The gold leaf., 1901-02-14
THAT EXCELLED SOUSA.

What balls these were ana What
balls those were at Shocco and Jones!
No germans in those days-square
dances all the ,ime-and, o, my, how
Old Frank johnson could call the
figures: balance All, Swing Your
Partner" '.Ladies' Change" Back
Again Doocee-do," Swing Corners
ALL" ETC., etc.
And when the great long ball room
in Brownlow's Hotel was filled with
those happy dancers there was q
scene Of beauty and chivalry the like
OF which we don't witness in these
days.
| don't know that women as gen.
eral rule were any prettier or lovelisr
or men handsomer or nobler in those
days than now, but some how | can't
help from thinking they were. l was
mighty young then, and maybe not
capable Of Judging, but visions Of
those handsome people who danced
to Old Frank Johnson's music in
Warrenton and at Shocco Springs,
and Jones' Springs are fitting before
me now; l see them just as l saw
them then. and really l hardly ever
catch glimpse of a young woman
now a-days who looks near so pretty
to my eyes as do those behold in the
vision.
Yes, beautiful women and hand
some men. There were the Somer-
villes, four or five sisters, all stately
and beautifu!; Miss Sue Williams, :,
Miss Pauline Rolf. Miss Mamie Will
son, Misses Lizzie and Annie Plum
mer, the Edwards girls, as happy a
quartette as ever lived; Miss Rosa
Martin, Miss Laura Martin, Miss
Martha Washington, Miss Lalla Fittz.
Misses Maria and Fannie Switzerland
and pretty little Kate Switzerland,
Miss Belle Bullock, Miss Meta Swain,
Miss Eliza beth Green, the accomplish
ed and beautiful daughters of Colonel
Mason Wiggins and a hundred others,
all beautiful and highly educated and
all richly attired and bejeweled.
And the men: Ben Wade, Tom
Cook, Jim Somerville, William White,
John Dugger, VIM. H. Cheek, DR..
| Fpote, Walter Montgomery, Horace
Mayfeld, George Bellamy. Bill Alston.
| Ill NOEWOOu, Ncu AuSLtu
Green. Col. Tom Jones, Peter Nit
chell, Blount Plummer, Elias Carr,
| Walter Plummer, Ned Allen, Tom
| Skinner, and a host of others, all
handsome and chivalrous and most
| graceful dancers.
| Well, bye and bye the war came
along. Shocco and Jones Springs were
permanently closed, Warrenton was
deserted by these handsome men who
went to Northern Virginia to fight
under Beauregard, Jackson and Lee,
and all these beautiful women quit
dancing and went to sewing and pray
ing for the handsome. brave soldiers
who had left home and friends at the
first tap of the drum.
A rich Roanoke river farmer who
had been made Confederate colonel
hired Old Frank Johnson's band to
make battle music for the boys who
wore the gray aud carried him and his
band to the front.
Old Frank was an aristocrat and q
Democrat but he was not a fighter,
and he didn't like the music Of the
bullets. He threw up the sponge
early in the struggle and took his band
back to the banks of the Roanoke
where he occasionally played for g
country dance. Dances were not
much in favor during the dark days
of the war, so business was dull, and
bye and bye he had to condescend tc
call figures for ''po' white trash"
After the war Old Frank johnson
partially revived his band and played
for few more picnics and balls, but
he was now too old and times were
too much out of joint.
The last time l saw the old mar
and his band was in the summer O.
1866. He played at Halifax, N. c.,
for an old fashioned tournament ir
the morning and for the coronation
ball at night, and this, by the way
was the last effort of the old time
ari.tocracy of that section to revive
the ante bellum festivities and it wa:
= dismal failure. Too many of The
old time aristocrats had gone to tn,
wall in the crash of '65. They mad,
a sickly showing at the Halifax tour
nament, and the 'po' white trash
went to the front. An overseer's sol
caught the most rings at the tiltins
and crowned the daughter of th'
county jailer, queen of~love ant
beauty.
Old Frank johnson died the mex
year and have always had lurkin;
suspicion that the Halifax tournament
. so disastrous to the antebellum aris
tocracv, broke his aristocratic olt
heart all to flinders.
Old Frank Johnson's band neve
PLAYED classical music. don't reckon
Old Frank ever heard of classica
music, but his music suited me and
never got tired listening to 'Kati
Wells n"Gentle Fairy Belle" "Who'l
Take Sugar In His Coffee" ''Mockin!
Bird" 'My Dark Virginia Bride,
.Old Folks At Home" etc.
Sousa's band with its classica
music and marches are not a patchin,
, to Old Frank Johnson's band as
. knew it and heard it and loved it il
, those good old days, now gone neve
, to return.
By the way. 1 wonder what has be
come Of all those handsome youn,
men and beautiful women who use'
to dance so gracefully to that swee
, music! Many of the men fell in bat
, tie. some as early as Manassas. som
at Seven Pines, some at Cold Harbor
some on the works at Petersburg an
a number OF them ir the Wilderness
but some of them never fell in battle