Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-01-01

a friend on business and we discussed
it over our cigars and bottled beer on
the little balcony at the back Of his
house.
1.-THE July night was drowsy with
the heat left over from a suffocatlng
day The bushes and plants in his
yard and in the others near by and the
vines on the fences were scarcely stir
red by the sluggish breeze.
"There were lights in many of the
windows, for it was still early, and one
could hear the sound of many voices.
Suddenly in the darkness of the yards
a bow scraped the strings of violin.
The sound of voices ceased. My host
whispered:
Now, we will have our evening
concert And the concert began.
'It has been we'll said that the violin
is the instrument that comes closest
to the uman voice. It has notes in
it, indeed, which few human voices
can compass.
Great performers play the piano
for you, but the violin sings to you.
And this violin did sing. Out of that
black back yard. in which the per-
former was unseen, /, voice scared
like those Of all the nightingales that
ever caroled to the moon condensed
into one.
1T sang old tunes and ballads; some
merry, like Gary Owen and The
Rakes Of Mallow,' some pathetic and
sad like Allan Water and The Exile
of Erin some full of flesh and fire,
like 'Fontenoy and the great war song
of Cornwall, The March of the Men
of Harlech,' and then it seemed as if
| were listening to woman. long
since dead in misery, who in her day
stirred many a heart in many an
American theater, singing Killarney
as it might be sung when the lakes lie
level under the broad moonbeams and
every ripping wave along the pebbly
shore makes a chorus like the soft
Ginning of convent bells.
1.-THE music ceased. My host as
hard-hearted and unsentimental a man
as ever made a fortune out of a hard
and unsentimental business, sat mute
with his head bent His cigar had
gone out His beer was fiat in his
glass.
There was a pause, and then the
violin began to sing again. Now it's
voice took higher flight. 1t seemed
as if one were in an opera house, and
great singers were pouring from their
Threats the gold of immortal melody.
Tnx
and despair were fiddled out of the
darkness until, at one of the windows,
some one called Bravo and the cry
was taken up from house to house, in
a rolling chorus.
'My host started from his reverie,
and passed his hand over his eyes like
a man awakened from sleep.
He won't play any more tonight,
he said, as he reached for a light for
his cigar
Who is hep I asked.
:" I can't tell much about him, he
replied. The house yonder is a board
ing house. Most of the boarders are
musical people.
He lives in the kitchen and l
think that his wife is the cook and that
he helps her. Anyhow, [ see him
often in daytime beating rugs and car
pets, chopping wood, and doing other
rough work about the yard.
"Nearly every night he plays the
violin. He is a small man, sharp
face, with a gray beard. He drinks
a great deal and quarrels most of the
time with his wife, who is a stout,
middle-aged Italian woman, with
coarse black hair.
More than that | could not learn.
Presently | came away in a rejecting
mood, for the fiddling genius of the
backwards had brought back memories
of other lost talents, musical and
otherwise.
There used to be in the vicinity OF
the Cooper Union a beer saloon in the
rear of which was an apartment OF
considerable size, containing an excel
lent piano. Every evening one anna
teur performer or another would vol
unteer to entertain the patrons of The
place.
One night a shabby fellow, with Ions
hair and beard, growing wild arOunC
his face came into the place and, hay
ing qualified by the purchase of glas
Of beer. made a desperate onslaught
upon the free lunch. While he wa
thus engaged, someone began to pla.
the piano. The tramp stopped eatin;
and remarked to the proprietor,
good-natured old German:
IF you can afford to have a goo,
piano, you should not allow people VIII
don't know how to play spoil it.
We'll. said the proprietor, IF yor
play it better so ahead, and you shall
have all the beer you want and you
supper, too.
Without a word the vagrant march
ed into the back room and seated hin
self at the piano, from which tn
previous performer had just risen. H
PLAYED with the touch OF a master
German pieces by Chopin and Bacl
American pieces by Neyin and Wit
fiinging in between lighter dance me
odies with equal facility and spirit.
Each number he gave was applique
ed He was treated to beer until
fresh keg had to be tapped. Whe
closing time came he was too drum
to be turned out. and the proprietC
put him to bed upstairs.
THE old man had taken an intere:
in the vagrant, and in the morning h
gave him bath, furnished him wit