Evening star., 1926-12-12
M U SIC
WILL ROGERS & QUARTET.

Several thousand Washington folks,
including a number of Congressman
and Walter Johnson, sat in the Audi.
torium last night and laughed until
their jaws ached at the shrewd WITH.
cisms OF Will Rogers, Poet lariat OF
America" Upstairs there was small
group of rebels who couldn't hear well
'way at the back, so they moved up
front. and when the ushers tried to
do their duty and protest, more people
at the rear came up front. Probably
as Mr.. Rogers would have put it, had
he noticed the strategic moves, that
was the way that the revolution start.
ed back in the middle of the eight
eenth century.
Mr.. Rogers gave two talks when
were prefaced with groups OF SONGS
well sung by the members OIL Tue
De Reszke Quartet. 1t looked as
though the quartet sang the first
gro,:p to entertain the folks who mad
been on time so they wouldn't MIND
having their toes tread on by tne
MANY who were late. And the second
group proved a life-saver TO aching
laws and dlaphragms. They sang
MANY songs which have become quite
familiar to all radio fans including
muchly curlicued versions or Ola
fayorites such as Drink to Me Only,
..Swanee River" and, by request,
Loves Old Sweet Song"
The audience responded with the
most enthusiasm to the negro spirit.
uals, Wasn't Dat a Wide River and
Swing Along Chillun." In these ano
other selections, Francis Lutner, mrs.
tenor. PLAYED the piano in addition TO
singing. The others of the quartet
are Floyd Townsley, tenor; Erwyn
Mutch, baritone, and Howard Kellogg,
basso. Each singer had an oppof-
tunity in one or another number Tor
n bit of solo work and their close
harmony was admirable.
Remembering the beautiful music In
the program this quartet gave mere
two wears ago when they first ap-
peared with Salvi, the harpist, 1t
struck at least one auditor that they
were estimating the public taste TOO
low.
Mr.. Rogers first talk was Europe,
as You Won't Find 1t in the Gulde
Book" and he proceeded to launch
unon the subject of Americans going
over the big pond en- masse. He re-
marked that we were bad enough as
individuals but taken collectively we
were something terrible" He talked
on conventions and opined that were
an egg-iaying contest held in CZecho-
sloyakia we would send more dele
gates and lay less eggs than any other
nationality present.
Mr. Rogers gave conventions as the
| real cause for all the good roads we
have in America, and stated that 1t
| was the practice of Americans going
! in gangs" that got us in wrong in
1 Europe" He touched also upon the
| Humanitarian mission" that Ameri-
cans seemed to feel toward every other
| nation that often brought US home
with our legs in splints." He poked
| fun at the many clubs that are formed
and accused Americans of having the
| "ioining fever with the obvious OBJ
| ject of "staying away from home for
/ lunch" He talked on the League of
Nations and American reservations. J"
He told Jokes on the Prince of Wales,
| the English Parliament and the ma
/, tional British sport of cricket.
In his later talk "On Anything or
| ANYBODY" he described amusingly
such high-light topics as Being the
First Guy Who Ever Laughed in This
Wop's Face" (the wop being Musso-
| linij. America, the Only Nation Still
| Using Air Space for Speaking Pur-
poses Only" and THE Night | Spent
With Cal" During the talk he picked
out several Congressman in the audi
ence. and even vaulted down to shake
hands with Senator Gore and Walter
Johnson. He spoke with tinge of re-
gret of the Gridiron dinner, which
kept many of his friends away, and
tossed a message for Nick" up TO
Miss Alice" Longworth in a box in
the center of the row in front of the
balcony.
Mr.. Rogers romped about with edu-
cation and religion, the K. K. X,
Ievolution, the new drainage canal in
Chicago, the letter he got from Sol
Bloom to the Pope, etc, etc, with
llariat accompaniment for the last half
hour of it and his audience apparently
settled tightly for the night. At last
he told them they simply must go
home and walked off the stage after
twirling his biggest lariat In his most
noted circle.