Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-09
THE BANJO.
instrument Was Seldom Used by
Colored Folk on the Plantation.

From the New York Sun.
Has the banjo disappeared or Is its
seeming decadence only a misleading and
transitory symptom? for the present
its occultation appears to be complete
A discouraged banjo teacher somewhere
says that the game is up with him, and
SO far as he can see, with others. He
adds that the pupils OF the present day
are all for the mandolin and the guitar
and he is cynical enough TO offer the
comment that he does't wonder I'm the
least.
There was once a poplar delusion to
the effect that the banjo is a negro in
sruhient, ana IN the days when the negro
was curiosity and fad, an interesting
specimen enyeloped in romance. people
may have taken up with il on that ac-
count and not only fiocked to hear black
raced artists twang upon its duh strings
but actually encourage their children u
learn II as part of fashionable edu-
cation. In those days we used to hear IL
played at fashionable resorts as part of
a particularly piquant entertainment.
professionals whacked away upon the
vaudeville stage. and crowds imagined
that they were delighted. The old cabin
home, the negro with his banjo at the
door after long days toll, music all
over the quarter. and dancing and mer-
riment unrestrained The fayorite in
SAA dbiSHt Vi d uuStCdl race
Has the banjo lost its vogue because
people have discovered that it is not the
Negroes consolation or even his compan-
ION! AS matter of fact, negroes do not
like and do not use ii. Moreover, they
never did. They are much too musical
IN their tastes and instincts to care for
the fiat and shallow noise the banjo
makes even when handled by an expert
VINO ever heard of a southern negro field
hand playing the banjo at his cabin
door? Joel Chandler Harris always said
that the banjo was practically unknown
In rural Georgia, and certainly that 10
true OF other southern states. especially
louisiana No negro ever played the
banjo by preference. He may have done
1t for money as a professional, but not
twice In thousand times for his own
solace or by prediction. The instruments
to which the negroes take by impulse are
and the mandolin. Educated in music,
they include the piano and the cello. In
1853 at Little Rock, Ark, Gen Sterling
Price OF the Confederate army was enter
tanned at a ball by Chester Ashley, q
wealthy slave and land holder of tina,
region, and the orchestra which furnished
music Tor the occasion was composed en-
urely Of colored men, but there were no
ban]oes. Even twenty years after the
civil war, in the smaller southern towns
there would be bands of serenaders going
about from house to house with sweet
and well ira med music, violins, guitars
and mandolins-no banjoes. The only diff
ference today is that commerce. inter
marriage, great fluctuations of population
have drawn the north and the south into
familiarity, and now all sections know
what southerners have always known.
that the banjo is not the negro's instru-
ment.
There is more music I'm one vibration
or the ID string of a guitar than IN
the thin and steely brilliance of a hun
dred banjoes strummed in perfect unison.