The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-05
aold Homestead, auartette.

After a season said to have been
crowded with the most phenomenal sue
cess, s. J. Bennett and his "Old Home
stead" Male Quartette have entered up
on their second tour In the concert
field. and will come to the Montgomery
Theatre Thursday evening as the first
entertainment of the Lyceum course.
Nothing is more dear to the heart
than the words "Old Homestead" and
this renowned combination of male
voices will easily bear out any artistic
opinions previously formed. They pre-
sent a quartette OF true artists. trained
individually and collectively. under the
The perfect blending of voices In en-
semble, the melody. harmony and bril-
liant effects. makes this the jequal, II
not the superior. OF any quaVtette now
before the public Their repertoire con-
sists OF both classical and popular mu-
sic. which experience enables them to
render in such manner as to please the
most exacting audience. They will in
troduce in their quartette work many
original. novel and unique features, to-
gether with many old melodies.
The singers are S. j. Bennett. tenor;
Alfred Spouse, second tenor; H.A. Eddy,
baritone and violinist. and A. r. Law
son, basso.
How De Wolf Hopper Found "Casey.s
In the Theatre Magazine for Novem-
her De Wolf Hopper tells how he came
to sing Casey at the Bat" the famous
baseball poem which did much 20 make
this comedian a popular favorite:
I'm 1888 I Joined the Mccall Opera
Company" says Mr.. Hopper, being cast
for the first baritone. While I was
Iplaying at wallack's. news came to me
of the illness of my little son. Jack
His mother telegraphed me from Con.
| 49,
thereto sore throat. and was not ex.
pected to live through the day. I was
frantic. / could not be released from
my engagement, and l walked the floor
OF my room in agony. That day Arch
ibaid Clavering Gunter read Casey in
a Western newspaper. He brought It
over to the manager and said: This
New York teams will be In the house.
Hopper is a fan. Why not have him
read that? The manager brought IL
to me and read 1t unseeingly. could
not make out a word of 1t for thinking
of little Jack. I told him I could not
memorize anything new in the mood I
was in. and that was all there was to
1t.
Then a telegram came saytmg that
Jack was better and out of danger.
/ celebrated my joy by falling upon
Casey with a will. II that verse Is
anything II is a mile long. But in an
hour had 1t memorized. 1t scored an
enormous hit. After the show / hunt
ed up Gunter and asked him the name
of the man who wrote Casey He told
me he did not know and said he had cut
It out OF a San Francisco paper some
time before.
Il tried for four years to find the man
responsible for that thing asked
everyone. / made the lives of my
friends a burden to no avail. There
were initials signed to Casey'--E. L.
T.-but they were every blessed thing
could discover. One night, nearly
FIVE years afterward, when l was play.
ing Wang at Worcester. / got a note
asking IL I would come around to a
club / knew and meet the author of
Casey I went and was introduced to
Ernest L. Thayer, a well to do manufac-
turer OF Worcester. He had composed
Casey merely to kill time, and had no
idea until i reached Worcester that
the poem had scored a huge success.
Today Little Jack is nineteen years
old and weighs 1877 pounds"
Mcconnell Beneat Assured.
A rnonafer benefit performance In