4

THE COLORED AMERICAN, WASHINGTON, D. C.

THE LAND OF FLOWERS.

Mrs. Victoria Earle Matthews Writes of Two Rising Sons of Florida—The Success of the Johnson Brothers—A Musician and Literateur.

Jacksonville, Fla., Special.—In the progressive life of Jacksonville, among our people the Johnson brothers hold a unique place. They are very popular and naturally lead the younger social element. They live at home with their parents and their maternal grandmother who though burdened with the weight of years and many infirmities evince the liveliest interest in all that concerns them; to her they are still "boys"—her idolized 'like-nc-other' "boys," and they are generally respected and lauded not only for their tender care of her, and the deference they pay

VICTORIA EARLE MATTHEWS

to her wishes, but their filial devotion to the homestead generally. The family own a comfortable dwelling on a quiet street in La Villa, one of the residence portions of the city. The home atmosphere is refined and gentle, interest naturally centering in the music room and library; both are simple in appointment but each bears the unmistakable indistress of its presiding genius. James W. Johnson known best perhaps as the author of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," is the elder; he is very quiet, almost grave, just the opposite extreme to his brother Rosamond, the composer. On first meeting him most people take him for the musical one. To many who have watched their progress and have enjoyed their popular songs and operas, which they have written and arranged together there is much about their suggestive of Gilbert and Sullivan, the famous English composers.

The harmony existing between the brothers is a matter of affectionate comment among Jacksonvillians. Many pretty stories are told at almost every little musical or literary gathering about the helpful influence exerted

upon the one by the other: some of the stories that I have heard not only abound in droll humor but record tender little tid-bits suggestive of that philosophy which only a right teaching of "Am I my Brother's keeper" can impart. I mention these things because to me they add strength and beauty to many of their compositions, and will I trust tend towards the destruction of the popular fallacy that links genius or even superior ability inseparably with unspeakable weaknesses and abnormal irregularities.

As far as I have been able to learn no man of our race in Jacksonville is more generally respected than James W. Johnson. From his boyhood it seems he was the steady, cool-headed boy—the boy that weigbed things found out what he wanted and waited until his turn came. With his brother Rosamond it was different. He is restless; full of the quality we call "vim," fun-

loving and genial; if he waits it is force of circumstances. He does not accept the philosophy of waiting from choice ever, too many substitutes for any plan, to wait long for even a cherished hope, better expresses his resourceful spirit. It is said that when he is most rebellious with fickle fortune and the world incidentally one look from his brother's grave eyes will calm his ruffled spirits as perhaps no other influence in his music-absorbed life can; and on the other hand when James the elder is in clined to turn unsatisfied from what life means to him and isolate himself with his books too much, the irrepressible mirth of the younger brother saves him from going to extremes, and in this way an even balance is preserved between them to the happiness of all concerned.

Not only as a song writer and contributor to the great magazines of the day is James W. Johnson known, but here in Jacksonville he has won an enviable record as principal of Stanton school. This school has a large staff of young lady teachers, and an enrollment of over eleven hundred pupils. This in itself is or should be an inspiration to all earnest young men who are ambitious to accomplish any worthy object. Mr. Johnson is barely out of his twenties and yet he has presided over this school several years. As a public speaker he is very dignified and always in demand where delicacy and nice discrimination are relied upon to give tone and proper direction to a program. His introduction of Paul Laurence Dunbar on his first appearance here was one of the "gem" numbers of a very choice program. By it he not only extended to his Poet-Friend with consummate grace true professionals courtesy but gave his own personal estimate of Dunbar the Poet, among other things he said:

"The case of the true worth of the Negro vs the opinion of the civilized world is on trial; and the burden of proof is upon the Negro. Whatever concessions of value public opinion might make must be made to him on account of his real, intrinsic merit. His stanchest friends cannot obtain them for him, neither can his bitterest enemies deprive him of them. Whatever judgment the world passes upon him will be decided by what he himself has achieved.

"The Negro has compelled a favorable opinion in many fields of activity, in this country, he had no claims to the field of literature until the race produced Paul Laurence Dunbar. As William Dean Howells the eminent critic, says: 'Mr. Dunbar is the first Negro of American birth to have achieved an infinite distinction in literature. He is the first to have studied the race objectively, and to have portrayed it aesthetically. Dunbar in his contribution to English letters can be compared only to Burns. Burns took the sweet Scotch dialect, and in it sang the beautiful and sterling qualities of the Scotch people; Dunbar has taken the humble Negro dialect, and in it, with tender sympathy and delicate art, he has given to the world not only the limitations but the aspirations of the race. He portrayed not only the quaint and wholesome humor, but, that which lies deeper, beneath it, the almost inexpressible longings of his people.

"France produced the great Alexander Dumas, a man of color; Russia produced the greater Alexander Pushkin, a man of color; and it has remained for America to complete the trinity by producing Paul Laurence Dunbar."

Prof. Rosamond Johnson is not without honor in this his native city. The people are justly proud of him as a composer. If he had done no more than produce the music of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" he would have redeemed himself to us all. "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is not only an anthem, but it is a revelation leading to and ending in a prayer. It is based upon what we, as a people, have come from, a saddened sense of what we are, and a trembling fear of what we may be, ending in a pair-drawn, scb-like prayer to God. The music is endearing, it soothes as it inspires. Like the real heart songs of our mothers it affects the singer as deeply as the listener, by a certain weirdly plaintive melody that lingers and lingers, like a subdued memory picture, long after the sounds have rolled away. From the beginning to the end words and music blend in tender pathos.

As an instructor of vocal and instrumental music Prof. Rosamond Johnson is very successful. One of his most accomplished pupils. Miss Hattie Hop-

["LIBERTY THEATRE", "42d Street, West of Broadway.", "THE K LAW @ E R L A N G E R A M U S E M E N T C O . - Owners\nKLAW @ ERLANGER, . . . . . . . . . . .

Clipping from ...

2536. NEW YORK N. Y., TRIBUNE.

March 10, 1903.

"DAS SUESSE MAEDEL."

IRVING PLACE THEATRE.

