The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-27
wHpRE Anr rHrYr

D FAH0 WI CC~o VI hUGTo ~ JOWph0AP these days? Occasionally some small boy will daily with one, and some of the negroes are yet in the habit of do- ing occasional stunts with them but they have very largely fallen into dis use. And yet the older people can re- member when they were quite common and even the grown men would take occasional bits of exercise and get more or less musical sounds from tn em. As to that matter. one who really un- derstood how to play on one of the things could set time out of one in way that was more pleasant to most ears than some of the more pretentious music that we pay good prices to hear. And 1t Is not out of place to say that more than one performer on this sim pie instrument has won fame for the excellence of his performances in pub lie. This shows that this little thing has in times past held pretty high place among music producing instru- hnents.
 We don't know whether the name of the inventor of the jewsharp or the date is known. We cannot even have any assurance as to whence 1t derives it's name. It is spoken Of by some of the old writers three of four centuries ago. but we suppose it's origin and originators are alike forgotten. How ever that may be we know that they were once popular and are now rarely heard, at least in the cities. And spsaixing Of them. we Ind story in an exchange that shows how the jews harp player may develop into some thing more important The teiler of the story does it this way: :
 There was one boy in my town oi ] whom I was jealous because, excellent might say. fifteen different ways from the jack, This boy was the most posi- matter of fact. and he could make . mouth organ do anything that he asked | of it too, jump through . hoop, or any old thing: Handsome boy. named Ed through sle 9s stssess se fSssrss lsins i tf ss of this Ed scovei boy because he was better looking that I was or because he gould play the mouth organ like some | body inspired or because he could sing l like throstle In a honeysuckle bush l Nope just was sore because he had
 sye s4sssS a G kn.a tss lot way s d.ss SSTT | that never could play the jewsharI like Ed Scovel.
 Well, many many years passed, as | the story book writers write and I'd forgotten all about jewsharps and Ed | Scovels and things, when one night in Paris my wife dragged me of to the grand opera. The performance wax the blond whiskers and the glorious voice didn't mean anything to me till took look at my program to see who | he might be.
 gram 'Chevalier Edouard scovel.' l wondered if 1t could be. I recalled that before I'd left the old town Ed scoveI had started in to get his voice ! n1anicured. But it seemed impossible 1 out of the question. that this giant singing there at the grand opera house in Paris could be the Ed scovel with the p@tchSs SS oD S s e.S a%a 1y4r th ears of whose wonderful Jewsharr music had been jealous so many years | before. -
 Then the narrator goes on to relate how he dug up this Chevalier Edouard scovel in Paris and found that 1t was really his schoolboy friend and rival at jewsharping. who had sung all over Europe and made a reputation as an artist of great merit. So 1t il plain that 6 boy who excelled witt jewsharp was gifted with sornethint that would advance him high up ir fame and fortune. But-who ever seei | or hears one now?