College student Pete Fraser, at left, with a fellow performer.
Indeed, it was 110 years ago today that the The Meaford Mirror of Friday, February 21, 1902 published the following account:
A BUMPER HOUSE
Band Boys Put Up An Excellent Minstrel Show.
The citizens of Meaford showed their appreciation of the town band by turning out in large numbers to the entertainment in the Town Hall Tuesday evening. The announcement that the band boys would appear before the foot-lights as a combination of colored minstrels sufficed to fill the hall to overflowing with an intelligent and appreciative audience. At noon hour the band had a parade with the object of giving our citizens a foretaste of the great treat that awaited them at the Town Hall in the evening. Mr. F. Muxlow went to considerable trouble to prepare banners for the procession. On these were inscribed, in large letters, the attractions in which the erstwhile descendants of Bro. Gardner were to make their debut. As an advertising scheme the idea was a capital one, and the rest of the brethren were so well satisfied with it that they voluntarily agreed to give Fred the first watermelon that grew in their patch.
But we are forgetting the entertainment. As already intimated, the hall was packed to the doors and many were compelled to stand the whole evening. The seats were all reserved with the exception of two or three, and people were wondering how these escaped the higher assessment. It was estimated that from forty to fifty persons were unable to gain admittance. At any rate the committee found it necessary to quit selling tickets about 7.30 o'clock.
That the band boys put up a good programme no one will deny. As minstrels they were a decided success. The overture by the full company would have done credit to any first-class minstrel troupe, while the spectacular effects were all that could be desired. Messrs. Stewart, Corley, Clarke and Spike as end men kept the audience in convulsive laughter with their jokes and conundrums. Bert Stewart had Sambo down fine, even to the dialect, and could very easily have robbed a melon patch or a chicken coop without revealing his identity. Mr. C. T. Sutherland proved a good prompter, giving the colored chaps lots of nuts to crack between the choruses.
Talk about singing. Why, some of the solos were as sweet as a midsummer night's dream. There were people in Meaford who had the idea that our young men were unable to strike a single note in the musical scale. The entertainment on Tuesday evening, however, removed this impression, and henceforth let no one say that Meaford is deficient in male vocal talent. Mr. Walter Smith sang a solo with good expression and clear enunciation. It was this young man's first appearance before a Meaford audience, but we are safe in saying it will not be his last, as few people had any idea that he could sing so well. Mr. B. A. Spike and Mr. F. Clarke are well-known soloists and their singing is always acceptable to a Meaford audience. Mr. Spike's impersonation and rendering of "Old Black Joe" was most pathetic and evoked enthusiastic applause. In his wrinkled features and haggard, care-worn expression could be traded the burden of a heart sorrowed with its present environments and longing for the land of rest. Mr. Spike was in excellent voice, and sang with ease and expression.
It is said that whistling is a sure sign of happiness. Be that as it may, everybody likes to hear a good whistler, especially if he is not an early riser or a night hawk. There are whistlers and whistlers, but none better than Arthur Sewell, whose warbling was a revelation to the audience. Honors for first place were divided between the mocking bird and Arthur, with odds in favor of the latter. He whistled to the music of the orchestra, and retired from the platform amid a shower of artificial boquets.
Messers. W. Riley and Lorne Hill performed some very difficult feats on the horizontal bar. Mr. Hill turned sommersaults over the bar with the agility of a professional athlete, while Riley as the irrepressible clown scored a huge success as a fisherman by baiting his hook with a loaf of bread and pulling out his confederate Hill in the shape onf an artificial frog.
A quartette by Messrs. F. A. Clarke, B. A. Spike, W. Coupland and Dr. Culbertson recounted their experiences at the animal fair, at which the birds and beasts were present in goodly numbers. The baboon by the light of the moon was combing his auborn hair; the monkey he got drunk and climbed in the elephant's trunk; the elephant sneezed and fell on his knees and that was the last of the "monk." In emphasizing the decline of the "monk" the quartette unconsciously drifted into dreamland and failed to realize their whereabouts until the fair was over. One by one the quartette retired from the platform with the sheepishness and leisureness of tread that the animals displayed in going into Noah's ark before the flood.
Messrs. Fred Johnston and Harry Pearse, robed in habiliments of orange, red and fine linen, embellished with loud silver buttons, appeared as a pair of wandering musicians anxious to demonstrate their musical abilities on the trombone, cornet and zelophone. Corley, the mysterious negro, without habitation or a name, was present with his ear trumpet in the shape of a large tin funnel, asking no questions and telling no lies. Fred Johnston produced what he was pleased to call his pocket diary in which were copied some pathetic epitaphs taken from the tombstones of a graveyard which he had visited. One of the epitaphs was particularly pathetic. The lines were dedicated to a man named Snell, who left his skates to his sister Nell because there was no skating in ----- and the music of the orchestra broke in before the exact location of Snell's whereabouts could be determined. Fred Johnston was an ideal negro, and had he undertaken to combat the popular theory of science and philosophy that the world is of globular shape, revolving upon its axis every twenty-four hours, the darkeys would have exclaimed "Bravo! thou art the King." Corley, the colored gent, who was so overcome with emotion by the reading of the tombstone epitaphs, that his eyes were suffused with tears, seemed anxious to go to that country where the wicked cease from trouble and the weary are at rest. But the remembrance of his past exploits in watermelon patches and chicken coops prevents his final departure.
Harry Pearse undertook to offer for sale a number of popular songs of significant titles, but Fred Johnston's criticism of the prices kept the audience from buying. "I am yours for fifteen cents" was one of the songs. Johnston thought that a girl that would offer herself for fifteen cents was not worth having. The clog dancing of Mr. Fraser, of the Business College, took the house by storm. Mr. Fraser has only to be seen to be appreciated. The "cake walk" was one of the best features of the evening. Those who took part in it showed that they had some knowledge of the science of dancing as practiced by the colored nobility since the time of the flood. Everybody laughed, and why shouldn't they, seeing that the performers were the only persons inclined to kick.
A patriotic song by Mr. F. A. Clarke, a number of young men in military uniform joining in the chorus to the "tune of the fife and drum," took the house by storm and Mr. Clarke and his accompanists were obliged to respond to a hearty encore.
The music was furnished by the band and Mr. Pearse's orchestra, both of which deserve the highest praise.
On the whole the entertainment was first class in every respect and all who took part in it are to be congratulated. For the benefit of those who were unable to be present on Tuesday evening the band boys have decided to reproduce the entertainment at the Town Hall on Tuesday evening next, when it is hoped there will be a full house. The proceeds are for the benefit of the orchestra.
