Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-03-05
A FIDDLER WANTED.
HE WAS FAMED AND AT DANCE MUSIC
 DID VERY WELL.

Fun and Frolic Tn a Washout on tbe Ora
 gon Short ne-Millionaires and Immi-
 grants Attend Dance and Experience
 Musical Surprise.
 On St. Patriek's day, 1894. five 1 through trains, bound both to tho east. ward and westward of the Oregon Short Line of the Union Pacific, were tied up at Glenns Ferry, Ida. They had been caught between two serious washouts. one at Pocatello and the other at Indian Greek, three days before, and had to wait at Glenns Ferry for track repairs along the line before they could proceed. d4enns Ferry is bleak little railroad and 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 oharao. ter as could be gotten together at a carefully selected congress of types. There were emigrants and millionaires: soldiers on the move; dainty women in l palace cars and women bound for Creede and Cripple Creek in day coaches; min CTS who killed time during the wait in shooting magpies circling 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 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 every. body was fed, and well fed, too, in the station eating room. They sat down at the tables in relays and patiently awaited their turns.
 The railroad employees and their wives were to give dance at the little town hall on St Patrick's night. The switohman who had been customarily employed to fiddle for them had been switched to another division. In quan. diary, the dance committee toured the trains and station to ascertain if any of the stalled passengers happened to be carrying a 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, a seraphio, oleaginous countenance and exceedingly baggy clothes They were looking for Q fiddler. they said. Did he know of any on the train? We'll, 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 accent ed the fiddle" rather curiousIy. But the railroad men were overJoyed. Would he play for them to dance with their wives and eweethearts? Certainly Did he know dance musio2 We'll some.
 All of the stalled passengers were in- vited to the dance, and they all went. 4 good many of them could not get in. The baggily clothed fiddler turned up in good tlme. The pianist was waiting for him. So was the railroad dance committed, ono of the members of which slipped $3 in one dollar bills into the fiddler's hand as payment in advance for the evenings work. It was smiling ly accepted The dance began. The fireman | wife, who played the piano, produced an old bethumbed violin and piano tune book and turned to the lan- cers. Sac told tho fiddler, at the end of the first dance, that he did pretty well, only he went too fast. Then there was waltz The fiddler was informed by his accompanist that he was getting along finely, and everybody ill the room began to prick up his ears at the sweet ness cB the violin music, although the dance1 were common enough and tawdry enough
 Another waltz-the Beautiful Blue Danuhe :" All of tho dancers on tho floor stopped dead at the first bar, and the travellers with cultivated musical ears moved close to the piano. The pi. anist ceased. Sho wished to listen. The violin music was miraculous. The play CT swnyed from side to side as he phras- cd. He appeared to be obliyious of his surroundings. He improvised variations of inspiring tenderness. He out-Strausa, cd Strauss. His violin sang, throbbed with passion. When tho last note died away, the people in the hall appearod to be in dream-all but ono.
 Ri. Ysaye. said Charley Fair th. son of the late United StatPs N aies Fair, stopping from the thre.i.,
 you play that lively, rattl ing you gave us at the Bohea.' in San Francisco thn t ,t. It's been running k .y s.zs,,i eyer sinee. ''
 Bf. Ye.sa played Berlioz's 'Pizzi- cato ! ne perhaps never played it b. fore Washington Star.
 Ere Au Maurier Woman.
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