The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1909-07-15
Bricky
G, Barr


visited Washington, told at the Gar
rick Club a curious story about
violin pupil he once had.
1T was at Wichita, Kan, where I
was teaching in the early sos. that
got hold of this pupil" he said.
HE was a plasterer. Don't laugh
when / say on top of that that he
was one of the most promising violin
pupils ever had. He was quiet.
good-natured, sawed-off, named
Frank Barr, but everybody called
him Bricky Barr, because he had the
reddest suit of cowlicky hair tho
ever entered into competition with
a stormy sunset. He was about four
inches over 8 feet high, but as
broad across the back as Hacken-
schmidt, with a pair of orang-out
ang arms that reached almost to his
knees. He could pick UP by the
rear axle a two-horse wagon loaded
with brick and raise it five feet clear
of the ground with one hand.
81 belonged to the drifters when /
reached Wichita and organized my
class there. One evening, soon after
I'd got my scraping flock assem-
bled, l was passing a mechanics
boarding house on the outskirts of
Wichita. This crimson-haired runt
was sitting before one of the open
front windows, saving on fiddle.
1t wasn't violin. 1t was q fiddle,
and vicious fiddle. The man MAX
ing the sounds on IL was, ] knew at
once, an ear player. Yet there was
occasionally certain sentiment true
and sound about the fellows rude
performance. So ] stopped and chat
ted with him.
'He told me that he didn't know
one note from another, but that he'd
aad the fiddle bug all his life. When
he told me that he was a plasterer |
looked at his hands. They were
neither rough nor stiffened. Bricky
told me that he always wore gloves
while plastering, not with the idea
al keeping his hands dainty, but so
rs not to spoil them for his f1ddling.
well, / took Bricky into my
Wichita class. Inside of six months
ne had a safe lead on all the rest
Of them, even If l had been COM
lelled to make him unlearn all of his
sar-playfng denominations.
''fnside of a couple of years | had
1ushed Bricky, the plasterer, through
Kichti. Kaiser and Kreutzer, and he
hdn't do half badly with the Dancle
show Pieces that l occasionally let
1im have to relieve the tcdium Of
exercises.
"Bricky was tractablc pupil. But
me evening, after he'd toen working
It the violin under my direction for
shout a year and a half, something
secured to convince me that Bricky
wasn't to be fooled with. He was a
lit out of form with his lesson and
4 moment of petulance l knocked
is bow up from the strings of his
iolin with my bow. Bricky's bow
vent flying across the room.
''Bricky had a pair of those steely
}ue eyes that a good many Western
len of extraordinary nerve have
cen provided with. He turned
hose eyes upon me for about fifteen
traight seconds and there were
leans of a tigerish topaz in them.
ie didn't say word, but he walked
yer to sofa in corner OF the
oom. He deposited his violin upon
Ais sofa with great care. Then he
salked back to where l stood, turned
Ie around, took me under the arms
rom behind, toted me over to a win
3w of the second story room as if
"a been a setter pup, held me sus-
snded out of the window for an
sstant and then dropped me to the
.round.
1T was only ten-foot drop and
"e ground was soft from a recent
in. No harm was done. didn't
Ike it to heart, particularly; after
had time to think 1t over.
After that Bricky and / got on
srfectly well together, although |
aver knocked his bow out of his
and again. After two years ! gave
my Wichita class and went to
anver to take position as orches-
"a leader In a theatre. A few years
ter / quit music for time and
snt into business.
Occasionally my business called
to Durango, Col There wasn't
" worse town in the West at that
ne than Durango. 1t was a jump
-3-off place for bad men. Nearly
dozen marshals-none of them a
aven either-had already, at that
~ riod. been put away by the Duran
gun-fighters.
When | reached Durango one
lernoon In the summer of 1886
ere was a lot of excitement there.
d Caldwell had stuck up Schiff's
ak that day. He had most of the
n-hunters OF Colorado and New
xico tied in bowkhots with fear
him at that time. Caldwell be-
'ged to that class of desperadoes
which Billy the Kid was another
lmple-that is, he killed whether
ere was any necessity for 1t or not.