Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 130, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1910 — MORE TROUBLE AHEAD. [ARTICLE]

MORE TROUBLE AHEAD.

Advent of the Balalaika in England a Menace to Onr Peace. The balalaika impends, a new and most unpleasant rival to the mandolin, the concertina and the banjo. It comes from Russia and it has already taken London by storm. Before long, unless Congress comes quickly to the rescue with drastic legislation, the Baltimore Sun asserts, it will invade our fair republic, filling the air of freedom with Its discords and driving all honest music lovers to afcohol and ansesthetics. The balalaika, it should be explained, is a sort of triangular guitar with three strings. One of those strings is tuned to the A of the treble staff, while both of the others are tuned to E. The thing is operated by plucking the strings with the right hand, the notes being produced by sliding the thumb of the left hand up and down the two E strings. The A string is seldom touched by the left hand. Its deep note drones along through thick and thin with brutal and maddening persistency. It is said to be particularly effective when the melody that is being torn out of the E strings Is in the key of A flat. Fashionable London has taken the balalaika to its heart. Clubs devoted to its study have been formed in Mayfair; Prince TchagadaefT of St. Petersburg has come over to explain its mysteries; there are even balalaika orchestras, with prima, secunda, alt, bass and contrabass balalaikas. Prof. Clifford Essex, for many years the GraecoRoman and catch-as-catch-can banjo champion of England, has abandoned the banjo and now devotes his talents to the new'comer.

Life, indeed, glow's more terrible every day. The balalaika, there is good reason to believe, will arrive in our midst simultaneously with the tail of Halley’s comet. Let us prepare to face that double assault with the fortitude of martyrs.