The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-29
MLTIES ARE COMING.
Military VIII Have the Famous
Canadian Band


The Kilties, the Forty Eighth High
landers' Band of Canada, will play in
Savannah next Monday afternoon and
night. The concerts will be given at
the Guards Hall, which will have a
large stage arranged for the band.
The six local companies of the
First Regiment, Infantry, and the four
batteries of the Savannah Volunteer
Guards will profit through the con-
certs, as they will be given under the
auspices of the military Arrange
ments for the concerts have been left
with Capt. Walter E. Coney, adjutant
of the First Regiment, and Capt. M.
Ed Wilson of the Republican Blues.
The profits to the military will be de-
voted to the trip that will be taken to
Charleston, Feb. %.
In order to insure large attendance
of the military men, the drills for Mon
day night will be dispensed with en-
tirely. Orders will be issued, calling off
the company assemblies for that night
Doubtless a great many of the soldiers
Will take advantage of this to attend
the night concert. The matinee it is
! thought, will be largely attended by
ladies and children The band is a
most excellent one, having been or
ganized for many years and having re-
ceived the most fiattering notices wher-
ever it has appeared. 1t is stated that
1t is yet to receive its first adverse
newspaper criticism.
Mr.. Cameron Brown, president of the
Kllties' band tour, is in the city, per-
fecting the arrangements for the ap-
pearance of the organization, in which
there are forty pieces. The band will
come to Savannah direct from
Charleston, where it will play for four
days. 1t has achieved great success. in
Norfolk, Richmond and Asheville,
cities in which it has appeared on this
tour, the first that has been made
through the South. The following is
from the New York World of Jan. IL,
being one of the many complimentary
notices the band has received:
1T was a "Graun Scotch NIGHT" at
the Madison Square Garden last even
ing. The big auditorium was packed
with enthusiastic citizens assembled to
give welcome to the Kilties, the
bandsmen of the Toronto HighIanders
The crowd was sprinkled with old men,
rugged, sh-faced, grizzled- bearded
types like the one Actor Stoddart Gre
ated in The Bonnie Brier Bush The
atmosphere was thick with 'burrs.'
THE band appeared in its regimental
uniform-kilts, red jackets and bushy
bonnets-with their pipers in Glengarry
caps. There are forty musicians and
they form a well-trained body. The
band is well balanced. Its tone is
strident and it's performance is marked
by sharp accentuations.
Commencing with the 'Star-Span-
gled Banner a programme was pre-
sented in which Scotch tunes and the
traditional marches of the Highland
regiments of the British army predom-
mated.
Then ther were sword dances and
filings and bagpipe solos until the Scots
by birth and by descent grew wild
with enthusiasm"
While quite a number of the Kilties'
Band members have smelled powder.
there is one bandSman whose record
reads like romance. James Russell,
WHO bears a striking facial resem-
blance to Lord Roberts, commander
in-chief of the British forces, began
same regiment of which 'Bobs' start
ed as a staff lieutenant. Russell served
with distinction at the Relief of Luck
now, the Siege of Cawnpore and at
various other historical events, for
which he wears special medal. He
has fought in no less than thirty-nine
battles with the British arms, and
there is not a more lively or more
soldierly figure than his in the entire
Forty-eighth Highlanders' Regiment,
despite his SO years of life. While the
seven-foot drum major will be the OBJ
ject of many persons admiration, their
are others to whom Bandsman Russell
will be even more interesting.