THE MARVELLOUS KILTIES BAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 281, 21 November 1908, Page 3

THE MARVELLOUS KILTIES BAND.

, STORM AND CAPTURE FOUR CONTINENTS. LORD ROBERTS AND TJIE IRRESIST. \ IBLE KIiLTIES' MUSIC. (CZAR OF RUSSIA AND EMPEUUU OF GERMANV INVITES THE (. KILTIES. THE GIANT DRUM MAJOR'S TRAGEDY.

The Kilties, the famous Scottish Canadian liand, which appears in New Plymouth oil Thursday, December 3rd, giving a grand matinee performance in the beautiful Recreation Sports Ground afternoon, and a. concert in the Theatre Royal at night, is a sparkling combination; the brightest, liveliest, and most versatile organisation in the musical world of to-day. Their picturesqueness, uniqueness, magnetism, talent, physique are responsible for their phenomenal and continuous triumphal marches tbruuga ail nations. The Kilties have traveled more than any combination e.vuut. They hold tlie unsurpassed records in London, New York, Chicago, Paris, Sydney, Melbourne, &c., of turning away thousands, for never has a theatre or lia.l been large enough to accommodate their would-be hearers. Their message appeals to the universe —all nationalities have been charmed with the sublimity of their productions. Lord Roberts said the Kilties were irresistible, and if only they could lc id an army into battle, the soldiery would be inspired to deeds of daring so great that all previous records of grand achievements would sink into insigniiieanee. " The power of such music," said Jxird Roberts, " would be the most potent factor in routing an enemy, A regiment urged on with such magn.ilceat music could do miracles. The soldiers would be stirred to their very souls, their eyes would flash, Midi' bodies for the time being would be inoculated with superhuman strength, their minds would be alert, and their whole functions straining to one point, everything would be carried before them." the Kilties are delighted at the manner in which the whole of Australia, and now Auckland, lias turned out, metaphorically speaking, and simply taken them by the hand and kept on shaking it increasingly. A KILTIE GIANT'S TRAGEDY. A lot has been written about Major McKenzie's exploits, the Kilties' big man, and the other giant, .Major McC'orniack. When an interviewer endeavoured to elicit some information from him i;i Charters Towers, he was at tirst rather disinclined to talk about himself ; but in tho course of conversation lie wanned up, and liaally let loose. It happened this way:—l was one of tile first men to go to Klondyke at tno time of the "gold rush, 1 ' and there it was 1 had the most terrible experience that it is possible for human being to undergo. In co-operation with six Canadian boys, 1 was interested in a claim we called "The Kilties' Coronation." We had sunk a shaft 300 feet, two of my partners were tunnelling the first level, the other two were developing the second level, and my mate and I had just driven about .-/O yards on tho 300' feet level, ore. It was about 4'oeiock in the afternoon the face was bored—l bad just given the last tap on the drill vmeh \\'e were on a rich reef, but having no mill within easy reach of the mine, we had not started sloping, or crushing any my mate turned, when suddenly, without. warning, I was thrown like a straw against the face of the tunnel I hardly remembered what happened next, beyond a dim notion that it was rainin"

l'ocks, tlio earth was vibrating, the tunuol shivered like a frightened horse, the air was suffocating and permeated thickly with the white dust that has eaten away the lungs of so many miners. My mate 1 felt near mo, wriggling under a pile of rock. 1) was half stunned. X tried to move to collect my scattered senses, but my brain would mot act. I realised something -.twi.u had Suippened; but could not analyse my thoughts; my brain refused to work. At length my liead cleared—it could only liave been a minute, yet it seemed years; in my half paralysed dominion my thoughts must have been going like lightning; my wholo life passed before my gaze from the time 1 knelt and prayed at my mother's side to the very moment when the earth had become topsy-turvy. It was not (ill evervtliing ill my life had lleetingiy passed before me that I got my mental faculties in trim. A voice, an agonised voice, that has haunted me ever since, was calling my namo. I woke up then—it was iny mate. 1 tried to move; I was pinned to the earth. God! tile agony ami pain that. 1-felt; my teeth bit through my netlrer lip. Again the faint voice of my mate came to iuc; it thrilled me through and through. Jfy o\va suffer-

oouUl not speak, his lips moved, but 110 sound came forth; n slight tremor, almost n escaped him, and his spirit tied. J turned away; the movement brought back the sense of my own suffering; then I lost consciousness. When I recovered my faeultics my body was II muss of pains. I struck a match, the eyes, wide open, wore staring at me. I closed mine, but cuuld still see his fixed on me. I could , )0 t shut litem out. Then for the first time the utter helplessness of my condition gripped me. 1 realised that t'he tunnel had caved in and that I was buried alive—entombed with a dead man for -a companion. The mental and pyhsica] agonv was more than mortal could bear, jfy hraiji received a shock; for two days and nights I raved; part of what passed through m\ mind J still fuiiitly remember, Jt was as Ihough I was incarcerated 111 a torture dungeon, where fiendish mocking devils were gloating over me, niiig and dancing, my luulis manacled

iiig for the time being was annihilated. With a superhuman effort I removed a rise, but found both legs wore broken—t'tio knowledge brought back the pain. I trawled over to my mate; the agony of Moving was indescribable. I took matches from-my pocket and lighted the broken pieco of candle 1 still clutched in my liaad. Lying partly on my side, I removed tlie rocks and debris that had almost buried him. When my 'eyes looked upon liis poor mangled body i eould have screamed, b felt faint. He was looking at me mute, Jiis lean, haggard face drawn up into a mass of wruildes. He was but 28 years, but dying he looked 70. Blood mixing with tlie fcarth and dust had clotted over liim, and seemed to stem tlie red fluid that was trying to break through. His lips moved; X placed my ear near his mouth. His muttcriags i could not grasp—the only words I heard distinctly were: " Wife—baby—love." Tlie poor follow was giving his last farewell message to his loved ones. His eye closed, a momentary smile flitted across the corners of his mouth; he had forgou«n liis physical agony in the co-i----tcmplation of those wlio were dearer to him than life. He looked at me with a troubled expression in his eyes; he

and twitching, and veins bursting -blood, as the iron grips were screwed 011 me more tightly. 1' felt myself being forced down into a grave ia the middle of a circle of skeletons, whose forms changed to divers and indescribable fantasies. Tlie skeletons all held long iron crowbars with llames at tho end, -which burnt into niv very soul. With these irons they kept my struggling body down to the tloor of the vault while the fantasies <lanced and shrieked over me. 1 made one big effort; 1 cast them all aside; I sat up, the place was illuminated. A creepy tingling sensation thrilled me. I knew something had happened. .My mates caught me as 1 fell back in a dead swoon J had been rescued. Tho cause of the cave-in was tlia explosion of the dynamite box at tin* end of the tunnel. Twelve men had worked night and day lu relieve us. It was twelve months befoie I had properly recovered from the injuries sustained.