Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-02-09
MUSIC OF OUR BoYHooD

st wonder" said the man who occasional
ly INDUCES his reminiscent mood. what
has become Of the boy with the 5ewsharpf
I haven't seen boy with q Jewsharp for
years. Don't they make jewsharps any
more? When was a youngster every boy
had a jewsharp, just as every boy mad
top, or q pocket full Of marbles, or pet
shiny stick. And some boys were rafting
good players on the jewsharp. was star
on that instrument myself. Mighty fetching
and appealing music in jewsharp, too. AS
1 remember 1t, the jewsharp had mystical
aeolian quality that sort O. led an imag1n-
alive boy on to dreaming I've sat on
log. on the bank of the old 'crick,' playing
the jewsharp by the hour, and the far
away music of the thing'd lead me very far
by flood and field, must say. I'd pick out
the air of Beautiful Isles Of the Sea- as
remember, and then I could see myself, a
massive pirate chief. all logged out In
brown velvet with a crimson sash and
heavy gold hoop earrings, with dirk be-
tween my teeth and a cutlass In each hand,
standing in the lee scuppers. or somewhere
or another. defying the whole mutinous
crew to come on. Mighty imaginative mu-
sic, for a fact jewsharp music was And
it had a kind of sob in 1t that don't know
Of any other instrument possessing, unless
it's the g and string chords on the violin
When 1 grew up and would pass by boy
would give me a feeling Of goneness and
consequences. The music would sound,
somehow. like reproach, and 1t had that
wailing quality such as the wind mas IN
passing along telegraph wires strung by
the side of a country road. Ever not1ce
that-how the-well how the wind just
weeps along telegraph wire strung by
the side Of a lonesome country road! some
thing very chilling and depressing about
that sound. Clutches you like the cry OF
the loon in the night forest
But, to get back to boys instruments,
I don't see so many boys with mouth or
gans as l used to, either. Most boys used
to have two or three Of them in my young
days-let's see: there was the Richter har-
monica in the key Of c and the Richter
harmonica in the key of CT remember L
always had those two, anyhow. There's q
whole heap of reach in mouth-organ mu-
sic, too. A man that's just done mean
thing is pretty liable to be made to feel
cheap and ashamed Of himself If he acct
dentally hears some Of the right kind OF
mouth-organ music Immediately afterward
Now, dogs know lot, and dogs are pretty
conservative, but nothing'H get dog
agoing so quick as mouth-organ music
viOlin'll stir up some dogs, though not all
of Them but there never was dog yet
that wouldn't plant himself on his launches
and throw up his head and whine and
moan when he heard the music of mouth
organ. Gets dogs to thinking about their
poor old mothers that they were rudely torn
from in infancy or something like that,
s'pose. 1 am bound to say, however. that
the darby boys were the best mOuth-organ
players when I was growing up. The Afri-
can mouth is peculiarly fitted for COM
pletely encompassing the mouth organ and
I've seen darby boys almost swallow them
in their soulful interest in the music.
"Once in a while, in the summer time
here in Washington, 1 enjoy a singularly
pleasant experience. It's when I'm just
about ready to go to bed, and a troop of
colored boys, couple of them with mouth
organs and others of them with guitars,
come padding down the street. The mouth
organs and guitars, together, sound beauti-
full and the whole business Is generally so
surprising that it about takes my breath
away. L can hear the music coming along
from long ways. and then right in front
of my house. and then it gradually dies
away in the distance, very vague and ten
der. Something mighty enjoyable in little
old things like these, hey?"