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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.1The 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.

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.⁴In 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.⁹That 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.¹⁹The 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.²²Tosso, 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.²⁸Tosso & 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.32A 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

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.⁴³In 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.