The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-01-31
ANVIL CHORUS WAS
SURELY APPRECIATED

The editor of the Star likes to hear
a good anvil chorus. And being, he
hopes, a good sport, he doesn't mind
acting the part of the anvil occasion
ally. Not the hammers but the tuning
forks of many of the musical experts
of Ocala have been binging on him
for forty-eight hours. The tuning
forks are by this time tired, but the
anvil, so far as we can see, is as good,
or bad, as ever.
It's thisserway:
Friday night, we went to hear Miss
Frieda Hempel sing at the. Temple
theater. We went, not to criticise but
enjoy ourself, and we paid for our
ticket. We enjoyed ourself very much.
We thought Miss Hempel had an ex-
cellent voice and was exceedingly easy
to look at. We thought her assistants
were also first-class in their parts.
Miss Hempel sang twelve songs. Ten
of them we thought were superb. One
we thought she failed in. One we
thought she didn't sing as well as it
could be sung.
Now, in the affairs of life, 83.1-3 per
cent is a mighty high average. If
you go hunting, shoot twelve times
and bring home ten birds, you are do
ing well. If you are lawyer and win
ten out of twelve cases, you are extra
smart. If you are a physician and
save ten out of twelve people who are
desperately sick, you are skilled in
your profession. If you are an editor
and ten out of every twelve of your
editorials win popular approval, you
are darnsite smarter than we are. In
Dragging on Miss Hempel ten times
out of twelve, we did lot better by
her than anybody ever does about US.
However, we didn't intend to write
anything about the performance. We
retired from the role of dramatic edt-
tor some two years ago, and have no
desire to resume it. The job was wish
ed on US along about the year of
grace 1908 by the proprietors of the
Star and the manager of the Marion
opera house, and if we didn't attend to
it so well, just think how much worse
some other people might have done.
It's thankless job. If you tell the
truth you get it where the chicken got
the ak, and if you don't tell the truth
you get it the same place. So we had
no intention of writing anything about
Miss Frieda's songfest.
But about 10 o'clock Saturday morn
ing, the news was conveyed to US that
Ed. Bennett wanted US to include in
the write-up of the performance the
fact that Friday was the twelfth
birthday of his theater, and that was
proof positive that Ed. expected some
thing to be writ. Now, we like to
oblige Ed, in whose Thespian temple
we have spent many pleasant hours
and, unless this last break has barred
US, expect to spend some more. So
we pounded off little piece
About the Temple
And Miss Hempel,
And let it go. AS soon as the paper
went to press that afternoon, we
climbed a train and went to Gaines
vile, which probably saved our life.
When we returned, we found the
music sharps, or some of them, buzz
zing like angry bees, tho the rest OF
the town seemed normal. Some of the
names we've been called in the last
two days, we have written down in
our memorandum book; we are going
to apply them to the enemy the next
time the U. S. goes to war.
This article isn't an apology. Hav.
ing read and re-read our piece, we
have concluded we are too hopelessly
obtuse to see where we have offended
Seems to us that considering we wrote
only what we believed to be the truth
that we were rather complimentary
Why should we write what we didn't
think, or not write what we did think
The reader will observe how ou1