to
withdraw from the Bazaar and would not
sell the furniture.
Guibert and Tosso continued giving their
banquets and dancing
parties.
Tosso was a prominent figure in the
Grand Concert given
for the relief of the flood sufferers in
February 1832. The pro-
gram included Handel, Hadyn, Mozart,
Beethoven, and Pucitta.
Tosso played an air with variations,
accompanied on the piano-
forte by Edouard Loreilhe. Tickets sold
for one dollar.20
In the spring of 1833 Tosso announced
that he would
give a benefit concert, the first in
some years. The Gazette
declared that few artists possessed
higher claims on society
than Tosso who in private life was most
exemplary. As a
musician Tosso stood unrivalled in the
West and had few
superiors anywhere. Madame Montagnier
and Madame Mul-
lon, local singers, and other amateurs
would assist him. Mr.
Young, late of the Royal Marine Band of
England, would
play the serpent, an instrument new to
most Cincinnatians.21
According to the Cincinnati Mirror
and Ladies' Parterre
(March 16, 1833):
A more brilliant audience, we presume,
was never present at a Concert
in this city, than that which filled the
spacious ballroom of the Bazaar last
week. Every one appeared gratified with
the performances, and indeed we
did not see how they could be otherwise,
for "Masters struck the enchanting
chords."
By December 1833 Guibert and Tosso had
dissolved their
business connection. Guibert formed a
new partnership with
Madame Blaique, dancing teacher from
Kentucky. They
opened their school on Front Street next
door to the Cin-
cinnati Commercial Exchange. Ten dollars
a quarter they
charged for instruction, the ladies
under Madame Blaique, the
gentlemen under Guibert.22 Tosso, now alone, gave a con-
19 Ibid., March 1.1, 1831.
20 Ibid., February
23, 24, 1832. From notes collected by Harry R. Stevens.
21 Ibid., March
7, 1833.
22 bid., December
3, 1833.
30
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
cert and ball on the evening of December
4, assisted by
amateur musicians. By the end of the
month Tosso had a
new partner, Mr. Winter, whom he had
known at the theatre.
It was not long before Madame Blaique
went into business in
the Bazaar for herself and engaged the
cotillion band of
Tosso & Winter to furnish the music
for her assemblies.23
A study of the newspapers shows Tosso to
have been
most generous in using his talent for
the benefit of others.
He assisted his fellow musicians in
their benefit concerts and
gave his services for practically every
good cause. He played
on district school programs, at church
tea parties, for or-
phanages, for distressed and disabled
musicians, for suffering
political refugees. During the Civil War
he played for the
benefit of wounded soldiers and their
families, war widows,
and orphans. He appeared in concert with
many persons of
note. In a benefit concert for Thomas B.
Hawkes, teacher of
sacred music, in 1834, he led the
orchestra that accompanied
Miss Browne, sister of Mrs. Hemans, when
she sang Mrs.
Hemans' celebrated song, "The
Landing of the Pilgrim
Fathers."
Tosso & Winter were not very
prosperous for a time.
The cholera epidemic undoubtedly
affected their business.
When they announced their closing
cotillion party in April
1834, they stated that as they had not
received the encourage-
ment expected, "no doubt in
consequence of circumstances
beyond their control," they humbly
hoped that their "closing
scene" would be distinguished by
patronage sufficient to in-
duce them to persevere in their
"experiment."24 The patron-
age must have been encouraging, for
Tosso & Winter con-
tinued in business. In the refreshment
rooms on cold winter
nights they served coffee, chocolate,
and confectionery.
In 1835 Tosso became president of the
moribund Musical
Fund Society. It had three objectives:
to cultivate musical
taste by encouraging and improving
professional and amateur
talent; to establish a musical academy;
to relieve distressed
23 Ibid., February 13, 1834.
24 Ibid., April 14, 1834.
JOSEPH Tosso, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 31
musicians and, in case of death, to
relieve their widows and
children. There was money and social
prestige back of the
society but its board allowed it to
languish and die in spite
of Tosso's heroic efforts.25
Buckeye Balls were given annually in
Cincinnati to com-
memorate the settling of the Miami
country. In April 1835
such a ball was given at the Bazaar. The
"divine music" was
led on by flute and violin by performers
(Tosso and Winter?)
