Show GVEr A ROYAL 1EDAL I j Sousa Is Decorated by Ruler of Great Britain I BAND PLAYS FOR KING I American Music Pleased the Royal I Family All Stood Up When The StarSpangled Banner Was Rendered Ren-dered Liked tho Collection of American Hymn Tunes Bandmaster Band-master Talks of thc Reception Accorded Ac-corded Himself and Band at Sand linfjhnni J London Dec 2Sousa has brought lo London from Sandrlngham whore his band played last night by royal command before their Majesties and the royal family the royal Victoria medal with which King Edward presented pre-sented the bandmaster in appreciation ot r his cervices to music The Prince of Wales personally nlllxod the deco ratlon to Sousas breast In describing describ-ing lho isit Sousa said to a representative repre-sentative of the Associated Press tIlt was among the most gratifying experiences of my life The royal command com-mand was received several hours previous pre-vious to the visit but was Kept a strict secret the King desiring to give the Queen a birthday surprise Considerable Con-siderable duplicity was necessary to complete the arrangements without divulging di-vulging our destination We took Alfred Al-fred do Rothschild into our confidence and gave out that we were going to play at his country seat on Sunday I It was only when we entrained that the band was Informed whither we were bent The Kings motor car took myself and wife from the station Wo marched Into the ballroom at 10JO Some twenty persons were present including the King and Queen the Princess and Prince of Wales the Dukc of Cambridge the Duchess of Manchester and Lady De Grey We first played God Save the King and then his Majesty sent word that he wanted The StarSpangled Banner during the playing of which they all Including King Edward stood I I up The programme consisted of plantation songs and dances The Washington Post March The Stars and Stripes a trombone solo by Arthur Ar-thur Pryor and the Reese Davies collection col-lection of American hymn tunes Including In-cluding Nearer My God to Thee which seemed to deeply affect the distinguished dis-tinguished listeners The King especially requested us to play Hands Across the Sea and then sent word that he wanted El Capitan He next requested King Cotton and the Coon Band At the conclusion thc King again sent word to play The StarSpangled Banner and again all I present stood up The King stepped forward shook hands with me chatted chat-ted with me in the most cordial manner man-ner and asked me to congratulate the band on Its excellent technique The Queen came up thanked me and turned Ito I-to the King told him how she thcV I en joyed her birthday surprise especially the hymn tunes of which she requested I request-ed copies The Prince of Wales Joined in and referred pleasantly to his trip nnd expressed regret that he did not have time to visit the United States Then the King handed me this medal i which the Prince of Wales pinned on my breast The Queen accorded me permission to dedicate a march to her I was 1 oclock when we drove off to the train I I have never played to a more appreciative appre-ciative audience nor have I been more kindly treated The King looked to be in excellent health He certainly was In the best of spirits He had noth ing but kind words for America and certainly knows more than most people about American music |