Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-01-01
point of plugging each other. and he

said, addressing them both, and look-
ing smilingly from one to the other:
"I heard some blaying-nod? yes"
"Biff and Alec both turned and gaz-
ed with open mouths at the queer
looking little man with the bald head.
Neither of them said word, but they
just stared at him.
"'Oh, here is ze veeoleen," said the
SQUAT man, picking up the instrument
from the bar and scrutinizing it. Then
he picked up the bow. BIZ and Alec
continued to stare at him.
well, I blay for you,' said the little
man, and he snuggled up the VIOLIN
under his chin like as If 1t was pet
kitten, and he gave flourish with
the bow, and then he brought 1t down
for a crashing chord on all four strings
at once-and then Biff's and Alec's
guns went back into their belts, ana
they forgot about everything else ex-
cept the sounds that were coming out
of that catgut, and, knowing that the
making Of the war medicine was over
lHS llAiS bSaAot wv
around the squat man.
Did any of you ever hear Edouard
Remenyi the Hungarian violinist'
play? Because that was who the
SQUAT man was-Remenyi. He had
run down from Denver to Cripple
Creek to see what new American
mining camp was like, and prowling
around, and hearing Alec's scraping or
The DEVILS Dream he had just drop
ned into the honkatonk on an impulse,
without any idea Of what was going
on.
"Well, Remenyi played all right
He just nursed that old thing under
his fat neck like boy cuddles gull
nea Dig with a broken leg, and he had
not been playing more than two min
utes before every man in that gang
looked as If he had a sneaking sort OF
feeling that he hadn't done right with
his life.
"Biff and Alec sidled over to the
bar and leaned their backs against IT,
side by side, and every time that Hun
garian squat man pulled out tremo-
10 that was particularly meaty and
lreproachful and full o. meaning they'd
Exchange kind O. entranced smiles
with other other and shake their heads
sadly at each other.
II don't know what 1t was that
squat foreign man played. I never
hot rtybo ha
played made me feel like I'd been neg
Ilecting the folks back home, and when
1 reached my shack I sat down and
wrote 'em letters until daylight.
when, after ten minutes Of straight
playing, he wound up with a lot of
low things way down on the G string
that sounded like a brook gurgling to
itself in the night, and when he took
the violin from under his chin with a
sort of dreamy smile on his pudgy
face, there was an amount of cough
ing from those fellows standing around
such as I never heard outside Of ho-
tel for Iungers.' And none of the
bunch seemed to want to look at each
other, except Bif and Alec.
"They looked at each other silently
and sheepishly for about two minutes
after Remenyi put down the violin and
|, mopped his forehead with a big white
silk handkerchief. Then Biff walked
up to the stocky virtuoso, and said In
a tone that was pretty hoarse.
"'Podner, I don't know who you all
are, nor where you stampedes from,
nor anything about you 'cepting what
I just heerd. But I know who I am
and what I've got. All I got's half a
hole in the rock with some pay dirt in
sight, and that's yourn. And. next to
that hole in the ground, I got shack
filled up with the riff-raff belongin's
that I have. been gittin' together f'r
some years. Well, that shack's yourn,
too, and here's the key to the paddock.
Take it. Touch a match to the whole
fitout and burn it down If you want to
but it's yourn. That's ALL
"The amazed Remenyi stood gazing
at Biff with his little beady brown
eyes twinkling 'wonderingly, but before
he had time to say anything in reply
Alec stepped forward, fronted him,
cleared his throat as Biff had done,
and said:
(which 1t affords me pleasure to
come to the front and make good f'r
what my podner. Biff. jest got through
tellin' you all. You win out the claim
and everythin' on 1t. Me and Biff
don't feel like we got no right to stay
in no camp where there's a ombrey
that can do things on fiddle like you
can do, and so. such bein' the case, me
and Biff. we jest cashes in. and glad
to do 1t, and vamoose. that's ALL
"They meant absolutely every word
of it, too. But Remenyi took sudden
alarm over the peculiar actions and
words of the two rough-looking men.
He didn't understand the language
very we'll, and he didn't know that
they were trying to force on him. out
of enthusiasm and boozerino ecstacy,
a claim that has since panned out big,
as a tribute to his genius.
with a murmured word or two he
took to his short legs and scampered
out of the tent, while Biff and Alec
gazed after him disappointedly. Still
under the daze Of that great music
they both speechlessly beckoned all
hands to the front, blew the outfit
twice around, and then, linking arms,
they hiked to their shacks, sobered up,
and went to work.
They'd both have been dead men if