Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-09-18

performed by a man who had been prac-
ticing that one air from infancy.
Whats the name of it? 1 don't know.
suppose can whistle about seven mil
lion of those dago things, but don't know
the name of a one of them.
We'll, learned lot of that kind of
whistles at the Tegucigalpa opera (the
opera house was big 'dobe Joint, by the
way) and it was the only thing that saved
me from going to work. / sprung 'em on
the greaser people that walked around the
plaza after night and they didn't do
thing but throw me all the coin they had
when they heard me, a red-headed gringo
that knew only two words of Spanish
'sabe' and Misunderstanding the hard,
them 1t was just like as If a dago just
landed would walk along here now and
whistle Rosie O'Grady' and The Star
Spangled Banner without a break.
Whistling In South America.
Il saw that this was a pretty good graft.
and so kept right on south, learning as 1
went along about all the tunes that were
ever written in Spanish or Italian. 1 hit
up pretty near all of Central and South
America. whistling only O. nights, when
the people down in those parts wake up,
after sEoozing all day. and I had piastres
to burn all the time. The only time got
the worst of 1T down in that country was
when the bare-footed tin soldiers in La
Libertad. Salvador, soaked me into a dun
geon Tor couple of weeks. They suspected
me of doing a rubber-necking act there for
antonio Ezeta, the chap that made bust
ness OF building up governments for the
rake-om he made in afterward wrecking
EN-. The United States consul got me out
of that mess
Those sun burnt people down in Gen.
trai ana south America were easy money.
IA give 'em their national airs with varia-
lions Wherever l went, and, as those peo-
pie down there are always scrapping among
themselves, and full o gun cotton, the
tof{1 ,l,s.
gag went with a rush, and / never passed
the tinkle bag without making a good haul
IN. The national air business came near
getting me in a scrape down in Chile
though. 1 went to Santiago Chile. from
Lima, Peru, at a time when those two
olnKy nttle countries were trying to tear
each other apart. ! had had a regular
mint, WhiStling the Peruvian national air
and lot of military rum songs while i'm
Lima. When go to Santiago in Chile. the
streets were full of bare-hoofed soldiers,
an OF em chock-a-block full of mescal, and
all yelling the Chilean national hymn. I
picked 1t up from them. By the time was
reaay to spring 1T on the Esplanada that
night l was little dopey from trying the
Shnean brand OF mescal myself. and what
did 1 do but start to whistling the national
air of Peru. with about 5000 people stand
ing around that hated Peru worse'n
cobras. And the whole 5000 of 'em seemed
10 near the tune all at once. l had to make
a run for it, and never got or tried to get
peso out of Santiago.
Good Graft Here.
Il made couple of trips to South
America after this, but 7 was always glad
to get back to the United States. There's
better graft here. after ALL anyhow I've
been working the smaller towns in this
country for the past couple of years-towns
OF the size Of Cleveland and INDIANAPOLIS
and Denver and Los Angeles. People've
got time to give you an ear or two in the
class + towns, and they're dead easy to
work l get EN- when they're sitting on
their front steps or in their yards after
dark. as the folks all do in towns like those
I'm talking about. l stand out in the mid
Ole OF the street, kind O. lost in the gloam-
ing and looking very much on the bum as
l explained, and whistle melancholy and
lonesome tunes. There's always some guy
around who's feeling. soft and WOODY, ard
he calls the attention of the others to my
whistling. All the rest of it's easy /
whistle 'em anything they want, paying
most attention to what the women folks
like. and when pass around the hat they
all of 'em come up, nearly always with
white metal, for it don't seem like as il
they care to give a white man copper Junk
like they throw to dagoes.
I'm going to play the swell rum joints
In New York this winter. No, I'm not
afraid of getting the dead face over there
New York people may be pretty foxy, but
guess they can be conned like other people,
If I can't whistle the dough out of their
clothes, they'll be new ones on me-