THE PIPES MARCH BY

Evening Star, Issue 14512, 2 November 1910, Page 4

THE PIPES MARCH BY

The six-foot Roderick Dhus came swinging along with the precision of a machine, twelve elbows and twelve legs moving as ono, six grave faces set resolutely to the front, chins held high, fingers flying, bonnets and plaids flashing, plumes waving. With tho same jaunty gravity they would have led a wedding procession or a forlorn hope, and not missed a whistle or a squeak. I felt extremely small as they went by, but was all eyes. For behind them strode the most prodigious figure I bad ever seen. He was 7ft tall if he was an inch, and resting on his wish-bone was the biggest bass drum seen on earth since Tubal smote tho chorded shell. Yet this astonishing man not only carried it with case, but smote it with a vivacity and vigor which even Tympano could not outdo. And, what is more, ho buffeted it on both sides, for ho wielded a drumstick in each hand, and not only displayed all Tympano’s precision, but managed to execute tho most marvellous evolutions between whacks, brandishing v his sticks alternately behind his bead, hitting the left side of the drum with his right-hand stick, and vice versa, throwing the sticks into the air and catching them again in the nick of time; and all this with a high devotion and a heroic joy that made me catch my breath and grit my teeth to keep from shouting aloud in ecstasy. Never have I seen a man so extremely busy who made so light of business. The wailing chorus with its thunderous accompaniment swept on and away. The musicians were employed only by a travelling show; they had sunk low from a high estate; yet for one boy they_ were a bit_ of old-world pageantry, an episode in high romance which illuminated the pages of Scottish history for many a day.—Robert M. Gay in the ‘ Atlantic .Monthly.'