The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1894-01-11
A RED.SKlNNED AUDIENCE,
Experience of Fiddiing Station Agent
in No Mans Land.

The Southwestern Stage company
needed man to take care of the relay
station down in No Mans Land. known
On their books as No. Is. As no one
who knew the country could be per-
sUadei to 20 there for love or money,
it was case of anybody at. all, says
the St. Louis Globe Dem0crat. Hence
it was that "Fiddling Jimmie" fresh
from an eastern Kansas farm, was
sent down to I'LL the vacancy. He was
tall. lank, red-haired, and he carried
black. shiny satchel in one hand and
violin case in the other.
The Office people told him it was
lonesome place. but he said he didn't
care SO long as they kept him in grub
and his fiddle strings stayed with him.
They failed to tell him that the last
man there had been found with a bull
let in his head few yards from his
dugout. and that all the mules had
been run off either bv rustlers or Ind
ians straying up from the teSitOry
reservations. 1t might have made
some difference had Jimmie been told
of this, but he was not, so we need not
speculate on the matter. No. 13 was
a lonesome place. Twice week each
way buck board came by with the
driver and the Tascora mail.
The mules were changed, a sack of
-four or a bale of hay was dumped off,
and then Jimmie was left to himself
and the solace of his violin. The sta
tion consisted simply of a corral and
dugout in q high bank overlooking a
deep water hole in a creek. Jimmie
set & line in the hole and ALWAYS had
fish for dinner. He shot wild game at
times, and the report ran around
among the drivers that "the blamed
fool at No. 13 was getting fat and fresh
in his talk"
Things went Oh until the summer
passed into the early autumn. 1t was
night. Jimmie had eaten his supper
and wac sitting on his solitary stool
saving away for dear life on the vio-
lin. at peace with the world and him-
self, while up the creek valley came
stealing Big Tooth. Yellow Horse, and
seven other proteges of the govern
ment, fresh from the reservation, bent
on cattle stealing, thievery of any
kind, and general deviltry.
SO silently and swiftly did they file
in the dugout that Jimmie only had
time to lower his bow and stare open
eyed across the vanished surface of
the instrument while the fragrance of
their many unwashed years filled the
little interior. The Indians calmly
squatted in a circ'G around him, and
Big Tooth, patting his Winchester with
one hand, pointed with the other at
the violin and solemnly grunted out:
PLAY tune"
Jimmie played at once with energy.
When he wanted to stop another buck
with the same movement made the
same command and Jimmie PLAYED
again. Then another commanded and
still another. The night advanced.
Occasionally 4 mule outside braved, a
coyote howled, but there was no ces-
sation to Getting Upstairs" Cotton
Eyed joe" The Arkansas Traveller"
and all the melodies III Jimmie's rsp-
ertory. The late moon rose: still it
was Play tune" and jim mie played
Midnight passed away and the early
hours of dawn.
1t grew S.st gray, then rose colored.
over in the east, and still the strains
of music fioated out from the open
mouth of the du9out Just when it
grew good daylight Big Tooth and his
companions arose, possessed them
selves Of Jimmic's ammunition and
gun, and also o. sundry portable arti-
cles, and with a parting Much good
time" betook themselves off to other
paris.
Along about ID o'clock the man wha
ran station No. y, down on the Beaver,
happened 10 look out of the open door.
way of his cabin. He saw a black dot
way up the valley. The dot was mov-
ing 1t soon resolved Itself into
larger shape and moving arms aud
Legs became di>cerniblc. Then it soon
became manifest that il was red
haired man on 4 ycty tired mule, rid
Ing for dear life. When the mule
stopped, tired and blown. at the door
the man keeled over in a dead faint.
He had fiddle in one hand and bow
in the other. The fiddle strings were
broken and the bow bent. for they had
been used on the mules sides with en-
ergy and vim. "Fiddling Jimmie"
had resigned.