QUEEN CITY OF THE ADIRONDACKS
29
came to town, the band assembled at the headquarters of the local and
paraded to Monument Square where the open-air meeting was scheduled-
all the time playing the "Albania," a march with a real martial air.
Sometimes as many as 75 or 100 followed us.
A lot of fellows around town even joined the Socialist· local to get
free lessons on the slide trombone or the cornet· A couple of fellows who
worked at the Boston Confectionary experienced a sudden conversion to
the cause, but as soon as they learned to play an E-flat clarinet they quit
the party.
Myself, I used to hold the bass drum while another comrade
whacked on it. Gib Wendell promised that after a while I'd be promoted
and get a chance to whack: the drum, too.
But to come back to the Armistice Day parade. Louie and I went up
to the Socialist local and carried the big bass drum down the steps. The
headquarters were right above Fitzgerald's Chop House; the hallways
always smelled of stale beer and fried oysters. It was still dark, and as
soon as Louie and I hauled the drum down, I started whacking it. After
a while it looked as if we had the whole town following us, for every-
body was excited about the war being over.
We marched thru the streets: past the Glendale Trust Company and
the Y.M.C.A., down South Street; past the City Hall.
Everybody in the
line of march seemed eager to follow our leadership.
Suddenly we dis-
covered that the people behind Louie and me had dropped out of the
parade, then the folies right behind them, until after a while only Louie
and I were celebrating the Armistice.
While it was still dark, the parade stretched behind us, but as
it grew light the townspeople dropped out when they saw on the bass
drum the words:
Workers of the world unite I You have nothing to lose
but your chains I
After the band escorted two or three out-of-town speakers to Monu-
ment Square at different times, we in the local became conscious of our
rights as citizens in the community and taxpayers in the town. We elected
a committee headed by D. V. Linehan to call upon the Common Council
at the City Hall.
The local wanted us to take up the question of getting
a share of the 12 summer concerts for our own Socialist band.
The
contracts for these concerts usually alternated between the Glendale Band
and the Elks Band.
The musicians in these bands were dressed in natty
blue uniforms, with golden whirlgigs on their coat,leeves; and they liked
that.
During the day some of them worked in Robinson's Hardware
Store or Joubert's barbershop, and it felt good to have your friends see
you in uniforms.
