The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1891-01-22
sTONEWALL JAcksoN's FIDDLE.
1t Was More Difficult to Master Than
Mathematics.

1t Was More Difficult to Master Than
Mathematics.
When Jackson first entered West
Point he was regarded as remarkably
stupid and green youth. General Whit
ing, who afterward served in the Con-
federate army, was then cadet in the
class above Jackson's and was ap-
pointed to ask him some questions in
mathematics, in accordance with the
custom which then prevailed at the
military academy. Whiting thought
him at first remarkably dull, but no.
ticed that he studied and worked with
logged persistency. The class of which
Wilcox and Whiting were members was
graduated just prior to the Mexican
war. Several of the young officers wero
in Washington on their way to Mexico,
and on the night of their arrival they
were invited to go with jefferson Davis,
then member of the House, to a re.
ception given at the White House.
Later both Davis and 7. J. jackson
turned their faces toward the Rio
Grande. At the close of the war Jack
son ranked every member of his class
and was Brevet Major, and was sta
toned on Governors Island, near New
York. Whiting, Wilcox and number
of young officers were visiting New
York, and when several brother officers
Whiting asked:
''What has become of Tom Jackson;
how is he getting on?"
Badly, badly" replied the officer;
''since he has stopped fighting he has
taken to fiddling. He came over to
this city few weeks ago and
bought a fiddle, several bows and
Der at West Point there was no
music in his soul, no poetry, no relaxa-
ton, nothing but hard application to
his textbooks. So his new fad makes
it awful for us. Every minute he can
spare he devotes to practicing on the
fiddle, and the sounds which fill the bar
racks in his vicinity are beyond descrip-
tion-almost beyond endurance"
''Be patient" said Whiting, with a
smile; IF Tom Jackson is determined
to master his violin you'll listen to a
second Paganini before he gives up"
But Writings prediction was not YER
flied. jackson never became q must
cian.-Chicago Evening Journal
The English DrawL
The common people in England speak
all sorts of dialetic denominations, but
with the exception of perhaps one man
in ten thousand they do not speak any
thing that bears any respectable rela-
ton to written English. The English
drawing burr is quite as unintelligible
and not half so musical as that brogue
of the Irish which the English are so
fond of ridiculing. 1t is on the whole
nearly as easy for an American to I'M
derstand French porter as an English
one, and if the Frenchman pretended to
speak English he speaks it a hundred
times better than the Londoner does.
When it comes to proper names, names
of streets, or any thing which can not
be guessed from the context, the aver
age Londoner is utterly unintelligible
to the ear unframed to the monstrosities
Of bis pronunciation as if he spoke
Choctaw. 1t is thousand pities that
the English can not be taught to speak
the American language, which is a
hundred-fold more clear, more classic,
more elegant and more consistent than
the tongue spoken in England. In
deed, the common speech of the Amer
lean people is to that of the same class
in England as rock-candy is to buttered
toffee!-Chicago Tribune.