Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1896-05-18
ALONE WITH HIS FIDDLE.
An Old Snowman in the San Francisco
AlmShOuSe.


An old man who had had a varied ca
reer was admitted to the almsh0use IN
San Francisco recently. The only pos
session that he carried with him was a
violin. His wife, woman many years
younger than himself, had promised TO
accompany him, but at the door of the
almshouse she slipped away and left
him to enter alone. The San Francisco
newspaper which printed an account OF
the affair said that the old man fell to
playing his violin contentedly, awaiting
in confidence his wife's return. But she
never came back, and he was left alone
with the violin for company.
He was Frederick Helms, and he was
born in Hanover, Germany, in 1910.
When he was a child he came 10 this
country, and as soon as he was old
enough to become a soldier he enlisted
in the United States army. After ten
years of army life he married in Wash
ington, and, the army pay proving too
little for him and his wife to live on. he
resigned, and, removing to Cincinnati,
commenced to play the violin in the
alter orchestra there. After a year of
this he went to Missouri, because his
wife had expressed a desire to try farm
ing. From Missouri they moved to Ore
gon, and the old man gave this story Of
his career thereafter to a reporter of the
San Francisco Chronicle:
In 1858 we travelled overland from
Missouri to Oregon. My wife had been
sickly, but she got well on the trip. In
Oregon we took up land, and [ planted
the first big apple orchard in the state.
It's there yet. But trouble came. My
wife died, one of my daughters ran away
and married, and my son-in-law got
most of my property. She is Emma
Jane Lindsey and she doesn't care for
me. My house was burned, and | got
l. Al e 1soI1 1. Il
Then | went to Portland, but [ never
got rich again.
MY other daughter, Marietta Swab,
lievs in South Africa, but that's a long
way off-Africa is-and she hasn't much
call for letter writing. She'll be sorry
when she hears that me and the fiddle
has gone to the poorhouse. My son, he's
a Snowman in Texas.
when | left Portland I bought big
tent, and was a Snowman for thirty
years. l went to Africa and South
America, and [ invented Peppers Ghost,
which would have made me a lot Of
money if I'd had it patented
Peppers Ghost was an illusion man
aged by means of mirrors and curtains,
and was the first of the so-called 'Egyp-
tian mysteries" After his Snowman
days Helms married second time.
That was sixteen years ago, and during
that period the old man has been playing
the violin, while his wife worked at odd
jobs. Old Helms wandered from saloon
to saloon, but his earnings diminished
so that he and his wife were unable to
pay the $1.25 week which was the
rent of their room.
When the old man went with his vio-
lin to the almshouse he wore a high old
fashioned collar and a black and white
stock. He was neeyr known 70 be
drunk, and never in his life did he use
tobacco in any form. 1t was after they
had arrived at the almshouse that the
old mans wife made an excuse to turn
back, and left him to enter alone.
"She'll come back he said, unwrap-
ping the violin from the bandanna hand
kerchief with which it was covered and
beginning to play.