White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1929-11-15
CONvICTS MOAN AS
MUSICIAN Is FREED
Leaves San Quentin Famous
and Wealthy Man.

San Francisco.-There is secret
sorrow in the ranks Of San Quentin
prisons 1920 callous convicts. One
Of their number has been freed.
Scarcely a prisoner exists behind
the walls Of this great California
penitentiary but who does not be-
grudge to Damascus Garcia Gallur,
murderer, the freedom at last given
him.
True, these hardened criminals gave
the forty-seven-year-old Gallur a soul
stirring ovation the day before he left
the prison, late last month. Yet they
hated to see him 60.
Fourteen years ago Damascus Gal
lur had been sent there from Oakland
for killing August Hotchkiss, money
lender. Previously Gallur served time
for embezzlement. At the time he was
an obscure musician, and once was In
the band of John Philip Sousa.
When Gallur walked through the
gates of San Quentin on parole be-
cause of i'll health he did so as IA
nous and wealthy man. To his credit
in an Oakland bank Is $4,000, the
sum he had acquired while in San
Quentin. Gallur now is one of the
most widely known composers of
music. in America. And even more to
his credit are the San Quentin band
and the San Quentin orchestra, not
only the finest convict musical organi-
cations in the world, but recognized
by musical leaders as among the very
finest of such organizations in or out
side prison walls.
Ill Health Brings Parole.
Gallur was granted parole only be-
cause of Ill health. Recently he had
suffered paralytic stroke, slight of
nature, and Immediately there flooded
In on the board of state prison d.
rectors a deluge of pleas that he be
freed.
Thousands Of members of the Mu-
sicians' Union Of America pleaded his
cause. So did John Philip Sousa, Gal
li-Curci, Philip Shapiro, the late Paul
Steindorf, and others we'll known in
the musical world.
Sousa declares GaIlur is one of two
conductors who can lead band of
more than fifty in symphonies with
put once referring to the score. But
the only plea that the prison board
could recognize was the state of the
maestro's health.
While Gallur's band and orchestra
played only to those ears behind the
prison walls, his music during the past
Ia years has carried to many corners
Of the earth through the marches and
the overtures he has composed.
Presidents Hear His Music.
A waltz, MAY Day." dedicated to
the daughter of the captain of the
guard at San Quentin, brought Gallur
$1,000 in royalties. He won the Ma
tional Association of Music Clubs first
prize for the best march with num-
Der he composed for the National War
Mothers. The prize was $4,000. Gal
lur turned 1t over to the War Mothers
| for their work.
Perhaps his most famous compost
ton, his "Gold Stripe March," has
been made the official march of the
Veterans of Foreign Wars and has
been played before Presidents Coolidge
and Hoover.
While Gallur's bank account totals
$4,000, he is said to have amassed
b14S,000 during his term, the rest 60
Ing to charitable causes.
In the last two years Gallur has
been unable to sell his compositions,
due to new prison ruling forbidding
convicts selling their writings. He
has more than 900 compositions ready
for music publishers.
Gallur is said to have been offered
contract of $1,5OO per week to COM
pose music for talkies for Metro Gold
n-Mayer studios Louis Mayer is
known. to be among those who had
worked for the prisoners release.
Physicians are more or less dubious
over Gallur's physical condition and
doubt that he will ever be a we'll man.
But the indomitabIe Damascus SCOTS
at them.
81 shall be well, and shall lead a
mighty band some day." he says, but
none finer than those boys over be-
hind the prison wallis"