"among the most distinguished in
the United States." It was a
brilliant assembly, but had all else
been forgotten, "the music
alone would have been a treat." The
"magnificent ballroom was
brilliantly illuminated," and
"most fresh-ventilated." It was deco-
rated everywhere
fantastically by the fantastic taste of
its builder; its dome immensely spa-
cious;--its floor seemingly riding upon
elastic steel springs; and as it
undulated beneath the fair forms of the
dancers, it seemed to give addi-
tional grace to their movements.
The supper at the ball consisted of ice
creams, blanc mange, and
macaroni (macaroons?).26
In October the Buckeyes of Hamilton,
Ohio, celebrated the
forty-fourth anniversary of Fort
Hamilton. It was a big day of
speechmaking and parading. In the
afternoon there was a fine,
large dinner with speeches, poems,
music, and toasts; in the
evening, a ball. The words,
"Buckeye Ball," were conspicuous
on the wall in large letters made of
buckeyes strung on a cord.
Tosso may have directed the music for
the ball, for at a late hour,
after a "beautiful solo by Mr.
Tosso, all retired to their respec-
tive domiciles--'The weary to
sleep'--and the restive to dream."27
By 1837 Tosso had a "Music &
Fancy Store" at No. 54
Lower Market, where he sold sheet music,
musical instruments,
and novelties.28 Tosso &
Winter, however, continued their dancing
parties at the Bazaar. In 1838 J. D.
Douglass came from New
York and opened a manufactory of all
kinds of musical instru-
ments for both wholesale and retail
trade. As to the excellence
25 Charles Cist, Cincinnati in 1841
(Cincinnati, 1841), 137.
26 Cincinnati Mirror, April
18, 1835.
27 Ibid., October 10, 1835.
28 Cincinnati Gazette, April 13, 1837.
32
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of his instruments, he referred his
customers to Joseph Tosso.
The next year Douglass and Tosso
combined their stocks, adding
pianofortes. They also published some
popular music.
Tosso & Winter's cotillion band
continued to play for their
own parties as well as those of Madame
Blaique. When the
Bazaar was sold to the Mechanics'
Institute in 1839, Tosso &
Winter removed to Pearl Street where
they opened the Cincin-
nati Assembly Rooms. Their caterer was
F. G. Ringgold, pro-
prietor of the Refectory.
During the forties Tosso's band was
employed in playing
for balls given by military and civic
organizations. Tosso in-
variably was praised for his fine music
and for his solo perform-
ances.
In January 1845 he assisted in a Grand Concert and
Soiree given for the benefit of the
Cincinnati Dispensary. Some
of the gentlemen in the audience took
their music with a soothing
cud of tobacco. By the time the concert
ended, the floor was
liberally embellished with tobacco
juice. At the Banner Pres-
entation Ball of the Northern Fire
Engine and Hose Company,
the ladies showed marked improvement in
dress, carriage, and
manners. A reporter noted that they
still liked fancy colors but
that they dressed less gaudily than four
years before. The be-
havior of the gentlemen was commended,
for they were "com-
plaisant and attentive as a strict
etiquette would require, but
avoided, very justly, all apparent
familiarity." 29
It was in the early forties that the Arkansaw
Traveler came
into vogue. Robert Clarke, Cincinnati publisher, heard Tosso
play it at Walker's brew house in 1841
or 1842. Tosso told
Richard Reynolds, his son-in-law, and
two other close friends
that he was the composer of the tune and
the author of the
dialogue. It would have been hard to convince Cincinnatians
and old settlers along the Ohio River
that Tosso was not the
originator of Arkansaw Traveler. He
was well known up and
down the Ohio River as a concert player
and as a player of
dance music. Along the lower Mississippi
the tune and dialogue
were attributed to one Colonel Faulkner.30
29 Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, January 15, June 6, 1845.
30 H. C. Mercer,
"On the Track of 'The Arkansas Traveler,' " in Century
Maga-
zine, LI (1895-96),
707-712. This reference was. brought to my attention by Harry R.
Stevens.
34
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Philharmonic Society gave its first
concert at the Melo-
deon on February 16, 1847. Tosso
conducted the orchestra in
Boieldieu's Two Blind Mice of Toledo,
played a violin obligato
to a polonaise from Kreutzer's Lodoiska
and an introduction and
variations of De Beriot's It is the
Hour with full orchestra, and
led the finale, the overture from
Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.31
This program shows Tosso at his best.
