“At the time I was, of course, ignorant of this turn of affairs; but
early the next morning my father, without a word of explanation, told
me to put on my best clothes, and, without ceremony, bundled me down to
the office of the Marine Band, where he entered me as an apprentice.
The age limit at which admission could be gained to the band corps
was fourteen years, and I have always retained the two years which my
father unceremoniously added to my age at that time.”
Sousa is of Spanish descent, his father having emigrated from Spain to
Portugal by reason of political entanglements. Thence came the strange
fact that, during the recent war, American troops marched forward to
attack Spaniards to the music of marches written by this descendant
of their race. The director’s remark that his family was one of the
oldest in Spain was supplementary to an amused denial of that pretty
story which has been so widely circulated to the effect that the
bandmaster’s name was originally John Philipso, and that when, after
entering the Marine Band, he signed it with the “U. S. A.” appended,
some intelligent clerk divided it into John Philip Sousa.