The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-07-10
A Blaine Campaign story.

zone of the most miserable moments
OF my life" said Maine bandmaster,
according 10 the New York Mail and Elk
press, was at a country convention,
where my band unintentionany broke into
a speech made by the late James C.
Blaine Mr.. Blaine was the speaker
of the day. The Stage also held Hon.
Seth L. Mlliken, a congressman from
OHIO, whose name 1 have forgotten, and
many prominent Republicans of the coun-
~ Two other bands were present, and
the three put In their best ljcks. Our
band was asked TO furnish one or Two
selections between the speeches As lead
er, / gave OUT the next number, and
charged every man TO be on the alert Tor
the signal 70 do his level best.
AN know how political conventions drag
along The preliminaries wore every body
out before the speaker of the day was in
troduced Our boys had ridden twenty
miles in the early morning over rough
country road, mad marched for two sohd
hours in the forenoon. to say nothlng OF
pumping wind enough inio twenty or more
brass instruments to run all the wind
mills i'm the state. BY the time Nj Blaine
stepped down to the fOOtlights the men
who carried the big brass horns were dog
tired.
THE selection ] had made opened with
A solo by the Z fiat, and ! cautioned the
player 10 be ready, the moment Mr.. Balne
took his seat. 10 play at glance from
me. The great statesman spoke with his
usual impressiVeness, and, after getting
warmed up, he began TO lay down an ar
ray of facts and figures which should fur
nish the local orators with timber for
MANY a triumphant argument during the
campaign He was laying The foundation
for his addresS-One of those lengthy texts
which meant so much to the hearer be-
fore the argument was complete. 1t was
dry TO tired, non-political band men.
Cheers were not yeJ in order
presently Mr.. Blaine paused for his
words to take root. while he took swat
low of water 1 glanced around al the
bows and noticed that the big bass was
slowly slipping from the knees Of it's OPP
orator Pat was asleep. l winked It
the B-fat to punch him before that $50
instrument got a dent The poke in the
ribs was fatal Pat opened his eyes and
| was looking at him. The speaker was
quiet There was only one conclusion for
Pat. Like flash up came the horn, and
before I could give a warning shake of
the head the big bass beloved out the
first measure of the solor, C f G G
f F..
Every person in the hall started and
stared. There were interrogation points in
cred and snorted. / nearly tainted, but
gave the signal for band cheers instead
and the boys responded without a break
Mr.. Blaine may or may not have appre
ciated the situation to a musician; | do
not know what his musical iuclinations
WERE but he came to the rescue in a way
that won the solid vote of our band then
and there He smiled broadly and said:
That is right. boys; give us another
and wake us up
II waved my hand at the other bands,
and we Joined in such a band cheer as
that Old hall will never hear again.
Next day I wrote a letter of explana-
ton and apology to Mr. Blaine and re-
ceived a characteristic letter from the
statesman, as follows:
S. NV congratulations to the boys. They
did nobly. 93r8
"T wish political speakers could do no
worse than the break you mention.
hope to meet your band at other places
where the good work is going on. SIN
cerely, James G. Blaine -