Southward the tide of musical comedy takes its way till even the Irving Place Theatre has at length yielded to the long assault. Last night was produced at that house a musical comedy, called "Das Suesse Maedel," written by Landsberg and Leo Stein, with music by Heinrich Reinhardt, and played by the Ferenczy Opera Company, of Berlin (the Frenzy Uproar Company, Weber & Fields would doubtless call it, with rough injustice). This musical comedy has enjoyed great popularity in Germany and Austria for a year, and a large audience was present for the American production. "Das Suesse Maedel" comes here labelled an operaetta. There is no need for quarrelling any more than possible over the sweetest girl, so let that point pass. A good musical comedy, under any other name, will please as much, and "Das Suesse Maedel" gave undoubted pleasure to everybody.

In point of costumes, scenery and chorus personality this German production leaves much to be desired. But it has a farce comedy plot that can be detected, even followed, by anybody who is passably familiar with the lyric of Schubert's "Serenade"; the dialogue, like a certain play now to be seen on Broadway, is quite as risque as it is frisky, and the music is tuneful and charming quite beyond that of the ordinary musical comedy matinee to the northern or temperate zone of the Tenderloin. There is, to be sure, a poverty of choral pieces; and a certain monotony of inspiration may be noticed in Herr Reinhardt's score, which an American manager would obviate by calling on Cole and Johnson. The songs, however, are all consistent to the atmosphere of the comedy, which is a long swing in compensation.

The leading part, that of the sweet girl, was played and sung by Fraulein Mia Werber, a little woman with a large voice and great vivacity. She made herself a favorite at once. Siegmund Kunstadt, in the tenor role of her lover, won favor also, and the comedy parts were well played. Edmund Loewe, especially, by a topical song, which introduced a verse in reference to New-York, ending to the strains of "Yankee Doodle," aroused as noisy a burst of enthusiasm as if he had sung "Die Wacht Am Rhein." Fraulein Henny Wildner, cleverly disguised as Miss May Robson (except for the star spangled stockings), was effectively humorous. The whole company were called before the curtain after the second act, and Fraulein Werber was quite smothered with flowers.

ELSIE DE WOLFE IN A NEW PLAY.

THE FOCUS

A CLEVER TRIO

Cole & Johnson Brothers—An Interesting Trio of Colored Composers and Singers

Cole & Johnson Brothers constitute one of the most interesting trios of colored men in the world connected with the theatre. As a song writing firm they stand easily among

the first and best in the country. For the last three years they have contributed numbers to many of the leading musical plays that have been produced in New York.

Their most notable successes are: "Nobody's Lookin' But de Owl and de Moon," "Come Out Dinah on the Green" and "Tell Me Dussy Maiden," sung in the "Beauty and the Beast." "The Maiden With the Dreamy Eyes," sung by Anna Held in the "Little Duchess," and "Under the Bamboo Tree," sung by Marie Cahill in "Sally in Our Alley."

They are now at work on numbers for two of Klaw & Erlanger's productions and also for the new plays of Miss Cahill and James T. Powers.

They are young men, and not only talented but also educated. They were all born in the South.

Bob Cole, the senior member of the firm, was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and attended Atlanta University. He began his theatrical career with Sam T. Jack, and for four years traveled at the head of his own company in "A Trip to Countown," making a reputation as a comedian of no small ability.

The Johnson Brothers were born in Jacksonville, Fla. J. W., the elder, attended Atlanta University, from which institution he graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1894. Rosamond, after leaving the public schools of Jacksonville, went to Boston, where he studied music for six years in the New England conservatory and under private teachers. He is, therefore, a thorough musician. The Johnson Brothers came to New York four years ago with a comic opera. The opera is not yet produced, but it has served to introduce them to most of the musical people connected with the stage in New York.

They shortly afterward joined hands with Bob Cole, and, through his practical knowledge of the stage, the opera was reconstructed.

These young men, by combining their several talents, dramatic, literary and musical, have formed one of the strongest writing combinations of the kind in the country. They are versatile and confined to no one style. They write anything from a "coon" song to an opera.

Beside their prominence as writers, Bob Cole and Rosamond Johnson constitute the famous vaudeville team known as Cole & Johnson.

# New Amsterdam Theatre
42d Street, west of Broadway.

KLAW & ERLANGER,

Managers.

The New Amsterdam Theatre and Aerial Gardens Planned and Designed by A. L. Erlanger and F. Richard Anderson, and executed by Herts and Tallant, Architects.

WEEK BEGINNING MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 21, 1904
Matinees Wednesday and Saturday.

## KLAW AND ERLANGER
PRESENT THE LATEST LONDON DRURY LANE SPECTACLE,
# HUMPTY DUMPTY

By J. HICKORY WOOD and ARTHUR COLLINS.

Adapted to the American Stage by JOHN J. McNALLY.

Lyrics and Music, unless otherwise indicated, by COLE and JOHNSON,
(J. W. Johnson, Bob Cole, Rosamond Johnson.)

Ballets by ERNEST D'AUBAN.

Presented under the Stage Direction of HERBERT GRESHAM and NED WAYBURN.

Business Direction, JOSEPH BROOKS. Manager, EDWIN H. PRICE.

### FIRST ACT.

> "If this egg should tumble down,
> You'll find a daughter, lose a crown."

The moment of the curtain's rise an egg is shown of monstrous size. The sleepy soldiers of the king guard this extraordinary thing, when, to the populace's cheers, the royal cook-lady appears with Peter, her most hopeful son, a limb, if there was ever one. Then pretty little Blossom too the long-lost princess, comes in view; while Mary, with her heart long set on a gigantic omelet, to the untold dismay of all, contrives to make the big egg fall. The Fairy Mirth, with gracious mien, brings Humpty Dumpty on the scene; then with her magic wand right soon she summons to her Panta-loon; next Columbine and Harlequin; and bids all let the fun begin.

1. Opening Chorus of King's Guards (Glover).

2. Chorus of Villagers.

3. Song—"Mary from Tipperary," Frank Moulan.

4. Ensemble—"The Egg Has Fallen Down."

5. Song—"I Am the King" (Cole and Johnson and Solomon), George Schiller.

### SCENE 1—THE PALACE WALL.

(BRUCE SMITH.)

