Evening star., 1921-08-07

nent composer. the premier author
of marches, the pre-eminent band
master and the gentleman. There is
one chapter in the history Of this
clever and successful man which
seems never to have been more than
roughly outlined by a pen. That Is
the chapter of his boyhood. And 1t Is
not so easy to write it as one may
think John was born sixty-seven
years ago, and many of those boys
with whom he played have grown
gray boards and families ana nave
been translated to sphere from
which, though they may weave their
influence about US, yet they do not
seem to tell to US the things we would
like to know. Many of those who were
boys with John, and who are stil
here preserve fond memories of him,
berance or the recollection OF specihc
details and important facts, they De-
come vague and foggy.
Most of the members of Johns fam
father and his brothers George and
Antonio are dead. His youngest broth
er, Louis, has moved away from
Washington. His younger sister,
Elizabeth. lives In Grand Rapids,
Mich One sister. Katherine. older than
John, lives in Washington. A few old
neighbors of the Sousas still live
near the Sousa home, but most of
those who knew John as a boy are
no more. John from the time he was
born. in 1854. until he went away to
seek his fortune. in 1877, left few
records-no more perhaps than other
boys do. and when he returned to
Washington in 1880 as leader of the
Marine Band he was a busy man,
with many responsibilities. He left
the Marine Band and Washington in
1892, and that was twenty-nine years
ago. All the prominent public life
of John. covering more than forty
years. has been written. but those
years when he was a boy in Southeast
Washington, or ION the navy yard"
as We used to say, have been given
scant attention by biographers.
X +
JoHN'S father. Antonio Sousa, made
a strong impress upon the men,
ory of his neighbors and his other
friends. He lived in Southeast Wash
ington about thirty-eight years and
has been dead twenty-nine. but there
are living a great many men who
knew him well. When he was ad-
vancing in years many of his friends
were much younger than he. They
hold the good old man in affectionate
remembrance and tell of his traits and
sayings. Johns mother. after living
in Washington for fifty-four years.
died thirteen years ago, and one can
find a great number of persons who
knew her
Much of the life of Johns father has
never been written and never will be.
He did not talk much about his youth
in Spain and on the seas, because he
found so many things to interest him
in the present-that is. in what was
to him the present. He was not
retrospective man and was so busy
with things about him and SO proud
of John and Johns great career that
he put the past behind him and seems
not to have been initiated in that large
club whose members have as their
password II remember when l was
boy that my father said to me-" or
Uncle Tom told me" or Aunt Jane
took me-" etc; But the writer OF these
lines will tell you all that he has been
able to find out from many sources
about Antonio (the elder) Sousa.
In the first place, Antonio was a
gentleman in the liberal and accurate
significance of that much abused and
variously defined word. He was born
at Seville, Spain, ninety-seven years
ago. His family was Portuguese. set
tied for several generations In Spain.
and his father and mother were edu-
Gated people. The name "Sousa.
which American directory-makers,
clerks and scribes have had a hard
time spelling, is a very old Portuguese
name, and even the books on art, sci
ence, literature and the like present 1t
as Sousa, Souza, Soussa and Souzza,
but the most usual rendering IS
"Sousa," and that is the way Antonio
wrote his name. AS a few examples
of prominence of the surname "Sousa'
in Portugal, the Portugal-sprung en-
pire of Brazil and Spain. there were
Matteo de Sousa-Villalobos born 1888,
,~t Nf civ inc n.
tonic de Sousa, an author who wrote
in the early part of the seventeenth
century; Marquise de Sousa, Bernado
Xavier Pinto de Sousa, an early nine
teenth century author; Joao de Sousa,
born 1874, died 1872, Portuguese his
torian of note; Luis de Sousa, born In
1915, died in 1852, Portuguese artist:
Antonio Caetano de Sousa, scientist.
born in 1879, died in 1859. and a long
list of other Sousas. whose names ana
records are preserved in history.
Antonio's family in Spain was proml-
nent and influential Enough dropped
from the old mans lips to prove this
in his conversations with the families
Esputa, Repetti. Luca, Biondi. Gu1-
mond, Scala. Baptista, Tregina, Marco.
Viner, Prospect. Bonini. orange and
others of the old art and music colony
"of the navy yard" Antonio left home
ran away-at the age of twelve and
went to sea. Many other boys did the
same thing hundred years ago and
hundreds of years ago. Boys had
imagination then as they have 1t now:
The spirit of adventure possessed
them. The world was their oyster and
they meant to crack it. The mighty
door of the world, the great avenue OF
the world, the wonderful way OF the
world and a vast part OF the world
was the sea. Perhaps the sea was
the main world, and the strange lands.
marvellous coasts. wondrous people and
idyllic isles were but the seas acces-
sortes. The sea called him and he
went. He must have served in many
ships, and among them warships. He
served on a British warsh1p, and MS
Old friends remember that he was
musician in the band of British ship
in stirring times. About 1850 we find
Inn at the Brooklyn navy yard, a MEM
Der of an American warShip'S band.
The writer does not know that he serv-
ID in the American Navy during the
Mexican war. but he thinks he did.
and children of his old Spanish. French
and Italian friends in Southeast Wash
ington think they heard their fathers
tell that Antonio Sousa saw such serv-
ice. 1t might be settled by the records
of the Navy Department. but the man
who is writing this feels that the
search would be unsatisfactory. An
tonic might be there so disguised un-
der another name that he could not
be identified. Clerks and records have
spelled that name in a multitude OF
ways and many of them fantastic.
AS We hear "Sousa" pronounced
~ there is nothing difficult about It.
but as Antonio pronounced 1t before
he learned to speak English and as ne
pronounced it with his Spanish accent
even after learning English Ameri-
cans seemed to tie themselves in q