“It is not enough to refer to the wide field of modern music that he has made familiar to us, through his lucid presentation of the works of the French, the Russian and other Continental composers, including the most recent Germans, such as Strauss, whose recondite music he read with a clearness and significance that the composer himself failed to convey. Scheel’s peculiar insight is still more expressed in that fact that he has made Brahms a popular composer in Philadelphia, and he has triumphantly shown that the great ‘classics’ are not antiquated, but that real musical thought may speak to modern ears as well through ancient as through modern forms, if felt and interpreted with modern understanding.” * * * * * “The orchestra, of course, goes on, and the best present hope is that Scheel may be restored to health before another season. No doubt another conductor will be found if this hope should fail, but he will necessarily be different and there is no one now known in this country whom with an equally broad musical outlook, could be counted upon to make all the work of the orchestra so unfailingly and often surprisingly interesting as Scheel has done. Such artists as he are rare in any time or place, and it is to the honor of Philadelphia that he has received not only from the few, but from the many, some measure of the appreciation that is his due.” _Public Ledger_, February 10, 1907 “... Scheel’s collapse, however, came as a shock to everyone connected with the orchestra, and yet they all realized that he could not endure for a much longer time. For three weeks he had been unable to sleep. “Never a moment of freedom did he allow himself. In Odd Fellows’ Temple each morning he rehearsed one group of players, in the afternoon another group and in the evening the entire orchestra. At his meals he arranged the sugar bowl so that it would keep the score of some symphony or other in an upright position where he could study while eating. “In Harrisburg, only three weeks ago, Scheel had the grip, and when the business manager, Charles Augustus Davis, went to see him, he found the leader lying in bed with water bags over his heart and a score in front of his eyes. All this time Scheel was also attending to his work as leader of the Eurydice and the Orpheus Clubs, rehearsing and leading at concerts.” * * * * * “LOOKS HAGGARD” “Mr. Scheel was seen by the _Public Ledger_ correspondent as he returned to his hotel after a swift stroll down the boardwalk with his physician. He looked haggard and spoke in an excited, almost hysterical tone.