The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-08-05
STREET MUSICIANS IN LONDON.
They Abound in Great Numbers and Va
riety.
(London Letter in New York Times. }

Uondon Letter in New York Times.)
Street bands are not as numerous as
hand-organs, but they are more regular
in their attendance. There is one band,
for instance, that appears in this square
of mine every Tuesday evening. The six
players wear uniform caps, and make
very good music, and most of the house
holders make 1t a practice to give them
a penny or more. If should desire to
hear that band on Monday evening
| (Which is extremely doubtful), l need
only go around the corner into Russell
square; on Wednesday, into Gordon
square; on Thursday, into Woburn
quare; on Friday, into Tavistock square,
or on Saturday, into Euston square. Each
| square has its day. And they know
so we'll how 10 cater to their customers
that pennies flow into their Golfers
| plentifulIy. One day L was writing by
| the open window, when something I'M
usual made me look up from my work
That band was playing, and at first did
not appreciate what it was that had
caught my ear. A few seconds did the
work, however, and made me sit UP and
listen, for the band was playing:
"Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's
early Light
No American in London, no real
American, could hear the beginning of
that without waiting to hear the end
Then they played E'Way down upon the
Suwanee river" and followed it with
"Yankee Doodle" BY that time I was
jingling the small scoins in my pocket.
Such an occasion called for more than
mere coppers; even the 'thruppences"
| looked too small. The .Star Spangled
Banner and Yankee Doodle are worth
more to man in London than they are
| in New York But before the fatal
moment came for parting with a sixpence,
a new light dawned upon me, and 1
slipped the silver back into my pocket.
\ My square in summer contains number
| of Americans, and the bandsmen had
| learned that national airs stirred them UP
and opened their purses. 1t was only
little commercial patriotism. Afterward
l took pains to see what they would play
| in Russell square, inhabited almost
wholly by English. No "Star Spangled
| Banner" there; no Yankee Doodle;'
nothing but good old English tunes, con-
CluOlHS Wlul OOQ kCofO pdO NSuSCu
And it was the same in the other squares.
Those fellows knew well what they were
about. In the French settlement they
would play the "Marseillaise.
A few minutes ago the sound of mems
voices trying to sing foated upon the
street, followed shortly by the men them
the most DETECTED specimens
of humanity imaginable, ragged, half
starved, and humble as Uriah Heep, with
their hands meekly held in front of them.
They walked close together in the middle
Of the street, barely moving their feet,
slower than any funeral march. When
| they reached the center of the block they
stopped, and one of them made this ad-
! DIR ess to the houses:
kind friends, we have walked all the
way from Yorkshire, and are tired and
hungry. We are not ordinary beggars,
and you will never see us again We
want work, but cannot get it, Take pity
on us, kinds sirs, and give us a trife to
| buy food
Their words were well studied, but
they had the true professional voice and
manner. Nevertheless, they reaped a
good harvest of pennies.
| Then there are the Misunderstanding
fellows dressed in harlequin suits, gener-
ally four together, two to fiddle and two
to dance and sing. Their performance is
always so bad that their collections are
small. And the men who seat themselves
on the sidewalks and draw really good
pictures on the stones with colored chalk.
| And the almost countless men and women
who go about bearing signs, II am
blind" or Helpless" or "Crippled."
But these people make no noise.