The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-01-26
A GHOSTLY FIDDLER.
The Unseen ApparitiCn Which
HauntS an Alabama Locality.

| Down in the abandoned Arbacoochee
| gold fields, twenty miles south of this place
stands the ruins Of log cabin, where years
| ago, a mysterious and bloody crime was
| committed. The place is haunted, but moi
| by visible ghosts. No white-robed phantom
| forms walk, with noiseless tread. across the
| broken, vine-covered floor OF the old cabin
| No specter lights CLEAN through the one
window, or across the rotten threshold oil
the shutteTlesS door. The ghost is heard,
not seen.
| The ghostly sounds are the music OF q
| violin. The playing is not that OF master
| but it is good, and it is soft and low a
though the soul of the player was in sympa-
thy with his music Night after night fol
many years this ghostly violin played by
| ehostly hands has awoke the echoes Of the
deserted cabin. First there is heard thrum-
! ming on the strings a tuning OF the nStru-
| ment, and Their the bow is drawn across the
| strings when they are all in perfect mar
| mony. A sweet Scottish love ballad OF
olden days is first played, then comes the
| familiar music Of the Scots highland IL ng.
Then there is a brief pause. another
| drumming of the strings, and then on the
| night air softly floats the music OF that
| sweet old Scottish song, Within Mile o
| Edinburo Town" One stanza is finished,
! "'iDhhNi - bOruhs bliO ihhoAS - 1900
! sweeter than before, when suddenly 1t
| stops in the middle of a bar and is heard no
| more until the following night, when the
| same programme is repeated.
OF course, there is a story attached to the
| old cabin, story to explain the ShoStiy
music, and weird story it is. Ia 1868,
| when the ArbacoocEee gold fields were filed
| with prospectOrS, two Old California miners
turned up there one day. Their names were
| Martin Burke and Donald Mcleod. They
| and hn1 n in y
| in California and Nevada for twenty years
| with Indifferent success. Mcleod was i
| Sc0tchman, and 10 the newly discovered
| gOld-iield he brought AN old violin, which he
! never tired of playing when asked TO per
| form.
The two miners rented the cabin and
| went to work prospecting among the hills.
| One DAY the two men were missed. Next
! day they were stlll missing, and the cabin
| was visit d. The dead body of Mcleod
was lying on the floor Of the cabin. He had
| been shot through the head while sitting in
| front OF the fire playing his violin. When
| he fell his fingers stlifened on his violin, an
! when in removing it from the dead man 5
! bands tile bow was drawn across the strings
| by accident, and the old fiddle emitted d
wall for the dead musician which, it is
| stated, made those who heard II shudder.
| Burke was gone. and naturally he vas SuS-
| pected OF tue murder Of his partner Thele
| seemed to be one reasonable theory Of the
| fluid, that Burke had murdered his compan-
ion, and taking all the gold had fled. This
theory was generally accepted, but as there
was no positive evidence against Burke ne
| effort was made to fiud him.
None dared to charge him with the muir
der of Mcleod because they had no evil
| deuce. Burke spent his days and nights in
| the one saloon OF the little town. Abou,
! that time the ghostly violin playing in the
| old cabin was first heard, and one night a
| frightened countryman was giving an ac-
| count of it in the saloon at Arbocoochee
| Burke heard the story and il was noticed hi
! turned deadly pale and staggering to the
| bar called for glass If liquor From that
| night Burke drank more and more and in 6
week he was on the verge of the jim-jams
! Late one night lie reeled up to the bar
| and called for liquor. \ crowd of country
men were drinking in a back room and one
| of them was playing violin. Burke paid
10 attention to the music at first. but just
as he raised the glass 10 his lips the cOun.
| try fiddler began to play within Mile o
| Ednboro Town" The glass of liquor fel
! from Burke's trembling fingers, and, with a
| gasp. he fell to the floor. The look of tel
| ror on the mans face was one never to bt
| forgotten He fell all in heap, and in fiyt
| minutes was dead. The doctor said he dice
of heart-failure caused by drink and sudden
| excitement.
After Burke's death the murder of Mcleod
| was talked Of more than ever. II developed
that the fiddle the countryman was playing
| in the back room Of the saloon when Burke
| fell dead was the same instrument Donald
Mcleod was playing the night he was muir
| dered. Putting this and that together TIT
| people who knew the facts reasoned tina
| Mcleod had been murdered by Burke while
| playing his 1ayOrite tune, Within Mile 0
| Edin b0ro TOwn"-Evansville (Ala,) special
| 10 Pittsburg Dispatch.