The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1899-03-08
STORY OF A VIOLIN.
ONE FOR WHICH FABULOUS SUNS
HAD BEEN OFFERED.

ONE FOR WHICH FABULOUS SUNS
HAD BEEN OFFERED.
Ths queer Disclosure That Was Made
when This RRre ola Instrument
aud It's owner Were Caught In
Railroad smash IN.
Among the fallacics tenaciously clunR
10 by persons who fancy themselves 20 be
possessed Of what Is called the artistic
temperament Is that one which pOrtrnys
the soulful man as an invariahle scrub
whom II comes to business propositions,
said a well known Washington violinist
"This is an amiable dclusion which l am
about to puncture TO some small extent by
relating a story Of very recent occurrence
as to its finale, with the details Of which
am perfectly familiar. It's a story Of
violin and Of the genuinely gifted owner
thereof
This man is and has been for the past
90 years or 90 one Of the finest of Ameri-
can yiollnists He is a Bostonian and has
lived in Boston all Of his life, except when
he has been concert touring the country,
and he gave that up some years ago He
is a man Of fine family, and he traces his
ancestry very directly indeed back to the
Maytower and beyond There has been
a violinist in his family ever since the
MayfOwer got over to this side, and also a
violin. The violin brought over by the
Maynower progenitor OF the Massachusetts
family was a genuine and very valuable
Stradivarius. In fact, II is one of the
great violins Of the world today. 1t was
handed down by him to his eldest SON
whom he made into a violinist and thus
transmitted from sire to son, going always
to the son who exhibited the greatest apti-
tude for the violin.
''It fell into the hands Of this Boston
violinist of whom l am speaking more
than 80 years ago, when he was n young
lad 1t was a beautiful instrument in fin
ish, 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 Massachu-
sets, and It has been cared for through
out its long life-well, as an orchid is
cared for during its short life Fabulous
sums were offered for it by great European
viollnists who came to the United States
early in this century. Ole Bull made an
enormous offer for it upon his first visit
to the United States, and he wrote to the
father of the Boston violinist increasingly
with regard to it from Europe, renewing
and amplifying his offers A deaf ear was
turned to all 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 Mayflower.
"Well, some time ago this Boston violin
ist, while travelling from Boston to New
York to take part in a concert, got into a
railroad smash up. He was in the sleeper
at the time of the collision, with his violin
alongside of him He was pretty badly
hurt before he got out of the mass Of
wreckage, but not completely disabled
When he found himself extricated and an
onlooker at the wrecking proceedings, he
suddenly bethought him of his precious
Strad He had 20 be held to prevent him
from climbing back on top Of the wreck
| to get at his instrument. After seven or
| eight hours, during which he hung about
| the wreck like a crazy man, his violin was
| handed to him in its leather case. The
case was crushed in. The Boston violin
! ist had the heartbreak Of opening the case
and of seeing his glorious instrument
! crushed in. He took it back to Boston
with him and carefully picked out the
| pieces of the wrecked violin. Inside Of 1t
up near the neck he found pasted some
writing, done very small and fine, in the
penmanship of the last century and dated
1859
"This bit Of writing was a confession
1t stated that this was not the great StraC
that had been brought over in the May
flower. The writer, who had inherited
the violin before the middle of the las
century, had been hard up for money, th'
pasted note went on to say. So on one o.
his European trips he had precise dupli
cate of his glorious Strad made in Italy
by an accomplished violin counterfeiter
The genuine Strad he had sold to a great
French violinist, and this instrument wa!
but perfect duplicate-a replica. Will
the statement that he could not die anC
hand down to posterity perpetual fraud
the writer of the pasted note went on t
say that he had had the top Of the coun
terfeit Strad removed and had pasted tn,
confession within, thus TO in some meas
ure salve his guilty conscience.
This was hard blow to the BostoI
violinist, as you may well believe. H,
went secretly to work to trace the origina
Strad that had been brought over by hi
ancestor in the Mayflower, and it did no
take him long to ascertain that the StraC
is now the cherished and priceless posses
sion of an aged German violinist TheI
the Boston violinist had his broken coun
terfeit Strad patched up by an expert, anC
when it was put together again it wa
, found not to have lost particle of its for
, mer glorious tone. The Boston violinis
, put himself in correspondence with one o
the violin collectors who had yearned 70
his instrument stating frankly that th
violin's outer appearance had been dam
aged in the railroad accident, but that it
tone was uninjured, and offering it fol
sale at slightly reduced figure-a matte
still of several thousands of dollars. o
course the Boston violinist had carefull
removed the pasted confession from tn
inside of the counterfeit Strad before hay
ing it patched up.
"The collector came on to Boston an
took the instrument at the Boston violin
lists figure, and it is now the collector
most highly priced instrument. Tn
beauty of the story is that it's true dow
to the very last detail just as have told il
Wherefore l guess the artistic temper
ament is able to take care of itself, eve
when it gets mixed up in matters of busi
ness Washington Star.
Beats the Klondike.