The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-07-29
WHEN THE BAND PLAYS.
Hon.e-aade wit and Repnrtee Mixed
With Free Music.

(From the New York Commercial Advegtiser)
There is a good old story about a dis
gusted pianist who grew tired of playing
against the chatter OF fashionable must
Gale. and said sarcas;ically to the hostess:
Il hope / don't interfere with the CONVEX
sation.'' She replied: ooh, not at all.
Pray go right on" The musicians at a
Madison Square band concert are like the
unhappy pianist. but they make no pro-
test. They sit placidly under the hot
yellow lights that flare over their heads,
each footing melodiously on his instru-
ment with as stoical an expression as a
Kruger sucking long pipe. They have
none of the vanity of the virtuoso; they
know that they are only required to make
a noise in order that the audience, wing
with them, may rise TO the pitch of social
screaming" and SC be certain-because of
the jolly uproar they hear themselves max
ing-that they are wildly enjoying them
selves.
In the black shadows Of the trees, along
the walks that surround the bandstand,
the audience sits stands. or promenades
with a great scraping Of feet and caciile
Of young laughter, with much interchange
of loud chafings and general confusion
of cat-calis, whistles and such other noises
as youth can make. The seats that line
one side of the walks have all been taken
early in the evening, and the happily oc-
cupants of them chat and laugh comfort
ably together. Opposite the benches there
are rows Of men and women, boys and
girls, standing to hear the music or 10
Dandy words with the passers-by Be
tween these two lines there flows the
.stream Of promenaders They bump along
ii twos and threes. chattering noisly. The
girls giggle without end. They are mock
ed at from the sides of the path with such
cries as Hello Maggie! Yeh must "a got
the dishes washed early" A squad of
them together are hailed with Ger your
hats blocked" to which one of them re-
plies, Get your heads blocked" and an
other adds. He don't need 1.-THE block
head" A wit, initiating the shrill voice
of the lunch room, cries, "Wheats!'
Ard the authors of these witticisms are
always encouraged by the laughter Of the
crowd. The girls take it good-naturedly
They may reply, "Ain't he funny" in a
tone of pure contempt but they are smiling
while they say it. Here ard there. one Of
them, animated by a rag time chorus from
the band will throw back her head and
prance a few steps of a cake-walk She
GETS the applause of all beholders, includ-
ing the nearest policeman. A boy pi ks up
a phrase OF the music and finishes it on a
piercing whistle. The girls hum airs they
know. Above all this noise the band
screams piteously for a bearing, every now
and then, in a wall of hign treble. But
certainly it does not 'iatcTfere with the
conversation"
The audience at such concerts consists
chiefly of young workers of the office, the
store, the factory. or the household. but
there are family parties, too from the
avenues that lie to the east and west of
Madison Square children of the tenements
and loungers from the Tenderloin. There
are old men whose only occupation in life
now is to tend their children's children
on the tenement doorstep by day, and to
smoke the pipe of idleness at night There
are a few well-dressed ''transients" from
neighboring hotels. watching the uproar-
ious crowd with an amused eye ard taking
travellers notes upon it, There is a great
heat. some dust much elbowing and an
endless noise; but there is no bad humor.
The youths and the maidens tease and flrt
and chatter with all the license OF a carni-
vi The COUPLES indulge a ten Ter passion
Il the shadows undisturbed The boys
hoo. and whistle and deride the giggling
shor girls without word from the smil-
ing cop" The wives gossip. The old
men smoke. And the bandsmen, Undecided
on their platform perspiring and red in
the face. blare and drum uncomplainingly
through their programme from the Star
saorgled Banner to- Home, Sweet
Home"