Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1912 — SOURCE OF HIS INSPIRATION [ARTICLE]

SOURCE OF HIS INSPIRATION

Not From Great Singer in Naples, but From Phonograph Came the Famous Tune. Once there was to be a Salamis that should make it doubtful, when the name was heard, whether it was the i mother city that was meant or ifa daughter in another land. So today when an Italian boy or girl appears in Boston schools, it is uncertain whether the child hails from the Italy of the Caesars or from “Little Italy” down round North Square. The author of “Panama,” a recent book relating to the isthmus, found the same question arising in the Canal Zone. While we were stuck on a mud bank, fighting mosquitoes, an incident occurred that ilustrates how pervers- ! ive is progress. One of the deckj hands who looked like an Italian was i enlivening his job by stitching a patch | on a pair of overalls by singing the duke’s song from “Rigoletto.” And he sang it well. He had a rich barytone. His voice evidently had not been |trained, but he sang true. Sitting there on a dry-goods case, beating time against It with his bare heels, he threw into his singing a large measure of the airy nonchalance, the very spirit of the song, that is so often lacking in the performance of professionals. “Now listen to that,” the captain said. “That’s the real Latin for you. Music born In him. I don’t suppose he can read or write. But once, when he was a little shaver, back in Italy, i his father took him to the opera in ! Naples, and he heard some great artist sing that. And he remembers It still; sings it down here in the Jungle, without any accompaniment but his heels, a lot better than an English or an American university man could sing it with an orchestra.” j “Let's get him to tell us about it," I suggested. ,t The captain called him up, and asked him where he was born. “New York,” he said. “Mulberry street?” I asked “Sure.” “Where did you learn that song?” Oh, that? That’s a Caruso song. I learned It out of a phonograph.”— Youth’s Companion.