At the opening of the Apollo Hall on
September 14, 1848,
Tosso and other artists of the city
assisted Signor Natale Giam-
boni of Havana in a vocal and
instrumental concert. They com-
peted that evening with Dempster, the
popular Irish singer, whose
rendition of the "Irish Emigrant's
Lament" alone was considered
worth more than the price of
admission.32 A week later,
at the
Apollo, Tosso, Madame Werner, and
Messrs. Runge, Churchill,
and Pond gave "a variety of their
most popular and choice songs,
solos, duetts &c." The hall was
filled early with "a highly fashion-
able and brilliant audience."
Bright eyes sparkled and fair faces
shone, contrasting finely with the
"rich furniture and gorgeous
trappings of the Hall." The Dispatch
(September 20, 1848) re-
ported:
It is unnecessary to speak of Tosso, or
the manner in which he was
received. Always inimitable wherever he
goes, his fellow-citizens here at
home know how to appreciate him, and
never fail to award him a position
high above all others. The old Cremona
never talked more sweetly, or
mingled fun and sentiment more
effectively than last evening.
In November Tosso and Pond assisted the
Werners in con-
cert. Madame Ablamowicz sang and Tosso
played a De Beriot
number. A few days later the same
artists assisted Madame
Ablamowicz in a concert of miscellaneous
and sacred music at
Masonic Hall. The Dispatch criticised Tosso and
Werner
sharply because they played the same
solos they had played at the
Werner concert. It was less excusable
for Tosso, the critic said,
because Tosso could have played even
better De Beriot's Number
Five.33
31 Program, in Library of the
Historical and Philosophical Society at Cincinnati.
32 Cincinnati Daily Dispatch, September 14, 1848.
33 Ibid., November
7, 10, 18, 22, 24, 1848.
JOSEPH Tosso, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 35
In December Tosso played at the Disabled
Firemen's Ball
and at Mary Shaw Fogg's benefit. At the
Fogg concert Tosso
played his arrangement of "Believe
Me if All Those Endearing
Young Charms" with violin
accompaniment and one of his own
compositions for the first time, an
arrangement of the air and
chorus from the opera Masaneillo. The
inclement weather and
horrible state of the streets made the
audience a small one. A
daily paper reported:34 "Tosso
played as only Tosso can play.
Great favorite as he is, we fear this
popular violinist will never
be properly appreciated, even in this
community, till he 'hangs
up de fiddle and de bow.'"
At the Rovers Ball, February 15, 1849,
Tosso led the band.
The Dispatch again complimented
Tosso, saying that he was with-
out a rival as a violinist. His music
together with the splendor of
the decorations and the loveliness of
the fair ones gliding through
the mazes of the dance, "gave the
scene a tone of enchantment
perfectly Elisian [sic]."
On February 16, 1849, Zachary Taylor
arrived in Cincinnati
on his way to his inaugural. The
artillery boomed a welcome.
The firemen made a handsome appearance
in their uniforms as
they formed a line on either side of
Broadway. The street and
landing were thronged, and every window
was a frame for fair
faces. A mounted escort cleared the way
for General Taylor's
carriage drawn by a splendid pair of
bays. In spite of the severe
cold, the General rode bareheaded--the
cheering for "Old Rough
and Ready" was loud and long.
In the evening the newly formed Light
Guard gave a ball--
one of the finest affairs ever given in
Cincinnati--at Armory Hall
on Court Street. The best cotillion band
was organized and put
under the direction of "that prince
of fiddlers and good fellows,
the inimitable Tosso." At half past
eight General Taylor was
announced. He seemed much touched by the
attentions showered
upon him. After circling the hall, he
was led to a seat, where
he was surrounded by about a hundred
beautiful ladies, "each the
possessor of a pair of pretty lips which
they were anxious to press
34 Ibid., December 12, 1848.
35 Ibid., February
17, 1849.
36
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to the cheek of the war-worn veteran--a
liberty which he was
no ways reluctant to grant. Some, not
content with kissing him,
clipped off large portions of his hair
to retain as keepsakes."35
Tosso started the year of 1850 by
playing at a concert given
by himself and Felix Simon. An original
composition, "Musical
Challenge," was played on this
program, a number that Simon
and Tosso frequently played in response
to public demand. The
next year, he and Simon featured a duet
they called "The Friend-
ships."
In the early 1850's Tosso appeared at
several mammoth or
grand prize concerts. The best artists
of the city furnished the
music. A promoter managed the affair,
and crowds were lured by
an imposing list of prizes. Tosso went
to Louisville, Kentucky,
and to Dayton, Ohio, to play in such
concerts, besides those at
which he assisted in Cincinnati.
