Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-01-02
MINSTRELs GOSSIP.
Cornet Soloist With Haverley's
Show Sounded Taps Over
Gen. Lawton's Body.
George Morgan, the Male So.
prano, Relates Some of His
Early Experiences.

" consider 1T one OF the greatest hon
ors Of my life to have been assigned the
duty of sounding taps over the body Of
Gen. Lawton as he was laid to rest in
the Philippines said Francis Suther-
land, cornet solo.st with the Haverly
Ministries, Wednesday night. ~ was a
trumpeter with the Fourth United
States Cavalry and saw much of the
active service in which that regiment
figured. I accompanied the Lawton flu
neral cortege to Manila and there
sounded the last call over the body Of
u hero. That was a sad day for9the
American boys in the Philippines and
we couldn't nave felt worse il our own
father had died.
I'm my opinion, and: that is the ,opin-
ion Of a large majority of soldiers who
have seen duty in the islands, Lawton
was the only American general the
Americans have had there. If his policy
had been carried out we would have
peace now. Lawton's policy was to
wage relentless war upon the natives so
long as they We're hostile. When a town
was captured it was not turned over to
the insurgents as is done now, but was
burned. It wae relentless, but necessary.
He waE an officer who worked his sol
diers hard, but when they were thru
they rested and felt that they had ac-
eomplished something. The soldiers felt
for Lawton a personal affection that
was almost flial."
MY first singing was lone in an
English boys choir said George Nor
gan, the English soprano with Haver-
1y's minstrel show. Morgan is an i'm
portation. He sang for thirteen years
with More & Burgess st. James hall
minstrel organization. Pony More is well
known in America as the father-in-law
OF Charley Mitchell. the we'll known
prize fighter. More backed Mitchell, and
Morgan tells some interesting stories
concerning the irascible hacker of the
pugilistic son-in-law. II was singing in
one of the provincial choirs," Morgan
continued, after he had washed the
burnt cork from his face and appeared
in his natural ruddy English coloring,
but when I was Is my voice seemed
to get tired. / rested for about two
years. when 1t gradually came back. 1t
was not changed much, only stronger.
| commenced to sing again, and well
SktQd8hS ~ NilaC IA 4llCAl0S oNlSS 1IlC
to &c to Londcn.
II was a little chary about that, don't
you know, but finally made up my mind
that II my friends thought l was good
enough to sing in London, why, perhaps,
! really was. So one day 1 packed my
trunk and set out for Picadilly. I looked
up More & Burgess and was given an
opportunity to show what I could do.
There were several applicants, and, at
ter being weeded out, three or four of
us were left for the final atest. Well,
/ won out and was given a job, and from
that time on for the next twelve years
did ~black-face stunts / believe you
Americans call 1t, don't you know. Pony
More was a hard man to work with. He
would break the heart of a man who
didn't know how to take him. He would
swear SO loudly at the performers that
he could be heard out in the audience.
But or the whole he vas a pretty square
sort OF an Individual.
English Ministries do not differ ma
terially from the American show" Mr..
Morgan volunteered. 1.-THE performers
appear with the regulation black face
and do the regulation specialties, buck
and wing dances, jokes, m~onologues,
ETC." Mr.. Morgan defended the reputa-
tion of his countrymen for slowness in
p%erceiving a joke. "There is scarcely
a Joke sprung on the American minstrel
stage that has not been threshed over In
England several years before he said.
.In the matter of salaries the special
artists get more than in England
4El