In spite Of such troubles, his progress was extraordinary. In four years he was ready to play in public, and made his first appearance at an orchestral concert in Lemberg. He played a Concertino Of Czerny, and created a con siderable sensation but, he says, I cannot remember very much about the music, because at the time my mind was entirely taken up with the rats Concerts were given so rarely in those days that any place was considered fit to play in. Leschetizky's first concert-room probably a little more primitive than most was built Of wood the light came in through the cracks, and the ?oor was full of holes, through which Climbed the aforesaid rats in hundreds, running about fearlessly, not only during rehearsal, but at the concert itself.