BULL.
BULL.
great friendship with that maestro began, and
he became acquainted with Chopin, with whom
he gave a number of concerts. He travelled
through France, Switzerland and Italy on a con-
cert tour, studying as he went the native music
of each country, in order to give true expression
to the varied melodies of the south. While in
Bologna his playing was heard, accidentally, by
Rossini's wife, the celebrated Colbran, and
through her he secured the opportunity of play-
ing before a large audience which had assembled
to hear Malibran and DeBeriot. Ole Bull on this
occasion so threw his soul into his violin that it
responded as it had never before done, and from
that moment his fortiuie was made, his fame
assured. He was accompanied to his home by a
torchlight procession, his carriage being drawn
by the populace; he was engaged for concert
after concert, benefits were given in his behalf,
theatres and orchestras were put at his disposal,
and kings, dukes and princes delighted to do him
honor. Soon afterward, upon his return to Paris,
the doors of the Grand Opera were open to receive
him, and he gave several concerts there with
great success. Some of his most beautiful com-
positions were evolved at this time; among
others, his famous Concerto in A Major, his
Quartetto a violino Solo, his Polacca Giier-
riera, and his Adagio Religioso. In 1836 he
made his first tour through England, playing in
concerts with Rubini, Tamburini, Lablache, and
Mile. AssandTi, and winning enthusiastic plau-
dits on every hand. The English tour was fol-
lowed by one throvigh Germany, and the music-
loving Germans made this tour one prolonged
ovation. He continued his travels, giving con-
certs in Russia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Hol-
land, Denmark, Austria and Hungary, and taking
the people's hearts by storm wherever he played.
His visit to his native Norway, after an absence
of seven years, was an occasion of great delight
to him and to his admiring countrymen, and he
played the grand and simple Norwegian melodies
in svich an electrifying way that the people
awoke to a realization of the incomparable beauty
of their own folk-songs and dances. Preceded by
his fame he came to America in 1843, and, mak-
ing an extended tour through the United States,
Canada and the West Indies, he was everywhere
received with the same wild enthusiasm which
had greeted him in Europe. This was followed
by another European tour, which was a triumph
from beginning to end, and he amassed a fortune.
He was a zealous patriot and his efforts in behalf
of his countrymen were untiring. In 1852 he
came to America and purchased one hundred
and twenty-five thousand acres of land on the
Susquehanna, in Potter county. Pa., for the pur-
pose of establishing a " New Norway consecrated
to liberty and protected by the Union's mighty
flag." On this land he erected three hundred
cottages, a church, an inn, a store, and, incident-
ally, a palace for himself on an eminence over-
looking the cottages. After sinking a fortune in
the experiment, he found that he had been swin-
dled by his agent and that his title to the land
was defective. Then followed a period of hard-
ship, struggle, persecution and illness; and but
for the sympathy and assistance of a host of influ-
ential friends, he would have succumbed under
the fearful strain. After a time he returned to
Bergen ; some of his former friends and neighbors
believed him to be at fault for the failure of his
colonization scheme, and to this grief was added
that caused by the death of his wife. A four
years' tour through Europe mended his shattered
fortunes, and in 1867-'69 he again visited the
United States, giving a series of concerts in the
west and northwest where his countrymen were
settled. W^hile in Wisconsin, in 1868, he met
Sara C. Thorpe, to whom he was married in the
following year. In his later years his winters
were spent in America and his svmimers in Nor-
way. When his death occurred in Bergen the
world's flags were hung at half mast, and the
simple Norwegian peasants came by the hun-
dreds, each bearing a green bough, a fern, or a
flower to cast into the grave of their ever true
and loyal friend. Of his compositions, which
were legion, he would permit only three to be
published : Variazioni di Bravura, La Pre-
ghiera d'una Madre {Adagio Religioso), and
// Xotturno. See Ole Bull : A Memoir by his
wife. Sara C. Bull (1883). He died at Bergen,
Norway, Aug. 18, 1880.
BULL, Richard Harrison, educator, was born in New York city, Sept. 28, 1817, son of Ben- jamin and Eliza (Wade) Bull. He was graduated from the University of the city of New York in 1839. He studied at the Union theological seminary, 1839-'43; was secretary and actuary of the Eagle life insurance company, 1847-'48, pro- fessor of civil engineering in his alma mater, 1853 -'85, and professor emeritus 1885-'92. He was secretary and president of the New York savings bank, 1859-83. He was associated with Professor Morse in the experiments that led to his first elec- tric telegraph. He obtained the correct time for the use of tlie New York Central, the Erie and other railroads by taking observations of the sun, and his time was used until the Western Union's time ball was erected. He was married March 2, 1847, to Mary Ann Schonten, and their three sons, Richard Henry, Charles C, and J. Edgar, were graduates of the University of the city of New York. His alma mater conferred on him the degree of A.M. in 1842, and Ph.D. in 1885. He died in New York city, Feb. 1, 1892.
