Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-08

red veloCpede added to your possessions 1t is all
over in a minute The baton swings wide again
and everybody whistles the chorus.
A Chance for Scientists
SCIENTISTS have taken the unnecessary trouble to
attach elaborate instruments to the wrists of their
subjects to if listening to music quckened the
pulse, thereby finding out, in most roundabout
way, what everybody already knew. The laboratory
for that experiment was the park as near to the
band stand it was possible to get. No apparatus
was necessary. 1t might be useful to committees
OF arrangements and grand marsha1s of parades to
know such incidental details whether band of
forty pieces will make the blood circulate twice
fast band of twenty pieces.
After settling that question, the scientists might
try to learn why the drummer, sitting way
off in the corner, always looks glum and solemn.
Frequently the trombones avail themselves of
seconds deness to wink at each other the Cornetist
IS jolly and rather important looking, and the
round, red face that we sometimes catch glimpse
OF within the brass coils of the bass horn is always
smlng-when at rest. And the bass drummer, who
bangs away easily and comfortably as if he had
just happened along and had nothing whatever to
do with the score or Tehearsals, is the picture of
contentnent.
But who ever saw the snare drummer smile
Doesn't he realize that he and all his brothers of
the sticks and sheepskin are doing lot toward
making nation cheerful 1t may be that he isn't
whether he will drop the sticks in time to strike
the triangle at the right instant mue the vihra
tons of the iron quickly enough to shake his sand
box at the point where all the Negroes begin to
dance in the descriptive plantation selection. Sad
or gay the drummer IS certainly the busiest man
in the band, and there is mild mystery about him
that adds little fascination to the concert Before
you know it, you wondering what his is,
and why he became a drummer anyway, and
whether he will be happy when he gets home after
the performance. Will he go right home or is he
going to stay out till two three o'clock in the
morning to Irvine the strands of a Welsh rabbit
about the tines of fork in the same logged almost
resentful way that he rat-a-tap- tapped the
wooden rim of his drum during that very quick
piece just before the intermission?
Might End Wars
COME leaders have so much tact and diplomacy
that the settlement of international disputes lust
for experiment, might be left to the bands. Let
one organization of thirty pieces, for instance meet
the enemys outfit of the numerical strength and
with an equal weight of brass and reeds, and both
fire their respective national airs at each other with
board of arbitration from neutral power to de-
eide upon the merits of the contest All the non
belgerents from both countries would go out to
hear, and nobody would be hurt. There could be
outposts of trumpeterS for solo skirmishes and
good substitute for quick volley firing with small
arms. If the war spirit of the people demanded
something extraordinary and heroic, there might
be single combat between the horns, the first
man who grew purple in the face to be counted
out and his country obliged to pay the in
demnity.
Such conflict would be worth while between
such commanders, say as the British band
leader who played Willie, We Have Missed You"
when the German Emperor went to England to
visit his grandmother, Queen Victoria, and the late
Patrick Sarsfeld Gilmore who at a parade in honor
OF Cleveland Just before the President married
made the hit of the day because he had the quick
wit to substitute " He's Going to Marry, Yum Yum
Yum Yum" from the Mikado, for q Hail to the
Chief. which very obvious selection a dozen bands
had already INDUCED in, after the other as
they passed the reviewing stand
Sherman's Funeral Diree