THE AIR NO ONE COULD PLAY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 81, 9 April 1915, Page 6

THE AIR NO ONE COULD PLAY.

(By."Femina" in the Sydney Daily Telegraph).

The scene was a meeting of a literary circle, the subject was Shakespeare. We listened appreciatively to a paper on Shakespeare's men and wdmeu; had watched with delight the •representations of scenes from two of the master's plays ; and had enjoyed two pretty little songs and joined in the discussions that followed some of the items. Then the president of the meeting called lor the National Anthem to close the afternoon, and dead silence ensued. Then —

"Will some one play it for us, please? One of these young ladies? Can't you play it, my dear?" "Oh, I'm sorry, 1 can't." «jUiss-er?" "No; I'm afraid I don't know it." "Well, miss ?" "I can't; I really can't!" "Then you, miss?" "Don't ask me!"

And so it went on, till a girl, reluctantly propelled piano-wards, struck one chord—the wrong one—and the meeting rose and sang the Kational Anthem unaccompanied, and in divers keys.

"And I hope," said the president at the conclusion, "that some of these young ladies who can't play 'God Save the King' will try to learn it before the next time we meet."

We drowned our sorrow and shame in afternoon tea, but the incident left a thought behind it. Surely at a time like this, when we need, and appreciate our National Anthem so much, and when we are glad to sing it with fervor at any opportunity, some of us might lea in the piano accompaniment of it.

There was a girl at that mooting who studied Chopin, Beethoven, and Beach; there was at least one girl who could pick out on the piano most of the popular comic opera and ragtime songs and play them by ear, and there was even a schoolgirl whose music is always called upon when a school programme is being arranged. But not one of them could play the few simple chords of "God Save the King!" Some of the entertainers had spent hours in memorising and rehearsing the long speeches and musical words of the Shakespearean scenes, and one had devoted much time to preparing a paper on the subject, but apparently it never occurred to any of them to spend ten minutes in memorising the National Anthem. Shakespeare himself, most patriotic of men, would be the first to realise the discrepancy in that. This incident is not unique jmost people will remember having seen it enacted more than once at informal gatherings, and it probably will happen again; but surely it is time to remedy that. We know it is not disloyalty nor lack of patriotism, only want of thought. But one can't help thinking that in a similar gathering of Frenchwomen the trouble would be not to find someone capable of playing the "Marsellaise," but to pick out one for the honor without making all the other aspirants jealous.