The Portland daily press., 1899-03-08

ana Its owner - ere tANEHt IN "a
Railroad Smash Up.
Among The fallacics tcnaci'usiy chung
TO BY persons who fancy themselves to be
possessed of what is called tho artistic
temperament is thas one which portnys
the soulful man as an iuvariablo scrub
when il comes 60 business propositions
said wei known Washington violinist.
"1his is an amiablc Gclusion which am
about to puncture 30 some small extent ny
relating a story Of very rcccnt occurrence
as to its fa0lc, with the details OF which
am perfectly familiar It's story of q
violin and of the genuinely gifted owner
thereof
This man is and has been for the past
go years or 50 one Of the finest OF Amcfl-
can yiolinists He is Bostonian and has
lived in Boston all Of his life, except when
he has been concert touring the country
and he gave that mp some years ago. lie
is man Of finc family and he traces his
ancestry very directly indeed back ia the
Maylewcr and Beyond There has been
n xioli,ist IN his family ever since the
Alavnowcr got over 10 this side, and also a
violin. The violin brought over Ivy the
Maynowcr progcntor Of the Massachusetts,
family was genuine and very valuable
Stadivarius. In fact, il is one of the
great violins OF the world today 1t was
handed down by him to his eldest son,
whom h. made into violinist and thus
transmitted from sire 10 son, going always
to the sonvho exhibited the greatest apti
tude for the violin.
1T fell into the hands of this Boston
violiniSt Of whom ! am speaking more
than 30 years ago when he was young
lad. 1t was beautiful instrument in fin
ssh, and its tone was magnificent 1t was
the one heirloom of the family regarding
which the greatest amount of space was
consumed in the many wills made by its
owners since the early days of Massaehu-
sets. and it has been cared for through
out its long lile-well as an orchid is
cared for during its short life. Fabulous
sums were offered FOR it by great European
Vjohnists who came 10 the United States
early in this century. ole Bull made an
enormous offer for il upon his first visit
to.the United States, and he wrote TO the
father of the Boston yioliniSt increasingly
with regard to it from Europe. renewing
and simplifying his offers A deaf ear was
turned to al Of these offers. 1t was in
tended that the violin Should always re
main with the descendants of the man
who brought it over in the Mayiower.
Wen, some time ago this Boston violin
fist, while travelling from Boston to New
York to take part in L concert, got into
railroad smash up He was in the sleeper
Mt the time of the collision, with his violin
alongside Of him He was pretty badly
hurt before he got ont of the mass Of
wrcckaEe, but not completely disabled
When he found himself cxtricated and an
oulooter at The wrccking proceedings, he
suddenly hethought him of his precious
Straa he had to he held to prevent him
ffa;a climbing back on top Of the wreck
10 get at his instrument. After seven or
eight hours, during which he hung about
Tie wreck like a crazy man, his violin was
handed 20 him in its leather case. The
case was crushed in Che Boston violin
list had the hearthreall of opening the case
and of seeing his glorious irstrument
crushed in. He took it back 10 Boston
with him and carefully picked out tae
pieces Of the wrecked violin. Inside Of it
up near the neck he found pasted some
writing, cone very small and fine, i'll the
pcpmanship OF the lasc century and dated
1859
This bit Of writing was a confession
It stated that this was not the great Strad
that had been brouZa, over in the May
flower The writer, who had inherited
the violin before the middle of the last
century, had been hard up for money, the
pasted uote went on 10 say. SO en- one Of
his European trips he had precise dupli
cate OF his glorious Strad made in Italy
by an accompli she'd violin counterfcitor
The genuine Strad he had sold to great
French violinist, and this instrument was
but perfect duplicate-a replica. With
the statement that he could not die and
hand down 10 posterity perpetual fraud,
:. .f t,
say that he had had the top of the coun-
tertcit Strad removed and had pasted the
confession within, thus to in some meas.
IRE salye his guilty conscience.
"This was "a hard blow to the Boston
violinist. as you may we'll believe. He
went secretly to work to trace the original
Strad that had been brought over by his
ancestor in the Mayflower, and it did not
take him long to ascertain that the Strad
IS now the cherished and priceless posses
sion Of an aged German yiolinist. Then
the Boston vi0liust had his broken coUn
tcriet Strad patched up by an expert, and
whea it was put togetbc- again 1t was
found nor to have lost u particle Of its for
mer glorious tone. Tho Boston violinist
put himself n correspondence with one OF
the violin collectors who had yearDcI for
his Instrument, stating frankly THAI the
violin S outer appearance had been DAM
aged in the railroad accident, bat that its
tone was uniniured, and Offering it FOR
sale at a slightly reduced flguro--a matter
still 81 several thousands Of dollars. OF
course the Boston vlolinsi had carefully
removed the pasted confession from the
inside oG the counterfeit Stral before h&v
ing it patched mp.
1.-THE collector came on TO Boston and
n ef1 "a a