The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-06-26
VAN LOON GLAD
HE GAM PLAY
TROMBONE
Historian MarVeIs at Vigor Of
Musicians at New York
Convention
By HENDRIX VAN LOON.
Author of 1.-THE Story Of the Bible"


NEW YORK. June 26.-When !
was a small boy had an ambition
to learn to play the trombone.
Yesterday afternoon hunibly
thanked the muse of music because
she had stayed away from my
cradle and thereby had turned me
into a scribbler. rather than Il nlu-
stefan. What sort of lurGs these
thirty fellows in the gallery have
cannot possibly imagine. They
had played in a sort OF baphazard
fashion all day loLN Then at 1886
o'clock the sweltering crowd got a
chance to unlimber their pent.up
emotions. McAdoo had been pro.
posed a candidate for the ,presi-
dency. Any excuse tor action was
welcome to $4,000 people who were
slowly being boiled alive in a gil
gantic iron cauldron and who had
not had anything to eat since break
fast.
They jumped to their feet and
the band began to play. 1t matters
not what they played or now or
when or which or in what manner.
They kept well ahead OF the racket
made on the floor and that was all
that was expected Of them. They
have now been going full blast for
more than fifty minuIcs and they
toot as Justify as ever.
Mob Has Advantage.
OF course much might be said
about the mob on the floor. They
too have given of their best to the
general din that was supposed, and
~ he
and dull nominating speech of the
California Senator. But they did
not depend upon their vocal chords
enthusiasm which they tried to
create in favor of their candidate.
They could stamp and shout and
shrek and bark and roar and
screech and yell and moan and
scream and grunt and squall and
snort and wave their arms and
their coats and their suspender5
for sweltering heat makes all the
world akin, and manners go by the
board when the thermometer runs
out of gas), and they could boiler
and below and zip and zap and
break the legs Of their chairs and
the skulls of their neighbors las
a few attempted to dol and when
these varieties upon the ancient
theme of boHnbilation had carried
them to the point of exhaustion,
they stu could gasp for breath
with such energy and violence that
the fracas was never allowed to
descend below the point of a full.
minating hullaballoo until a suffi.
cient number of macadoodle-doos
had regained the strength neces-
sary for a continuation Of that ami
mated idiocy which upon such &C.
casions Is regarded as a manifesto
ton Of true devotion and loyalty.
You will tell me that I am old
and cynical, that no normal man
with red blood and three or four
square chins can remain unremoved
while standing on the shoulders
and heads of a couple of fellow
scribes who are rocked by the vio-
lence Of the explosion.
But heaven Is on my side.
THAT Is all very we'll" the gods
on our local Mount Olympus seemed
to say, but2 it2 is2 puny, 1t is a.
puppet.show for little human crea.
lures crawling on a fifth rate planet
and as helpless as beetles caught in
the rays of a candle. Then they
set down to show us what a real
noise could be like. They turned
on their lightning, they shook their
mighty thunderbolts. They opened
the sllace gates Of heaven and be.
hold. the proud mortals who but a
few minutes before were stamping
like centaurs and who had dared to
force an important issue by the an.
plication Of their organized wind
power were suddenly turned into
funny little bedraggled creatures.
scampering hither and yon, hiding
in doorways, offering their share in
the country's destiny for a. taxicab
or an umbrella.
Shakespeare was right but it is
too hot to remember exactly what
he said about US.
Copyright, 1924. by The Chriaty
Walsh EyndicataS