The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1920-10-29

will never be attained, because nothing
would be left to struggle for, and with
, out effort we will have no life.
For recent four-day celebration held
in this city we had an outside nom
union band offer to come and play two
days for expenses only. The members
of this organization may be estimable
men in certain ways, but they must rate
the value of music as low indeed, and /
am glad to know that union band
would have been disciplined had it made
the same offer.
The Hagerstown correspondent says
we must have people with enough nat
ural backbone to refuse cheap jobs and
bum company. The term "bum company"
he must remember, is susceptible of
wide Interpretation. I have known men,
musicians among them, who wore fine
linen and Jared sumptuously every day,
had any amount of money as we'll as
superficial polish that passed for good
manners, and who were at the same time
as bum company as one could desire. If
an intelligent idea had ever crossed
their minds they had either forgotten it
or did not think it worth while enter
tanning. 1 made the acquaintance years
ago of more or less prominent must
clan who was politeness personifed.
Everything was 81 beg of you,'' 'Kindly
do this" "Please, gentlemen" and so on,
Gd intialittn,, Gd nGuseGn1, and he might
have passed with my Hagerstown brother
as good company. But under this glossy
exterior he was a cur at heart-not
only cur but a crook. This profess
sional urbanity, this cordial handclasp
and pat on the back and inquiries after
your health, all these things do not con-
stitute good breeding or good company.
"The rank is but the guinea's stamp.
The mans the gowd for a. that"
1t is these rotten class distinctions,
this aping of the lives of those we con-
slider above us and contempt for others
whom we consider our interiors that in
large measure is the cause of present
day unrest here in America. I have in
mind one upstart of a musician I knew,
who dubbed any behavior he did not
like as "bolshevik," when the poor fish
did not understand the first principles
of the soviet form of government or COM
munism, either. Talk about American
ism. There is nothing more un-Ameri-
can in the world than this snobbish,
SplIiC, AOAc 10 81
worthy of commiseration as the fool
who cherishes it. He is the walking
advertisement of his own ignorance.
Music is one of the greatest forces in
democracy because it is the universal
language. But even music cannot make
silk purse out of sow's ear, a gen.
tleman out of snob 1t has always been
true that many of natures finest gentle
men have been found in the lowliest
walks in life. The greatest depths of
feeling, the finest sensibilities of the
human heart have been found among
the poor, men who were poor, God help
us, from no fault of their own in worldly
possessions, but rich in the best quail
ties of mind and heart. I esteemed
them very good company. Men will
never be equal in natural gifts; nature
does not work that way There will
always be an aristocracy of talent, and
happy is he who is one of them, but
the greatest and noblest among this
aristocracy have always been the most
unassuming and unpretentious of men.
At the age of so Newton said that what
he regretted most in life was that he
had accomplished so little in it. This
and thousands other such instances of
true humility that might be cited should
not be lost upon us. This is free coun-
try, in so far at least that if we do not
like certain people we do not have to
associate with them. But in esteeming
ourselves as better than they are, as
made of finer clay, we are only giving
an unconscious exhibition of our own
inferiority. That is the part of folly,
and as a great English poet said:
what differs more" you cry, ethan
crown and cowl?"
'I'll tell you, friend, wise man and a
fool.'
So again let me repeat that the term
'bum company is susceptible of many
definitions. l am glad that about the
best company have found in life have
found in the ranks of the organized
musicians of this country, and from my
activities in the A. F. of NJ. my acquaint-
ance among them is a wide one. In
brains, energy, initiative, in an optimis-
tic idealism even, they compare favor
ably with many who presume to be their
betters.