The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1952-12-11
Mainly Personal

THIS Is BLUFFTON, u. S. A.
and we guess an American citizen ha:
perfect right to play fiddle anytime
and anywhere he pleases as long as ht
doesn't commit a nuisance or disturb
his neighbor.
And come to think of it, what better
place could violinist select to avoid
disturbing his neighbor than a GENE.
terry at midnight. So, why all this
excitement about Bluffton's midnight
cemetery violin concert?
Apparently it seemed to be the
thing to do. At midnight a student
is overwhelmed by the desire to saw
off a tune on his fiddle. Everyone
else in the dormitory is asleep as they
should be 4. and to break right out
| in the middle of the silence with a
little Rachaninoff would hardly be
polite or wise. But where can man
with a yen to fiddle go at midnight i?
THE other buildings are closed and
locked out on the campus goods
might mistake the solo for serenade.
The cemetery seemed perfect solu-
ton.
Now it seems the only person the
midnight melody disturbed was one
single Kibler street resident, who
should have been asleep in bed an hour
or two earlier anyway. Mr.. Arden
Baker, our associate editor, wander
ing home from his stint at the News
office, ran smack into graveyard re-
frain.
Mr.. Baker is not one to nonchalant-
ly pass by a cemetery fiddler with a
shrug of the shoulder. Not a super
stitious individual, he however knows
a thing or two of the Dance Macabre,
and he has also heard those stories
about Blufftonites of past generations
who were inferred with violins beside.
If the spirits of bygone Blufftonites
were whooping it up bit, Mr.. Baker
was not the reporter to pass up an
item for the social column. But to
his chagrin, whoever or whatever it
was refused to come to the cemetery
gate and give him the word.
Then to make matters worse, when
the story of Mr.. Bakers encounter
with the mysterious musician of Maple
Grove appeared in the public print,
there were those prone to shake their
head and advise Mr.. Baker, who be-
lieves himself to be a reasonably
substantial and adjusted citizen, to
visit a psychiatrist.
There were practical jokers, too,
who started to devise plans whereby
violin music could be made to be
heard at frequent intervals from the
Baker backyard.
This led friends to the rescue with
scheme for Gene Benroth, who owns
violin himself, to enter the cemetery
with his instrument in order to insure
that someone else beside Baker shoulc
hear the cemetery music, and thus
reassure the reporter. Benroth, how.
ever, wanted no truck with the
scheme.
'sNot me-" he said, "that other
violinist might object to my appear
ing on the same stage"
But now the mystery has cleared
itself, and Mr.. Baker has regained
normal composure still going where
his nose for news leads him, and
incidentally blowing it aloud at form
er skeptical acquaintances.
BLUFFTON is NOT ALONE in its
mysterious goings-on. Over in
Columbus Grove Lester Studler was
getting along very nicely with the ten
hens who occupied the henhouse at
the rear of his Main street home. And
most every morning Lester and his
family could depend on having fried
eggs for breakfast.
Well, one morning when Lester un-
locked the door of the henhouse to get