Evening star., 1921-09-18

soloist in Gilmore's Band, and he
could do more things to a cornet
than even the great Liberati could.
Remember him? Well, Charlie could
initiate and burlesque Levy with his
voice and his hands.
Milt Barlow was also in the San
Francisco Minstrels. Milt may not
have been the original .'tangle-talk"
artist. but he was very early in that
game. He came on. dressed as
seedy-weedy congressman does at
Washington for buncomb effect ON
jay constituents. and took his place
beside the washstand. on which were
a pitcher of water and glass. He
was to deliver and address on fish,
or it may have been milk. but never
never any relation between the text
and the context. He would fastidi-
ously pour out a full glass of water. and
then. absent -mindedIy, he would
drink full draught from the pitcher.
wipinG his lips on the tail of his
with his address-that is, he would
start to proceed. but he never pro-
ceeded. He never got anywhere, and
we were SO side-split and side-ached
with laughter that these forty or
fifty years after we feel it still. and
that happy pain will endure until the
last card is played and the lights go
out. Lew Dockstader was one of the
early tangle-talkers. and then this
line of business became a stage fad.
johnson and Powers. song and
dance team, were with the San Fran
cisco Minstrels. and there was also
Billy Bernard. whose real name was
William White. He was the inter-
locutor Mr.. White was a man of
high intelligence and extensive learn
ing. He was Grecian and LatiniSt
of the zeal sort. and few men Knew
Rome.
T started to write about something
else and switched to minstrels, but
no matter. Death of the Oldest
Minstrel is headline that comes to
us now and then in our paper, and
frequently enough to give US fear
that the oldest minstrel is really
dead. Such headlines and such news
sadden men whose hair, if any has
been left. is gray, for negro min
Strelsy played-and sang and danced
and joked-a large role in our young
lives, and makes the thoughts of old
sters drift back to the time when the
negro minstrel was a power in the field
of melody and fun. Those that might
become minstrel men now have their
- ~
in burlesQue, in extravaganza and in
all that. Even in the provinces, where
the chandelier in the town hall shines
with the rosy light of oil lamps. is it
now rare to hear the rattle of bones,
the naturalization of the tambo and
longer down Main street from the
deepot past the City Hotel or the
Farmers Rest to the Opry House,
marches the minstrel troupe with
cornet band-silver cornet band-and
throbbing snare:drums. and with
"carncross and Dixie" "Haverly's
Mastodons," Thatcher, Primrose and
West" Hi Henry's Minstrels." NC
Nish, johnson and Slavin." "Ailt Bar.
low and George Wilson" Many of
their spirits look down on us from
that happy land where there are no
oHe-night stands, afternoon parades.
hotels rotten and trains that must be
caught at 4 am. And perhaps those
spirits are whispering to US: old pal.
we made you laugh and we are happy
that now, though your shoulders
stoop and the tempo of your step is
largo, you sometimes think of us! Mr..
Bobby Newcomb, the silver-voiced
tenor, will now render that popular
ballad entitled, Down Where the
Pansies Crow"
Negro minstrelsy is not SO old as
many of you think it is. The first
bf these troupes of which the Ram
bier has record was the Virginia
Minstrels, playing at the Chatham
Street Theater. New York, in 1872,
with Dan Emmett, William Whitlock.
Dick Pelhah and Frank Brewer as
the dark particular stars. Dumble-,
don's Serenaders seems to have been
the second minstrel troupe, and it
was rafting bones and picking
banjos,. singing songs and cracking
jokesSthe same ones we hear to-
day-in 184S. Then came George
Christy's minstrels, and after that
famous troupe came Buckley's Pee
dee Minstrels.
Dan Emmett made an impress on
the music world which lasts today.
He wrote Dixie" tune and words,
and that song became the war song
of the Confederacy. Its stirring
merit is. acknowledged today. The
words which Dan wrote were half
doggerel and half-nonsense, and
many southern poets of note sup
piled new words during the civil
war. but the troops of the south
continued to sing the original lines:
Away down south in de land OBJ
cotton, cinnamon seed an de sandy
bottom" The lines that Emmett
wrote seem to be the only, ones re-
membered today, The eloquent ones