The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-12-07
G O NTIN u E u
r o
p a @ E O N F.
THERE'S THE

away and join a circus, but his
father couldn't see things that way,
and one day. the old man staked
him to an $11 fiddle on the solemn
promise that he would forget the
circus idea. Keller promised, and
spent all his time far the next few
months practicing on the fiddle.
Then he got a job fiddling for a
country dance, and from that to
the Orpheum orchestra was but a
step.
p. E. French, the pianist, started
in the musical game as knOcker.
That is, he started in with tuning
| hammer in the piano factory of his
| father, who is the manufacturer of
the celebrated French pianos, built
at Bridgeport, Conn. Young French
! held down the tuning job for sew
| eral months, but his father was
compelled to fire him out of the
| factory, as he was too vigorous in
his knocking" and broke too many
strings. Then he took up the piano
as an instrument, and now if he
| breaks string somebody else has
to pay for it.
| And TasSetti, the organist. His
companions in the orchestra pit
| tell that he got his start in the
musical game with a hand organ
and monkey in Italy, and that
when the monkey died he was
never able to raise enough money
at once time to pay for another
/ one, and so was compelled to take
up the organ itself. Tassetti, how
! ever, declares that this is false 1t
was his Cousin Caruse," he says,
who had the monkey. He claims
that he got his first start playing
a mouth organ at Sunday school
picnic, but finding that this was
too hard on his lungs, he took up
the plain parlor variety of organ,
where he could pump the wind
with his feet.
How did it come" l asked S. w.
bingham, the bass viol player,
that you came to take up such a
ponderous instrument as that one
you play?"
WELL" replied the man who saws
music, Il never really wanted to
| play the bass viol, but l was crazy
to learn to fiddle. So l got hold of
| a second hand instrument and be-
gan taking lessons. 1t was no good,
however. My hands were so big
that l never could get my fingers
close enough together to play in
| tervals of less than a tone and
half, and after the second lesson
my music teacher told me that if
l ever wanted to play a fiddle it
| would have to be the bass. So
took up the big fellow and have
stuck to it ever since"
II. c. Reuter-, the flue player,
says he doesn't remember when he
started playing flute, but his fellow
workers declare that when he is in
real sociable mood he confesses
that he started in while he was a
deck hand on Missouri river
say, was to toot the whistle every
time the boat went around curve.
One day the boat stuck on a mud
flat, and it was three days before
it got loose. Reuter- had no chance
to blow the whistle, but, feeling
that he simply must blow some
thing, he dug up tiny whistle and
started the career which wound
him up in the orchestra pit.
1t was while holding down a dry
farming homestead that w. H.
Requa, the clarinet player, first
began playing his instrument, ac-
cording to the tale as he tells it.
The wild geese used to stop in a
swamp not far from his place, so
he says, and make life miserable
| for him with their incessant
Cabling. Finally, in despair, he
sent for tie instrument which
| would make as near the noise of
a goose as possible. The intelligent
musical dealer to whom ne applied
shipped him clarinet, and his
musical fate was sealed.
| Earp,ipo nf tho nnn1t,y irctaol