AN AFFECTING INCIDENT.
We clip the following touching incident from a contemporary ;—Haver* ley's Mastodon Minstrels were playing in London, and were softly singing one night to a crowded house the chorus in "Old Kentucky Home." When the last notes melted away, a strange-look-ing figure advanced a few steps froni his seat iu a dark corner of the pit, and the auditors were startled at hearing a voice say earnestly and distinctly, " Sina the deai old song again—sing for me, I'm listening hard, I'm listening- low, boys, and every word is a friend to me, home to me— everything, gay, will yon sing it just for me, right now and here?" It was (he figure and voiced of Ben Leland, an old minstrel, who left Auie'-icit several years ago, and. after playing in Australia made his way, a broken down man, to London, Here he supported himself by playing the banjo, but generally eked out a miserable existence. The Mastodons. sang the chorus again, and the figure sank? back into its seat. When the audience dispersed it remained motionless, and; when an attendant came to arouse it he found Ben Leland dead !
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Bibliographic details
Kumara Times, Issue 1768, 31 May 1882, Page 2
Word Count
192AN AFFECTING INCIDENT. Kumara Times, Issue 1768, 31 May 1882, Page 2
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