At one of these concerts at the Masonic
Hall in Cincinnati,
a $450 rosewood piano was offered as the
grand prize. Fine gold
jewelry, articles of silver, an
accordion, a citron-wood guitar,
Jenny Lind's portrait in a gilt frame, a
six-octave melodeon
piano, were among the lesser prizes
offered, the prizes totaling
$765 in value, a very liberal estimate,
no doubt. The artists were
expected to draw a fashionable audience.
That there might be no
disorder when the prizes were drawn,
police officers were engaged
for the evening.36 The Grand
Art Union concerts offered prizes
equally fabulous. Tosso and the leading
musicians of Cincinnati
took part in those also. Sometimes,
"by particular request and
desire," Tosso "executed his
celebrated and unrivalled piece called
the 'Arkansaw Traveler' with recitation
and variations."37
Early in May 1850 the Burnet House was
opened with a
grand soiree. According to the Gazette,
the house was "furnished
throughout in a style of magnificence
which compared well with
the pretensions of the great Hotel of
the West, if not of the
great Hotel of the World." The
dancing was under the direction
of the fashionable dancing teacher,
Monsieur Ernst, a graduate
36 Cincinnati Gazette, January 29,
and February 4, 1851, November 22, 1854.
37 Ibid., February 8, 1851.
JOSEPH TOSSO, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 37
of the Grand Opera of the Paris National
Academy. Monsieur
and Madame Ernst went to Paris every
summer to bring back
the newest dances and ballroom music.
Tosso led the orchestra
on this brilliant occasion. One of the
pieces played that night
was the "Burnet House Polka,"
composed by A. Mine and
published by Felix Simon of Cincinnati.
The supper was re-
ported a very recherche affair.
Fashionable folk came from dis-
tant towns in Kentucky and Ohio to the
opening of this elegant
house.
Later in the summer Tosso made news in
the Cincinnati Dis-
patch (August 7, 1850), when young Walter Anderson, lithog-
rapher, made "an admirable portrait
of Tosso, the Violinist," from
a daguerreotype by Faris. The likeness
was taken when "this
favorite of everybody" was wearing
"his regular 'Arkansaw
Traveler' expression."
Tosso emerged from his retirement as a
major concert violin-
ist when Ole Bull came to this country.
Once Tosso appeared
at the Philadelphia Academy of Music on
the very same evening
that Ole Bull was playing in that city.
The two violinists vied
with each other to see who could have
the largest and most
fashionable audiences. Seats for their
concerts sold at exorbitant
prices weeks in advance.38
In January 1862 Tosso went to
Charleston, Virginia, to play
in concert with Livanosky, a celebrated
violinist of the time. Their
duets were something to hear. Tosso's
"exquisite touch" and the
"faultless sweep of his bow"
caused an enthusiastic reporter to
exclaim, "May he live
forever!"39
Tosso was a favorite with the Cincinnati
Sketch Club which
flourished in the 1860's. At the
meetings, in private homes,
Tosso played his violin; Werner, the piano;
T. Lindsay exhibited
his pictures; T. Buchanan Read read his
own poems and showed
his pictures. All forms of skill in art,
literature, and music were
represented in the Sketch Club. One
member, Dr. Hamlen, laid
aside his invention, the corrugated fiddle,
to invent a cannon for
38 Musical Visitor, August 1878, quoted in Cincinnati Enquirer, August
11, 1879.
39 Family Scrapbook.
38
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
use in the Civil War. After he finished
his cannon, he completed
his fiddle. At a meeting of the Sketch
Club the doctor brought
out his fiddle and Tosso played it.
Tosso topped off the evening
by playing on his own violin a stirring
arrangement of Yankee
Doodle.
Scattered references in the press and a
few old programs
still in existence prove that Tosso did
his part during the Civil
War. He played at benefit concerts for
the Great Western Sani-
tary Fair in Cincinnati. For the benefit
of the same organization,
in 1863, he assisted Madame Anna Bishop
and her troupe in a
concert at the Covington, Kentucky,
courthouse.40
Tosso's band was still in demand in
1863. At a pioneer
picnic at Ludlow's Grove (Cumminsville)
in the summer, health-
ful plays, swinging, and dancing were
the order of the day.
