OLD VIOLIN IN ROLE OF ALADDIN'S LAMP

Shannon News, 4 September 1928, Page 3

OLD VIOLIN IN ROLE OF ALADDIN'S LAMP

BRINGS JOY TO LITTLE BETTY WHEN HANDLING SHOWS IT'S A STKADIvARIUS.

RYE, New York. : Betty Dyer wanted to learn to play the violin,' but her chances of persuading her father, John F. Dyer, to let icr have violin lesons didn't seem very good. Mr. Dyer was a member of the Tlye Police Department and supported x' family of eight on £32 a month. But io-year-old Betty kept on talking about violin lessons —until Mr. Dyer, bent on humoring her if it could oossibly be done, remembered that "' somewhere in the attic," there, was an old violin. Rummaging around, he anally found it in an old trunk. Ho noticed the words "Antonius Stradivaiius" inscribed on the inside of the instrument. That was where .the Dyers' good fortune started. Now, Mr. Dyer is planning to build a house, of his own ind to send his four girls and two boys to college. He has resigned from the police force ami has scvo-ral bank accounts. A friend to whom he showed the old violin told him that if it was really a Stradivarius it was valuable. Mr. Dyer took the violin to New York where it was appraised ni £9,000 and it was later sold for £12,000.. Betty will have her violin lessons.