The Washington times., 1926-02-10

Fourteen or fifteen million people,
resident IN washington and points
north, south, east. and west, heard
more old time fiddling and old
time singing between the hours OF
1870 D. m. and 2:S0 q. m. than
ever happened before IN this much
fiddied over territory!
The fiddling contest was WOW,
q Vham--a Laiapaloozai
Due entirely to the fact that most
Washington hO1seholders were
compeiIsd "a leave Their radio sets
long enough 70 clean the snow from
the sidewalks In front Of their
homes this morning the force
manning radio station WRC was
relieved at 3 q. m. of the duty Of
answering telephone calls Tor "Tur-
key In the Straw IT Net Ny Gal
IN Baltimore .'old Uncle Ned, :"
Free-For.AIl Festival
What started out to be merely
q contest that involved the skill Of
fiddle player. utilizing old time
tunes to display his skill turned
into ffee-for-all musical festival
and break down party with the en-
tire population Of these United
States searching history and the
scriptures to name a tune the group
at station WRC could not play. And
the group at the radio station,
shucked its coat, rolled up its
sleeves, put more resin on its fid-
die bow-and played every request
three able and active telephone
operators could receive from 1880
LAST NIGHT UNTIL2:30 O'CLOCK
THIS MORNING.
The old time fiddIers who reported
at the Mayflower Hotel to compete
with each other for The Washing
ton Times trophy cup, might easily
have acquired the idea that they
were being treated to a sight seeing
tour as a. preliminary, because they
had hardly gotten settled at the
hotel before they were seized, hur-
rfed to the doors and bundled into
taxis by means OF which they were
conveyed to radio station WRC.
The wire connecting the radio sta
ton and the hotel developed trouble
early In the evening which the
trouble shooter OF the Radio Cor
poration Of America spent hours in
locating and 50 the contest was
staged In the studio.
When Fiddlin' Charley Bowman,
place In front Of the microphone
IS master OF ceremonies and an
nounced the names Of the con.
testants. there were is fiddIers
present. IL Of whom were given
numbers and were active contest
ants. They had come from all sec
tons OF Maryland. Virginia and the
District. In addition to the con-
testants there was an assortment
of seconds or handlers or accom-
i panists or whatever one chooses to
call them.
Contest In Record Time
The contest was run off by Bow
man in record time, the IL fiddiers
fiddling just two minutes each.
With the announcements this con-
eumed Is minutes. And then the
radio station switched its connec-
+, tons from the studio to the TivoH
Theater for an organ recital. Every
person connected with the affair
felt pleased and satisfied and pre-
pared to go home-that is. every
body but the fiddlers and their
trainers or handlers or whatever
4 they were. The contest had simply
been an appetizer TO them. Some
one of them announced he had a
lfSpSkboEy VI Low tunes. OoHISpouy
else dared him to start one the
others couldn't play.
And then it commenced to hap
peni
/ In the meantime the 10000, 900
ipeople In the United States and
Canada owning radio sets had be-
come hep to the fact that WRC was
housing q mess OF old-time fiddlers
for the evening and began telephon-
ing and telegraphing requests for
old time-tunes from all points of
the compass. So
i The contestants in the old.time
fiddling contest, their helpers,
handlers, accompanies, ETC.. the
sweIl.known and far famed Hill