The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1902-05-23
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ut HE accidentally averted TRACE
dies are not often chronicled,
but Use seen a few of that kind that
are worth telling about" said a Colo
RADIO mining man TO a capitol commit
tee room group the other afternoon.
says a Washington correspondent Of
the y. Y. Sun.
"One night. when Cripple Creek was
new and raw, Bif Randall and Alec
Grubb, who were partners in claim
that was panning out big. drifted into
/ Scnk Murphy's canvas honkatonk and
blew the house. Biff and Alec had
been off the reservation for four days.
Both were pretty bad men.
well, on this night Bif and Alec.
being tired and precarious-like on
their pins, and neither of 'em having
had any sleep for four days and
nights. were peevish with each other,
and the boys noticed that they were
pretty snappy in the way they talked
10 each other. Consequently the
boys kept a sort o. focus on the en-
frances TO the tent. SOS 10 be able 10
execute proper getaways at the need
ful moment, in case there was any
thing doing between Alec and Bif.
After they'd both wetted down all
hands three or four times Bif and
Alec were naturally quite some more
to the bad than before they'd come
In, and they continued 10 have fancy
little cracks at each other for some
reason or other. Finally Biff caught
sight OF a dusty old violin box rest
Ing on a shelf behind the bar. The
fiddle and case had been left with
Sonk Murphy by rover who wanted
the price OF a ride back to Denver.
'Sonk.' said Bif to Murphy, who
was taking the watch himself behind
the bar, femme have a peep at that
music box. Maybe I'll play you a
ehune. | used to be a heap on the
fiddle when l was young and purity
"'Well, never knowed that put in
Alec. kind o leering and ugly. Il
knowed that you was a whole lot
strong on elbow work. but not with
the bow. If l can't play a faster
ahune on that thing than you can I'll
hand you over my half Of our hole in
the ground
"Bif, in the act Of taking the fiddle
out of the box. looked up at Alec
from under his shaggy eyebrows.
"'You're on. you juniper he said,
pretty quiet like, considering Alec's
Eneering way. You're on f'r keeps,
and you got 10 stay with that crack
or git what's comm TO a welcher.'
"Alec grinned satirically and con-
fdently. and Biff began TO tune up |
the violin. We thought he'd only
been four-fushing when he'd said
that he could play some on the thing.
hut we saw by the way he tuned il up |
that he knew something about It.
"He put some rosin on the bow, sat
down SOS TO be more steady, stuck
the fiddle under his chin and began TO
saw The Irish Washerwoman.' 1t
didn't sound so bad at that.
Meantime we kept the off eye on
Alec. We figured that Alec was out
Dn n limb. Now, considering the
merit of Bif's performance. We were
B plenty surprised 20 note that Alec
jidn't appear TO be even little bit
worried about that def he'd pushed
over.
eve couldn't see that it looked
reasonable to suppose that Alec could
land up a faster tune than Biff had
and that's why we were as
onished to observe that there was no
ign whatever Of caving on Alecs
'art.
"'Now, you catfish said Biff to
Ilec, handing over the fiddle and the
,ow, you make good that chaw o.
ours about fast chunes. I'll leave it
o the bunch. II you've got me cop
'cred, the whole claims yours. IL
ou hain't got the goods, I'm going
o mark a dead line jest 1000 yards
rom that hole In the foothill and
ou're goin' TO stay outside of IT,
"Alec took the violin and bow with
is confident grin still on his face. He
aid the instrument and bow down
,ng enough TO cut himself off large
hew from a plug. After carefully
towing the chew in the left-hand
orner of his cOuntenance, he picked
D the fiddle and bow again, tried the
trings like a man who knew just
here he stood, and then began on
The Devils Dream ~
"Well. II didn't take any of us half
minute 70 see that Alec had the
lerchandise and that he had BiR ,
eat. Alec was right there with The :
evils Dream, and there are not
ANY faster fiddle tunes than that. ;
"Alec rocked around in his seat quite B
lot while he played, but he didn't J
ialSe any breaks in his lingering or
owing, and he tore of that tune :
lster'n a runaway Stag train going I y