THE MUSICAL CLUBS IN WASHINGTON

The following account of the visit of the Musical Clubs in Washington has just been received by the MAGAZINE and is published as an illustration of one of the incidental features that a college organization takes in the day's work :

The concert of the Dartmouth Musical Clubs in Washington early in April under the auspices of the Washington Dartmouth Alumni was a notable event. The small ball room of the New Willard, since destroyed by fire, was filled to capacity by a representative and appreciative audience. The performance of the clubs was unanimously declared to be the most artistic and excellent ever heard in the National Capital.

The Dartmouth alumni will receive the chronicalling of this fact with loyal interest, but there was a distinctive feature connected with the visit of the clubs, a brief mention of which will make every son of Dartmouth prouder than ever of his alma mater and its musical clubs. It was just a touch that revealed for the moment the soul of the rollicking college student.

The greatest military hospital on the continent is located in Washington, Walter Reed. During the war every one of its acre upon acre of buildings was filled with wounded soldiers from the European front, and since the war ended it has been filled with men shattered and torn by their service. It used to be the custom of professional entertainers to go out to the hospital and amuse the patients, but since the war ended it is only occasionally that the bedridden soldiers have an opportunity to enjoy themselves. There are upwards of 1,000 out there, and even with all that the Red Cross nurses can do the days drag along with most of them.

Now when the Musical Clubs came to Washington many of the members who never had been here before anticipated seeing the sights. They were eager to see all that the one day of their stay would permit. But over the bunch must have brooded the memory of what happened at Hanover when the war came on us, when practically the whole college, faculty and all, ditched everything and followed the drums to camp.

The clubs to a man gave up sightseeing and joyously and generously jumped at the suggestion to give a complete concept in the afternoon for the wounded and sick soldiers at Walter Reed. Busses had been provided and upon reaching the hospital the clubs found the Red Cross auditorium crowded with patients, nurses, and doctors waiting for them.

And such an audience. There were scores of patients, some legless or armless, in wheel chairs, and many others on crutches or bolstered up on pillows. Scattered about were many Red Cross nurses and in the back of the hall were massed the Army doctors, surgeons and other attaches of the great hospital. For nearly two hours this unique audience forgot its aches and pains as it floated away with "Sylvia" or went down to the ocean again in the "Sea Fever," or was entranced by the instrumental numbers. The glee club songs had an added tone of sympathy and the strings of the banjos had a buddy twang.

These stalwart, tuneful men on the stage, every face smiling, and these eager wounded men in front. And over them all The Flag. Just unconquerable American comradeship, you see. Then when it was over did the clubs go to the Senate or the Supreme Court? No, they did something more important. They went to see their ball team contest with Catholic University.