Tosso's band furnished "inspiring
music." The high point of the
day, however, for old and young, was
Tosso's "recitative and
musical melange of the Arkansaw
Traveler."41
On June 6, 1867, the Cincinnati
Philharmonic Society ap-
peared in concert in Oxford, Ohio. The Miami
Student reported
that the society was assisted by
"the great American Violinist,
Tosso," that seldom had the
students of Miami University heard
"so pleasant an
entertainment." The audience was smaller than
"the excellence of the concert
deserved and the high reputation
of the Society merited." The
"Cradle Song" was rendered with
"exquisite taste" by Miss Mary
Daniels, satisfying "the critical
taste of the audience." Miss
Wilkinson's solo was beautiful, her
"finely modulated voice"
filling "every nook and cranny in the
church with its sweet and tender
music." S. E. Levassor, in a
piano solo, "chained the attention
of all by the rendition of the
'Storm.'" But Tosso brought down
the house, round after round
of applause following the rendition of
his "New Way of Giving
Music Lessons" and the famous
"Arkansaw Traveler."
A concert on November 24, 1869, turned
out to be "a very
recherche affair." Janotta, one of
Cincinnati's foremost musi-
40 Cincinnati Commercial, December 22, 1863,
41 Ibid., July 30, 1863.
JOSEPH Tosso, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 39
cians, featured Tosso in the third of a
series of symphonic con-
certs. The orchestra of thirty members
failed to appear for
various reasons, but a number of
soloists made the concert a very
good one. After the fifth number,
the door opened, and an old favorite
made his appearance. It was Tosso,
who came with feeble step, carrying the
king of instruments under his arm.
As soon as he came upon the stage the
audience broke out into applause
and at the close of Le Tremolo he
received an enthusiastic encore, which
was only quieted after he had performed
a solo . . . without the aid of an
accompaniment.42
In the seventies Joseph Tosso lived
quietly in his little
home, "Rose Cottage," at
Latonia Springs, with his daughter,
Louise. Occasionally he attended a
concert. At Madame Essi-
poff's concert in January 1877, Tosso
was one of the most inter-
ested listeners. The Cincinnati Enquirer (January 29,
1877)
noted that Tosso was one of the greatest
violinists that ever ap-
peared in any country, that, by his
residence in Cincinnati, he
was among the first to give Cincinnati a
reputation as a musical
center.
Sometimes Tosso attended a pioneer
celebration, where he
delighted his old friends with his
violin. In the summer of 1874
he played at such a gathering at
Yeatman's Farm. The Cincinnati
Commercial (May 7) commented:
Even that veteran violinist, Professor
Tosso, after having been tried
and found not wanting, in almost
every civilized country, including "Ar-
kansaw" . . . is especially anxious
to please his old friends, Farmers
Yeatman and L'Hommedieu, who heard him
perform early in this century.
When Tosso was seventy-five years old,
he gave a concert at
Dayton, Kentucky. Here he played the overture "to
Tancredi
accompanied by Mrs. Emily Brutton whose
fine piano playing
was a feature of the evening."
Professor Tosso pleased his audi-
ence with "those charming bits of
musical improvisation," "A
New Way to Give Music Lessons" and
"Arkansaw Traveler,"
with all "the spirit and comic
power characteristic of his best
days." Tosso announced the opening
of a new musical academy
42 Cincinnati Gazette, November 24, 1869. Reference found in notes of Harry
R. Stevens.
40
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
at Dayton, he to be one of the teachers.43
In the same year, 1877,
Tosso appeared in concert a few times in
Cincinnati.
At Rose Cottage, Tosso's seventy-seventh
birthday was cele-
brated in August 1879. Friends and
relatives delighted to honor
"one of the finest violinists in
America." Tosso played his be-
loved Amati, which
spoke volumes of the most pathetic
poetry to the souls of the silent listeners.
Alas, that we could not crystallize
forever these beautiful drops of divine
melody as they fell from the now
quivering fingertips of the aged virtuoso.
So rhapsodized the Cincinnati
Enquirer. Thousands had sat un-
der the spell of Tosso's magic bow
during the years of his long
residence in Cincinnati. Now he was
seven years past man's
allotted span, almost blind, but
fastidious in dress and manner,
as beautiful in spirit as ever. The
guests promenaded under the
trees, and gathered around the aged
musician to hear his remi-
niscences of early days. A musical
program was given in which
Tosso participated. The evening ended
with a dance. The sup-
per was prepared by Tosso's daughter,
Louise, and served under
the orchard trees.
At one of the many birthday parties
given for him in his old
age, Tosso told of a ball he had given
at the old Cincinnati Hotel.
