The Waco evening news. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 1891-1894, 1893-05-12
"The Fiddle and The Bow"


the hall of the Young Mems Chris
tian Association was filled to its
utmost limit with many of Waco's
best people, who laughed them.
selves into Mysteries and stamped
until their feet ached at the droll
sayings, mlmicry, acting and de.
licious merry fun of Col. "Bob'
Taylor, sometime governor of Ten.
nessee, bit now tie very king OF
American mlrth makers.
No man may 90 justice to
ex Governor TAylor's lecture, and
certai My no one ever has. He sim
ply must be seen and heard. That's
ali there is in il. Every body
knows his curious campaign for the
governorship of Tennessee with his
brother Calf" for the press of the
country gave daily and full accounts
of the contest, which was without
an equal in American politics on &C
count Of the fun and good feeling
existing between the rival candl.
dates and their friends, although
the campaign was aggressive on
both sides and energetically carried
on.
The lecturer began without any
pre- iminaries and had the intelligent
audience wrapt with his genuine
Ell q1ence, convl lsed with his irre.
sis,lble lumor and touched their
hearts with pathos in VIII ca there
VS. nothing sickly or maudlln.
L sing the violin as his theme,
and which he Characterized as both
the a.istocrat aad democra. Ct
instruments, he made its variant
notes represent the comedies and
tragedies of life and carried his
hearers to his humble cabin home in
the Tennessee mountains and de
picted most graphically the j 9ys and
sorrows, the hopes and disappoint-
ments of the simple country folk Of
the long ago. The cod Field
School in its simple, truthful and
picturesqne thinning was the equal,
in its way, of Goldsmith's descrip-
ton of his native village school.
the colonel took off, the boys and
girls and the pedagogue of those
days to the life. The stern dignity
of the master, the sly mis-.
chief and awed feeling of the
scholars, the pride and laer
trepidation CT the school orator we're
held up to nature in the lecturers
mirror. A soft, vibrant sweep of
the bow and we behold two lovers
walking on the banks of river or
"sitting beneath juniper tree" and
their simple, yet fond affection is
told with delicate if droll touch,
suitable to the characters and the
situation. Another swift draw of
the bow and we are transported to
another scene of life in which the
movement is more active
and the action decidedly
interesting. A father is seen lin
his Mother Hubbard walking the
fl oor with his squalling first BORN,
whom he vainly seeks to sooth with
a lullaby until the daddy puts his
heel down on tack, when there
is shrill, angry "backtalk" from
the adjoining bed.
A crash OF the bow aud we have
the marching of armed hosts the
trampling of squairons, the blast f
trumpets, the roar of cannon, the
shrieks of the wounded and the
manned and mans inhumanity to
man to satisfy conquerors vain
ambition is depicted In most
graphic and terrible manner. In
this part of his lecture Col. Taylor
rises to sublime heights of true
elcquence and his acting-for it is
actlng-is simply perfection.
With the music of his fiddle Col.
Taylor charms the people with the
"short and simple annals of the
poor" takes US into the courts and
hall rooms of royalty, the humble
dwellings of the lowly, the cham
Der of death-aud with a a change
like flash, so sudden are the
"turns" of his bow, We are weer.
ing and laughing by turns.
He is an admirable mimic, a
good orator, has rich, sweet voice
and enters heart ard soul into his
subiec which is the secret ef his
great success. After some funny