The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-16
HERE'S 4 HURDY-
 GURDYLESS CITY Day of Street Musician Is Passed in Kansas City HOW TT HAPPENS TO BE Italian Editor Who Believes the Vo- cation Lowers His People in
 the Estimation of Ameri-
 cans Is Responsible

From the Kansas City Star.
 | The day of the begging street mu- sician has passed in Kansas City.
 No longer does the calico garbed | Italian woman drag a hurdy- gurdy be- fore your door and. without regard foI life or limb, play such archaic tunes as After the Ball." She Is Only a Birt 1 In a Gllded Cage" and Just Because She Made Those Goo-Goo Eyes"
 Also has the Italian man shouldered his wheezy hand organ, stuffed his red capped and velvet-coated monkey into coat pocket and departed for fields where he can ply his craft without mo- lestation.
 For these musicians, both men and women, have been molested here, and | that is why they have gone away.
 One man is, in the main, responsible le 1 for their departure. He is J. P. Dec the Italian editor and publisher of the weekly LOservatore Italiano, Q news paper that circulates widely among the inhabitants of Little Italy, down on the North Side
 Almost 10 years ago Dec began tc wage war on the street musicians Hc | did not buckle on his armor because ihclI iAuSlC QlEpltdStu Dllil. HIS IedSOT was that he believed and still believes that 1t lowers his race in the estimation of the American people for Italians tc | solicit pennies with the aid of a music box and a monkey.
 1 Willing to Work
 l T want my countrymen to be known as honest people. willing to work for their bread" said Deo in speaking of his crusade. "They never can establish themselves as such if they appear as street musicians. It is cheap business and to me suggests nothing but Hitter acy, shftlessness and vagabondage. respect the Italian who works on a rail road, but I do not respect the Italian street musician"
 l How we'll Dec has succeeded in hi. efforts 10 rid the city of his foes is shown by the fact that in the last eigh. years less than half a dozen hurdy-gur- dies have been seen here. It is more than year since Dec has seen hand | organ and a monkey in the city streets 1 It is not generally known that Dec ia responsible for putting the musician out of business. The casual question, What has become of the hand organ man?'' caused him to talk about his little home made crusade for the uplift of his race 'I began this fight several years ago. he said. At that time ttcre were many Italians here making their livings by pestering people with their nearmusic l knew it would be a hard fight to rid the city of these people, but thought | was a debt I owed the honest, hard work ing Italian people of Kansas City ''At first I wrote editorials for my pa i per, pleading with my people to give ny the business. l pointed out to them that 1 they were lowering themselves in the | eyes of the citizens. l wanted them tc I leave the city quietly or get into some other line of business.
 Pride vs. Gold
 But it was hard to appeal to tho pride of these people and effect anj good. They were making money Mans of them gathered up from $10 to sf' a day in pennies and nickles. Some
 times a whole family would be work. ing. The mother would be dragging 2 1 giant hurdy gurdy around town. tho
 father would be packing hand orgar and leading a monkey by chain. ant | the children of the couple, if they ha, any, would be singing. Many times