Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1903-01-24
THE VIOLIN MICR0BE.

Gnc CT the most lnSIGfouS and yet ami
able microbes that / know anything about"
remarked a local music dealer, IS that
watch we IN this Business call the fiddle
bug. The fiddle bug operates upon those
whom it' takes possession Of in a great
many different ways. For example, there
Is a well-known physician in Washington,
D. c., who was seized with the fiddle bug
only about two years ago, although he i
now a man well into middle age. II hat
him bad. The way it seized him at first
was to give him the idea that he just nat
urally had to learn how to play on the yio-
lin. He, a busy medical practitioner, past
so, with the natural stiffness OF movement
that comes with that age, got il into his
head that life would be Just one long
stretch Of the bad lands and q bowling
desert for him unless he learned how TO
play on the violinl Well, lie began. He
invested in a fine and expensive outfit
firstrate violin and bow, music rack, eie-
mentary violin music-al the accessories.
He engaged a good violin teacher. The
teacher looked the elderly medical man over
and told HIM frankly, at che outset, that
he was a good 1000 to l shot, or words TO
that effect, 50 far as his chance Of ever
learning how to play on the violin was con-
cerned. The doctor didn't take any Of
Tense. He had the fiddle bug too bad for
anything like that, and he said he was
willing to pay the freight and take a chance.
He didn't have a particle of musc-that
is, so far as the acquisitve end Of it IS con-
cerned--in his whole huge frame, and after
about two months lessons the violin teach
er told the physician that it would take
him at least 30 years to learn how to pound
q bass drum. much less how to play Not
for joe or Yankee Doodle on the fiddle.
ssThis discouraged the doctor some, and
for the time he took the teachers word for
il and abandoned his idea OF learning the
violin. Two months later the fiddle bug
nailed him again. He bought a second yio-
l%in-not that he had disposed Of the first
one, but that he liked fddles-lked TO have
'em around him to look at, even If he
couldn't play. He engaged a second teach
err, who ran shrieking from the doctors
presence at the end OF the fourth lesson
with his fingers in his ears. Well, since
that time the good doctor has bought three
new hddles and engaged three new violin
instructors, and at the present hour he
can't even draw a straight dow bow on
the open A string to save his soul. It's not
in him. But the fiddle bugs in him, and
he'll never get rid of it. It's the grief Of
his life that he can't play just one tune
on the fiddle. If he could only get away
with The Soldiers joy or The Irish
Washerwoman' I'd be willing to wager that
for the remainder of his days he'd be invest
ing half his income as a medical practitioner
in new fddles.
'tThen there's a well-known man in n
of the departments who's had the fiddle bug
for . matter of 40 years-ever since he
was a boy. He's had first-class instruction,
time and again, during all those years, and
yet the best be can do now is to play just
simple pieces fairly well. He loves to
play just these simple pieces over every
night Of his life, and he never misses a
night. He isn't under any delusion as 70
the extent of his ability as a player-he
knows exactly where he stands on that,
and makes no bones about ridiculing his
own music. But he's just got the fiddle
bug, that's all, and he always will have it.
Hes got iddles, and some of them good
ones, all over his house-under the sofas
and lounges and beds, on the tables, on top
of the bookcases-they're everywhere; and
ne : SUN DuJiIk GIN. 1C > cPtht CtOdS1hd5
Of dollars on fiddles and fiddle accouter-
ments, although he's never been anything
but a fairly comfortable man. /.
Then there's another departmental man,
this one younger, who has the violin mi
crobe in an odd form. He's a fairly good
player, just an average one, without any
particular inspiration. He's been at L.
about ten years, and he has spells Of en-
thusiasm, during which he'll get a teacher,
nave all Of his music books dug out OF the
attic trunks, and start all over again. But,
when the enthusiastic spell hits him, he
always has to buy a new violin, for the
reason that he gets rid Of 'em in short
order when the enthusiasm is punctured.
His fiddle ardor will last perhaps a month
or two, during which time he practices
~iercely and gets into all sorts of dickers for
new fddles. Then some crackerjack VIC
linist comes along to Washington and gives
a concert, and this enthusiast goes to hear
the great player perform. He leaves the
concert hall in a state of utter gloom and
depression. The great player is SO very
great indeed, and the chance of ever being
able TO attain one-millionth part of his pro-
hciency is SO completely out of the ques-
ton. So this enthusiast returns to his
HO4lt anu fOhe 70 ulS WIG budl uc z hSRSiJ
under any circumstances, going to take a
fiddle in his hands again. He immediate
ly begins to dig around to find somebody
that wants TO buy a good fiddle cheap. I've
known him to sell iddles That be paid as
high as 800 for to the first man that offered
him a ten-dollar note for it. After awhile,
as | say, the empowering effect Of the
great players music wears of, and then
he gets the fiddle bug all over again and
sets about to take his old love into his heart
once more.
And yet the bug has another and an ez-
ceedingly peculiar way Of acting. There
are some fellows who are just natural mn-
sicians-they're born with it. It's as easy
for them to pick the fiddle up and run away
with it, as the expression goes, if they're
started at the instrument early enough, az
it is for an alert apprentice to learn the
plumbers trade. Well, i know perhaps a
dozen Washington men who possessed this
musical ability in their early youth, and
who were started at the violin by their