### TABLEAU CURTAIN DOWN 30 SECONDS.

Here in this scene is plainly shown a mighty power behind the throne. King Sollumm on the throne may sit, but little Mary, cook, is IT. The Princess Blossom seeks the king, but first must find a magic ring before he will acknowledge her, and this, of course, makes quite a stir. Prince Rudolph sees her in her plight, and madly loves her at first sight; while Peter, Mary's progeny, spoons with the gay Princess Marie.

1. Chorus—"Will He Ever Smile Again?"

2. Duo—"Pussy and the Bow-wow," Nellie Daly and John McVeigh.

3. Finale—"We Go to Find the Ring."

### SCENE 2—THE THRONE ROOM.

(R. C. McCLEERY.)

Programme continued on second page following.

BROKAW BROTHERS

Men never subject men to closer criticism in points of appearance than on occasions requiring Evening Dress. The lines are so finely drawn that transgression is easy. It is safest to select a clothier who knows, and trust him.

FAULTLESS EVENING DRESS
FOR THE
DINNER—BALL—THEATRE.

Nearly half a century at

Fourth Avenue and Astor Place

AUTOMOBILES FOR HIRE.

High Grade Touring Cars for
hire, by hour, day or week.

WOOLSTON & BREW,
152 West 56th Street.

'PHONE,
4060 Columbus.

Leave Orders
at Box Office.

A minister recently prayed for
those of his congregation who were
"too proud to kneel and too laiy to
stand."

Good Bye! Superfluous Hair, Good Bye!

A visit to our Institute means the end of your unsightly disfigurement. No matter how coarse your growth, we guarantee to remove your Hair permanently or refund your fee. 2 to 5 treatments sufficient in all cases. Treatment is absolutely painless and harmless. We have successfully treated, by our new method, 1800 patients since May, 1902, and will cure you. It is up to you.

Dr. Grossman, the world-renowned Hair Specialist, attends to every case personally. Treatment, $3.

Dr. Grossman's Depilatory Institute,
Tei. 1607 Columbus. 142 West 64th Street.

Office Hours, 9-5 or Appointment.

Alcohol, Opium, Drug Using.

The disease yields easily to the Double Chloride of Gold Treatment as administered at the KEELEY INSTITUTE, White Plains, N. Y.
Elegantly appointed new and modern Institute Building.

Address: KEELEY INSTITUTE,
WHITE PLAINS, N. Y.

JOHN J. BROWN, General Manager.
Communications confidential.

DO NOT CONFUND this Champagne with another brand of somewhat similar name. Be sure to ask for none but the best, which is
PAUL RUINART & CO'S Champagne

HUMPTY DUMPTY.

"He had a great fall."

So have we, and we'll have a great
winter, too—our fall and winter overcoats and
suits are so very good.

Rogers Peet & Co.
258-842-1260 Broadway--3 Stores
New York

New Amsterdam Theatre.

Cast continued.

THE FAIRY QUEEN OF MIRTH.................... FREDERICKA RAYMOND

Whose magic can summon to her back
An opera cloak or a sealskin sacque.

THE DEMON OF MISRULE.................... ARTHUR CONQUEST

(The Guardian of the Mystic Ring in Scene 3, Act I., and the Parrot in Scene 2, Act II.)

An acrobatic, erratic chap
You never can catch in any trap.

ALICE, a Cat.................... DAVID ABRAMS

You've heard her nights on the back-yard fence.
Isn't her high C just immense?

YANKEE, a Dog.................... HILARION CEBALLOS

Defying butchers, those things accrurs'd,
To do their worst—aye, their wienerwurst!

UNDINE.................... MLE. GRIGOLATIS

Sweet as the seawind's soft caress;
Supremely happy with just one dress.

NEPTUNE.................... J. CLENEAY MATHEWS

As long as the mermaids he can pet
He doesn't mind being out in the wet.

THE GUARDIAN OF THE MYSTIC RING........ EUGENE EVERETT

(In Scene 1, Act III)

Sprites—Rosalie Ceballos, Hilarion Ceballos, Frank Connors and William Beattie.
The King's Men, Maids of Honor, Courtiers, Jesters, Etc.

THE GRIGOLATIS TROUPE OF AERIALISTS.

Costumes designed by Comelli. Made by Alias, Morris Angel & Son, B. J. Simmons. Mrs. Hannam, J. A. Harrison, Ltd., Landloff, H. & M. Rayne, Winternitz, Madame Gloag Francois et Fernal, Baruch.

Costumes for Specialties designed by F. Richard Anderson.
Made by Klaw & Erlanger Costume Company.

Shoes by Cammeyer. Wigs by Clarkson, London, and Hepner, New York.

Electrical Effects by H. Bissing & Co.

EXECUTIVE STAFF FOR KLAW AND ERLANGER.

Ned Wayburn............ tage Director
Thomas C. Phillips} Stage Managers
William Plunkett}
Frederick Solomon........ Musical Director
(Of all Klaw and Erlanger's Enterprises)
Mme. Sarocco......... Ballet Mistress

Mrs. A. B. Fenner Wardrobe Mistress
Mrs. ila Baker Assistant Wardrobe Mistress
William Hoover. Stage Machinist
Albert E. Durbrow Assistant Stage Machinist
John Brunton Property Master
Frank Detering Electrician

THE SOHMER PIANO USED HERE EXCLUSIVELY.

SOHMER & CO'S Salesrooms, Sohmer Building, Fifth Avenue, Cor. 22d St., N. Y.

A. D. T. Messengers furnished at box office.

HAAS

TAILORED GOWNS

Moderate Prices

Formerly of the Firm
Haas Bros., W. 31st St.

53 W. 39th St.

Connoisseurs say that C. C. Shayne has the handsomest collection of Russian Sables ever landed in this port.

THE OPPORTUNITY to cheapen quality of manufactured goods when the cost of production is notably increased by outlay for labor, or for the material employed, is alluring enough to tempt the adoption of ways and means to reduce standard. The same inducement might apply to periods of depression, when the cheaper grades of manufactured wares have an increased sale, and when many concerns resort to reduced quality and price in order to sustain their volume of sales; therefore, maintenance of quality, under all circumstances, is something to be commended. There are many examples of this wholesome business policy, and in this connection the house of Earl & Wilson, manufacturers of the collars and cuffs, deserves great credit; for, since the foundation of the house, it has never entered into competition with cheaper-made goods, but has always maintained quality and price--which explains why its goods have such a great sale throughout the United States.

