Boys with Sticks

Ready?

A small English boy spreads his arms wide as he prepares to lead the band. Dressed in a traditional British military bandsman uniform of the 19th century, the boy wears a cap with a badge shaped like the anchor emblem of the Royal Navy.

Once again please!

His music is now folded so we know the piece has finished. The boy bandleader grins as he asks the band to play it again. These novelty postcards were published by Davidson Bros., Real Photographic Series, London and New York. The postmark date was Oct 19, 1907 from Barnes in SW London.

It was addressed to Miss S. Bessent of "Walnut Tree Farm", Lonsdale Road, Barnes "Local". The trivial and yet odd message gains charm from "Laura"s fine handwriting and embellished "quotation marks". 

"E. Weldhen just been to confess that letter handed to her 12:30 yesterday to post was posted at 6 this morning" Fond love to all from; "Laura."

Miss Bessent was one of 7 children belonging to Harriet and Frank George Bessent, a market gardener living on the south side of the River Thames opposite Chiswick. Of the four Bessent daughters - Beatrice, Edith, Ethel, and Elsie, the youngest - Elsie, who was age 17 in 1907,  seems the likely recipient of this postcard.

In 100 years, will we derive as much fun from reading a cellphone text log?

** **

On the continent, another small boy raises a baton to start the music. Is he conducting a band? An orchestra? Since he is seated and looks to be singing, maybe it's a choir. This postcard is a kind of hybrid photo/illustration and though the handwriting of the message is in French, the card publisher is from Bologna, Italy. The writer begins with the word DO, the term for the musical pitch C, as used in Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si. The music on the stand appears a real music manuscript of a trio or quartet.

The postcard was sent to Monsieur Michel Gascon of Nice, France in October but the postmark left too faint an impression for the year. My guess is 1905-09.

** **

Das Konzert beginnt.
Aufgepasst , eins, zwei und drei,
Los, dass alle Wände beben: 

Unsre Liesel, die soll hoch

Dreimal hoch soll Liesel leben.

 The concert begins.
Watch out, one, two and three,

Come on, all the walls shake, 

Our Liesel, which is high
Three cheers shall Liesel live.

This German boy shouts dramatically as he leads some hidden group of musicians. His sheet music is however a vocal song with piano accompaniment. My attempt at translation hits a snag with Liesel which is not a German word but may be a familiar name for a celebrated woman.  I don't think it refers to the wife of Kaiser Wilhem II, who was Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, but it might be Austria's Kaiser Franz Joseph's wife, who was Elisabeth of Bavaria. However Empress Elisabeth was murdered in 1898 by an Italian anarchist, so maybe this boy conductor means someone else deserves three cheers.

The postcard was sent on February 23, 1913 to a Fraulein Hartman of Leipzig.




Fortunately for the anxious mothers of these three musical boys, all their batons had blunt points. Real conductor batons are usually much sharper and have been known to cause injury to either musicians, conductor, or both!

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where other boys are stuck in bed with a sore throat.