The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-07
SHOW PEOPLE STALLED.
Two Companies Succumb to the
Cold in North Dakota.
LIT AFTER THE GRAND
Negotiations Between the Eastern Man
ager and Mr.. Mcfarland Still GO
ing On = Attractions Are
Scarce This Month

The extreme cold weather throughout
the country during the past week and
more has been particularly disastrous
| to travelling theatrical companies, espe-
cially those that have been blowing
through the SHOWS of North Dakota
in an effort to reach this state. AL
though it is understood that several of
| the companies headed for Butte were
uncommonly hot things, they were not
sufficiently torrid in temperature to
counteract 20 to 40 degrees below Zero
and two of them, "Shantytown'' and
Dewey, the Hero of Manila" were
frozen up solid somewhere in North Da-
kota. The former was booked for the
Grand for four nights beginning next
Sunday, and the latter for the week
following. Manager Mcfarland has re-
| ceived word that both companies We're
compelled to disband. The only thing
at present remaining booked for the
Grand for. this month is 'Suwanee
River" for the 23d, Oath and 18th, and a
local entertainment. Queen Esther" by
the ladies of the Presbyterian church
| choir on the 21st and 22nd, but it is
probable that some of the Cancelled
dates will be filled by the Royal Ak-
motto company of japanese, who are at
present in the state. They are the
greatest troupe of japanese performers
ever seen in America. The company
consists of 10 men and two women.
In the periodical literature and occa-
sional poetry of the United States, Ken
lucky, that dark and bloody ground.
has been more generally identified in
the popular mind with the production
and consumption of a superior grade
of Whiskey than with sentimental mat
tiers taking musical form in ballads.
The author of the song Bred in Old
kentucky"-not bread from old Ken
lucky, as the parodists already have it
touched, however. upon a sympathetic
vein in the first verse of the song, as
follows:
When lad ] stood one day, by cot
tage far away,
And to me that day all nature seem'd
more grand,
For my Sue, with bushes red, had just
promised we should wed
And I'd come to ask her mother for
her hand.
AS told the old, old tale of love that
ne'er would fail
The gray haired mother stroked her
daughters mead,
And fancied / could trace just tear
on her kind face
AS she placed my sweethearts hand in
mine and said:'' ,I,.
What the mother said to the young
man differed materially from what, in
like cases. according to all human OBJ
servation and experience, is generally
said. She did not refer her daugh-
ter or her future son-in-law. She did
not say that matrimonial alliances were
made in heaven; she did not add that
she had always expected that he would
propose. She did not greve at the pros
pective loss of her daughter or dry her
tears in contemplation of the good hus-
band the daughter would secure. She
did not say that she hated to part with
her child, but would gain a son in losing
daughter. Her remarks We're distinct
ly geographical, particularly 'imperson-
al and somewhat descriptive, and as fol-
lOWs--in the chorus:
She was bred in old Kentucky, where
the meadow grass is blue.
There's the sunshine of the country in
her face and manner, too.
She was bred in old Kentucky, take her,
boy, you're mighty lucky
When you marry girl like Sue"
For some reason, which 1t is difficult
to explain, there has been considerable
ment in the song of old Kentucky, not
withstanding the fact that there is no
allusion in it to the merits of bourbon
as a, beverage or the wholesome advan-
tages OF rye. taken internally. Hereto
fore Kentucky has been chiefly noted in
the affairs of the stage by reason of the
horses bred and reared there, and Ken
lucky thoroughbreds have gained mark
ed distinction on many race courses, but
q riff nf1
Kentucky as place of education has
not heretofore been very clearly made
known. The second verse of the senti-
mental song, "She Was Bred in Old
Kentucky" is of a somewhat mournful
character, as it describes the emotions
of the young husband after being left
Widower, and contains, too, somewhat
curt reference on his part to "the place
we've long called home.'' He is repre-
scented as soliloquizing, not as is usual
in such pathetic pictures, in a group of
his friends and relatives, with, usually.
his children in the foreground of the pic
ture, but sitting alone, absolutely alone
and disconsolate. and recalling the Ian
guage Of his mothern-laW. These are
the words of the second verse:
Many years have passed away since
that we'll remembered day
When to that dear old Kentucky home
I came
And my happiness thro' life was my
sweetheart, friend and wife,
For the sunshine in her heart re-
NAMED the same;
l am sitting all alone in place we've
long called home,
For yesterday my darling passed
away;
Tho in tears, think with joy of the
day when, but a boy,
That / took her hand and heard her
mother say"
Obviously the essential point in the
popularity of a song is the excellence
of the music, but the theme has much
to do with it, and the words of descrp-
ton, too. For number of years mat
tiers connected with Kentucky have de-
manded public attention. The play In
Old Kentucky" has been presented in all
parts of the country and for that rea-
son, perhaps, the patrons of theaters
have felt themselves more familiar with
the song on that subject than one based
upon Bred in Kansas, or Bred in
Delaware" for instance. The parodists