The Dickinson press., 1889-06-08

~ ~ va A44A Sllllol IL ulS
The morals Well, If You can find it,
Write 1t out. for l sha'n't mind it!
Tudor jerks In Christian Union.
THE CREASED FIDDLE.
Gen. Horatio Kings Heminiscences Of tn
Old Days on the Hill.
NextIam to relate that in this lively ..city
wc had an embryo band, consisting of on
printer, a judge Of probate, the principa
landlord of the place, and one or two othe
musical genluses. Their instruments were
bass viol, clarionet and two or three fddles
and they used occasionally of a pleasan
evening to risk their necks by climbing t.
AM giving q concert on the bell deck Of tn
old Baptist meeting house belfry, which wa
very nigh, and with its massive hewn tim
bers, could they have been sawed in pieces a
at present., they would have afforded enough
material to build a small cathedral. As al
ready intimated, to reach that height was nj
Slight undertaking, and not a little dangerous
nevertheless, those were very enjoyable con
certs, for the musicians as well as for most O
tho citizens who listened to the sweet har
mony waited through the summer air.
There was. however, one maiden lady, vel
along in years-a very good, pious body, a
least in her own misunderstanding Kelly,
who regarded the fiddle us tho DEVILS instru
mcnt, and she missed no occasion of givir@
expression to disapprobation of all that sor'
of music. She at length carried her opposi
tlon-l might say resentment-so far that, re
turning one evening from q religious meeting
and finding on the card table in the sitting
room of her boarding house a fiddle, she de
lberately took it and, with a tallow candle
creased both bow and strings and then kickec
it across the rooml
This coming to the knowledge of tho boy,
in the printing office, the junior partner, who
while at the country school had been some
what addicted to rhyming-apenchant which
unfortunately, he has never since been abb
entirely to suppress-set about writing q SOM
which was printed and u to the tune o.
Aud Lang Syne" with violin accompani
ment by the landlord at his hotel, evening
after evening, not only to acrowded BARRON
of jolly fellows, but to scores of other citizens
embracing doctors, lawyers and judges within
hearing out of doors.
wish had a complete copy of this popu
lar ballad that l might reproduce it here.
can give only six stanzas. the 0rst four Of
which, and several Immediately following, ]
know were written by tie Junior partner; the
fifth was by Henry Carter, the bright ap
prentice, and the sixth, or chorus, by the
senior partner tHannibal Hamlin), as l an
gratiGed from his letter before me to DO able
wildly to recall as he has given it to me ]
am the more pleased, having in my previou.
lnestlmable narrative, power to furnish Q
specimen of his handiwork in that time. Nc
one will venture to say that, mounting thei,
Pegasus as he did, behind both the junior and
apprentice, he failed in the slightest degree tc
compass the height of their soaring genius
The song commenced:
Awake, ye muses.. and attend,
While / a tale narrate;
Poetic gods, assistance lend,
10 make the whole Sedate.
Then, as my memory serves me, after d
brief mention of local events and q biograph.
ical sketch of AUNT Kelly" the song ended
as follows:
At church, one night. some hours she spent,
So much revived was she,
She thought, when to her nome she went,
A fiddler she must be
So to her neighbours room she few,
Asst on unknown wings.
A fiddle from the table drew,
And creased the bow and strings,
But. finding 'twould not go at that
And being hard to learn,
She Tiled her foot to greasy gut
And made its bowels yearni
Thus she her piety did show
TO oil within the place,
By trying with her fiddle bow
To aid the cause Of grace.
CHORUS.
Come, grease again the fiddle bow
And grease again the strings
For further shall the fiddle 60
And louder shall it ring.
OF course Aunt Kelly" was not a little an
noyed, and Brother Walton" q sober, Sc
date and kind old gentleman, who wore deer
green spectacles and walked with a dignihet
gait, finally came to her aid in a long poem
long, l remember in length of lines anc
number of verses, in which be resolutely tool
up the cudgels for her. We got the Job O
printing it, he then not suspecting the rogues
This was rich for us boys, and we at ono,
went in for q response, devoting. Iremember
several evenings to the work. We had il
our Office a wood stove anthracite coal fol
fuel was unknownl, n not to suffer hunger
during our laudable undertaking, we bough,
with Brother Walton's contribution an,
quantity Of eggs at G,A cents q dozen, cooket
them in a tin pan over the stove. and will
Medford crackers and a sprinkling of salt W,
Jared sumptuously.
would not undertake to say how man,
stanzas we got off, but | am sure they would
have filled half a column of our paper a
least. all Of which, together with the body O
the ballad and the whole of Brother Walton
efusion, are unfortunately lost to the Itera
ture Of the age. Some Of the "old folks" go
wind of the contemplated rejoinder, and OF
their earnest appeal and protest that tn
thing had gone far enough, the rcjoinder wa
suppressed and never adorned type.-Gen
King in Washington Star.