The Dickinson press., 1890-04-19
FACTS ABOUT THE BANJO.
How 1t Camo to BE Developed from .
Calabash to Its Present Form.

How 1t Camo to BE Developed from .
Calabash to Its Present Form.
The swell negro minstrel was tuning
up banjo of the most gorgeous descrip-
ton, eliciting plaintive tinkle-tinkle
from the strings with the finger and
thumb of one hand, while with the other
he manipulated the finger board from
fret to fret, and now and then screwed
one of the little ivory keys trifle
tighter. 1t was in his handsomely fur
nished apartment at an uptown hotel
that he sat, humming snatches of a new
popular song in an undertone while he
toyed with the instrument caressingly-
as well he might, for it was a beauty, pre-
sented to him, doubtless, as a tribute to
his skill as professional troubadour BY
some admirers.
The circular rim inclosing the head
itself disk of sheepskin so fine as to be
almost transparent-waso Of gold overlaid
upon wood, with brackets all around of
the sameprecious metal to hold the drum
taut; the finger board was elaborately in.
laid and ornamented, and nothing seemed
omitted that could possibly add to the
cost of the tintinnabulatory contrivance.
For burnt cork art in these days is ex-
hibiting persistent tendency toward the
decorative. Counterfeit darkies, to graf
ify the sated public taste, must WELD the
tambourine and bones in Monte Cristo
dresses of black satin and jewels, while
little Lord Fauntleroy reclines gracefully
ut the front of the stage, singeing his
curls of bestquality tow in the footlights,
with other things to correspond.
"'The banjo is a decidedly better in
strument than it was fifteen years ago."
said the troubadour. sweeping the strings
totuneful chords while he talked with
the writer, who was making him visit.
"And the reason of it has chiefly to do
with the head and the strings. The
brackets are better made and more Of
them are used, so that the sheepskin is
kept tighter stretched. In the primitive
banjo as few as four brackets were EN-.
ployed, while this one, you see, has thirty.
Tap the drum with your knuckles and
observe how firm and resonant it is.
Now, too, the strings are mado thinner
and more carefully twisted. How are
they manufactured? Why, of sleeps
intestines cut into fine strips and twisted
together. 1t is a very skilled process.
Poor strings may not be composed Of
more than four or five strands of gut,
whereas first rate ones have from fifteen
to eighteen. After they have been
twisted, they are polished off with pumice
stone and other things, SO that they are
madequite round and the twisting cannot
be seen, though in the cheap ones it re.
mains visible Banjo strings are all i'm.
ported; they are manufactured in Ger.
many and Italy. Most people suppose
that the shells attached to fish hooks are
of the same material, but l happen to
know that they are in reality made Of
the bodies of silk worms taken in an i'm
mature state and stretched out. Seems
wonderful, doesn't it,"
GLOW about the headsy'
"They are made of ordinary sheepskin,
carefully cured, stretched and scraped to
the proper thinness. Sometimes a hide
is split into two layers for the purpose,
the part next the hair being the more
desirable. Banjo heads are made in this
country, as, indeed, the banjos them
selves are also. The best instruments
come from Philadelphia, though they are
made in great numbers also in Chicago,
Boston and New York. One other inn
portant improvement on the banjo in lat
ter years has been the addition to the
fingerboard of raised frets, which do
much better than the marks that were
meant to serve the same use formerly.
Altogether - ti-tum-ti-tum-tiddl -ti-tum
this is a wonderful case of evolution
from the original African thrummer."
"You refer the banjo to an African
origin, then?'
without doubt The original banjo
was calabash with strings Of some sort
across it. If you Travelled in Africa you
would find this same primitive instru-
ment still in use at savage festivities, as
it has doubtless been for ages. The ne.
Groes brought to this country as slaves
fetched the idea with them, and CEN
tury ago, or even much less, gourds cut
in half were employed for the purpose
by the blacks in the south. Nobody
knows exactly how the first steps in the
developmentof of the banjo were taken, but
it isrecognized that 1t owes its present
form to the application-tum-ti- -ti-tum-of
the guitar principles to it. In all ikeli-
hood the negroes themselves made the
first improvements upon it. taking sug-
gestions from the guitar, and white folks
took it up afterward. Anyway, it is as
perfect an instrument now as it will ever
be. Musicians say that it isn't really
musical instrument at all, but only bar
baric thing, to be classed with the tom
tom. However, 1 don't agree with that"
Washington Star.