The record-union., 1899-09-24

| Augs
| Philadelphia Record: A Philadelphia
| contractor, who has recently returned
| from the Soudan, tells of an interesting
+, fact connected with the building by the
| English of the new military railroad in
| that region. With every gang of forty
| or fifty men are assigned two harpers
and flute player Music is furnished
almost continuously, and so long as the
musicians play the workmen-nearly all
negroes--do not seem to feel the fatigue
| and their movements are conformed as
nearly as possible to the time of the
music. As general thing the players
get tired before the workmen do. To
white man the melody produced by
| these cheerers of labor would not be
| inspiring, for it is peculiarly plaintive.
| The Africans, however, find the music
a great inspiration, and work with
cheerfulness and dispatch. The Phil
adelphian" declares that the idea is
| one we'll worth considering, for it il
| we'll known that co4ored laborers and
| stevedores along the river front will
| work harder and faster if permitted to
| sing. AS matter of fact, singing
among them is encouraged
| Miss Maude Reese Davis, for the past
! two years the soprano soloist with
Sousa's band to Herbert Merrill Quin-
by, Of the Detroit Free Press" Mr..
| Quinby is the younger son of William
E. Quinby, who, under Grover Cleve-
/ lands second administration, was Unit
ed States Minister to the Netherlands.
| He is also principal owner of the De-
troit Free Press Miss Davis is a ma
! tive of Los Angeles, and a musician OF
| superior attainments.
| 1.-THE clamor for So-calIed popular
! lar music,." says Theodore Thomas,
makes it impossible to present a good
/ program without the support of this
/ influential minority and yet person
who clamors for popular music does
not know that he only means familiar
music; that Beethoven's symphonies
would soon become as popular to him
as the Star Spangled Banner if he
only heard them as often, and that 1t
| is only his unfamiliarity with the grea,
| classic masterpieces which prevents his
| enjoyment of them.''
| Sibyl Sanderson Terry, who has been
| taking the cure at Aix-les-Bains, is
much improved in health, and is to
sing for New York charity. The
New York Sun says: This will be
Nine. Terrys first appearance in public
since her marriage, and is not likely
! - 1ox int of
manent return to the operatic stage, as
the American singer has announced her
retirement as final, in spite of the
somewhat complicated condition of her
late husbands affairs. He certainly
/ left very much less than was expect
| ed, in view of his family's wealth, and
Nine Terry will not be as rich as her
friends thought.
Berlin has just heard a one-act opera
called ''Winapoh," by composer
named Lion, which transferred the
story of "CayalleFia Rusticana" to
Texas. The only difference of import
ance was that the Indian Santuzza
killed her Mexican lover instead o.
making his mistress husband do 1t.
Z "A
Spaniards with the exception of the
heroine, who was a squaw in native
costume. The work produced at pri-
yate opera house gained some critical
praise.
Next to die Fledermaus" the
French operatta La File de Nine.
Angot" has survived better than any
operetta of it's age. 1t has recently
been given 80 times in Paris and had
previously been sung 1,2OO times in the
same city All over the world it is said
to have had 10000 representations. 1t
has been translated into fourteen lam
guages has drawn more than 81, SUI, :
600 and a more picturesue estimate
holds that the author and composer re-
ceived ST GOO for every note, while ten
times that sum went to the mana
gers. Nine. Angot seems to have been
a real parsonage, who lived in the time
of the Regent Orleans. She made
great fortune out of the Mississippi
scheme and attracted the attention Of
all Paris by her extravaganza. She
had been a janitress before her good
fortune. and when she lost her sudden
iV dcQulICd Wealth., 1Cbul 1lCo " iANA
work without complaint. Rich as
Nine Angot'' became a stock expires
sion. during the days of her wealth,
and she became the type of the cheap
parvenue. She appeared first as a
character in a play in 1895 in Mime.
Angot, or the Fishwoman of the Halls" "
| Mime. Melba's first teacher was an
I
Italian living in Melbourne, and per-
sons who heard her before she went to
Mime. Marchesi in Paris say that her
equipment was nearly as perfect then
as it was after she had finished her
studies under the teacher commonly
thought to be responsible for her devel-
opment.
Charles Stanley, the eminent English
baritone, has been made by the Pope q
knight Commander of the Order of ST.
Gregory the Great, in recognition of his
services to the Catholic Church.
Adelina Patti has been offered $4,000
for two concerts in Berlin next winter.
The admirers of Joseph Jefferson will
be interested in knowing that his
grandson, Harry Farjeon, has been
awarded the medal offered by the City
Musicians Company of London for the
most distinguished musical student Of
the year. An operetta entitled Flor
eta" composed by young Farjeon, was
recently produced by the Royal Acad-
envy of Music students and met with
! instantaneous success