Seventeen bachelors had paid him a
hundred dollars to give a ball
for five hundred guests, an affair which
would pay off their social
obligations. He related how he had
bought twenty gallons of
golden sherry at five dollars a gallon,
ten dozen bottles of cham-
pagne at seventeen dollars a basket, and
three dozen cans of
oysters at a dollar a can, with
everything else in proportion.
"Now," he sighed, "they
have only rolled bread and coffee at
balls." He reminisced
appreciatively of a St. George dinner with
three hundred guests and Caledonian
dinners where fine wine
flowed freely.
A long poem was written by L. F. Waring,
describing an
unusual experience of Tosso's in an
early day. On a steamboat,
in the midst of a solo, "Robin
Adair," the boiler "burst asunder."
Two stanzas refer to the Arkansas
Traveler:44
43 Cincinnati Commercial, October
17, 1877.
44 "A Romance Founded on Facts.
Professor Tosso on the Steam Boat, Blue
Ridge." A copy of this poem is in the possession of Mrs.
Frank Thompson, Cincinnati.
JOSEPH TOSSO, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 41
Through Arkansas he travelled,
And gained the highest glory,
From all who had the pleasure
Of listening to his story.
And to this day he tells
The same diverting tale,
Which brings him much applause
And never does it fail.
Many years after this thrilling incident
took place, Tosso was
playing concerts in Kentucky. There he
met a man who told him
the story of a violinist who was hurled
from a boat with a violin
in his hand. Imagine the man's surprise
when Tosso said that he
was the hero of that tale.
Tosso liked to tell, with a chuckle, of
a concert he gave in
Virginia, where a stranger asked him if
he could play "Nelly
Gray" and "The Rose Tree in
Full Bearing." Tosso played them
and received for his kindness a
twenty-dollar hill.
In the eighties an occasional benefit
concert was given for
the aging maestro. One such concert was
given in Newport,
Kentucky, on August 25, 1880, at
Oddfellows' Hall. When
Tosso appeared, the applause was
deafening. Even the windows
rattled. His rendition of Ernst's
"Elegie" moved a critic to
write:
Its sweet sad cadences filtered through
the air as pure as angel voices.
The calm repose and upturned eye of the
old musical hero . . . produced a
powerful effect upon the audience and a
pin could have been heard to drop
from the initial to the last tone that
died away into nothingness.
Then came the two rollicking
favorites--"A New Way to Give
Music Lessons" and, as the finale,
"The Arkansaw Traveler, a
Musical Anecdote or Mr. T's Adventures
in Texas." The Gazette
noted that the "Arkansaw
Traveler" was the original creation of
Professor Tosso and that he was the only
real "Arkansaw Trav-
eler," with a style as
"inimitable as that of Jefferson in 'Rip Van
Winkle.'"45
At the age of eighty-one, Tosso toured
Ohio with the Cin-
45 Cincinnati Gazette, August 25, 1880. Arkansas is sometimes
spelled with a
"w" and sometimes with an
"s". The author spells it according to the reference used.
42 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
cinnati Concert
Company under the management of Louis Ballen-
burg. The members of
the company were J. Tosso and H. Ben-
jamin, violinists;
Carrie Bellows, pianist; Herr Bellstedt, cor-
netist; L.
Ballenburg, flutist; and Belle Wells, soprano.46
A grand testimonial concert was given for
Tosso on June
12, 1885, at Smith & Nixon's Hall on West Fourth
Street, ten-
dered by Cincinnati,
Covington, and Newport. The outstanding
artists of the three
towns took part. The concert was a flattering
testimonial to
"one of the pioneers of music in this country."
Tosso, though a
little stooped with the weight of years, looked
vigorous and full of
life. The audience was made up of men and
women from all ranks
in society, a cosmopolitan audience come
to honor the genius
of old age. According to the Commercial
Gazette (June 13, 1885), Tosso and his violin had never tran-
scended the musical
progress of the age; he had kept pace exactly
with the musical
cultivation of the country.
Had he been fortunate
enough to be on the Wild West train, which
bore Thomas and his
Wagnerian singers and orchestra over the plains,
there would have been
no difficulty or antipathy experienced on his part to
play the
"Arkansaw Traveler" to the cowboys, he would have done so to
an uncultivated
audience with the same inimitable grace as to the cultivated
audience which
greeted him last night in a hall which was too small to hold
those who had come to
hear him. Prof. Tosso might have been, with the
exuberance of his
talent, a classic violinist; it was within his nature to
choose the ways of a
popular virtuoso. . . . He never courted the classic
halls of fame; he won
over the hearts of the people. . . . As an embodi-
ment of the stage of
cultivation in American music, the "Arkansaw Trav-
eler," as
interpreted with sandwiched dialogue by the venerable Tosso, will
long remain the
landmark and monument with the masses of the people.
