100 years ago: Band leader scoffs at ragtime fad

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Sept. 11, 1913:

  • “Ragtime music is rapidly passing away. J. C. McCanless, formerly leader of the First Regimental Band and director of the Kansas University Band, is authority for this statement. ‘I would never play a program of this sort of music,’ said Mr. McCanless yesterday, ‘because I did not think the people wanted it. Now I know they do not. Out at the park this summer we played some ragtime, but I was glad to notice that the people did not seem to care for it. When we played a standard number we were always given a “hand” but on the rag-time stuff they did not seem to care at all. The public appreciates standard and classical music, people have learned to understand that it is something solid and they are rapidly discarding the flimsy, noisy, unharmonious and meaningless rag.'”
  • “The drouth of 1913 is over, it passed into the realms of the has-beens shortly after the heat wave had made its demise. Nearly two inches of rain, 1.86 inches to be exact, last night routed the dryness which has prevailed here almost unbroken since the middle of July. The rain began to fall yesterday evening about six o’clock, not a wild flurry and a dash and a splash, but a gentle quiet rain that soothed the scorched earth and seemed to put new ‘pep’ into everything. All night long the moisture fell and soaked into the parched ground, it was a slow and steady fall and not a drop was wasted. This morning when Lawrence awoke after a night of real sleep it was still drizzling and the clouds did not disappear today…. Persons moved quickly this morning, there was not the usual drag and delay that the summer’s heat brought about. It was really good to be alive this morning and breathe the moisture laden air. The temperature has dropped back to normal again and indications now are for reasonable weather for a spell…. With the characteristic Jayhawker optimism the state is looking ahead.”