Evening star., 1898-07-23
MUSIC ON Ao RIVER BOAT

when it conbss to 3 piano on an excur-
sion boat, and the Music thereof, 1 pass"
said Washington man who recently did
all of the honofs hereabouts for a party of
western N. e. As who were visiting his
wife during the convention. "a trip that
1 took. with my party, in close eontiguity
and juxtapositi8h to and with steamboat
piano, as it were, likesto have used me up.
The piano was naifed down aft in the
saloon, and we'sat of the after deck, be-
cause it was cooler there. The boat hadn't
pulled out of her slip before the piano be-
gan to 60 A young fellow with red,
white and blue ribbon around his straw
hat was the first to Take the stool and hit
up the piano. He knew two chords UNI
tum-tum, tum-rum-runl, and he surely ad-
mired that brace of barber shop chords a
whole lot He let US have them with heavy
pedal variations for fifteen minutes, and
then he looked up for tufnultuous applause.
He was edged off the stool by little girl
who knew the first part Of The Little
Fisher Maiden She played it seventeen
times, and she kept both of her feet on the
hard pedal all the time. The little girl
was in her turn succeeded by young wo.
man who was familiar with the first nine
bars of the 'Miserere' and this young wo-
man went into trance when she started
to play her nine bars, and didn't come out
of 1t until she had da capo-ed on it for fully
hfteen minutes. Ia. ta, ia ta ia ia, ia ta.
1t went until We were commencing to figure
If the water was cold When she emerged
from her dream, a man that looked like a
plumbers apprentice figured himself to be
next on the program. and he did left
hand obligato-he couldn't do business with
his rightly playing twenty or thirty
times. the last bar of Rocked in the Cradle
Of the Deep'-tum, tum-tum-t tum, tum, tum,
tum daW-way down on the lowest notes.
Then he started to bawl that last bar
RaWked avn thaw cradle fhaw
When he tumhled to it that there was an
Indian file of walters for the piano behind
MIN, he reluctantly got up, and gave way
to the inevitable man who knows how to
hammer enough chords to accompany has
whistlings This man whistled any old
thing in piercing tone, and although he
tried hard enough, he couldn't succeed in
drowning the whistling by his left-hand
pounding on the piano.
The whistler retired in favor of the man
VINO knew enough chords in fiat to keep
himself going while he hummed On the
Banks of the Wabash This man started
the song three or four times in the wrong
key, and his voice wasn't mated to his
hand-work at all, until one of his pals
called MIN down. Then he got into the
key, and hummed For the moon is fair
tonight along the Wabash when, to our
great relief. he gave 1t up, saying: Aw, l
can't sing tonight; me pipes are frozen
The next was the girl who always plays
TOUR bars OF RubinSteins s melody In F, and
then jumps up and says she's forgotten it,
and she's out of practice, anyhow. Then
a fat, oleaginous duck, with confident
grin, sat down and hammered 'Narcissus'
to Jig-tme. and took the oh, so lovelysr
of the young women in the saloon like so
much catnip. He was so much encouraged
that he switched to Ma Angeline,' and
.Standin' on de Corner Don't Mean no
Hawm,' and I Hope-a These-a Lines Villa
Find You-a Well alternately whistling and
then buzzng them. He tried to throw coon
dialect into his buzzing, and it was about
as like as Fiji Islander spinning Russian.
But he thought he was pretty good thing
for all hands. and his performance lasted
for fully half an hour. Then he
gave way to the girl who learn
dtsr, ed her pa,,s one ,,, sspinary pece-'MSn-
that she'll never forget, 1T. She didn't play
anything else without, her music she said,
but she surely played that one piece a-plen-
simple runs iniIt,7 and she succeeded in
making them look terfftically hard, and fin
ished strong. ~. hl
"By this time we were almost too numb
ed to protest even TO each other, but when
a little bald-hesaed man in a hot black
suit sat down at the piano with good
deal of awkwartfness and began to inspect
the gilt-letteredi name of 1t with great
deal of curiosity, one of the ladies in my
Now we're aoing 10 have some piano.
forte music by altman Who apparently never
even saw a piano before "oh, for lodge
in some wilderness" Setc
Then the little 'baldiheaded man in the
hot black suit wadeB9i 9ih, and the tender
beautiful fashion withcwhtch he played the
Moonlight Sonata was surely caution.
He Just simPlys-knew the piano both ways
from the middle "a. and his music was
like white caps of joy bursting upon south
ern shores. :; He didn't peek around for any
applause when he finished treating us for
a good half hour, but disappeared down
the saloon ladder. He was a master and
surprise into the: bargain, but he didn't
compensate us for what went before, by
whole houseful." =