Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-09-04
A FIDDLER WAIVED.
HE WAS FAMED AND AT DANCE MUSIC
 DID VERY WELL.

Fun and Frolie In w'ashout on the Ore
 gon sHor4 Lino-5unionaires and Ilnmi ] grants Attend Dance and Experience
 Musical Surprise.
 On St. Patrick's day, 1894, five through trains, bound both to the east ] ward and westward of the Oregon Short Line of the Union Pacific, were tied up tt Glenns Ferry, Ida They had been caught between two serious washouts, ore at Poeatello and the other at Indian Greek, three days before, and had to wait at GIenns Ferry for track repairs along the line before they could proceed. Glenns Ferry is q bleak little railroad aud sheep herders' town of 300 or 400 inhabitants, situate on sagebrush bluff overlooking the unspeakably dark and dreary Snake river.
 The five stalled trains carried 600 | passengers of as miscellaneous charac- l ter as could be gotten together at a carefully selected congress of types There were enligrants and millionairesi soldiers on the move; dainty women In palace cars and women bound for Creede and Cripple Greek in day coaches; min CTS who killed time during the wait in shooting magpies eircling over the Snake river; Shoshone Indians travel. ing to the limits of their reservation; well behaved and quiet people, noisy and tumultuous people. But all were stuck alike, and they made tho best of it.
 Lines of social demareation 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 every. body was fed and well fed, too, ill the station eating room. They sat down at the tables in relays and patiently awaited their t7rns.
 The raihCsi employees and theif wives were 10 give a dance at the little town hall on St. Patrick's night. The switehman who had been eustomariIy employed to fiddle for them had been switched to another division. In quap dary, the dance committee toured tho trains and station 60 ascertain if any of the stalled passengers happened to be carrying violin and was capable of producing music on it. In one of the sleeping cars they came across an artistic looking man, with very long hair, 8 seraphie oleaginous oountenanoe and exceedingly baggy clothes. They were looking for fiddler. they said. Did he know of any on the train? Well, he didn't know Gin outrageously bad Eng lish) he played little himself once in awhile, and had rather fair fiddle with him. The long haired man acoent- ed the fiddle" rather curiously. But therailroad men were overjoyed. Would he play for them to dance with their wives and eweethearts? Certainly Did he know dance music? Well, some.
 All of the stalled passengers were in- yited to the dance, and they all went. A good many of them could not get in. The baggily clothed fiddler turned up ill good tiRie. The pianist was waiting for him. So was the railroad dance committed, enc of the members of which slipped $9 in one dollar bills into the fiddler'a hand as payment in advance for ths evenings work. It was smiling ly accepted. The dance began. The fireman'a wife, who played the piano, produced an old bethumbed violin and piano tune book and turned t0 the Ian. cers. Sbe told the fiddler, at the end of inc first dance, that he did pretty well, only h9 went too fast Then there was waltf. The fiddler was informed by his aeo0mpanist that he was getting nlong finely, and everybody ill the room began 10 prick up his ears at the sweet ness CT tho violin music, although thy danees were common enough and tawdry enough.
 Another waltz-tho Beautiful Blus Danube. All of the dancers on the floor stopped dead at the first bar, and the travellers with cultivated musical ears raoyed close to tie piano. The pi. anist ceased. She wished to listen. The violin music was miraculous. The play. CT swnyed from side to side as he phras. ed. He appeared to be obliyious of his surroundings. He improy1sed variations of inspiring tenderness. He nt-Strauss. cd Strauss. His violin sang, throbbed with passion, When the last note died away, the people ill the hall appeared to hg in dream-all but one.
 M. Ysaye, ' said Charley Fair tha son of the late United States Senator Fair, stepping from the throng, wont you play that lively, rattling thing you gave us at the Bohemian club in San Francisco the other night? It's beer running in my head ever since. D
 M. Ysa7e played Berlioz's "Pizzi cato" as he perhaps never played it h> fore. Washington Star.