—Clothier and Furnisher.

Merit Commands Success.

The remarkable success of the SOHMER piano is explained in one word—merit. Wherever the SOHMER is used it is instantly recognized as a first-class instrument in every respect, and its users naturally speak of its merits to their friends; hence the enormous sales.

From The Independent, N. Y.

At Important Dinners, or at times when sentiment demands that only the best of wine is worthy of the occasion, Pommery Champagne is chosen without hesitation. Those best qualified to judge champagne upon its merits always select Pommery.

32

2

THE BULLETIN OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

ATLANTA, GA., NOVEMBER, 1903

Issued monthly, during term time, from
the University Printing Office.

Entered at the Atlanta, Ga., Post Office
as second class mail matter.

Subscriptions at 25 cents a year may be
sent to the treasurer of Atlanta University.

THE ATLANTA UNIVERSITY ORCHESTRA

Occasional combinations for the r-
dering of instrumental music have been
formed among our students, but the or-
ganization of an orchestra, and its per-
sistent maintenance, are of recent origin.
Nearly three years ago the present or-
chestra was inaugurated, but its growth
was slow and somewhat uncertain for
the first year. It then became more firm-
ly established, and last year was a fixed
feature in the musical work of the insti-
tution. Its services were sought in the
city more than its members felt them-
selves able to respond, and we felt that
we had good reason to be proud of it.

This present year new talent has come
in, and we feel still more gratified at its
work. It has appeared at the concert
Oct. 30, at public rhetoricals, and at the
meetings of the Young Men's Christian
Association.

The leader from the first has been
C. C. Owens ('04). The present make-up
of the orchestra is: Violin, C. C. Owens
('04), A. L. Wright ('06), A. Graves (J.
P.); mandolin, E. C. Williams ('05),
J. F. Jenkins ('04); piano, A. G. Dill ('06);
cornet, T. B. Harper ('05); guitar, R. G.
Lockett ('05).

MUSICAL COMPOSITION BY NEGROES

Every new avenue of employment
entered by Negroes—every new endeav-
or successfully undertaken by them—
furnishes gratifying evidence that the
dormant powers of the race are awak-
ening and that the much desired diver-
sification of their activities, so essen-
tial to all true progress, is surely being
brought about. In this regard the work
of three young Negroes who are collab-
orating in the field of musical compo-
sition and authorship under the firm
name of Cole and Johnson Brothers.
becomes of especial interest.

To these young men are to be credit-
ed a considerable number of the most
popular songs of the day, such as "Un-
der the Bamboo Tree," "A Congo Love
Song," "The Mississippi Belle," "A
Katydid, a Cricket and a Frog," "Mag-
daline, my Southern Queen," and "The
Animals' Convention;"—and their au-
thorship includes both the words and
the music of their songs. Some of the
most popular singers of the day have
chosen these songs for public ren-
dering, and several singers are said

to have been largely indebted to them
in winning their own way to popular fa-
vor. President Roosevelt, Mark Twain,
and the musical critics of *The New York
Tribune* and other prominent journals
have warmly praised the productions
of this unique musical firm. Natural-
ly, these young Negroes are finding
much profitable employment in meet-
ing the demand for new songs for pub-
lic rendering.

Nor is this all. Songs that are
made popular by public singers are
immediately asked for in the music
stores. And so it has come about
that the copyright publications of Cole
and Johnson Brothers are bringing
them in a very respectable income,
aside from their revenue from other
sources. Two members of the firm,
Robert Cole and Rosamond Johnson,
spend a portion of their time in the
public rendering of their own work.
The other member, James W. Johnson,
is the more distinctively literary mem-
ber of the firm, and works wholly in
private.

The success of these Negroes has not
come about without preparation. Rob-
ert Cole and James Johnson some years
ago were students in Atlanta Univer-
sity, the latter being a graduate from its
college course, while his brother Rosa-
mond Johnson was for six years a stu-
dent of voice and piano at the New Eng-
land Conservatory of Music, in Boston.
While a student in Atlanta, James
Johnson not only excelled in all of the
work of the mechanical department and
of the printing office, but also took high
rank as a general student, won the
highest prizes for composition and or-
tory, and was a prominent member of
the University quartet. Since his grad-
uation in 1894 he has been, until recent-
ly, principal of a public colored school
in Jacksonville, Florida, the largest of
all the schools of the state, with over a
thousand children and about a score of
teachers, his work there being inter-
rupted by the great Jacksonville fire.
In a recent private letter, in speaking
of his present occupation, he said that
he had not abandoned his more serious
work, and that it was his intention
to enter Columbia University this fall
for further study. He will carry with
him there not only his successful ex-
perience as a school principal, but also
that of the editorship of a daily news-
paper and of a private study of law
that secured him practice in the su-
preme court of Florida.

In the letter just mentioned, James
Johnson wrote: "I am coming to see
that the future of Atlanta University
will depend largely upon its graduates.
As I am blessed, I want to help bless
Atlanta University so I enclose you a
small donation toward the general fund.
I have also done a little soliciting and
enclose donations from my brother and
Mr. Cole." Neither one of the three
cheques was "small but each was for a
generous amount, and they have been
warmly appreciated by those who are

bearing the financial burdens of the Uni-
versity. We trust that the example
thus furnished may give encouragement
and incentive to all our graduates to
give as they have been prospered to the
Institution that has prepared them to
prosper. And we wish continued and
uneasing success to the firm of Cole
and Johnson Brothers.

THE ANIMALS' CONVENTION

By Cole and Johnson Brothers

Once der was a meetin' in de wilderness,

All de creatures of creation dey was dar,

Brudder Rabbit, Brudder Possum, Brudder Wolf,

Brudder Fox,

King Lion, Mister Tarraplu, and Mister Ba'r'

De question for discussion was, "Who is de bigges'
man?"

Dey 'pointed old Jedge Owl to decide;

So he polished up his spectacles, and put' em on his
nose.

