The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1900-11-15
THE FIDDLE ON THE FARM.


THE FIDDLE ON The FARM.
In this busy world there is room for
the man with the fiddle.
''All work and no play makes Jack
dull boy We are built that way All
are not singsters," but all feel the
restful, uplifting power of music. The
housewife who huns a tune as she
handles the broom sweeps cleaner and
the task is lighter. The boy who picks
up potatoes and whistles while he works
fills the basket without fatigue. Dea.
Jones of Browns Corner, as he drives
along the road. always sings hymn.
The old mare keeps step to the music
and the sentiment of the song opens to
the deacon the portals OF heaven. Dumb
animals, like humans, are charmed and
cheered by music.
In the hands of an expert the fiddle
is whole band of music. l attended
concert short time ago at Cumston
Hall, Monmouth The star of the en-
tertainment was fiddler from New
York. The audience was composed of
country people who were not accustom-
ed to hear such tiddling, but the atten-
ton was so rapt that the least touches
of the bow We're directly heard in the
rear seats of the auditorium.
At this season of the year the anna
teur fiddler is i'll demand at corn huSk-
ings and apple pairing bees. The labor
of stripping the husks from the golden
ear is heightened because. after the
corn is all husked and hot coffee, pump
kin pie and cheese are served, the kitch-
Ell dance is to follow. The farmers
kitchen is often the largest room in the
house. After the supper is cleared away
the tiCdle strikes up and 20 OPS couples
form, and the dance goes on and JOY is
uncoItined until the roosters on the
baTnvard fence begin to crow. Old men,
whose heads are whitened by the SHOWS
of tbree-score winters. catch the inspir-
alton Of the fiddle and give exhibitions
of dancing in the Aud Lang Syne.
These Whiteheaded boys had never
taken lessons from the dancing master,
but they can step out every touch and
beat of the tune in perfect time.
OF course, in the country at our corn
huskings and apple pairing bees we do
not have such musical talent as the
people have in the centres of wealth
and culture, but we have the amateur
fiddler Our kitchen dances are civil
and orderly, and i'll one respect like the
old deacon's religion. He said he had
enjoyed pure and undetled religion for
10 years, and it had never cost him a
cent. These country dances are free
that is, no money is paid out. There
are plenty of tiddlers. The tiddlers take
turns and join in the dance with the
rest. At Browns Corner there is a girl
whistler who can take the place of the
+hn patv Il
the social side turns up, and there is
such bewilderment of tongues that
YOU can hardly hear yourself think. but
when the music strikes up every noise
IS hushed except the tap of toe and heel
III perfect time with the music.
At the New Years ball we dance the
old year out and the new year in, and i'll
the same spirit those who hold watch
meetings in the churches sing the Old
year out and the new year in. The
Thanksgiving ball winds up with a tur-
KEY supper.
1t is written in the history of the
past. before Massachusetts WAS set off
from Maine, that OIlr toretathers at one
time refused the present OF a deer from
an Indian chief. Thanksgiving day, and
were SO pioUs they would not eat the
VenisoM because the heather killed the
deer They could not see that the
heather was OF their own household.
and the wild man of the woods was the
saint. f they had hired a fiddler and
invited the heather to the feast they
would have shown better Christian
spirit
In our progress we have cot over all
that. and | thank the Lord for it. but
there is yet room for more of brotherly
love and the milk of human kindness
with the cream unsllimmed. There is
nothing that will take the souImess and
Seliishuess out of the human heart like
music. and often the man with the lid-
die is an evangelist. The boy who makes
a c0rnstalk fiddle. or whistle from the
limb OF a tree. won't throw stones at
the schOolhouSe windows.
" { who live in the country cannot
enjoy such musical treats as those who
live in the cities. but the music Of the
fiddle at the country dance, where all
know each other gives to the assembly
a sort Of ''hale fellow we'll met feel
ing that you don't find at the city con
certs. While there is music. mirtli and
JOY in the country i'll the fall of the
year clrcling round the man with the
fiddle. the falls work goes along all the
same.
'.Thankful for the springtime for summer
sweet, and fall:
Thankful for the wntry days-sweet thank
fulneSs for all.
The roses rise and shine to die They
are built that way. and so are we. but
the heart can be young and gay if the
locks above are gray.
At our corn huskings and apple par
ing bees, old and young take part with
nimble fingers and jovial heart, but if
the man with the fiddle wasn't there
it would be like the play of Ham
let with Hamlet left out The young
STEERS who are too small to husk make the
jack o'lanterns. a jack o'lantern is a
pumpkin with the in ards dug out and
a lighted candle stuck III, and the pro-
file of a giant cut in the rind of the
pumpkin, with eyes that shine like fire,
and teeth like the teeth of a cross-cut
saw. A jack o'lantern sheds abroad
some light like the Chinese lantern, but
its chief charm is that it Eliminates
itself.
Some of 'em are so hideous that the
smallest boys who are learning the
WAYS of this busy world ScOot to their