The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-03-09

STORY OF A VIOLIN.
ONE FOR WHICH FABULOUS SUMS
HAD BEEN OFFERED.
The Queor Disclosure That Was Made
When This Rare Old Instrument
and Its Owner Were Caught In .
Railr0ad Smash Up.

n AhAS huFc o1u lhBIfUM III i
and Its Owner Were Caught In .
Railroad Smash Up.
Among the fallacies tenaciously clung
to by persons who fancy themselves to be
possessed of what is called the artistic
temperament is that one which portrays
the soulful man as an invariable scrub
I when 1t comes to business propositions, -"
said well known Washington violinist.
"This Is an amiable delusion which I am
about to p,lncture to some small extent by
relating story of very recent occurrence
as to Its finale, with the details of which I
| ain perfectly familiar It's story of
! violin and OF the genuinely gifted owner
thereof.
"This man Is ard has been for the past
20 years or SO one Of the finest of Amcri.
can violinists. He Is Bostonian and has
lived in Boston all Of his life, except when
no has been concert touring tho country,
and he gave that up some years ago. He
isa man of flno family, and he traces his
ancestry very directly indeed back ,u tho
Meyhower and beyond. There has been
violinist in his family ever since tho
Mayf!ower got over to this side and also q
VIOLIN The violin brought over by the
Mayhower progenitor Of the Massachusetts
family was genuine and very valuablU
Stradivarlus. In fact, 1t Is one of tho
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
tudc for the violin.
ut fell into tho hands Of this Boston
violinist of whom l am speaking more
than 30 years ago, when ho was young
lad 1t was 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 |
Violinlsts 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
fnther of tho Boston violinist uncca sinyly
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 Maynowcr
well, some time ago this Boston violin.
i;t, while travelling from Boston to New
York to tako part in n 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
wrockage, but not completely disabled.
When he found himself extrlcatcd and an
onlookcr at the wrecking proceedings, hc
suddenly bcthought him Of his precious
strad Tie had to be held to prevent him
from climbing bnck on top of the wreck
to get at his instrument. After seven or
eight hours, during which he hung about
the wreck like crazy man, his violin was
handed to him in its leather case, Tho
case was crushed in. The Boston violin.
lst had tho 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 it
up near the neck he found pasted some
writing, done very small and fine, In the
OF the last century and dated
1850.
This bit Of writing was q confession.
i stated that this was not the great Strad !
hat had been brought over in tho May i
lower. The writer, who had inherited .
he violin before the middle of the last
entury, had been hard up for money, the
'asted note went on to say. So on one of =
is European trips he had precise dupll-
ate of his glorious Strad made in Italy
y an accomplished violin counterfeiter.
he genuine Strad he had sold to great
'ronch violinist, and this Instrument was
ut perfect duplicate-a replica. With
he statement that he could not die and
and down to posterity perpetual fraud,
no writer of the pasted note went on to
~ that he had had the top of the coun-
,rfcit Strad removed and had pasted the ,,
within, thus to in some meas.
re salvo his guilty conscience
This was hard blow to the Boston
'ollnlst, as you may well believe. Ho +
cnt secretly to work to trace the original l
trad that had been brought over by his
icestor In the Mayfower, and 1t did not
Ike him long to ascertain that the Strad
now tho cherished and priceless posses
OF of an aged German violinist. Then
10 Boston violinist had his broken coun-
rfeit Strad patched UP by an expert, and 49,
hon 1t was put together again 1t was Nv Nv
und not to have lost particle Of its for L, L
er glorious tone. The Boston violin!st 6,
1t himself in correspondence with one Of
O violin collectors who had yearned for ~,
s instrument, stating frankly that the W, w
olin's outer appearance had been dam r.
ed in the railroad accident, but that its =,
ns-Mas uninjurod, and Offering 1t for -
'o at slightly reduced lgure-a matter
II of several thousands of dollars OF
urse the Boston violnist had carefully
moved the pasted confession from the
side of the counterfeit Strad before hay
9 it patched up.
u The collector camo on to Boston and
TX the instrument at the Boston violin.
S figure, and 1t is now tho collectors
'st highly priced instrument. Tho
auty of tho story is that it's true down
the very last detail, Just as have told 10.
Wherefore guess the artistic temper
ent is able to take care Of itself, even
on It gets mixed up In matters of bust.
49, "-Washngton Star. -