The Tragic Busking of Mr. Schengler
Inspired by a legend of a famous opera star, a local man attempts to sing his way to fame on the streets of Seattle—with a painful result.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A story has been going the rounds of the papers as to the manner in which Wachtel, the great tenor, first became known and famous. This narrates how he was originally a poor cab driver at Dresden, and that one wintry night he was singing to himself upon his box while waiting for the audience of the Grand Opera to disperse. How the crowd gathered around the melodious cabby. How he finished his song to a storm of applause; and how the very next day a large purse was raised to send him to the Conservatory at Paris. Mr. Schengler, who is now on King Street, and who is also a German, was much affected by this story, and, as he, too, had a voice, it was determined he should be sent to Paris also. So last Tuesday evening he waited until the California Theatre began to let out, and, mounting a box of a hack in front of it, he lifted up his voice and sang. The tumultuous crowd was instantly hushed, and stepping transfixed with closed eyes the absorbed singer poured forth his soul in loud triumphant notes. Mr. Schengler was 'doing' the room for your money, one of the best of its kind; but we regret to say that at the end of the third verse a stray brick struck Mr. Schengler immediately beneath the right ear, knocking him over the dashboard, following which he was walked over and left unconscious by the thoughtless throng.
“The tumultuous crowd was instantly hushed, and stepping transfixed with closed eyes the absorbed singer poured forth his soul in loud triumphant notes.”
Busking—performing in public spaces for money—remains a vibrant, if sometimes perilous, part of Seattle's street culture. While bricks are no longer the standard critique of a local singer, the tension between artists trying to make a living in the public square and the 'thoughtless throng' of a bustling downtown persists today.
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