The Irish standard., 1902-03-08

recall. OluCer ~ Neil put lueSe DuES
on paper, played them to the taste Of
the chief, and then set to work to
write backward on strange Irish air
to a logical Irish beginning. This he
has done and chief and inquest COM
mittee are satisfied that the worlds
judges of Irish music will find it so.
"The. Whistling Barber" Of this col
lection is considered a gem. The man
ner Of its requirement is related in
some degree to municipal history.
A year ago, at the city elections. Pa
trolman O'Neill was stationed at the
polling booth at Thirty second and Hal
sted streets. Incidents were not nu-
merous there and O'Neill CHANGED to
step inside an adjoining barber shop.
The barber lived in the rear of his
shop and one of his children, q mere
babe, had toddled into the shop and
set up roar of protest at the world
in general. The barber laid down his
paper, picked the babe up, and, trot-
ting it on his knee, struck up whis-
Ting rendition of an especially lively
Irish reel.
Quick as flash, O'Neill had out
pencil and paper, and while the baby
squalled and the heels of the barber
beat noisy time on the floor, he caught
the reel to the last two bars. Then,
in despair, the barber dived back into
his living quarters and staid there so
long that the policeman finally had to
follow him back to the family kitchen
to beg for the few remaining notes.
From this incident the title, "The
Whistling Barber" was easy.
Another air greatly treasured by the
collectors was overheard by Patrolman
O'Neill while riding on the front plat
form of trolley car, and the motor
man was in such genuine good temper
that he whistled it over and over until
Officer O'Neill got it without attracting
the motorman's attention in any way.
This is 1.-The Cashmere Shawp of the
collection here given, and James KEN
needy, Il motorman of the Chicago City
railway company, contributed it.
'"rhe Siege of Limerick" is one of
Chief ONeill's rcsurrected pieces
which he found in an old volume Of
miscellaneous music, bearing the date
of 1871. There's an End to My Sorrow
When Shanlus Comes Home" is typic-
ally Irish, but it was necessary for the
collectors to build it up to considera-
BILE extent.
In Patrolman O'Neills work Of
catching Irish airs "off the bat" nei-
Their time nor place cut any figure. 1t
is said Of him that on one occasion a
Waterman at railway crossing in
Thirty-tifth street, broke into an Irish
melody, and that O'Neill, spreading II
piece of paper against the outside of
the watcllman's house, took down an
excellent bit of Irish music that was
new to every member of the committee
on inquisition.
Chicago, as the storehousc of all this
music, presents some striking phases
to the collectors More Irish music is
to be found here, and with less effort,
than is possible in Ireland, itself. The
reason has been found easily. War
drove Irish music to the cabins of the
Irish peasantry. When war was done
popular prejudice made it still some
thing not to he made conspicuous. III
nally. the charity fiddler and the piper
for pay made the pipes and the fiddle
unpopular, even in the better cabins.
Many an irate parent broke these in
struments which talented children Sc
creted in the home, and from the in
struments Of music the prejudice ran
rapidly to the "millul," or dancing bee
and the patron which assembled the
young, having light feet, to dance on
Sunday afternoon at country corners.
The priests Joined with the parents,
and often swung the blackthorn upon
the bodies of those who persisted in
tnlS mefrlment.
Thus Irish music went into decadence,
until just before it was lost altogether
the world began to awaken to the fact
Of what it was losing. From the birth
place of music and poetry, Ireland
rapidly was becoming the graveyard
of it. Petrie in forty years found
1000 tunes only. Bunting and Joyce
overlooked much of it, and yet in Chi
cago Lake View man, away from
Ireland for forty years, digs up thirty
tunes which no one Of these three col
lectors found.
This fact was made possible through
Irish emigration of long ago. Forty
years ago the Ireland which was in
clined to sing was singing and playing
upon violin, flute, and union pipes.
War measures had released it and the
people themselves had not degraded
it. Thus the boy or girl with music in
his soul had n chance to imbibe it
and bring its melody to America.
The great mass Of this Irish music
was traditional. Ireland had music
scheme Of it's own and was writing its
melodies on a perpendicular stave long
before the Italians or Germans had
put it to paper in horizontal lines and
spaces. The circumstances Of war,
however, left the music of the Irish