The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-04-29

generally run in one Key. InAt > enough
for our population. which is shorely east
~ suited in music. anyway. The best
fiddler / ever saw was a Dutchman at
Marysville. I'll Just tell you what ne
could do. He could give an imitation OF
a church organ so well that you Just
naturally expected to have the contrlou-
ton box showed under your nose. Then
he would turn the fiddle around SO the
finger end was under his chin and play a
clog without looking at his fiddle. Say.
maybe that wasn't fiddle playin'." and
Dawes face fairly shone with enthusiasm
over the thought.
Doesn't Like waits Quadrilles.
Now. here Is another of those musical
outlaws which j can't rope to save my
life," and Dave showed waltz ouadrille
he had dug out Of the pile. You just
cit to rfdin' along on the quadrille time
when Il suddenly begins to buck and then
breaks into a waltz. was playin' II at
Lordsburg the other night, and when I
struck the waltz everybody thought had
stopped to tune my fiddle. Alfalh Bill
had got to the bar and ordered his liquor
before he discovered the Quadrilie wasn't
through.
TT grieves a musician to be compelled
to play in one key" Dave said, reverting
to the subject of keys. which seems to be
the only shadow on his life. While these
fiddlers down here play tolerable pro-
ficient, they can't shift keys, and you
know you can't keep piayin' all night in
the same key without somebody castin
rehectin' remarks. II 1 strike piece in
A fat or F sharp I've got to go way over
to Stockton's ranch and get Musical Smith
to play It with me or put It back in the
herd. And the same way with my banjo
accompanies. There amt no man in the
territory what can play banjo outside
Of @ and ID, which II shore exasperatin
to a musician. allow. I remember in
To ! was to play for q dance in Cheyenne
with Jake Wallace as banjo. He was
counted the hardest man with a banjo
west Of the Misuri river. Well, I'm id
IL when the first set was called and we
struck UP II Jake didn't go prancing off
on the key Of q when l was leadin In r
sharp. That was nearly thirty years ago,
and may be branded IL have ever been
able to escape those @ ID fellers. They
all just naturally think there amt nothin'
In this world but the key OF G. and d.
And there is Ed Cunningham up at the
Mogolton camp, who is as fine a Teller
as ever gulped drink. but II he was goin'
to DO hamstrung he couldn't play no
chords outside OF G. and d. One day him
and mo was playin' a right smart polky,
when Dad Russell sorter insinuatin' like
asked me II couldn't play nothin' except
In that key. l told him couldn't so long
as I had my present accompanist Dad is
terribly jealous OF a real musician
Dave played till after 10 o'clock. and
the punchers danced and sung and would
have kept the fiddle going till now II
Dawes broken wrist had not begun to
give out. II there ID anything a cow
puncher likes II is music Of any sort or
description, and that IL the kind Dave
plays.
THAT splinter broken offr repeated
Dave. AZ he was placing tho fiddle back
in the box. THAT was cut out Of my
fiddle by a bullet from a six-shooter. I
was playin' a waltz quadrille over at
Globe. Ariz. and when struck the waltz
part a puncher thought had stopped
playin'. He felt injured and cut down on
me with his 49, The bullet struck the
fiddle 1t was one OF the most ornerist
acts I ever seen a gentleman do at a
select gatherin. Charles d. Almy in
Chicago Chronicle.