The herald., 1895-12-01
ANNOUNCEMENTS


seats for Haverly's minstrels has, as
might have been expected, started in
with a rush. Great enthusiasm has been
excited In the breasts Of the minstrel
patrons If this city by the sight of that
magic -Hsverly-which meets the
eye at every turn on the bill-boards and
dead walls Of the city. Col. Jack 1Iaver-
ly, the greatest of all minstrel managers,
has without doubt succeeded in organ
ling company that can be justly
termed the strongest on the road. Among
the list Of principal performers are: Billy
Rice, Burt Shepard, Charles Ernest. f..
NJ. Kayne, Dave Montgomery, Albert
Hawthorne, G 'orge Castle, Bert Norris,
W. II. Holbrook and thirty others.
Eugene Field. whoss recent death took
from the literary world one of its bright
est lights, was great friend OF Col.
Haverly, and wrote the following tribute
to him:
Jack Hsverly, Jack Haverly! wonder
where you are;
Are your fortunes cast with Sirius or
meath some kindlier star?
How happens we never SEQ your won-
drous minstrel show
With its apt alliteratiOns, as We used to
years ago?
All the ebon aggrcgations that afflict these
modern times
Are equally unworthy of our prose and
OF our Thvmes;
And 1 vainly pine and banker for the
joys that used to come
With the truDpets ump-ta-ra-ra and the
big bass drum.
How grand you looked Jack Haverly,
amarching down tha street.
A diam ond on your bosom, patent
feathers on your feet
Your sturdy, curly mustache, OF a warm,
aggressive hue
Seemed to advertise the circumstance
that there were no flies on you;
First came the band and then you came,
and next you: famous troupe,
And last of all, we youngsters. with a
wild, hilarious whoop,
For it could mt be expected that We
young kits should he dumb
In the rapture of those trumpets and that
big bass drum:
Jack Haverly, the way you used to ad-
vertise those daysl
Why. with red and green the walls
about our village were ablazs,
Anu the language was so beautiful that
feel prepared to say
That in literary circles you have not
peer today;
And ths pictures-ah, tho pictures of
your galaxy OF mokes-
They were quite as dear as Christmas to
US rural llttlt 1OlkS,
For unto our callow fances they bespoke
the joys that come
With the trumpet's ump-ta-ra-ra and u
big bass drum.
The good you've done, JACK Haverly,
you never might SUSPECT,
For your influence upon US little boys
was indirect;
IL we were nice and proper, mother'd say
that she'd provide
The money for the tickets-and q pop-
corn ball beside!
Though grandma thought il terrible that
mother'd let us go
To ''that abomination, a negro minstrel
show"
I've seen dear grandma perk der head
yes, even heard her hum
To the music of the trumpet and the big
BASS drum
My father used to tell me (on the quiet)
that your show
Wasn't near as good as Christy's was some
forty Yeas ago;
I'm certain he was preiudlced, and when
my little boys
Bsseech me to recount the best OF all my
! tell 'em Of Jack Haverly and the silver
Cornet band
That were the twin delights of every
youngster in the land.
And We file around the sitting room and
Gown the nall we come
To the fancied call of tfumpets and big
bass drum
Tell 'em too, of Arlington, George
Thatcher, Billy Rice,
Luke SohOolcraft, Billy Emerson, Billy
Manning and Sam Price,
T.. NJ. kayne and the Germans and that
lovely old way. back
Ben Cotton. Hugnev Dougherty, the Ran
kins and Pete Mack;
Cal Wagner, Willis Sweatman, Charlie
Seamon. Billy West,
Lew Benedict, McAndrews, Frank Cush-
man and the rest
Why, their antics and their gimcra ,ks
Knocked the blues to kingdom come
With defiant ump-ta-ra-ras and a big
bass drum.
In the hustle and the hustle of tnes.
harsher later years
Life is lighter and made lighter by the
grace that reappears.
OF the olden time and golden, when,
JacK Haverly. you made
Things so very brigI and merry in the
places where you played;
That sweet singing goes a-ringing in my
ticklsd fancy yet.
And that dancing SO entrancing-why. 1
never can forget!
Yet this seeming Is but dreaming-idle
fancy-notbing more
And folks wonder why in thunder I keep
harping on of yore.
Alas I may not hear those cheery darky
songs again,
Nor see the interlocutor who 10 m pressed
me then
With bis wealth of cuffs and collar and
hia two hiC clustar rings