Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-10

found themselves going again TO the time
of the march, and they laughed over 1t. and
talked about that latent strain of deviltry
and barbarism and recklessness in the
marches of Sousa.
An Appreciative Audience.
The crowd appreciates the technique of
music saXaphone solo is ON the pro-
gram. The young musician steps forward
with his queer-looking instrument under
his arm The crowd edge up to the stand
and conversation ceases entirely. 1t is I'M
derstood that a saXaphone is not a clarion
ringing instrument, and the people want to
near. The young man plays two bars.
purely technical, and the listeners look at
each other approvingly.
The piece played by the saXaphonist is
simply a monumental feat in technique, an
equivalent of a Vieuxtemps concerto for
the violin. 1t is fiercely difficult, and the
listeners know it. 1t is difficult even to fol-
low the maze of movements. The young
man executes them like master The COM
position Is pure colorature, like one of Don
nlzettis or Bellinis cloaked heroes march
ing down to the center of the stage and
lauding the beauty of his ladys eyebrows,
but 1t is we'll done, and the listeners know
1t.
When the player ceases, he gets the real
ly powerful hand of the evening. He steps
forward again and plays little berceuse,
full of Alpine echoes. This time he makes
a sensation, and he has to bow himself all
the way back to his seat. 1t is absurd to
say-as the musical fanatic does say-that
even the most miscellaneous American
crowd will accept nothing but the berry
ballad and the soggy melody.
Like n Big Lawn Party.
Many of the young men have meantime
distributed themselves about in easy atti-
tudes of lounging on the grass, thereby
adding to the lawn party effect which the
White Lot concert produces upon those who
see it for the first time. Pairs, trios quar-
tets of pretty girls pass to and fro, in the
washable finery of summer, bareheaded,
many of them in conformity with one of
the charming summer customs of capital
feminnity and quite unchaperoned-which
starts the visitors from other great cities
to thinking how Impossible this would be
in their own communities hatless young
girls Strolling about without duennaS at a
public concert in the open air.
The children begin to detach themselves
from their mothers and nurses by the time
the concert has been in progress for
hour or So and join the ranks of the lost,
strayed or stolen. They are always cap
tured red-handed in the very act of making
for the fountain for the manifest purpose
OF tumbling therein, and their reunions with
their keepers are diverting as exhibiting
affection seemingly generated by many
long years of absence.
When the Band Sings.
There is a general good-natured smile
when the members of the band, in the
progress of the descriptive piece before
mentioned, covering a military day on a
transport, are required to sing a chorus
Fully three, If not four, of the musicians
join in the chorus, which sounds as if it
proceeded from a vast distance. The leader
looks annoyed, and he yields his baton
with added StrenuouSnesS, but he fails to
bring out any fuller vocal effect than that
furnished by the three, if not four mem
bers of the band.
After ALL says a philosopher standing
q md oh l,
lack of vocal effect, "a man can't be ex-
pected to be Jean de ResZke and mas
ter of a wind instrument at and the
same time"
The bicycle girls, leading their fiery I'M
tanned wheels, begin to stray toward the
band platform when the concert is well I'M
der way. They look warm and dusty, and,
apparently feeling themselves to be quite
out OF the running with the coOl-lOoking
girls in organdie and dimity frocks soon
fade from view on the roads leading to the
exits.
For an encore. after La Gazza Ladra"
of Rossini, the band plays The Campbells
Are Coming" and tall, thin man turns to
his female companion and says:
Il always was fond of that When John
ny Comes Marching Home tune
The young woman looks around to see
whether his break has been overheard and
then she puts him right in a stage whisper.
Courts Unpopu!arity.
The young man, who in order to give all
% 'ie PeoPie standing near MN proper
idea OF the air being played by the band
huns the same, keeping about three bars
ahead all the time, fails to gain the need
OF appreciation of which he feels assured.
I'VE will just take it for granted that the
tune runs that way" says man behind
MIN. When the band leaves you can come
here and sing to the trees all night. Mean
While, give US a chance to hear what the
Marine Band has to say about it,
The young man looks mildly bellgerent
Tor moment, but he does not resume his
humming.
The two drummers of the band are the
centers of attraction for all the small bows
on the lot. They form crush at the end
OF the platform where the drummers sit,
ana they regard the wielders of the sticks
with awe not unmiXed with envy
The final blare of trumpets dies away.
and the pairs, trios and quartets of girls
say to each other as they come away:
IT was pretty, but they didn't play oh.