Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-11-21
A WESTERN RAILROAD WASH
OUT. !.

On st. Patricl's day. 1894. ave through
trains, bound both to the eastward and
Westward Of the Oregon Short Line of the
Union Pacific. were tied up at Glenn's Fer
ry, Idaho. They had been caught between
two serious washouts, one at Pocatello and
<the other at Indian Creek three days be-
fore, and had to wait at Glenns Ferry for
track repairs along the line before they
could proceed. Glenn's Ferry Is bleak
little railroad and sheepherders' town of
three or four hundred Inhabitants, situate
On a sagebrush bluff overlooking the I'M
speakably dark and dreary Snake river.
The five stalled trains carried about six
hundred passengers of as miscellaneous a
character as could be gotten together at a
carefully selected congress of types. There
were emigrants and millionaires; soldiers
on the move; dainty women in palace cars
and women bound for Creede and Cripple
Creek in day coaches; miners who killed
time during the wait in shooting magpies
circling over the Snake river; Shoshone
Indians travelling to the limits of their
reservation; well-behaved and quiet people,
noisy and tumutuous people. But all were
stuck alike. and they made the best of it.
Lines of social demarcation were for the
time erased. All hands mingled easily on
the little station platform and in the little
station waiting room. The supply OF food
on the dining cars gave out the first day
OF the hitch, and everybody was fed, and
They sat down at the tables in relays. and
patiently awaited their turns. The bank
president and the itnerant Chinese laun-
dryman breakfasted side by side; the army
dined together in peace and amity; the
Creede-bound ladies enjoyed their suppers
at the same tables with San Francisco
gentlewomen. hound for the Riviera.
were to give & dance at the little town
hall on st. Patrick's night. There was an
inexpressibly bad piano in the hall. upon
which a railroad fireman's wife knew how
to drum out Dance music, but there was no
fiddle or fiddler. and this worried the or
ganizers of the dance The switchman who
had been customarily employed to fiddle
for them mad been switched to another d.
vision. In a quandary. the dance commit
tee toured the trains and station, to ascer-
tain If any of the stalled passengers hap
| rened to be carrying a violin and was
capable of producing music on 1t.
In enc of the sleeping cars they came
across an artistic looking man, with very
long hair. seraphic. oleagnous counte-
nance, and exceedingly baggy clothes.
They We're looking for fiddler, they said.
Did he know of any on the train? Well. he
didn't know Gin outrageously bad English;
he played little himself once in a while.
and had rather fair fiddle with him. The
long-haired man accented the fiddle"
rather curiously. But the railroad men
| were overjoyed. Would ne play for them
to dance with their wives and sweethearts?
Certainly! Did he know dance music?
Well. some.
All of the stalled passengers were in
vited to the dance, and they all went. A
good many Of them could not get in. 1t,
was an odd kind Of affair. made pictur-
esque not only by the presence of the
mixed congregation Of travellers, but by the
leavening Of bad-looking sheep herders.
who were in reality first-rate fellows If
they did find 1t unnece ssary to unstrap
their guns while dancing with the NICE
looking railroad girls
The baggily-clothed fiddler turned up in
good time. The pianiste was waiting for
him. So was the railroad dance commit
tee. one of the members of which slipped
81 in one-dollar bills into the fiddler's hand
as payment in advance for the evenings
work. 1t was smilingly accepted The
dance began: The firemans wife who
played the piano produced an old be-
thumbed violin and piano tune book. and
at the end of the first dance. that he did
pretty WELL only he went too fast. Then
there was waltz. The fiddler was in
formed by his accompanist that he was
getting along finely, and everybody IN the
room began to prick up his ears at the
sweetness of the violin music, although
the dances were common and tawdry
enough.
Another waltz-the Beautiful Blue Dan
ube.'' All Of the dancers on the floor
stopped dead at the first bar. and the travel
ers with cultivated musical ears moved
close to the piano. The pianiste ceased.
She wished to listen. The violin music was
miraculous. The player swayed from side
to side as he phrased. He appeared to be
oblivious of his surroundings. He impro-
vised variations of inspiring tenderness.
He out-Straussed Strauss. His violin sang.
throbbed with passion. Wien the last
note died away. the people in the hall
seemed to be in dream. All but one.
Monsieur Ysaye," said Charley Fair,
the son of the late United States Senator
Fair, stepping from the throng. won't
you play that lively. rattey thing you
gave US at the Bohemian Club in San Fran
cisco the other night? It's been running
in my head ever since"
NJ. Ysaye played Berlioz's "Pizzicatto"
as he perhaps never played it before