Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-14

John Kieran, who writes column OF
sport chat for the New York Times, re-
Gently told the diverting story OF a
rookie at a Florida training camp who
entertained the boys by playing one of
LISTS Hungarian Rhapsodies' on a
harmonica from sheet music resting on
silver stand.
Unusual, to say the least. But We
have seen-and heard-queerer than
that. You should have heard--and
seen--Virgil the cornetiSt, who no doubt
has settled down by this time.
Virgil came from small country
town where music was thing of brass
bands and parlor pianos. This was
before the day of the radio, almost be-
fore the monograph. When the boys
wanted some music they went to pay a
call on Sallie Jones, the village belle,
and stood around the pianoforte lout-
ishly singing the praises of certain
sweet Adeline.
Virgil. whose father was preacher
and whose mother was the daughter of
one, came by his classical name hon.
estly. The other children were named
Cicero, Horatius and Julius Caesar
Cicero played the bass drum, Horatius
the trombone and Julius Caesar the big
horn baritone, we believe it Is called.
Virgil shone on the cornet. When
little Virgie stepped out to the eight
footlights on the stage of the music
hall and held his shining instrument
ceeded only by the cascade of sounds
which he blew through it.
Virgil really could play the cornet,
in other words. He could make it stand
on it's hind lerS and chew air. He was
a big, powerful brute, who had the lung
capacity to instill respect into cornet.
X X X X
If there ever was a rube, however,
Virgil was he Cor it, should you say it?) .
Anyway, Virgil had never been any
place. 1t wasn't his fault. Nobody in
his home town had been any place. A
few of the older men had been up to
the big town." so miles away, only to
return singing the praises of home.
They were stuck up, up there, and no
mistake.
When Virgil went to College and
made the Glee Club it was almost
equivalent to joining the Navy and
seeing the world, only Virgil's world
was restricted to his native State. 1t
was world big enough for Virgil. how
ever. The boys of the club were divided
into pairs, and Virgil happened to draw
a nnlcKy young man from one OF the
big cities, chap who had been around
and knew how to act. as they say.
You see, Virgil didn't. There was no
occasion for acting at home. One just
lived. Nobody had ever seen a finger
bowl. There was basin in the kitchen
and big towel with red border on
roller behind the door.
The first thing Virgil ran into on
his virgin trip was Cimex lectularius
His mother had been too good house
keeper to ever have tolerated this
blood-sucking hemipterous insect, but
the hotel at which Virgil and his
"roomie" put up had no such ideals.
Quantities of Cimexes began to per-
ambulate the moment the lights were
out. Virgil's finicky roommate stood it
for almost 10 minutes, but at the end
of that time he turned on the light
and then sat up in chair for the
remainder Of the night.
Virgil awoke, inquired the cause of
the disturbance, smiled, rolled over, and
went back to sleep. "They won't bite
me-" he said before Inconsistencies
overlook him.
They didn't, either. He was much too
tough for any hemipterous insect that
ever lived.