The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-22
THE INSPIRATION OF MUSIC.
How Barney Brought About the Downfall of the Spanish
Fort.

| floor and staggered across the room. II
was Barney Bueno, a captain of in
fantry, big, fine, dashing fellow. He
was an educated Cuban of the better
class, a graduate of the polytechnic
school of Troy, n. Y, an accomplished
musician and singer.
Barney had been drinking too fire.
quently at bottle he had found in one
of the rooms, and the liquor had just
begun to seep into his brain.
The joy of battle seized upon him; he
was happy now; he was mad with hap
piness and the desire to fight. He be-
gan to sing loudly a Cuban air, roaring
above the roar of the guns in the room.
He clutched a rifle and ran to the win
dow. but there was no opening for him
and the men pushed him back. He fell
back. brandishing the gun, and knock
ing down glassware, the vases and the
delicate bric-a-brac from the mantels.
1t made a tinkling. shattering noise
that sounded well with those beautiful
guns. Barney shouted in his ecstasy,
and looked about for an occupation He
could not sit down; he could not be
still. He felt a large contempt for
his comrades on the floor. He desired
an upation-Something to do.
He staggered blindly about in the
big room-for the choking powder
smoke made him seem in thick dark
neSS-and fell over a piano stool. Then,
being very bad on his legs because of
the drink, he began feeling for some
thing to help him on his feet. He found
1.-THE leg of a piano-and as he raised
himself up he was stung frantic by a
splendid thought.
He would play the pianol He would
make music for the fight He would
accompany the drumming guns with
beautiful waltzes and jolly ditties, with
marches and serenadeS and national
anthems. He would play for his brave
men in the breaches, for the men at
his feet, for the groaning wounded and
for the dying. He would play through
the powder smoke and the noises; loud
ly, wildly, beautifully would he play,
till even the. enemy should hear him
and understand his contempt for their
bullets. And he would singl This
was to be his diversion. his occupa-
ton.
Just then the smoke lifted a bit and
he saw his instrument. 1t was a grand
piano and bore the inscription, Otto,
Berlin" He threw back the lid and
drew up the stool. AS he did so he
heard a cheer from the men at the win
dows at an unusually good shot the
Hotchkiss had made. and, with the
feeling of proper triumph, he played
and sang a racy song he had often
sung in camp.
There was q commotion in the room;
then a great shout of laughter, and the
rifles ceased their chatter; then the
sound of wounded men dragging them
selves about the floor. The men at the
windows turned and started through
the swirling smoke.
why, it's Captain Barney" they
cried, in delighted surprise. Sing it
again. Captain Barney; sing it again!
Mind your guns and hold your
tongues" shouted Barney, and I'll
sing it again.
He sang it again and again at every
splendid shot the Hotchkiss made.
The bullets were dropping steadily
about him. He heard the tinkle of fall
ing vases and the crash of glass book
cases. Chairs were knocked to pieces
and pictures dropped from the walls
Something scraped at his legs. and,
looking down, he saw wounded man
at the table clawing his trousers and
looking up at him. He knocked his
hand away and changed the tune. 1t
was Schubert's "Serenade" he played
now.
The men on the floor stopped their
grooming and the men at the windows
fired as steadily as clockwork, but
the while. The music could J
be heard only at intervals. because of |
the guns, but what the men did hear
gave them courage and calmnesS and 1
great joy. The Hotchkiss talked to |
the fort walls, it's voice timed to the |
music in the room, and the walls |
erumbled away before it. The little /
guns at the second window gossiped !
nerrily to the loops and embrasures /
ill not a head dared show itself.
And Barney played all the while
HRS from lei Captain" THE Serenade"
and "Trovatore;" sang ballads of the