The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-20
HE WAS A BUSINESS MAN.
Had "Artistic Temperament" But
Sold Bogus Violin.
washington Evening Starr


among the fallacies, tenaciously chung
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 fool when it comes
TO business propositions" said a we'll
known Washington violinist. This is an
amiable delusion which l am about to de-
strov to some small extent by relating d
story OF very recent occurrence as 70 its
finale. with the details OF Wh1cn a am
perfectly familiar. 1t STORY oI d WIN t
and Of The genuinely gifted owner tnereoL.
This man is, ana has been LOT tne
past twenty years or so, one OF the hhest
of American viollnlsts. he IS ilidiI ~ ~
fine family and he traces MS ancestry
very directly indeed back to the May
flower and beyond. There has been d NO
linist in his family ever since the 10y
Hover got over to this side, and also a
violin. The violin brought over by me
MayhoWer progenitor OF the Massdcn lli
sets family was d genuine ana very vol
liable StraoiVar1uS. 1t was hdnoeu uoWh
NV him TO mis- eldest son, whom ne made
into a yiollnist, and thus Uansnltted
from sire to son, going always 10 tne s sun
who exhibited the greatest apeltu of H. liz
the VIOLIN 1t fell into the hands OF tlltS
yiolinist of whom L am speaking more
than thirty years ago, Wnen ne was o.
Young lad. 1t was beautltuI instr uiueHL
in finish and its tone was magnlncenl.
.'Fabulous sums were offered Tor II by
great European violinists who came 10
The United states early in this century.
ole Bull made an enormous oHer LOT II
mon his first visit to the United states,
and he wrote to the father OF the VioIlnlSt
increasingly with regard TO II from E ~
rope renewing and ampllIylnS MS oL-
fers 1t was intended that Ine NlollH
should always remain with the DESCENT
ants OF the man who brought IL over Ill
the Mayfiower at, u,io,;,,is+
while travelling from Boston to New YORK
to take part in d concert, got into rail-
road srI sh-up. He was In the sleeper at
the time of the collision, with ms yloHn
alongside of him lie was pretty badly
hurt before he got out OF the mass OF
wreckage, but not completely qlsa9Ieu.
When he found himself eXtr1cated anu an
onlooler at the Wrecking proceedings, ne
suddenly bethoughJ him OF his precious
Strad He had to be held to prevent hlln
from climbing back on top OF the wreck
to get at his instrument. AFTER seven OF
eight hours during which he hung about
the wreck like a crazy man, MS Vl0lin
was handed to him in its leather case. Inc
case was crushed in. The vtohnlst had
the heartbreak of opening the case and
of seeing his glorious instrument crushed
in. He took it back to Boston with MN
and carefully picked out the pieces Oh
the wrecked violin. Inside OF 1t, up near
the neck, he found pasted some writing,
done very small and fine, in the penman-
ship of the last century, and dated 1'99-
This bit of writing was a confession. 1t
stated that this was not the great Strad
that had been brought over in the May
flower. The writer, who had inherited the
violin before the middle of the last cen
turw. had been hard UP for money-the
pasted note went on to say. so, on one
of his European trips, he had a precise
duplicate Of his glorious Strad mace IN
Italy by an accomplished VloIln counter
feiter The genuine Strad he had sold
to a great French violinist, and this in
strument was but a. perfect duD!lcate-d
replica. With the statement that ne could
not die and hand down to Dosterity
perpetual fraud, the writer OF the pasted
note went on TO say that he had had the
TOP of the counterfeit Strad removed and
had pasted this confession within, thus
to in some measure SaIve mis- guilty con-
science.
as you may well believe He went Sc
cretly to work to trace the original Strad
that had been brought over by his ances-
tor in the Mayhower, and 1t dld not take
him long to ascertain that the Strad IS
now the cherished and priceless posses
sion of an aged German violinist. Then
the violinist had his broken counterfeit
Strad patched up by an expert, ana when
it was put together again it was found
not to have lost a particle of its former
glorious tone. He put himself in CORE
spondence with one of the violin collectors
who had yearned for his instrument;
stating frankly that the violin s outer
appearance had been damaged in the rail-
road accident, but that its tone was un-
slightly reduced figure, a matter, stu, or
several thousands of dollars. OF course
the violinist had carefully removed the
pasted confession from the inside OF the
counterfeit Strad before having it patched
up The collector came on to Boston and
took the instrument at his figure, and it
is now the collectors most highly-priZed
instrument. The beauty of the story is
that it's true down to the very last de-
tail, just as 1 have told it.
Wherefore l guess the artistic tenn
perament is able to take care of itself,
even when it gets mixed up in matters
of business"