Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-09-18
A BANJO IS
AUTOGRAPHED
Every Interesting Person On War
Front Writes Name On The
Instrument
THAT'S SOME GOOD MUSIC

shells, but a great deal more popu-
lar. And Joe Lorraine can make that
banjo talk. he can.
But it isn't so much the music that
he gets out of it as il is the names
which are on it that widens Joe's
smile until he couldn't smile any wi
der unless his ears were reset. For
that banjo is just now a whole au-
tograph album and a couple of extra
volumes all by itself.
Completely covering both sides of
the head of it are the names of hum
dreds of persons, some famous, some
less so, and some who no doubt Will
be up ia the front row before the
Kaiser is dethroncd. Joe has been
collecting them ever since he left New
York, u. S. A.. 20 carry his music
and his smile 20 the men in the
trenches.
To start with. lie got the auto
graphs OF everybody on the ship on
which he sailed from the captain
down to the youngest mess boy. 1t
was the first all Y. M. C. A trans
port to cross the ocean, and that's one
of the reasons WHY Joe took the trou
BILE to round up every man on board.
He himself is booking" with the Y.
M. c. A. war circuit, you know.
In the list is the name of one of
the deadest shots in the British Navy.
They say that il this gunner ever
misses a submarine it's because his
gun won't shoot far enough. He and
Joe became great pals on the trip
across; and Joe admits that If he were
a little younger and weren't lame he
would like to train with this sharp
eyed chap who lets his gun do all
the talking for himself
Then there is the Warehouses de
Marcheville, who is known as the
richest woman in France. Joe met her
somewhere in the vicinity of her
chateau and she willingly took
her. pen in hand to write her auto
graph. Just little northwest of her
name on the banjo is that of Jacob
SHIFTS, who insists that he's Irish and
always writes with green ink to prove
it.
Joe has the name of Senegalese,
too. You would never think it an
autograph at ALL 1t looks more like
fathers attempt to draw COW or
piece of the wall decoration for Uncle
Alexis new house. Joe played at a
Chinese camp one night and planned
to have a Chinese signature or two,
but when he found that a Chinaman
in khaki never uses less than a sheet
of foolscap to write his name he called
1t off.
Up under the strings you'll see the
name of Capt Raymond A. Linton,
who fired the first shot from an Amer
lean gun on captured German soil.
Joe met the Captain in a little viii
lage in Lorraine and entertained him
and his men in dugout. When he
starts advancing and a-singing, too,
he makes even dugout a pleasant
place. He plays anywhere and every
where, in hay lofts, in the woods,
from the tail of trucks-wherever he
has room and space for his audience.
After an entertainment at a camp
one day he was collecting signatures.
A private from Dallas, Texas, wrote
his name. A few minutes later an
other private stepped up with his
trusty fountain pen. He looked at
pocket for card and let out yell.
I'm juggered," he said, as he
Gained down. 1--WE been looking
for that fellow ever since landed in
France. And here he is right in my
own back yard"
And when he saw the two men meet
and begin tanning about the home
town, Joe Lorraine was glad that he'd
turned his banjo into an autograph
album.
But of all the names he has gath
cred, he is proudest Of that of Sergt.
Charles Cunningham. You may re-
call the story of Cunningham-how
while he was out with raiding party
in No Mans Land he came along upon
eight Germans; how he shot four of
them and wounded three others be-
fore hand grenade laid him down.
His comrades brought him back and
Joe Lorraine met him in hospital
His wounds were fatal, the doctor
told me-" said Joe, 'but Cunningham
was still smiling. I've never shaken
hands with drawer chap. He asked
for a tune-just a little banjo negro
lullaby-and / played it. He asked
if he might sign his name on the ban
10 and the doctor consented. The
nurse held him up in bed: the doctor
helped guide the pen; and Cunning
ham wrote; falteringly, but with a
smile that brought the tears. Short
" afterwards he died"
There's little white space about
Cunningham's name. It's the only
vacant space that's left now on either
side of the banjos head And Joe
Lorraine never plays his precious
joy-maker more sweetly than after he
has been telling the story of this
quiet, plucky youngster who showed
the Germans of what stuff American
coldfaro arc ma6Q