Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1901-08-22
MUSIC OF BOYHOopn
Pleasures n Grown Man Takes In
Numbering Tunes He Used tn p,.

mem OcriAB enes ne Used To Play
II wonder" said the man who ocoo
sionally INDUCED his reminiscent MOOD
what has become of the boy with ,ba
jewsharp! | haven't seen boy with
jewsharp for years. Don't ,bev
make ewsharps any E8re? When
was a youngster every boy had
jewsharp just as every boy had a ton
or pocketful of marbles or a pet shiny
s.icF. And some boys were rattlng
good payers on the jewsharp: was a
star on that instrument myself. Mighty
fetching and appealing music in
jewsharp too. As | remember IT, tho
jewsharp had mystical eollan qual.
ity that sort of led an imaginative hoy
on TO dreaming. I've sat on a log on
the bank of the old 'ci'ck' playing Tho
jewsharp by the hour. and the f,r
away music of the thlngd lead me-
very far by flood and field, must say
I'd pick out the air of Beautiful Isle
of the Sea-, as | remember, and then
l could see myself Il massive pirate
chief, all logged out in brown velvet
with a crimson sash and heavy GOLD
hoop earrings, with dirk between NV
teeth and a cutlaSS in each hand
standing in the lee Scuppcrs or some.
where or another defying the whole
mutinous crew to come on. Mighty
imaginative music for fact ieWsham
music was. And it had kind of sob
in it that | don't know of any other
instrument possessing unless it's the G.
and ID string cords on the violin
when | grew up and would pass
by boy playing the jewshaip in the
dark, it sure would give me feeling
of goneness and lonesomeness. The
music would sound somehow like a
reproach, and it had that waiting DUAL
ity such as the wind has In passing
along telegraph wires strung by the
side of a country road. Eyer notice
that-how the--well, how the wind lust
weeps along a telegraph wire strung
! by the side of Il lonesome country road?
Something very chilling and depress-
| ing about that sound Clutches YOU
like the cry of the loon in the night
| forest.
But to get back to the boys nstru-
ments. | don't see so many boys with
mouth organs as used to either. Most
! boys used to have two or three of them
| in my young days. Let's see. There
was the Richter harmonicon in the key
| of c, and the Richter harmOnicon in
! the key of CT remember | always
| had those two anyhow There's a
| whole heap of reach in mouth organ
music too. \ man that's just done a
| mean thing is pretty liable to be made
| to feel cheap and ashamed of himself
| if he accidentally hears some of the
| right kind of mouth organ music i'm
mediately afterward. Now. dogs know
a lot, and dogs are pretty conservative,
but nothing'll get dog agoing so quick
as mouth organ music \ violiull 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 beard the music Of
mourn organ. Gets dogs to thinking
about their poor old mothers that they
were rudely torn from in infancy or
something like that, s'p0se. | am
bound to say, however. that the darky
boys We're the best mouth organ play.
ers when | was growing up. The Afri-
can mouth is peculiarly fitted for comi
pletely accomplishing the mouth Or
gan, and I've seen darby boys almost
/ swallow them in their soulful interest
in the music.
once In awhile in the summer time
here in Washington | enjoy a singu-
larry pleasant experience. It's when
I'm just about ready to go to bed
and troop of colored boys, n couple
of them with mouth organs aad others
of them with guitars, come padding
down the street. The mouth organs
and guitars together sound beautiful
and the whole business is generally 50
surprising that It about takes mg
breath away. can hear the music
coming along from a long way and
then right in front Of my house, and
then it gradually dies away in the
distance, very vague and tender Some
thing mighty enjoyable in little old
things like these, Washington
Star