An' in dese words Jedge Owl he replied:

Brudder Wolf am mighty cunin',

Brudder Fox am mighty slk.

Brudder Tarraplu and Possum kinder small;

Brudder Lion mighty vicious.

Brudder 'ar he sorter 'piccions.

Brudder Rabbit you 'se de cutes' of dem all.

Dey caused a great confusion 'mongst de animals.

Ev'ry creature claimed that he had won de prize;

Dey disputed, an' dey arg'ed, and dey growled, an'
dey roared.

An' dem pretty soon de dust began to rise.

Brer Rabbit he Jes' stood aside, an' urged 'em on to
fight.

Brer Lion he mos' tobe Brer Ba'r in two;

An' when dey was all so tiad dat dey couldn't catch
der bref.

Brer Rabbit he Jes' grabbed de prize an' flew.

Brudder Wolf am mighty cunin' etc.

Light and Shade

The Next Step in Southern Education

Mr. Charles L. Coon, in the Novem-
ber *Southern Workman*, writes concerning
what he regards as the next step in
Southern education. It is certainly
true that the better training of teachers
is the imperative need, and it is just
this need which we, in this institution,
are striving earnestly to supply. We
wish it were true in Georgia that there
were "many town and city graded
schools with a partly or wholly devel-
oped high-school course of study." In
the larger cities, as Atlanta, Savannah,
Augusta, Macon, there is nothing of
the kind, in the public school system.
We quote Mr. Coon:

The next step in Southern educational pro-
gress is the better training of the teachers
who are now teaching in the public schools.
There are many forces already organized
which should be employed to better the train-
ing of the rural teachers. In every Southern
state there are many town and city graded
schools with a partly or wholly developed
high-school course of study. It seems wholly
practicable to make these schools, with their
teachers, supervisors, and superintendents,
agencies for the better training of the country
teachers.

The very first part of the problem is a defi-
nite, suggestive, graded course of study. The
next part of the problem is the county sum-
mer school so organized as to instruct teach-
ers in the application of that course of study;
and finally, the intelligent supervision of the
class work done by teachers under guidance
of such a definite, suggestive, graded course
of study as I have mentioned. In a word,
the country schools must be supervised as
intelligently as the city or town schools.
When that is done, we shall have taken the
next step in Southern educational progress.

AMERICA'S LEADING MUSICIANS

195

JAMES W. JOHNSON

gorgeous spectacle, which recently enjoyed a sixty night run at the Amsterdam theatre, and which drew thousands to it usually every evening, was written by these masters, for such they are. They have recently signed a contract to write the music for the plays of Klaw and Earlanger, the most successful theatrical managers in America.

An idea of the extent to which their musical ability has been appreciated by the world, may be gained in to better way than by the royalties which have come to them. Last year alone, the royalties on their songs amounted to $28,000. Five years before at the end of the year they owed their publishers $1,500.

These men have made a new thing

out of Negro music, and such that the Afro-American people are not ashamed of! A new music was demanded, and it is gratifying that the race had within it the men to write it. And they wrote it so the whole world would sing.

Mr. James W. Johnson, the poet of the Company, is a gentleman of rare merit and ability. He is a graduate of Atlanta University, and hold its Masters's degree. For a number of years he was principal of the public schools in Jacksonville. He has written, and still writes, poetry that is poetry.

We shall hope that Mr. Johnson will give out something permanent, and worth while [in fiction or verse, which he can do it he so desires.

BOB COLE

THE COLORED AMERICAN MAGAZINE

# An Adventure in the Big Horn Mountains
Or, The Trials and Tribulations of a Recruit

BY EUGENE P. FRIERSON

Squadron Sergeant-Major, 10th Cavalry, U. S. Army

## PART I

EARLY in October, 1893, a Squadron of the Tenth Cavalry, consisting of Troops B, E, G and K, stationed at Fort Custer, Montana, proceeded on its annual practice march under command of Lieut.-Col. D. Perry. "Practice March" is a march made by troops, foot and mounted, annually, for the purpose of giving "recruits" (young soldiers) an idea of field service, a knowledge essential to the duties of a soldier in time of actual warfare, and to give older soldiers more practice and experience in the duties and knowledge pertaining to the same.

Each troop, with but few exceptions, was filled with recruits who had never crossed the plains of that wild, historical country before. But all were filled with "field aspiration" and were as gleeful as their older comrades in taking the field. The course of march was to a point about 45 miles southwest of the fort leading along the Big Horn River to the Big Horn Mountains, thence by return through the Little Horn Valley, by the historical Custer Battle Field to post, traversing an entire distance of more than 120 miles. The period of the march was only ten short Montana days. The first day out from the fort found a great many of our "recruit aspirants"

wishing that they were at home by their mothers' side, or at least in post, for their seating capacity was very much worn from fare, wear and tear, occasioned by their inability to maintain a firm seat in the saddle during several miles of the regulation gait of eight miles an hour. One of the most effected aspirants was, with much regret, the writer of this story.

The soldiers were, of course, a jollier set of men than their would-be recruit comrades, for some of them had "been there" many times before in actual warfare against hostile Indians.

Nothing was very certain with the younger soldier until after "Mess Call" (supper), when all were soon stretched out upon their improvised beds, having unconditionally succumbed to the effects of his first day's experience, leaving the old soldier awake to participate in the usual camp fire yarns. However, the recruit was persistent in his determination to accomplish the journey without casting discredit upon his ability as a cavalryman, the next day having closed with him in a far better condition to endure a long, continuous journey.

All went very well with the boys for several days. About the fifth day out from post the command remained over

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work, yet there are probably admirers of "Charles
Auchester" still living. While I was musing, Mr.
Henderson worked. Here is an extract from his ar-
ticle, — I wish that I had written it:

All that is really musical in these "musical" novels is the chatter about music and musicians. The principal persons are generally in the musical profession. The ostensible purpose of the novel is to show the effect of the pursuit of music on the development of human character. It would be quite as much to the point to show the effect of excessive listening to music upon such development. Indeed, it might be a good deal more so, for the listener is the one whose emotions are affected. It is the hysterical woman, lacking an avenue for the expenditure of her nervousness, who exhibits the most frequent and distressing signs of excitement by music and musicians. The musician himself thinks chiefly about the technics of his art. One may pass half a lifetime among singers without hearing more than one word in ten thousand that bears on the emotional content of the music. The rest of the words will be about the interpretative means.

