Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-08-24
Il. WHITMORE.
Publisher and PrOprietor.
TROMBONE VS.. FIDDLE.
Something Soothing 90 Quiet Re
morse.

emusic is a very nice thing"
said Dick, ''but then it wants to be
at the right time and in the right
place."
"But, Dick, there is a great va
riety of times in music; there's
common time, triple time, sextuple
time and -"
Pshawl you're always catching
a fellow up. / mean the right time
o day. Now, when a fellow goes
saving away Oh a fiddle at mid
night, that is not the right time O.
day."
Here it comes. 81 knew by the
smoke that so gracefully curled
from Dicks cigar that he was CO.
ing to tell a story"
" Yes. I'm going to tell you a
story about the great case of from
bone VS.. Fiddle, and you can bet on
the trombone all the time"
By the way, is it not a little
strange that the only perfect in
struments that human ingenuity
has ever devised are the trombone
and fiddle, they being the only ones
on which any imaginable music in
terval can be produced ?
A bit ago, when | was as young
and nearly as green as you fellows,
l lodged in second-story back
room, divided from the front by a
thin partition, through which every
sound in the room was transmitted
to the other. Now, the best word
in the whole dictionary for a fellow
to keep always in mind under these
circumstances is circumspection.
There is a story about that which
| will tell you some other time.
The room in front of mine was
occupied by a couple of medical
students, and like all the medical
students that / ever heard of, they
were musical. 1t is a melancholy
fact that nearly every one of them
tries at least to learn TO play on
the flute, and those that escape
the flute take to the fiddle. / sup
pose they need something soothing
to quiet their remorse of conscience
after coming home at midnight
from cutting up human bodies in
the dissecting room. At any rate,
no sooner did these two get into
their room than down came the
llute and fiddle, and then for one
or two mortal hours sleep was i'm
possible to any one in the next
room. AS / had to get up early in
the morning, whether | slept or
not, these nightly musical soirees
were becoming p grievous inflicion,
and | demonstrated, But it was
no use; they said that il ! found
my surroundings distasteful, the
world was before me where to choose
another place to roost.
The man who invented the AK
ION Eight The demon with fire +"
was a philosopher whom honor.
lie was also q man OF sense, which
few philosophers are. Passing
down the street one day l saw ex.
posed for sale in a window q second
Ihand trombone. It was battered
and rusty, and, as a promising in-
stFument on which to make a disa-
greeable noise, could not be sur
passed. 1 bought it, with an
internal chucllle, saying to myself,
"Now we'll see about it."
/ took the instrument to my
room, and as anticipated, was
awaked about midnight as usual
by the acraping of the fiddle and
footing Of the flute. | wondered
if they could possibly imagine they
we're playing duet. | bore the
afliiction patiently this time, 'know-
ing that my turn would come next,
and after a while they got through
and went to bed. About the time
| thought they had dropped into
doze, / gave two or three rapid
and powerful snorts on the from
bone. enough to awake the dead.
II know gsnort" is not exactly q
musical term, but il you have ever
heard an amateur practicing his
I first lessons on the trombone you
know what it means.