Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-10-24

at the Temple Theatre in Philadelphia
lts songs still live. If you don't believe
this ask at the Union League about a little
ulhher that was held there n few nights
ago in honor Of the fftieth birthday of n
well-known lumber merchant. Mr. Spenser
was one of the guests Railroad executives
bankers and prominent business and pro-
fessional men were present Mr.. Spenser
was one of the speakers. When he sat
uoWr, the table to man broke into that
melody which was favorite with our
Fathers and mothers and with some of our
grandparents: Love Comes Like n SUM
mer Sigh, Softly Ger Us StealinE the hit
OF THE Little Tycoon"
1T was funny about the composition of
that song" Mr.. Spenser told me, remi-
llsclhg was young man on fish
ing TRIP up IN the POCOnO Mountains They
had tiled to make doctor of me but
music got the better of me. | was thinking
OF an opera ] was planning. The smoke
was over the mountains thick and | was
standing under the Buck Hill Falls to get
some fresh, pure air. It is one of the love-
liest spots you can imagine. About eight
bars of this melody hoated into my head
wrote them on some birch bark and took
them back to the little inn where | was
staying-that was before the place was
{ tinguished by large hotels.
From the notes that had made at the
Falls picked the melody out on the piano
I
up instantly by a whistIinE boy. | was
| amazed, IF it can be whistled like that
| said to myself, the first time it has been
played, then it surely has the elements that
make for a popular song in it, Latet
events proved that | was not wrong. And
the boy who whisted the song was the
man whose birthday was celebrated at the
Union League the other night"
PUT QUAKER MAIDS ON B'wAY
WI
town, New York, his mother being an in
innate friend of James Fenimore Cooper s
daughters. But he is Philadelphian now,
he will tell you, by reason of his marriaAs
t" Miss Claire Stackhouse, of the Quaker
family of that name
1t was Spenser who put the Quaker
maid on Broadway, and his recounting of
that exploit Is sidelight on the insularity
of one of the most famous streets in tn,
world.
"A song" he said, (which proved to be
one of the most catchy of Miss Bob White
was Cute Little Quaker Maids Are We
/ was watching a rehearsal of the opera
| in New York and Ben Teal, now dead, but
| II, his day one of the most famous mana
gers and producers, was directing the
| chorus. 1t Is my custom never to inter-
| fere at rehearsals, but / always make a
| great many notes. The way Teal put the
| chorus through its PAGES amazed me- Hers
we're quaker maluS' dressed IN thelr prlin,
| demure costumes, and he was making them
Kick up their legs like Gayety girls
| "'What do you think Quakers are like D
| I asked him after the rehearsal
| "'Isn't that the way they ought to go:'
he questioned anXiously.
"He had never met Quaker He thought
| Il was part of their religion to dance a wild
| sort of dance. When l told him that they
| hardly dared raise their eyebrows, much
| less their skirts he was astonished. He
cid the act over and it was great hit"
The composer in whose operas Raymond
| Hitchcock rose from the obscuriJy of a
| chorus man. than which there is no more
| obscure obscurity to the bright effulgence
OF stardom. is at work on new opera at
| the nature of which he would not even hint.
| But patriotically, when the demand for
| rev marching song came along, he dropped
| his work and produced our Sammee Boys