But though widely separate from each other in the matter of religion,
there were many points of contact between them. They were both men of
the great out-of-doors, and under his father's inspiration and direction
the boy had come to love athletic exercises of all kinds. They were
both music-mad, the father having had in early youth a thorough musical
education, the boy possessing musical talent of a high order. Such
training as was his he had received from his father, but it was confined
to one single instrument, the violin. To this instrument, upon which his
father had received the tuition of a really excellent master, the son
devoted long hours of study and practice during his boyhood years, and
his attainments were such as to give promise of something more than
an amateur's mastery of his instrument. His college work, however,
interfered with his music, and to his father's great disappointment and
regret he was forced to lay aside his study of the violin. On the piano,
however, the boy developed an extraordinary power of improvisation and
of sight reading, and while his technique was faulty his insight, his
power of interpretation were far in excess of many artists who were his
superiors in musical knowledge and power of execution.
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