Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-10-18
THE BANJO NOW IN FASHION.
Theatrical Stars and Social Leaders Who Strum Its Resonant Strings.

Theatrical Stars and Social Leaders Who
 Strum Its Resonant Strings.
 Who ever fancied a score of years ago, when some dear old Uncle Remus, whom all the children and dogs on the. plantation adored, sat picking at his banjo by the light of the little cabin fire strumming the same instrument in the soft Southern moonlight while tho other darkies sang tho plaintive songs of their captivity to the twanging strains, that the banjo would one day become the fashiona Whose imagina- tion ever pictured g future for that rude instrument in which fair white fingers would evoke from it sweet strains, when it would rival in popularity the guitar, the harp and the zither, and would be found in Kings palaces, played upon by Princes2 Yet this is just what has come to pass. Now is the era of the banjo. From the very primitive instrument fashioned and played upon by the negroes of the South has been evolved a graceful, beautiful creation of fine wood and silver and snowy parchment It is rich with carving, delicatcly inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Sometimes it is jeweled. The fair player hangs it over her shoulder by silken scarf. It is packed in Q softly-llned case of beautifully-dressed leather. It often costs much as would have kept plantation of darkies jolly for , year in the days when the humble prototype of this splendid evolution of the darkies' banjo was the only ''piece'' of music at their ] levels.
 l It is now some thirty years since the Dob l son brothers, five in number, began to 1 create the popularity of the banjo. They l gave concerts all over the countSy and i finally in Europe. Professionals began to l seek instructions, and amateurs sprang up | everywhere. Suddenly society ''discovered' | it, and its fortune was made. For some years | past it has fairly ragged in American draw | ing-rooms. Maids and inatrons alike have | toyed with 1t. displaying more or less skill, | according to the patience with which they | have studied. c. Edgar Dobson, the son of 1 the original Dobson, has an establishment | at 120 West Forty-second street, where le | gives instruction in banjo playing. He is Q l young man, but has already at one time or
 another taught most of the amateurs and a
 good many of the professional players. Hc
 was born and brought up in an atmosphere
 of banjos. He gave Ellen Terry lessons | during her first season in New York, and speaks of her aS @ most delightful and in
 defatigable pupil. She las ;a seventy five dollar ''Echo'' banjo. Lotta, who IS a little
 banjo crank and has no fewer than five in- struments, has taken lessons at different times. Estelle Clayton. who plays nicely, - is a pupil of the present representative of
 the family. So is Carrie Swayne, who has
 a two-hundred doilar banjo.
 Among other professionals who play tho
 banjo are Mrs. Langtry, Helen SeGgwick, Royal Moss, Myra Goodwin, Dave Wam-
 bold, Denman Thompson, Clara Louise Kel- logg, Christine Nilsson, Emma Abbott,
 Capoul, Mrs. James Brown Potter, Emmet, Tony Pastor and James S. Burdette. The
 late Lester Wallack played the banjo with
 considerable skill, as did also E. l.. Daven-
 port.-The Indicator.