The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-01-03
He Wants to Join the Band.

1
There is a time in the life of every
young man when he has an ambition to
belong to a brass band, and he never rests
contented until he has borrowed or owns
a brass horn. A boy goes to county
fair and sees band, hired from a neigh
boringr- town, and each member of the
band is hero in the eye of the boy.
He sees.the blue coats, with gold lace,
the epaulets, the cap, with its musical
frontpiece, and the yellow stripe down
the trousers, and he resolves to learn to
play thorn. He sees the crowd collect
around the band-stand as the band plays
tune, and notices the snare drummer
| cock his hat on one side of his head and
look at all the girls, and the young man
| is most inclined to learn to play the
drum instead of the horn, as he argues
that playing the drum gives one better
opportunity 10 look around but when
he reflects that it requires brain and
wind to play horn, he decides on q;
horn. And when the band is marched
off to the dining.hall at the fair, and
given a place at the head of the table,
near the orator of the day, who has his
oration in his pocket and is afraid he
will lose it, and sees the crowd collect
around the band, his mind is made up
more firmly than ever to play horn.
He goes home and dreams of the
band, and the next day he goes to work
and sells calf, or takes some of the !.
money he earned harvesting, and buys q !
brass horn aud q book of notes that he;
does not know the name of. He has been
to singing school, and can read singing
notes but horn notes are too rich for his
blood. He does not tell his family what :
he has done, but smuggles his horn into
the barn and when he has got the milk
ing done, and fed the stock, he goes out
to the barn and gets into the hay NOW
and feels of the keys. BE finally mus
ters up courage to blow gently into the
horn, and he hears noise that is cross
between the squesl of a pig caught un-
der gate and the below of a COW that
smells blood and paws the turf and
looks sassy in the pasture. he blows
gently until he has got so he can make i
a straight noise that does not split up
the back and go out of the instrument
both ways, and the folks in the house
begin to hear it. Then he concludes
that he will see how much the instru-
ment will stand, and he draws in his
breath and blows for all that is out, and
as the discordant "bla-a-t" goes out .
upon the sitting air of the hay NOV,
and he feels sensation at the butt of
the ears that makes him think mule !
has kicked him, and he hears the horses
down stairs kicking in the stalls, and the:
cows are lowing as though they had. heard
bad news, and the faithful dog that he
has left out doors begins to howl as
though there was going to be death in
the family.
Then the beginner begins to realize
that he is making sensation, and he :.
looks out of crack in the barn towards
the house and he sees his mother stand
ing on the porch with her apron over her
head looking at the barn as though it
was on FIRE, the hired man, who is pump
ing water, stops with the pump handle in
the air, and he sees his father in his
shirt sleevs pick up an ak handle and
start for the barn, splitting on his hands
and looking savage. He sees neighbor
who is driving by stop his team at the
house and ask if there is anybody sick,
and he realizes that it is impossible to
keep his secret longer, and he comes
down out of the hay NOV with his brass
horn under his arm, sheepisb, and con.
feases to his outraged family that he is.
learning to play horn so he can join
the band. His father tells him he is 2.
blasted fool, but his mother and his sister
take bis part, and argue that it will be .,
great honor to have him wear brigadier-
generals clothes in the band, and the
matter is compromised by allowing. him
to practice on his horn out in the south !.
lot, and for week or two, at intervals,
mournful sounds are heard from that di-
rectiop, and then they suddenly cease,
and when the father finally asks the boy
how be is progressing as hornist, he tells
his parent that he has traded off his horn
for fiddle or an accordeon, and explains
by showing his upper lip, which is swell;
ed up to twice its natural size, that he is
not cut out for playing a wind instru.
ment.
That horn will be traded all over the
neighborhood, and will finally be found
in q garret, jammed out of shape, and
the brass band never will have passed
away. Among the greatest failures of
the world there are none that are sadder
than the failure of boy to learn to play
8 brass orn.-1Glwaukee Sun. -