During the
intermission a poem was
read by Professor Ven-
able of the
Chickering Institute. The
artist Webber had com-
posed it for the
occasion. As encores Tosso played a few popular
airs, among them "The Last Rose of Summer" with
variations.
The charm of his
playing was irresistible. The finale was "An
old friend from
Arkansaw comes in to tell his experience in
Texas." The sponsors of the concert were among the
most
46 Church's Musical Visitor (Cincinnati),
January 1, 1883. Belle Wells was a
graduate of Oxford
Female College (Oxford, Ohio), and had been trained by the
beloved and
eminent teacher, Karl Merz.
JOSEPH TOSSO, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 43
prominent citizens of Cincinnati and the
neighboring towns of
Covington and Newport.47
Joseph Tosso possessed many noble traits
of character. The
soul of him was simple and innocent, as
limpid and sweet, as
happy and gay as his music. His private
life was an inspiration,
so gentle and good was he. He was what
the poet Dryden called
one of God Almighty's gentlemen. This
courtly gentleman and
hero of romance, said William Henry
Venable, was "a living
poem and novel."
Tosso became a naturalized citizen of
the United States in
1840. Some time during his long
residence in Cincinnati, he left
the Catholic Church to become a
Presbyterian and a Mason.
Almost up to the time of his death Tosso
went about playing
his beloved Amati, reciting with waggish
glee the Arkansaw Trav-
eler. Only a month before he died, he
assisted Madame Abla-
mowicz, an old friend and sometime music
teacher in Cincinnati,
in two concerts at the Melodeon.
In 1866 Tosso removed from Rose Cottage
at Latonia
Springs to Covington. There he spent his
last days. He was
never ill. There was only a diminution
of energy, a gradual
loosening of the tie that held him to
Earth. Early in the morning
of January 6, 1887, this grand old man
passed into Eternity as
gently as a babe hushed to sleep in its
mother's arms. A morning
paper carried the headlines: "Drawn
His Last Bow. Tosso and
his Arkansaw Traveler Have Gone to their
Rest."48
47 John P. Foote, John G. Worthington, George Graham, C. Stetson, Lowell
Fletcher, Thomas R. Elliott, Joseph Pierce,
Joseph H. Cromwell, John D. Jones, S. L.
Hamlen, A. B. Coleman, Wm. W. Fosdick,
Paul Anderson, T. S. Goodman, O. M.
Mitchell, J. L. Ross, Robert Hosea,
James C. Hall, Edmund Dexter, L. A. Pratt, L.
Worthington, W. M. Wiswell, E. McElvery,
James H. Beard (artist).
48 Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, January 7, 1887.
44
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
APPENDIX
The "Arkansas Traveler" as
printed on the back of a concert
program of the 1860's reads
as follows:
In the earlier days of the Territory of
Arkansas, when the settlements
were few and far between, an adventurous
traveler from one of the old
States, while traversing the swamps of
that portion of country gets lost on
a cold and rainy day in the autumn of
the year. After wandering till eve-
ning, and despairing of finding a habitation,
while searching for a place to
camp, he strikes a trail, which seems to
lead somewhere, and also hears in
that direction the noise of a fiddle.
Accordingly, he takes the trail, and
soon discovers ahead of him, rising
above the timber, a light column of
smoke, which he knows comes from the
cabin of a squatter. As he ap-
proaches he finds it to be a log cabin,
ten logs high and about ten feet
square, one side being roofed. He also
sees the proprietor, seated on an
old whisky barrel near the door,
sheltered by a few boards which project
from the eaves, playing a tune, on an
old fiddle. After surveying the habi-
tation and surroundings and the
cotton-head children, the traveler sides up
to see if he can get lodging, when the
following dialogue ensues.
The Hoosier still continues to play the
same part over and over again,
only stopping to give short, indifferent
replies to the traveler's queries.
Traveler.--"Good evening,
sir."
Squatter.--"How d'ye do, sir."
Traveler.--"Can I get to stay all
night with you?"
Squatter.--"No, sir."
Traveler.--"Can't you give me a
glass of something to drink? I'm
very wet and cold."
