AMERICAN AND SCOTCH SONGS.

North Otago Times, 1 November 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

AMERICAN AND SCOTCH SONGS.

The Americans lmvo no love for Scotch songs. They cannot mako head or tail of the language, and 1 hey are frank enough to confess it. In Chicago Wfttkin Mills was called upon by a handful of Scotchmen to sing Hatton's rollicking ditty, 'The Marriage of Shon Maclean,' but when the song was over the applause came exclusively from the men who had . demanded it. The other members of the audience looked blankly at tho singer and wondered to gracious what on earth he had been "talking about." "What does he mean by 'every piper was fu*' ?" asked a puzzled Chicagoan of one of the Scotchmen in the interval. " 'Fu ' means •'full,' " was the reply. "Well well," snapped the practical and unpicturesque native of the pork country, "and what's the matter with the whole word, anyhow ?" ■ . Watkin Mills tells a very funny story in connection with this same song, ''The Marriage of Shon Mac* lenli." As he sang it one night from the stage of a theatre in British Columbia, ho was conscious all the while of a kind of suppressed emotion proceeding 1 from a private box on his left, and whenever he turned his eyes in the direction of the whimpered disturbance, he saw two faces expressing the very essence of astonishment. First the faces stared'at him; then they stared at each other; then again at tho singermingled with the look of amazement was a decided suggestion of' annoyance. One face was that of a pretty woman, the other (hat of a handsome man ; and Watkin Mills noticed that the astonishment depicted in I hem grew deeper every time ho snng the words, "Shon Maclean." This wns apparently all they recognised in the ditty—but why should these' people bo more upset about his Scotch than anyone else?, When the concert was over the singer got an explanation of the mystery, The male occupier of tho box, whose name was John Martin, and who had been secretly married to the lady who was with him, went round to Watkin Mills in tho artists' room and wanted to lyibw what he knew of their marriage and what right ho had to shout about it in public I