The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-03-06
The Rise of the Banjo.
washington Star

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Washington STAR
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 a trine
tighter. 1t was in his handsomely fur
nished apartment at an uptown hotel
that he sat, humming snatches Of new
popular song in an undertone while he
toyed with the instrument caressingly-
as well he might, for il was beauty, pre-
sented to him, doubtless, as 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 transparert-was of gold overlaid
upon wood, with brackets all around OF
the same precious metal 10 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 continuance.
For burnt cork art in these days is ex.
hlbiting a persistent tendency toward the
decorative. Counterfeit darkies, to graf.
lily the stated public taste, must WELD the
tambourine and bones in Monte Cristo
dresses of black satin AMI jewels, while
little Lord Fauntleroy reclines gracefully
at the front of the stage. singeing his
curls of best quality tow in the footlights.
with other things 20 correspond.
"The banjo is a decidedly better in
strument than it was fifteen years ago"
said the troubadour, sweeping the strings
to tuneful chords while he talked with
the writer, who was making him a 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 made thinner
and moro carefully twisted. How are
they manufactured Why, of sleeps
intestines cut into fine strips and twisted
together. 1t is 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
inadequate 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 heads?"
"They are made of ordinary sheepskin,
carefully cured, stretched and scraped ia
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 banios 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 i'm.
portant improvement on the ban 10 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-tiddle
this is wonderful case of evolution
from the original African drummer"
You refer the banjo to an African
origin, then?"
Without doubt The original banjo
was a 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 a GEN.
tuIy 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
development of the banjo were taken, but
it is recognized that it owes its present
form TO the Observation-Disclosures
the guIear 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
he. Musicians say that it isn't really
musical instrument at all, but only bar
barrie thing, to be classed with the TOM
tom. However, don't agree with that"