"As we journey through life, let us live by the way," is a very old saying to which many interpretations have been given. To me its pleasantest significance is that we should try to make life a constant delight. There is nothing better for this purpose than kindly intercourse with friends, but as we grow older we find that a circle of agreeable acquaintances cannot be maintained simply on a conversational basis. We must offer our friends inducements to come and see us; in other words, we must entertain in some form. Most boys and many girls are alarmed by the word "entertain." The girls are less afraid of it than the boys, because they have an inborn desire and a natural talent for social pleasures. But they are often puzzled as to the best means of arranging entertainments. Everything seems so difficult for a girl to undertake without a great deal of assistance from her mother, and frequently that assistance robs her of all feeling of personal proprietorship in the entertainment.

"It was called my party," she says, "but really mamma did everything."

Now I wish to offer a suggestion or two to girls about a form of entertainment which is easily arranged. There are very few homes in this civilized land which do not contain pianos, and there are very few girls who cannot play a little. Even if you cannot play difficult music you can give a musical, and make it a really artistic and enjoyable entertainment. In the first place, then, let us talk about the piano. Two or three days before your musical is to take place you should have the instrument tuned, for you cannot make music agreeable to your guests if the piano is out of tune. And here let me offer a few suggestions about keeping it in tune. The most important requirement is equality of temperature. Therefore your piano should not stand where the heat of a grate or a steam radiator will affect one end of it more than the other, nor should it be so situated that a draught from a leaky window will blow on one end. It ought to be placed so that it will be affected only by the general temperature of the room, and that ought not to have an extreme range. If you hear loud cracks coming from your piano at times, as if something had snapped, lookout; the chances are that the sounding-board is warping, or something equally undesirable is happening, and it is probably due to the influence of temperature. If you wish to keep a piano in the very best order, do not pile books or music or any other heavy objects on its lid.

When preparing for your musical, bear these suggestions in mind. You will in all likelihood be obliged to move your piano out of its customary position, for nine times out of ten that is one which would make you sit with your back squarely to your audience. You should not do this; but when you move the instrument, do not put it where it will be injured. In giving a musical, bear in mind that the player is to be the centre on which all eyes are focussed. If the piano is a grand, place it so that its right side will be toward the audience, but running a little obliquely, so that the keyboard will be visible, or partly so, to those on the right side of the room. The position of a square or an upright should be similar, but you may with advantage turn an upright so that the keyboard is more in view. If the room is very large, you may raise the lid of a grand half-way. Do not raise it all the way just because you have seen concert performers do so. That is necessary only in a large public hall. If your drawing-room is small, do not raise the lid at all.

Now you must have light for your music. The prettiest way is to set a tall standing-lamp a little to your left and a little behind you. Never place it on your right, because that would be between you and the audience. If you have not a standing-lamp, a pedestal or a table with an ordinary lamp will do quite as well. Do not set a light on the piano. It does not look well, in the first place, and in the second it is likely to rattle. It will add much to the effect of the picture if you surround the base of your lamp with roses and smilax, and it is also pretty to have some smilax twined around the scroll-work of the music-stand. In arranging the seats for your guests, you will naturally have to be guided by consideration of the number you expect. I should advise you not to have too many, for that would make it look too much like a public performance. In placing the seats, try to avoid all appearance of stiffness, yet endeavor to arrange them so that as many as possible of your guests will be in front of the piano—by which I mean facing its right side. But whatever you do, do not set chairs in rows as if it were a public hall. It looks badly, and it prevents freedom of movement among your friends between the selections.

And this leads me to another important suggestion. Whatever your programme may be, it should be short, and it should have at least one intermission. Two would be better. In those intermissions you should encourage conversation, and try to induce your guests to move about and change their seats. You might have lemonade served in one intermission. Let the boys pass it around. That starts both movement and conversation. I suppose I need hardly suggest that, if the words of your friends are too complimentary to your playing, you can lead them to comment on the beauty of the music. But I do believe that the girls will forgive me if I say "dress plainly." A musician should never do anything to attract attention to his person at the expense of his art. Wear a simple gown, and avoid all mannerisms or affectations in playing.

But now I hear some girl saying, "I can't play well enough to give a musical." That depends on what you regard as good playing. If you think it means performing difficult and showy pieces, you are mistaken. That kind of playing may astonish your friends, but it will not give them such genuine pleasure as the performance of a few comparatively easy compositions of real beauty in a sympathetic manner. Here the majority of girls will meet with their greatest difficulty, for I am sorry to say that many music-teachers ignore the easy pieces of the great masters, and give their pupils as studies the cheap rubbish which litters the counters of the average music-store. It is a mistake to suppose that the immortals among composers never wrote anything easy. There are compositions by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, and others which can be performed by players of very moderate ability, and there are easy and attractive compositions by less ambitious composers, even such as Johann Strauss, which have much more merit than the brilliant runs and arpeggios of Sidney Smith, H. A. Wollenhaupt, and that class.

There are several ways in which you can make a programme so as to give it a special interest beyond that of the music alone, and I should advise you to adopt some one of these plans. If you are not a brilliant player, all the more reason for adding interesting features to your entertainment. If you are an accomplished performer, your musical will still gain in artistic dignity by an intelligent arrangement of the programme. Of course there is one thing always to be borne in mind: you must compose your list of selections so that there will be constant variety. Do not, for instance, put three or four slow and plaintive pieces one after the other. As a rule, too, it is well to avoid a succession of compositions in the same form, such as sonatas, nocturnes, or valses. Eminent artists make mistakes in these matters. One of the most distinguished conductors in this country once gave an orchestral concert consisting of nine overtures. The effect was very bad indeed, for in spite of the fact that they were all by different composers, they were not sufficiently dissimilar in form to produce variety.

Keeping in mind, then, the necessity of variety, you can arrange your programme chronologically—that is, beginning with a very early writer and coming down to the most recent. Secondly, you can arrange it by schools, taking some pieces from the polyphonic, some from the classic, and some from the romantic. Thirdly, you may arrange it according to nations, giving examples of German, Russian, French, Italian, English, and American. Fourthly, you may make it representative of one nation; and fifthly, representative of one composer. The last-named way is not advisable for any except accomplished performers, because you will find it practically impossible to make up even a short list of good pieces by one composer and have them all easy. A programme representative of one nation may also be chronological, and if you intend to give more than one musical—say a series of three—this will probably be the most attractive way. But undoubtedly the neatest way for a single recital would be the arrangement according to nations, for you will have no trouble at all in finding a single composition from each country that is pretty and easy to play. In making out the programme, be careful to give the full title and, if possible, opus number of the composition, and I think it always adds to the interest of a programme for young people to put in the dates of the births and deaths of the composers. If you will permit me, I will now submit a sample programme on the plan of representation of nations just to show you how attractive it looks:

German.
1. Sonata No. 33 E-flat (composed when eleven years old)Beethoven (1770-1827).
Russian.
2. Melody in FRubinstein (1829-1894).
Polish.
3. "Chant du Voyage"Paderewski (1860——).
French.
4. "Funeral March of a Marionette"Gounod (1818-1893).
Italian.
5. Gavotte (from violin sonata in F)Corelli (1653-1713).
English.
6. Nocturne in E-flatJ. Field (1782-1837).
American.
7. "Wood Idyl," from Opus 19MacDowell (1861——).