The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-02-11
The Virginia Gentleman-Fiddler

| college for old Virginia Fiddlers, in whfsS u
written music nor scientific musicians arc T.
he admitted. Such mauificencegis worth!
Of all admiration, aud touches tie hearts 0
genial and generous people. 's'a. :.
The Revolution of '76 ended vtce-roya,.!
in this country. TIE stately courts ~ ~. w.,
governors, and the patronage along WIN w
nomn and circumstance Of the different u'
80 ents ali came TO an end. onaei 'n'
example and aided BY the d's!casa''0"s -. =
tho Executive, the army, anu tue n-..
a ao;o.r had ACQUIRED style OF cour.hnes'
s.a Grandeur that gas quite remarSao'e
~a.o,nopics were cherished, professors mani
,.;.od and musicians kept in attendance Il
,1;sc;nline and to give grace and elegance to SO
cial intercourse and festivily. The bearing o
the times was charlottesville fashions Gle
CANT. Powdered heads, ruffied bosoms anu
wrists. cooked hats, kuee.breeches, SILK s'ooN
ipps. and silver buckied shoes or iait-'oi
boots, buff and blue. and queues, LOT sen,se
men; and hoopcd-skirts, short ~alS'S' rum
and powdered heads, for ladies: Inc h''hue'
was the dance descriptive Of the age and thi
temDer of society stately, formal, graceful
ond GRAND, The music of the minuet was
fine and foreign musicians were retained to
render il at the grand balls Of the period.
But the Revolution ended these grand
DAYS. Those who were bred to the fashion
oftbe provincial dyuasty maintained through
their lives the hauteur of manner they hao
acquired; but they gradually .diminished in
numbers, and as none were educated to take
their places, in time they disappeared. The
man and the woman Of the provincial period
were finally as completely lost as was the
AQUATIC bird, the "DoGo," which biologists
say once lived on our planet. In our youth
we saw few of the remaining stragglerS on
their march to the tomb. The last of the
real old fair-.opped boots and queued gen.
tlemen we remember was old DIR. RALEIGH
WHITE, of PittsylYania county. Old Gene
eral 3. w. S. CABELL, of Danyilie, main
tained the queue and the graceful formility
of the Revolutionary age to late day, and
Chief-Justice MARSHALL walked the streets
of this city in knee-pants and bucklcd shoes
till his last illness, in '35. The last of the
powdered heads we remember were Genera
DApg, of Orange, and Pull. HARRISON, o.
this city.
In time they all disappeared. But some
thing had to follow the Revolutionary age in
social forms and ia festiyty. The republi-
can era was full of life and jublance, and
must find social safety-yalveS for its feelings.
So in time we had the succession. The era
of 1900 inaugurated fully the rclllcklns
vigor of social rcpublicauism. The fashions
were changed, but adorned "lth te" Vi
the golden threads of the pomp OF the pre-
ceding DAYS. Rutflcs were kept up amongst
gents. They dressed carefully from top to
foe. Hats were faultless, and boots wore an
urdyiug glaze. The Indies inherited much
of the style of their grandmothers, and
courtesy and gallantry provincial, as we'll as
chivalry, distinguished society, But the
means being diminished-simple republican
ism having succeeded to regal and loyal en-
dowments and ways-our new society was
less stilted, less formal but what it lost in
pomp it made up for in the energy and
heartiness Of enjoyment.
Now comes in the dear era Of the "Fid-
die" that charmed the social circles and
gave Lille and mettle to the heels of the
young people. The country was sparsely
could only travel by horse
WAS scarce. So the villages
and bamlets had to set up for themselves.
They had no ''profrssors Of music; but
the musician came. No country can get
along without the musician. He sprang up
in Virginia as naturally as does the pine APP
pear in the abandoned field.
The minuet was gone, and the player of
the music for it, too, went with it. But we
had the Virginia Fiddler" and The country
dances, the reels, and the jigs. Let mo man
underrate the Fiddler. We knew him well.
We bave heard strains drawn from the fid-
die 1--WE mean so to call it in this article) by
untutored hands that would gill the heart by
turns with widely different emotions. At
one moment your nerves were full Of invol-
untary restessness you could not restrain
q leap and caper or two; the next you
were enchanted; and fually, full of emotion.
with eyes very much fabricated with the
pure distillment of sympathy. You could
almost hug the performer when he ended
i. e., if he were not badly dressed and ugly,
which fiddlers sometimes were.
These rustic artists were in various de-
grees of excellence or indifference. But 4
good fiddler was an idolized genius. That
was all the music We had. Pianos were very
scarce, and the hampers for the keys not
having been invented, the notes, when struck,
rang and long revcrberated, and produced
such confusion and jangle that it was hard to
tell the theme that was played.
Coming as the fiddle and the fddlers did,
| they are part Of the political history Of the
country; and looking upon Virginia, as we
Yireinans do, as the head and front Of the
Revolution and of the Republic, when we
write her history we consider that there is
not much that is valuable LEFT out Of that OF
the nation. Come, then, dear fiddler, and
take your place in history as figure in The
National Pantheon. 1gz
No country can live without music. A
we say, the fiddler met the necessity Of TIT
Republic. The fiddler, beginning his prac
tice at the latter part of tie eighteenth cen
fury, grew in skill and grace until the SECOND
decade of the present, when he reached hi
zenith. Some Of the best as we'll as mos
distinguished citizens gave to the fiddle
much attention. Mr.. JEFFERSON was grea