Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 166, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1910 — Frogs Stop Classical Music [ARTICLE]

Frogs Stop Classical Music

Bandmaster Refuses to Wave Baton Again at Beach Unltl Croakers Are Removed. Santa Barbara, Cal. —Music may have charms to sooth the savage beast, but it only stirs the peaceful frog to outrageous rivalry. La Monaca, the famous, the great bandmaster with the standing hair, has tried it and has failed. “Ah!” he cried. "Those frog; they must die or my music perish!” This was after the first Saturday night concert of the season in the Plaza del Banos, on the beach, with its sweep of city gardens stretching out beyond, and the frogs that lurk in the lagoons and marshes. Signor Muscente was playing the mad scene from “Lucia.” La Monaca’s lithe and willowy form was bending in unison with the music and making his educated hair bow and bend gracefully as the cedars of Lebanon. The reeds and the brasses were blending in a grand symphony that tugged at every soul string of his listeuers, when from the flower and palm gardens came the discordant note of an elderly gentleman frog with a basso that denoted years of training. Then the lady froggies joined, too, and all th£ little frogs, until the strains of fLucia” were lost in the discord and La Mtmaea was enacting a mad acene in real life. He spoke Italian

volubly and fluently and with apparent relief. But he refuses to waste, his baton on the beach air again until the frogs are removed. Meanwhile La Monaca will confine his music to the uptown parks uhtll the last froggie has croaked his last croak.