The pianist talks about his finger exercises and his pedaling, and the singer about the employment of the "high chest position" or "nasal resonance." The musical journals are filled with letters, most of them couched in terms of acerbity, about vocal method. That is what the singing teachers teach and their pupils study. There is no shouting from the housetops about the emotional experience through which the singer passes in the interpretation of such rôles as Marguerite or Isolde. The chances are that Isolde has centered most of her thought on the discovery of a material which will make a good scarf to wear from the steps, and that Marguerite, before entering the church to cry out her despair, has been scolding the stage manager for putting the *prie-dieu* in the wrong place.

The musical novel gives no thought to these matters. They make dull reading. These books are full of nonsensical talk about the soul-influence of music.

PHILIP HALE.

A Eulogy of Rag-Time

COMPARED with the efforts of the American composer to find a distinctive and national mode of expression, the anguish of a political party in travail of a platform is as the infinitesimal pain of a school of monads. The tendency of the native composer is, like that of the easy politician, to straddle; to represent everything in general, nothing in particular, and be perfectly inoffensive in glittering terms.

The radicals and the outsiders object to this negative policy. / But they can find nothing better to suggest as a national musical issue, than the Afro-American folk-song. | Antoninus Pius Dvôřak gets the credit for a theory which he only raked out of the waste-basket of ancient discussion that raged long before he discovered America. Ever since the Fiske University Jubilee singers and the Christy Minstrels went proselyting over into Macedonia, we have been counseled to take up the banjo for a lyre and put the chains of slavery on our Meistersinger. But our composers would none of this Haverley make-up. They would reel you off a Sarabande or a Tarantella,

a Saltarello or a Chaconne with most academic spontaneity; but never anything so remote as a Danse de Nègre. A Jig (if you spelled it Gigue); but a Clog?— Richter forbid! Something in Slav-ton, with pleasure; but never a note in Slave-tone.

In recenter years, the Yankee musicker has come off his high horse enough to be recognizable. Henry Schoenefeld and Maurice Arnold have done scholarly work in Ethiopian color; Mr. Sousa has made a brilliant scherzo with blatant trombonery and roustabout function. / But I doubt that American music will ever truly base its serious moods, its adagios and sich, on negro modes, for, after all, to the average American the music of the slaves is almost as curious and as foreign as the Egyptian, before the streets of Cairo were brought here on Aladdin's carpet.

Meanwhile, perhaps, the negroes themselves will rise to the emergency and develop the vast potential significance of their own school. A number of full-blooded negroes are now composing a class of music which is remunerative enough to stir them to ambition, and which is today only rivaled in vogue by Wagner opera. These men are musically illiterate, and do not write out their own melodies or accompaniments. But that is a detail which time will correct. Milton, you know, had to have his poetry taken down by his daughters. It was none the less his poetry; and the intervention of what is known to the trade as the "arranger," does not separate the negro composer vitally from his work.

The negro music of slavery days was largely pathetic; and no wonder! *Aus meinen grossen Schmerzen* — sang Heine and Franz. But out of grief came also the reaction; and if negro music has its *Go down, Moses*" (a theme of nobility and fervor hardly less than the Siegfried sword *motif*), so it had also its hilarious banjo-plucking and its characteristic dances. It is the latter mood that is having a strange renascence and is sweeping the country like a plague of clog-hopping locusts.

Rag-time music meets little encouragement from the scholarly musician. It has two classes of enemies: the green-eyed, blue-goggled fogy who sees in all popular music a diminution of the attention due to Bach's works; and the more modern scholar who thinks he has dismissed the whole musical activity of the negro by a contemptuous word.

"It is only a distorted reminiscence of Scotch lyrics; behold the Scotch 'snap.'"

So much for the solemnities of the Ethiopian humor; the rag-time craze is puffed away with equal ease:

"It is only a distorted reminiscence of Spanish and Mexican dances; behold the syncopation!"

But neither the reproach of "Reminiscence!" nor the equal odium of "Innovation!" has ever succeeded against a vital musical idea, and I feel safe in predicting

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ing that rag-time has come to stay, that it will be taken up and developed into a great dance-form to be handled with respect, not only by a learning body of negro creators, but by the scholarly musicians of the whole world.

To attempt to prove what the future is going to do, would be idle; and I must rest content with trying to describe rag-time music as it is, after pausing to remind the sceptic that all oaks were once acorns; that the venerate sonata was once a bundle of popular dances; that all national musics are founded on the groundwork of humble and unlettered and unknown musicians, whose only thorough-bass was natural talent and emotion; and that such dignified forms as the Courante, Gavotte (with its partner Musette), Menuet, Tambourin, Polonaise, Mazourka, Valse,— what not? —are all of most plebeian origin, taken up from the populace by the scholar, and formulated and modified to his needs. The dignified Pavane was a Peacock dance; the Sarabande (sanctified by Bach!) was named for its inventor, a Spanish ballet-master; the Tarantella is supposed to represent the frenzy due to the bite of a tarantula.

If rag-time were called tempo di raga or rague-temps, it might win honor more speedily. Or if the word could be allied to the harmonic ragas of the East Indians, it would be more acceptable. What the derivation of the word is, I haven't the faintest idea. The negroes call their clog-dancing, "ragging," and the dance, a "rag." There is a Spanish verb, raer "to scrape," and a French naval term ragué, "scraped," both doubtless from the Latin rado — and in some such direction the etymologists may find peace, for the dance is largely shuffling.

The dance is a sort of frenzy interrupted with frequent yelps of delight from the dancer and the spectators, and accompanied by the latter with banjo-strumming and clapping of hands and stamping of feet. The banjo-figuration is very noticeable in the rag-music and the division of one of the beats into two short notes is perhaps traceable to the hand-clapping; every American is familiar with the way the darkey pats his hands with two quick slaps alternating with the time-beating of the foot. Something like this effect is seen in the Bolero and in the accompaniment to the Polonaise. The so-called "snap" may be traced to the quick slap of the heel and toe of the foot in sharp succession.

