The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-03


laugh of free lungs drowning the whine
of the wind without All, this is
and the fiddler with his shoulders bent,
his hands blistered and his feet sore
with the pebbles of the rocky field.
raises hoe again and comes back TO
! earth like an aeronaut who has
come a cropper with his parachute!
Do you think it costs nothing, this fid-
ding for the fun of it along with this
hated necessity for work! Ask the
| fiddler and see.
Now Mr.. Buck" Andrews has done
noble thing. He is making a rem
Nuisance of tiddline which it IS hoped
will bear much fruit. He has ar
r.nged to have contest of fiddling at
| the Park. 1t is going to be fiddllng,
too, just as it was before the war,
with all the latter-day violinistic kinks
let out And the entries have been
gratifying, beyond expectation. The
| fiddlers are coming from all sections.
They are bursting with old tunes with
| improvsationS that have come to them
] in the watches of the night, with old
| jigs and fove-songs that will tear the
| heart-StringS and dance music that will
positively cure in-grOwing nails Some
of the fiddlers are youngsters with d
heritage of the fiddle and the bow and
| little else beside; others are ancient
|
all are fiddlers born and fiddlers bred.
| Old and feeble, with bright old eyes
| peering from tangled boards. young
and merry and red-cheeked and
| amarous, they are all coming. MI.
Andrews knows what fiddling con-
test should be and his rules are SIM
plcity themselves. Each contestant
| plays what he wants to, he has ample
time to tune up, rosin will be provided
in plenty end cat-gut by the dozen.
! Everybody will have a fair show, and
when it is all over everybody Will
know what 1iddling is.
The thought was most happy one.
and let it be hoped it will have its
educational value. Fiddling teaches
many things. It teaches preliminary
caution and lack of haste. (Have you
| ever listened for twenty minutes to
the rasping squeak while the master
/ deliberated over the tuning of the
strings with sounds like the torment
! below?F Have you then been trans
ported to a Kidding heaven Of tears
and sentiment and fun lastins; abod-
! three minutes before the off string eX-
ploded like the Fourth of July and
there was no more cat-gut ana you
had to beg the fiddler with tears ~
play on without the missing cor3 ,
| 1t teaches, too the right to daring
when the way has been prepared, the
|
that one feels so long as you say 1t
right and so that it will be under
/ stood. 1t teaches that blood is red,
that hope is largely physical. that love
! is good, that failure and despair are
myths invented by those who never
heard the tramp of feet felt the tinSie
, UP the spine, nor jumped at the up
roarious Tilt in the voice of the sway
f, ing figure in the corner "ShazeZ, ALI
as, mixed by the black eyes swinging
to you through the mists, you lost
| count in the movement of the quad
| rifle! In short, the fiddle teaches that
! there is a Now, and that to those who
will it's cup is trimming over.
But it does seem that the fiddlers'
contest ought to be put at the fair and
| be pulled off on the nineteenth. On
| that day Roosevelt will be in town, the
soldier, the hunter, the diplomat in all
his prestige of big American, trust
buster, broncho buster, crowned at
the last with the flowers of peace.
champing at his bit for action and for
new worlds to conquer Now Roose-
4. Welt loves the woods, the plains. the
campfire He must be jaded at the
round of official duties Doubtless he
will not be impressed with the fair as
such-he has been West and seen
pumpkins. We want to stir the Pres :.
| OGnI uD, SHOW IlIlil d lI1IllS VI wv DIS
we'll as watch him from afar and
agape. Here is the opportunity of
the fiddlers whom Mr.. Buck An
drews has snatched from an undeserv
| ed oblivion. Let them play before
the King" Let them once, with one
i accord and each in the subtle harmony
/ of his own Interpretation swing into
"Old Molly Har, Whut yo' dom dar,
and if Roosevelt don't take off his
spurs and cut such q pigeon wing a.
may be seen at Red Gulch Camp on
the edge of Dead Mans Creek. he is
not the all-round American which the
country has come to believe him.
Simple life! Simple fun, and plenty
of it, The Fair will not have live1
up to it's reputation if it fails to intro
duce the President to the Fiddlers.
Well met they will be-and well
pleased, all of them.
The ancients had vision of the fid-
dler when they conceived the myth OF
Pan and his dancing nymphs and
satyrs Instruments of music were
then so simple that they could supply
the merry old god-beast only with
oatent pipes or reeds to blow through;
but barring the difference in inStru-
ments, Pan and our fiddler are in the
main one. They both represent the
sweet do-nothing days when there was
plenty Oh tlIIlS LOT WOOI1S dllu IOI ucti-
lance There is almost fragrance
in the thought of them.
The Wales of Tempe and the
slopes of Olympr~ had their piper $
and their curdS and cream SEread
upon the green grass; when the slant
shadows grew long, they had their
frolics in which gods and goats ioined
with Lycidas and Amaryllis. But It
was not whit merrier than d well
ordered -shucking, with its &C
compartment of hard cider. its after
math of peas and corn pones, and its
great contamination in fiddling and
the ''Squah dance" Then the cir s
who had prepared and served the feast
and the brawny fellows who ha
earned it. cleared tables and crockery
from the dining hall, replenished tn ,
hearth with logs, seated the fiddlers in
! corner, appointed a caller of figures.
and went at it. The Mississippi Saw
yer, the Fishers Hornpipe, the Ar
5 kansaw Traveller the Downfall of
Paris, Sally in the BeanPatch. these
: giddy tunes in tireless repertoire lent,
as at Kirk Alloway, life and mettle To
their heels There was of YOUR