The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-20
QUEER DICKS IN THE NAVY.
a LANDssIAN WHO WAS A VIOLIN
VIRTUOsO.


a bareback Rider.
Washington Letter New York Sun.
Many peculiar geniuses, men of really
remarkable attachments along certain
lines, find their way into the United States
army and navy as enlisted men. Teaching
the violin to a fashionable class of young
women and men in this city, charging 50
a lesson and making pot of money, is a
young Pole. only % years old, with a
name of extreme difficulty, albeit valuable
from a professional point of view, who
was discharged from the United States
navy at the end of three years cruise
trihe over six months ago.
What this young fellow, whose manner
is still as guileless as that of an infant
was doing al Gibraltar could not be found
out by the executive officer Of a vessel of
the Mediterranean squadron who shipped
him there as a landsman, the vessel hav-
ing been short-handed on account of the
return to this country of a large number
of short-time men. This new landsman
| could barely speak English, and even to-
| day his English utterance Is weird and I'M
| convincing. As landsman he did his
work up to the top notch He suffered a
good deal of ridicule uncompla iningly.
| His messmates joked him because when
| he shipped his hair was chopped off In the
II.
| and because he was genraly funny sight
| in the ue-jacket government straight"
uniform. Through 1t all the Pole was
bland and smiling. He kept his bright
| work well polished, and 1t was not found
| necessary to hale him to the mast when
! he returned from shore liberty.
| One Sunday afternoon at Villefranche
! when the Pole had been a landsman for
! about month, an Irish marine, lolling
tedT, IN one OF the berth deck aleoyes,
really fine old violin which he possessed,
upon which, to the intense misery of the
| whole ships company fore and aft, he
| The Rose of Kildare" The Rakes O.
MMaiiowj, e ,. &C., to the, the pivil and Shake
ley The Meeting of the Waters" etc.
| These tunes the marine butchered out
rageously but, being mellow complais-
| ant Hibernian, he could not see anything
| wrong with his own music, and enjoyed
! it greatly. When he made the first scrape
4 of his bow on this Sunday afternoon the
| Pole, who was on the spar deck, was OBJ
served to cock up his ears and to betray
! some degree of excitement. He went be-
low, and for few minutes, he nervously
! watched the big marine saw on the fine
instrument. Then he impulsivey reached
| out for the violin. The Irishman was so
! overcome with astonishment that he gave
up the violin to the Pole without a word.
| There followed an hour of music such as
| probably had never been heard on a man
of-war in the United States navy. To the
writer 1t sounded every whit as beautiful
| as the performances of Sarasate, Ysaye,
Remenyi, Joachim, Wilhelm and the rest
OF the masters of the bow who have in
! spired millions. This awkward, simple
| looking Polish landsman was a violin Yir
! tuoso. He had not played two minutes
! before the officer of the deck had his
| head poked through a deck light listen
| ing. There was general exodus of Of
| fcers from ward and mess rooms within
five minutes. They all came forward with
| astOnished expressions and stood in the
| alcoVe taking in the Poles music.
All OF the men who could get anywhere
near the alcove crowded down the lad
| ders. Pretty soon, unheralded even BY an
| Attention. SO enwrapped were officers
and men, the commanding officer, who had
heard the music from his cabin tptoed
into the alcove He remained until the
| musician was through Absolute silence
prevailed. There seemed positively moth
nique that the Pole could not do. His
bowling was dazzling. His chords were
wonderful His tones were perfect; his
pathos so heartrending that II made
tough old tars gasp. He made it appear
| that playing triple chords up around the
bridge of a violin was the simplest thing
| in life. At the conclusion of a Chopin
''Nocturne" an officer weakly asked MIN
to play the "Rhapsodie Hongroise." The
Pole attacked the composition as Liszt
pure fire and fury of inspiration. When
he finally handed the violin back to the
marine, who was in a stupefied condition,
the men went forward and the officers aft
| without a word.
The Pole polished no more bright-work.
/ A new place, unofficial, but not the less
dignifei AMI important, was created fer
| him aboard the ship He became musi-
clan To the commanding officer 1t was
a soft berth. such as even naughty adj
| niraPs coX'un might have desired. The
! Poles sole DUTY was to take the marines
violin into the cabin and play for the So
| lace of the ships commander. The COM
manding officer fiouted some of his Off
Gers who suggested that so fine a musi-
clan as the Pole should be transferred to
| the na2ships band, He wouldn't hear
of such thing. He went ashore at Ge-
noa and bought for the Pole fine violin.
! " hen he had guests of distinction aboard
! the Snip he would send for the Pole to
entertain them, and the visitors went away
marvelling Once IN while, as partic-
| ular favor the skipper would lend the
| Pole to his officers for a wardroom musi-
Gale. The musician LSver got a higher
rate officially than that of landsman, for
! there was nothing aboard the ship that
! the commanding officer would let him do
| for fear he would injure his hands, bit
| as lanosmar he had absolutely no du-
| ties to perform such as fell to the lot
| OF the other men of his rating. When
his time was up last August the ships
! captain tried hard to induce the Pole to
ship over, but he obdurately, and quite
/ senSibly, declined. He was paid off in
/ New York, and he came straight to
| Washington, where he has some well-to-
| do relatives, and hung out his sign as a
| violin teacher. He has more pupils than
| he can teach, and more money than he
| ever dreamed Of possessing. He abso-
/ lutely refuses to say anything about his
| record, or to state how and where he got
/ his musical education.
! At Bangkok. few years ago, an Amer
lean man-of-war shipped a German as a
| messroom attendant. The man wanted to
/ ship on deck, but there was no vacancies,
/ so he took the messroom billet. He was
| a fine-looking man of about 30, who did
| not have much to say to any Of the crew
| one afternoon at sea, not long after this
| German had shipped, a knot of the deck
officers were In the wardroom, discussing
a rather difficult point in ordnance. They
all prefaced their remarks with the state
ment that the point they were discussing
was a trihe over their heads. The German
| messroom attendant who was watching
| out for the officers needs in the matter OF
| liquids, etc, did the unheard-of thing OF
/ putting in his oar He did II so quietly and
/ respectfully, and the very first words that
\ he uttered were so decidedly 10 the point
/ and showed so completely that he knew
/ what he was talking about. that the on
| GERS found themselves listening TO him
/ with good deal of interest. In FIVE min
! utes the German had shown them that he
/ was past master in all matters pertain
| ing to modern great guns. He made no
| reply to the officers questions as TO where
/ he had picked no all his inside Informal
/ ton. but there was absolutely nothing re-
garding the armament OF the worlds ma
vies that he was not familiar with The
i .ftst. d.