Syncopation is an unexpected visitant in negro music, and perhaps it is as well to admit at once, to avoid argument, that this is borrowed from the Cuban dance, the Habanera. The first half of a rag-time measure often resembles this occasional meter in the

Habanera, ♩ But though I am fairly familiar

with the music of the Spanish races on this continent, I must say that rag-time bears them only the faintest possible resemblance in letter and spirit. It has almost as much kinship with the Hungarian Dances of Brahms and the Slavic Dances of Dvôřák. It has much of the abandon of a Friska, but in essence rag-time is utterly distinct, racy, and shiftlessly chaotic. I defy the best reader in the world to catch the swing of it at first sight.

To formulate rag-time is to commit synecdoche, to pretend that one tone is the whole gamut, and to pretend that chaos is orderly. The chief law is to be lawless. The ordinary harmonic progressions are not to be respected; the dissonances are hardly to be represented by any conventional notation, because the chords of the accompaniment are not logically related to the bass nor to each other, nor to the air. It is a tripartite agreement to disagree. In this beautiful independence of motion the future contrapuntalist will fairly revel; the holy fugue itself offers no more play to ingenuity.

The bass is metronomically exact, as a rule, and as thumpily discordant as you might imagine it to be if a heavy-handed negro should give all his eyes to his right hand, and let his left thump the piano where it would. I have selected a few examples of rag-time rhythm which may be of interest:

A bit of the accompaniment to "ALL COONS LOOK ALIKE TO ME."

From "IF YOU GO, WHY, THIS WILL BRING YOU BACK."

From "NO COON CAN COME TOO BLACK FOR ME."

From "TAKE YOUR CLOTHES, AND GO."

Air and accompaniment of "I HOPE THESE FEW LINES WILL FIND YOU WELL."

Air and accompaniment from "I GUESS THAT WILL HOLD YOU."

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Mr. Ben Harney is believed to have been the first Caucasian to translate rag-time to the piano. He learned it from a negro whose songs he accompanied, and made it the rage in Chicago and the West long before it was heard of in the East.

The negro has naturally a wonderfully correct ear and a mellow voice; to express certain of his moods, however, he assumes an imperturbable contempt of the key that would turn a German opera-singer green with professional jealousy. I have heard Mr. Ernest Hogan sing his exceedingly ingenious satire on his own race, "All Coons Look Alike to Me," with an impudent determination to keep out of key and out of time that was simply fascinating. Another curious feature of the singing of these songs is the interpolation of the syllable "a" till they sound like the broken English of an Italian. I have even heard this extreme case: "I'm a hust-a-ling-a coon-a, and-a that's-a just-a what-a I-a am."

The rag-time, then, as it is played and sung is an effort to translate to the piano the dance-rhythm, the banjo-accompaniment, and the almost inarticulate ululation of the negro as he expressed himself on the plantation. The songs sung to this music are at present monotonously devoted to the generally inelegant and unconventional quarrels between lazy buck negroes and their hot-tempered mistresses, money playing an important part — chiefly, no doubt, because it rimes with "honey." White imitators have been largely to blame for this triteness, for they only echo and re-echo the negro idea. But, in some of the songs written by the negroes themselves, there is a subtle and fantastic humor that is something distinct.

"Oh, I don't know; you're not so warm!" and "I don't like no cheap man, dat spen's his money on de 'stalment plan," by Messrs. Williams and Walker; Messrs. Cole and Johnson's "I hope these few lines will find you well"; Mr. Perrin's "Little Pumpkin-colored Coons," and Messrs. Smart and Williams's "No coon can come too black for me," and "I guess that will hold you for a while," and Mr. Irving Jones's "Get Your Money's Worth," and "Take Your Clothes and Go" — all these songs are written by full-blooded negroes, and all of them are decidedly worth while. The rimes are bad, but no worse than those that delight the Gaelic ear; and the music is, in every one of these cases, marked with touches of originality and oddity most refreshing. The accompaniment to the song, "I guess that will hold you for a while," is simply awe-inspiring. I seriously consider it one of the most daring and irresistible songs ever written. It is well worth the effort of the student or teacher of Harmony to make a study of it. The notation, as in all these songs, is questionable at

times, but that is a pathetically small consideration in the presence of such dynamic and *bizarre* music, and such a new and free use of the old devices of imitation.

The latest phase of the rag-time mania is the publication of such tunes as "The Star Spangled Banner," Mendelssohn's "Wedding March," and even the trovatore "Miserere," rearranged in rag-time. Their bad taste will serve at least this use: that it will display the elasticity and energy and the captivation of rag-time as a special dance-form. It will doubtless find its way gradually into the works of some great genius, and will thereafter be canonized; and the day will come when the decadents of the next century will revolt against it, and will call it "a hide-bound, sapless, scholastic form, dead as its contemporaries, canon and fugue." Meanwhile, it is young, and unhackneyed, and throbbing with life. And it is racial.

RUPERT HUGHES.

## New Music in New York

Two things of unusual importance have happened in this city since I last poured out the vials of my wrath on everything in New York, Boston, and elsewhere. These two things were productions of new compositions of music. It seems so rare a thing now for new music to be brought forward in this town that a poor writer on the subject hardly knows how to go about the unwonted business of telling readers what it all amounted to. The first of these new works was Sig-nor Mancinelli's opera, *Ero e Leandro*, which was made known at the Metropolitan Opera House on Friday, March 10. The work was very kindly received by a large audience, and achieved one of those pleasant successes to which the French attach the term *d'estime*. The second performance took place on March 18, at a matinée, and the audience was one of moder-ate size. It is hardly necessary to go into extremely fine detail in giving an account of the new work. The libretto, as is now generally well known, is by the famous composer of *Mefistofele*, Arrigo Boito, whose career is, in itself, one of the most remarkable things in the history of music.

