The Huttig news., 1908-02-22
AmuSen1entS
in the Country
"on With the Dance; Let Joy Be
Unconfined."

Unconfned."
Chief of all amusements in the rural
districts is the country dance. One
reason may be because it has been
handed down from generation to gen.
GRAFTON; another reason is on account
OF it being recreation in which the
young, middle-aged, and even the eld-
ers may join. Still a third cause doubt
less gives it popularity in that it is
set to music, and requires the inspir
iting notes of the fiddle to give it any
semblance of a terpsichorean celebra-
ton. But when you come to analyze
the inmost and truest essence of the
country dance, you will find that it is
one of Cupids most potent rustic OBJ
servances, and that it brings the coun-
try bellies and beauX together from
many miles around, and is, in it's last
analysis, the solid stepping stone to
matrimony.
You are expected, for instance, to
bring your girl to the dance. Fellows
who come as free lances expecting to
find some girl at the dance who has
come without an escort, are not usual
ly welcomed, unless something has
happened whereby their sweethearts
are not able to be present. 1t is all
right for superf1uous girls to come, as
some of the girls with escorts may
prefer to "sit out" "set," rather than
dance continuously. In this way the
superfluous girl has an opportunity to
dance. But literally speaking, there
Ctrpt1V oirc of
these dances. There are, however,
usually one or more extra men, with
out girls, and unless such a man has
a good excuse for not bringing a girl
along, he is generally unwelcome, no
matter how many extra girls there
may happen to be.
| 1t is rare that the same partners &C.
cupy the same "sets" dancing togeth-
er for any length of time. Partners
in one "set" may be opposites in the
next 'set," and there is a constant in
terchange going on. Sets generally
occupy about ten to Is minutes to
dance, and from three to five squares
of four couples each will fill the ordi
nary country room, unless it be
hall where the dance is given. Usu-
-<Asquoroa'-- Dances, quadrilles, old
fashioned lancers, and the Virginia
reel are danced and very often quad
rifles only; the monotony Of these
being done away with by the variety
In calling" The science of calling
requires either a very good memory,
and some ingenuity, or both, and it is
the delight of the good callers" to
take hold of "set" that thinks it
knows any figure that may be call
ed" and tangle it up with something
new in the way of terpsichorean evo-
buttons.
Sometimes, and, in fact, quite often,
the fiddler himself "calls" the figures,
and when he does he has his hands
full. To keep exact time-and no
country fiddler of reputation but does
keep the most perfect time-and call
the figures, too, requires sort of
mental ambi-dextrousness and manual
celebrity equal almost to the genius of
the Italian baritone who sings an op-
cratic solo and eats spaghetti at the
same time. These first class country
fiddlers do, however, play and "call" at
bodies and heads sway and swing,
and their right feet slap solidly on
the floor marking the time and for
hours they will roll their heads and
stamp their feet and swing the bow
with the real enthusiasm which marks
the masters of the art.
No genuine country fiddler stands
up at his work. He requires straight
backed chair, without arms, and he
generally lunches" up little and
usually keeps time with the heel of
his right foot, tapping off the time as
he plays. Some fiddlers hold their,
instruments away down on the arm,
apparently paying no attention to the
strings, and saw" away at the tunes,
calling off" in a monotOnous, sing
song tone. Others hold the violin
sideways, their faces set close to the
instrument, and bowling straight up
and down.
The best country fiddler we had
ever heard, the best, I think, in the
world, lived few miles from u.s. His
family had been folders since the
time of his great-great grandfather,
and his mastery of his instrument
made our city friends sit up and take
notice. 1t was not merely that his
time was absolutely perfect; that his
bowling was really marvellous; that
his lingering was superb, and his
mastery of the most difficult instru-
ment known to man was easy, grace
full, and powerful: nor was it that he
never played the open strings for
note, but combined the open string
and the same note on an upper string
thus gaining in volume-but there
was the touch, the fire, the born in
dividuality there. We heard other f1d
dlers, and good ones. play the same
tunes that this man did. But when
he grasped his violin and set it side
ways and high to his cheek, seized the
bow firmly and began, then you knew
that what you had heard before was
only tne unreality of the thing itself,