The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-12-22
TIE LOST THE MATCH.
EHos WAS GREAT. BUT TIE OTHER
MAN HAD A TRICK THAT SEAT HIM

A Contest Between Horn Players Of Rival
Shows That Was witnessed by the citi-
rens For Miles Around and Umpired by
the Mayor OF the Town.
q suppose, - said the old circus man,
'sthat the greatest bass horn player that
ever lived was Enos Stulkinton- De
PLAYED the bass horn in our band There
have been men with better knowledge
Of music, perhaps. and some with
more finished style, but none that could
touch him in producing thunder his
playing came 70 be one Of the features
of the show He was a star attraction
where he was known, but 70 most people
he came as a surprise, something more
than they had expected, and they en-
loved him all the more on that account.
For instance, at every performance,
before the actual beginning Of the show,
we used to give q band concert. and Mr..
StulkintOn would begin 70 get IN his
fine work there As the people listened
to his first thunderous 'oomphahsF they
were amazed But when they heard the
canvas of the great tent flap IN unison
with the blasts OF his horn they all
laughed. and thereafter throughout the
performance they all paid close atten-
non when Enos raised the instrument
I'VE tried. of course. always to make
a route for the show that wouldn't con-
fict with anybody else. for there were
plenty Of towns that wouldn't stand but
one show at a time Two would lose
money in them, however good they
might be But sometimes we ran against
some stubborn man that wOuldn' give
way, and then there was nothing to do
but to show and beat him if we could.
"Once, when we struck town with
another show, we learned somehow that
they had great bass horn player IN
their hand, and Of course we challenged
'em for a contest. And they took up the
challenge very promptly. There wasn't
much time TO prepare for 1t, bat we
billed the town in an hour and got per
mission to put up stand on the public
square, because it was TO be a free ex-
hibition. and that attracted attention
"The contest was at noon. and Of
course the two bands played as accom-
Panists of the horn players And that
made big band concert. and the crowd
was something enormous The terms
were that each man was 10 play ONE,
and then a vote Of the people was to be
taken The man defeated in that round
had a right to call for another If the
man defeated in the first round won the
second, the man who won the first
round had a right to call for a third
round But the winner of two rounds
by the vote of the people was to be de
clared the winner of the contest
well, the men in our show bet
every dollar they could rake and scrape
on Enos, and some of the more gentle
hearted Of them thought they were just
robbing the men in the other show Our
old man not only bet all his money, but
be bet the idol of his heart, the famous
old giraffe Of our show, against the
other show moth eaten buffalo, and he
was 50 dead sure that lie threw in a Gin
namon bear TO boot
"Our side had the first inning and
our band showed 'em how TO play, and
then Enos stood up for his solo. And
how he did make the thunderl II was
'oomp bah. complain, compliant as it
had never been heard before, and he
fairly carried the people of their feet
Then the other band played a tune,
and their man got up And there's no
use talking. he raised more thunder
than Enos did and set the people
shouting
'Then the mayor got up 10 take the
vote, as he'd agreed to do, and he was
interested now as much as anybody
And the people voted for the other man,
as we expected they would But we
hadn' any doubt about the final result
for we thought that Enos would un-
shackle now and break away and make
the blow of his life And he did We,
who had been hearing him for years
had never heard him approach what he
did now IL was wonderful He set the
people wild. and we thought we had
EN- sure.
But the other mans very first 'oom-
phah Z made us tremble, and as he went
on we knew we were lost, money, gi-
raffe. everything We'd never heard
anything like this before. 1t wasn't just
simple peals Of thunder-it was thun-
der factory IN full blast and working
with double force Of men There could
be only one verdict
THAT afternoon the whole town
went to the other show and left our big
tent empty The other people came over
for the animals they'd won before show
time They wanted to take 'em over
and walk EN- around in their ring. The
old man had EN- brought out When
the giraffe realized what had happened.
he wound his neck around the center
pole and wouldn't bulge But the old
man finally persuaded him, and over he
went to be made show Of in the other
circus
Enos StulkintOn never blew a bass
horn again He d had the opportunity
of his life. had missed it and he hadn't
the heart After that he always blew
baritone
For my own part, | always thought
lhere was a trick in it. Don't you know,
there are things that look fair and
square on the face of them that you feel
certain, all the same, are off, in some
way Well. / knew there was something
wrong abort that man s bass horn play
ing. and years afterward ! heard what
il was He had a bellows attached to
the horn. with hole in the side Of the
horn for the nozzle of the bellows, and
the bellows inside his clothes out of
sight, and a rod running down to a
treadle under his foot. He REINFORCED
his own blowing with blasts from this
bellows. and, of course, the man didn't
live that could stand up against him
I'VE told Enos about this, but it was
too late He'd lost his ambition and
was satisfied now to play second fiddle,
though he might still have been a cham
pion New York Sun
AND dollar wheat once again. What
has the calamity howler done that all
of this misery should be saddled upon
him? Poor man.