Squatter.--"I drank the last drop
this morning."
Traveler.--"I am very hungry, ain't
had a thing to eat today. Will
you let me have something to eat?"
Squatter.--"Haven't a darned thing
in the house."
Traveler.--"Then, can't you give my
horse something to eat?"
Squatter.--"Got nothin' to feed him
on."
Traveler.--"How far is it to the
next house?"
Squatter.--"Stranger, I don't know.
I've never been there."
Traveler.-"Well, where does this
road go to?"
Squatter.--"It's never been
anywhere since I lived here. It's always
here in the morning when I get up."
Traveler.--"As I am not likely to
get to any other house tonight,
can't you let me sleep in yours, and
I'll tie my horse to a tree and do with-
out anything to eat and drink."
Squatter.--"My house leaks. There
be only one dry spot in it, and
me and Sal sleep on that."
JOSEPH TOSSO, THE ARKANSAW TRAVELER 45
Traveler.--"Why don't you finish
covering your house, and stop the
leaks?"
Squatter.--"It's raining."
Traveler.--"Well, why don't you do
it when it is not raining?"
Squatter.--"It don't leak
then."
Traveler.--"Well, as you have
nothing to eat or drink in your house,
and nothing alive about your place but
children, how do you do here
anyhow?"
Squatter.--"Putty well, I thank
you. How d'ye do yourself?"
Traveler.--(After trying in vain all
sorts of ways to extract some
satisfactory information from him.) "My friend, why don't you play the
whole of that tune?"
Squatter.--(He has heard it in New
Orleans for the first time.) "I
did not know there was any more to it.
Can you play the fiddle, stranger?"
Traveler.--"I play a little
sometimes."
Squatter.--"You don't look much
like a fiddler," (handing him the
fiddle). "Will you play the balance
of that tune?" The traveler gets down
and plays the tune.
Squatter.--"Stranger, come in. Take
half a dozen chairs and sit down.
Sal, go around into the holler where I
killed that buck this morning, cut
off some of the best pieces, and fetch
it in, and cook it for me and this
gentleman directly. Raise up the board
under the head of the bed afore
you go, and get the old black jug I hid
from Dick, and give us some whisky.
I know there's some left yet. Dick,
carry the gentleman's horse round to
the shed, and you will find some fodder
and corn there. Give him as much
as he can eat. Darn me, stranger, if you
can't stay as long as you please.
I will give you something to eat and
drink. Hurry, old woman. If you
can't find the butcher knife, take the
cob-handle or granny's knife. Play
away, stranger, you shall sleep on the
dry spot tonight."
After about two hours' fiddling, and
some conversation, in which the
squatter shows his characteristics, the
stranger retires to the dry spot.
JOSEPH TOSSO, THE ARKANSAW
TRAVELER
by OPHIA D. SMITH
The man who made "Arkansaw
Traveler" famous was not an
ordinary country fiddler. He was a
courtly Italian gentleman, a
musical genius who might have become one
of the great violinists
of all time. The melody as well as the
story of the Arkansaw
Traveler was attributed to Joseph Tosso
over and over in the
Cincinnati press during the sixty years
he lived in that city. He
was renowned for his inimitable
rendition of the comic dialogue
between the Traveler and the squatter.1
The piece invariably
delighted an audience. Tosso played it
on many a concert pro-
gram in response to general demand.
From
time to time, Tosso devised similar musical diver-
tissements, among them "A New Way
to Give Music Lessons,"
"Music and Physic," and
"The Story of John Anderson and His
Tune." None of them, however,
achieved the popularity of the
Arkansaw Traveler.
It seems odd that this fine musician,
who had been an out-
standing student of great promise at the
Paris Conservatory, went
about the country reciting and playing
comic pieces. He could
play the standard concert numbers with
flawless technique and
profound feeling, but his audiences
demanded what they could
understand. He could take his violin from beneath his chin,
place it against his breast, begin to
sway rhythmically, and play
a good backwoods tune with just as much
grace as he had the
moment before played a classic. He
composed dance tunes that
set every foot tapping, he composed
fantasies on familiar melodies,
he played airs from the early operas
with variations. He played
1 For a copy of the "Arkansas Traveler,"
as it appeared on the back of a
concert program of the
1860's and as Tosso recited it, see the Appendix,
p. 44. A
good account of the way the Arkansaw Traveler
was played in a Salem, Ohio, tavern
may be found
in the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly, VIII (1900),
296-308.
16