A Father’s Common Sense Gives America a Great Bandmaster.
KIPLING essayed to write verses at thirteen, and John Philip Sousa
entered his apprenticeship in a military band at the age of twelve. The
circumstances, which he related to me during a recent conversation,
make it clear, however, that it was not exactly the realization of
any youthful ambition. “When I was a youngster of twelve,” said the
bandmaster, “I could play the violin fairly well. It was in this
memorable year that a circus came to Washington, D. C., where I then
lived, and remained for two days. During the morning of the first day,
one of the showmen passed the house and heard me playing. He rang the
bell, and when I answered it, asked if I would not like to join the
show. I was at the age when it is the height of every boy’s ambition
to join a circus, and was so delighted that I readily agreed to his
instructions that I was to take my violin, and, without telling anyone,
go quietly to the show grounds late the next evening.
“I couldn’t, however, keep this stroke of good fortune entirely to
myself, so I confided it to my chum, who lived next door. The effect
was entirely unanticipated. He straightway became so jealous at
the thought that I would have an opportunity to witness the circus
performance free that he told his mother, and that good woman promptly
laid the whole matter before my father.”