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Show "DlXiE." It Tune Efcnght Him Clog His Old Kentucky Nome. This story is not aew. It is old in pofafi of date, though not in publicity. It is true, however, or at least vouched for as Buch by a New York man born in the soutn. And this is the way he told it in Louisville soce time ago: "What year was it that Pat Gilraore's band was playing in Madison Square Garden for the last time? It doesn't mat-tor. mat-tor. It was the year before Gilmore's death anyhow. I ought to remember the date, though, for one of your Louisville boys caused me to remember every incident in-cident of a certain night that season. I'll tell you all about it if yon like. " The question in the New Yorker's words was drowned in the tone that vociferated his wish to tell the story, and it was called for by a polite chorus. "I had been to a dinner party and drifted into the Garden because I. was lonely and had seen everything at the theaters worth seeing. - I didn't pay much attention to the concert, and as I sipped a green mint I became interested "in a young man at the table next to mina I didn't know him then, but I learned afterward that he was a prominent promi-nent young insurance man of Louis ville. He had evidently been seeing the Beamy side of New York for some days and had 'held up his end, ' as is the custom cus-tom of Kentuckians. But he had eome to the conclusion that he needed a little solitude; had forsaken his friends and found the desired loneliness in the crowded garden. He picked his steps with suspicious care as he came in, but the good form of his appearance was marred only by a wrinkle or two on the linen that formed part of his evening dress. The cause of these wrinkles was apparent when, leaving the glass un-tasted un-tasted before him, his head sank and he fell into a much needed sleep. I smiled smil-ed and thought of other things until toward to-ward the close of the programme the band began a medley of national airs. It opened with 'Yankee Doodle,' 'Marching Through Georgia, ' and half a dozen other tunes followed, and then with a brassy crash the band started the air that for all time will Btart a-tin-gling every drop of blood in the veins of a Southern born -man. The hmrf.il neck of the sleeping stranger swung straight and his eyes opened. Dazed by bis Budden awakening, he looked about him a moment Then, as the strains of the musio swept upon his ear, he sprang to his feet, shot one hand with clinched fist above his head, and in a voice that echoed from side to Bide of the big building build-ing yelled: " 'Dixie, by G d!' "There was an instant of dead silence followed by a shout of laughter and applause. ap-plause. Gilmore looked around, provoked pro-voked and disconcerted, and for the first time that famous band blundered and the medley continued with little regard for musical accuracy. No lobster a la Newburg was ever redder than that young man from Louisville as he sat in tiis chair. He wished himself a thousand i miles a$ay, but he was too game to run, and when first one and then another anoth-er employee of the place gathered around him and told him he must leav8 this conversation followed: " 'You must get out of here.' " 'I won't do it. ' " 'You've got to. You've raised a disturbance here, and you'll cither get out or be put out. ' " 'I won't go. I'm sorry I made any noise, but it will be bad for the first man that lays hands on me for cheering for Dixie. ' " 'Come! Get out of hera ' "And just then, three tables away, a big dark man arose and came toward the group. From five tables away a little lit-tle man with blazing eyes was already coming. Five ten twenty men were coming from this side and that I lost sount of the number, but in a moment the employees around the young stranger stran-ger were no longer in an overwhelming majority, and in low, quiet tones in whose coolness lay the bulldog growl I heard: "'He'll not go out' ' ' 'Not until he's quite ready. ' " 'Leave the gentleman alone and leavtf him at oncel' ' "And they left him. And the crowd made Gilmore play that medley three times. And every time 'Dixie' was reached there was a cheer that made the roof ring. And that's all there ie to my story except that I am going to look op that young man while I'm here, because be-cause he blotted out ten years of New York and brought me mighty close to 'my old Kentucky home' that night " Louisville Courier-J ournaL |
