The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1909-07-15
A GREAT HARplST.
And Quartet of Boys a Leading
Feature at Our chautauqua.


After all it is the harp and the boys
that touch the hearts of the people.
The piano. the pipe organ or the violin
are more popular because they are
more common, and people pay SIS for
seat to hear famous grand opera sing
err because it is fashionable. But way
down in the bottom of your heart Of
hearts you know that when it comes to
making real music that takes us back
to the time when our mothers sang us
to sleep that there is nothing that can
compare with the old harp. And you
also know that when it comes to sing
ing that a boys choir in the old
church at home came nearer being
heavenly than anything we ever ex.
pect to hear again.
If the harp were as easy to master
as the piano there is little doubt but
that it would be in the majority of
the refined homes today, and "the
instrument the angels play" would be
heard even more frequently than is
the piano. The fact that the harp,
the Oldest type of stringad instrument
in existence, is the most difficult to
play, accounts for the fact that the
really expert performers are few, and
it is seldom indeed that an American
audience is given the privilege Of hear
ing concert by one who is able to
bring out the sweet music of which it
is capable.
In introducing Sarah Wathena
Brown and her Chicago Boy Choir to
it's patrons, the managers of the Red
path-Vawter System feel that they
are peculiarly fortunate in being able
to secure one of the very best mu-
steal attractions before the public TO-
day. Mrs. Brown is harpist of ma
tional fame, and she has delighted
hundreds of the most critical audi
ences. In technique she is unsur-
passed and she knows just how to
touch the instrument in order to bring
out its best qualities. Her music is
of the quietly thrilling kind that holds
the audience spellbound.
In her concerts this season Mrs.
Brown will use magnificent $1,5O0
instrument that was built specially for
her by one of the greatest harp max
ers in the world. 1t is without a doubt
the finest and sweetest toned instru-
ment in the world today, and it's
strings, under the masterful touch OF
Mrs. Brown, send out music which
strike the very heart strings-tones
that awaken memories, inspire visions
and make music do it's perfect work.
And then there are Mrs. Browns
Boys" These four little fellows are
from a parish mission Sunday school
in Chicago that has been under the
protecting guidance Of Mrs. Brown
during the past five years. They are
boys who have experienced all the ups
and downs of life in congested quar-
ter of the third largest city in the
world, and have passed through more
vicissitudes than the majority of men
of three times their age. Every boy
In the quartet has a sweet, boyish
voice that is good to hear and brings
home the fact that all good singers do
not draw their salaries from the great
operate managers and gain fame and
newspaper space through making
themselves offensive to ladies in mon
key houses.
The program by the boys is a genu-
inc treat. In their patriotic national
airs of many nations they feed the
fancy and satisfy the popular demand
for entertainment of a kind that
makes the blood tingle. To see them
dressed in kits and the highland uni
form and playing t'The Campbells Are
Comm" on the bagpipes makes you
want to stand up in your seat and ap-
plaud-especially if you have Scottish
blood in your veins.
There is nothing silly, childish or In
the least offensive or boisterous about
their program, but on the other hand
their wholesome boyish voices in song
revive the days of Blatchford Kava-
naugh as they sing sweet melodies in
to every heart. Their performances
on the marambophone, on the bag.
pipes, the tambourines and castinets,
is novel and is introduced in SONG.
character and costume in such a way
as to lend emphasis to both the educa.
tional and entertainment elements of
the evening. They make several sur.
prisingly rapid and wonderful changes
Of costume during each program and
each costume is true representation
Of the dress of the country of which
shey play or sing.
These four boys were selected by
Mrs. Brown on their individual merits
from list of over one hundred appli-
cations for parts in the choir, which
is the outgrowth of similar organi-
cation she has kept up in one of her
parish mission Sunday schools for the
past three years. They are not ex-
ceptional boy geniuses, but are ordi-
nary boys. the kind you meet on the
street every day, but with more than
an ordinary talent for music and in
their work on the concert stage show
what may be done with boys by care.