, 1906-03-28
MartindaIe and the Eggs

He was rather a slender mar of
possibly thirty years of age, with hair
hanging down over his coat collar in
wavy folds. He had a decidedly
august look, and was a mar of some
what erratic and brusk temperament
but one of those men whom when you
meet on the street you mentally remark
there is a mar out of the common run
of men, Such a man was Louis II.
Rink, who came TO London Town in
the early COS and started work as an
organist and musical instructor. |
think he was the first organist for the
Hellmuth Institute. He was the
nephew of the great Louis II. Rink, a
German organist and composer of con
siderable renown in Europe. After he
had heen with us for a while, he dis
covered that there was neither a pro-
fessional nor an amateur orchestra in
the city and with c~ommendable energy,
he soon gathered around him the III
cleus of an amateur orchestra that was
destined to become quite famous in its
day among the people of London and
MiddleseX County. He was a remark-
ably good instructor, very patient, had
a happy manner of getting the most
out of his pupils and, being a fine
musician, it was not long before the
young men, composing the orchestra,
took such an interest in it and had
practiced so faithfully that they risked
a public appearance in the Old Me-
chanics Hall on Talbot street. William
J. Macintosh was the first violin,
John Maher and his brother, Isaac
Waterman and Bert Chad wick second
v%iolins, 1--WE were strong on second
violins). Sam Chad wick played the
cornet, we had a double bass player, a
trombone player, a couple of flute
players, first and second clarionet
players and a drummer, all of whose
names have passed from my memory.
| played the first clarionet and being
at that time possessed of a fairly good
tenor voice, / I occasionally sang one or
more songs at u concerts to vary the
programme. AS an emblem, we wore
a silver maple leaf on the lapels of cur
coats with our title '"The London Ger
mania Society" engraved upon it. We
were "A very particular lot of youngsters,
as far as money was concerned, mas
much as we decided not to play for
lucre, but for a worthy charity, we
were willing to do what we could to
help it along. We, therefore, of course
had many, many requests for our ser
vices. 1t so fortuned hat after we had
progressed far enough to play such
o%vertures as the "Caliph of Bagdad,n
"Bon juan 'Zampanand'Tancrediu
together with such descriptive pieces
as the "Anvil Chorusn with the accom-
paniment of anvils and hammers and
the "Sleigh Bell Galop" with sleigh
bells aud whips, that WI were asked to
give "a concert at lngersoll for the bene-
fit of the poor of the town, who We're
suffering severely from the effects of
of the hard times and the very severe
cold of the then passing winter. Seat
ed in an open sleigh, and hauled by
-four horses, we started from London at
about four o'clock in the afternoon of a
day that betokened nothing in the way
of weather TO interfere with a pleasant
trip to Ingersoll, seventeen miles away.
As | Vas to sing at this concert, | put
a couple of raw eggs in my pocket to
keep clear my throat, before starting
on hat ~eventful journey. Our calcula-
tons were to reach our destination at
about six O'Clock, then we would have
plenty of time for supper, and after
wards, to stroll around the town and
be in the hall IN good time for the
commencement of the concert at eight
O'Clock. but the best laid plans of
mice and men gang aft glee." A half
hour had hardly passed by after we
started, before a sudden blizzard arose,
the snow and sleet came downin blind
ing masses and it was not very long
before the horses were f1oundering
around i'll a considerable depth of soft
fiakey snow. To make matters worse.
the driver made a wrong turn and got
oil the right road and l don't know
how far we had to retrace our steps
before we were set "straight." Between
the binding snow and the bowling
storm and the temperature, which had
-nLlln,l L. A.rrnnI .r.n. LII I. -