The story is merely a variation of the well-known legend. The high priest of the temple of Venus at Abydos, one Ariopharnes, is in love with Hero, who is a young priestess. He loves, after the manner of high priests and bassos, basely. He vainly urges his suit, because Hero is in love with Leander, a young and victorious athlete and also a poet, who has evidently written the odes of Anacreon, for he sings two of them as his own. After Hero has repulsed Arioph-

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arnes, Leander enters the temple at an hour when
visitors are forbidden, and is found by Ariopharnes.
The latter pretends to sympathize with the lovers and
leaves them together. There is the usual first act
love scene, after which Hero, being left alone by Le-
ander, becomes uneasy at the outlook, and asks the
statue of Apollo what is to be her fate. Ariopharnes,
who has concealed himself behind the statue, says
“Death.” In the second act, the high priest an-
nounces that an old custom is to be revived. A vir-
gin is to watch in a tower by the sea, and give
warning of approaching storms. He tells Hero pri-
vately that, unless she will be his, she will have to go
to the tower. She rejects him again. Ariopharnes an-
nounces that Hero will forsake love, and become the
virgin watcher. Leander attacks Ariopharnes, but is
seized by the guards, and the high priest orders him
back across the Hellespont to Sestos. The second act
ends with a bacchanale. In the third act, Leander
swims the Hellespont to visit Hero in her tower.
While the two are singing a love duet, a storm arises,
and Hero neglects the warning. Ariopharnes is
heard approaching, and Leander jumps into the sea
to save Hero’s name. Of course he is drowned, and
Hero, discovering this, falls lifeless.

The music of Signor Mancinelli is eclectic, but
wholly Italian. He follows the lead of Verdi, and he
even borrows some ideas from the young Italian
school. But his principal model is Boito. The chief
merit of the music lies in its suitability to the general
feeling of the scenes. The Anacreontic declamation
of Leander, for instance, is admirably placed, and the
recitative of Ariopharnes, though dry and uninspir-
ing, is in character. The principal lyric solos are
those of Hero in the first and third acts. The sea-
shell song of the first scene is thoroughly charming.
It is melodious and full of color, and it won more
applause than anything else in the opera. The solo
which the soprano sings in the third act is also a
pretty piece of writing. The love duets are fail-
ures. They are calm, placid, passionless, and sim-
ply plain. The bacchanale is a finely made fugue.
It is admirably written and has dramatic value, but it
is distinctly untheatrical, and for that reason fails to
move the populace. The orchestration of the whole
work is excellent, the masterly employment of the
two harps being in itself a convincing demonstration
of the composer's skill in this department of his call-
ing. The opera was well mounted and well sung
here, with Eames, Saléza, and Plancon in the three
parts.

The other novelty was the “Adstant Angelorum
Chori,” of Prof. Horatio W. Parker of Yale Univer-
sity. This work took the prize of two hundred fifty
dollars offered in 1898 by the Musical Art Society,

for an *a capella* composition, and it was produced at
the Society's concert of March 16. The work is
decidedly modern in its general harmonic plan,
though ecclesiastical harmonies are frequently em-
ployed in it. The polyphony is uncommonly rich
and varied. The voice parts are brilliantly written
and are very effective. The finest part of it is the
middle passage, a fugue of rare splendor and power.
The chief obstacle to wide popularity for this new
composition is its immense difficulty. Very few
choruses will be able to sing it at all, and it requires
at least one solo voice of high range and much
power. The performance by Mr. Frank Damrosch's
chorus of trained soloists was very good, though
not quite perfect.

A string quartet by F. X. Arens, a local composer,
was produced on March 14 by the Kaltenborn String
Quartet. It proved to be a musicianly piece of writ-
ing, in which the most conspicuous merits were skill
in the distribution of the voice parts and absence of
the fashionable attempt to make an orchestra out
of four instruments. That there were evidences of
genuine gifts for composition in this work I should
hesitate to declare. Of opera we have had our fill,
but only a revival of *Le Prophète*, on March 8,
gave a stimulus to our jaded appetites. There has
been a third round of the uncut Wagner dramas.
The audiences were not large, but the enthusiasm
was. I am told, however, that Mr. Grau's bankers
do not credit him with enthusiasm.

W. J. HENDERSON.

New York, March 19.

## Amusing Things in London

THE London Bach Choir has long been a con-
undrum to the London musical critics. Its
name led one to suppose that it devoted itself
obstinately to the practice and popularization
of Bach's music; but it did nothing of the kind. It
ranged freely over the whole field of music, not spar-
ing Brahms, no, nor Parry and Stanford. The praise
given to its efforts by such of its members as scrib-
bled for the London Press inclined one to believe that
whatever it did at all, it did well; but, alas! the per-
formances never justified this faith. No poorer, more
slovenly, shabbier performances were to be heard any-
where. The critics tried slating it—without any
perceptible result. Some of them tried praising it
for what it had not done, in the hope of making it
live up to a factitious reputation; but still there was
no result. They asked, What is this concern, what
does it exist for, why don't the police read the Riot
Act and disperse it? and still there was no result.

DOORS OPEN 7.45.
COMMENCES AT 8.

THE
PALACE THEATRE.

SPECIAL BANK-HOLIDAY PROGRAMME.

BOX OFFICE OPEN
11 to 11.

Telephone: 6834 GERRARD

MAY BELFORT,
Chanteuse.
(Fresh from her American Successes).

THE PALACE GIRLS,
In their " Danse des jambes en l'air."

(LAST WEEKS.)

LAVINE & LEONARD,
In their Burlesque Automobile
Act.

MASON & BART,
Bar Act.

ADOLF BORK,
Caricaturist.

DAISY JEROME,
Comédienne.

COLE & JOHNSON,
The Great American Society Coloured Artistes.

(First appearance in England).

ALMA MARY,
Dancer.

HARRIGAN,
The Tramp Juggler.

THE BREENS,
Comedy Jugglers.

JACK LORIMORE,
Comedian.

MALCOLM SCOTT,
As "The Woman Who Knows."

THE BIOSCOPE:
New Series of exclusive Pictures.

LES CABIACS,
French Acrobats.

THE PALACE ORCHESTRA • CONDUCTOR—Mr. HERMAN FINCK.

During the HOT WEATHER the PALACE THEATRE is cooled by Electric Fans and Blocks of Ice.

MATINEES EVERY SATURDAY at 2 p.m.

Full Programme.

SPECIAL MATINEE PRICES.

DOORS 1.45. COMMENCE 2 p.m.