STORY OF A GENUINE STRADIVARIUS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2444, 10 March 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

STORY OF A GENUINE STRADIVARIUS.

Tin; London correspondent of the Toronto Week tells the following story which he recently heard :—A little street boy, with a fiddle under his arm, crept into a. city cookshop not long ago, and bogged that the owner of the place weuld give him a " bit o' meat or a bit o' puddin, he was so "uiigry." , " I cant afford to feed paupers," lie was told ; " you get nut." However, he was so persistent and begged so hard for " sum'at," and offered his violin as a pledge that he. would return next day to to pay for anything ho might be given, that the man's heart was softened. "Hand mo the fiddle," said he, and here's threepen'orth of grub. Now, when you conic and pay mo the threepence you shall have your property—not before." Well the. food vasgratefully despatched, nndtlielnil departed, promising that the first pence made by begging should be used to redeem his instrument. But, days went on, and still the small battered violin lay on the counter waiting for its owner. One afternoon a gentleman came into the shop in a groat hurry to ask for change for a sovereign, as his hansom cab driver hadn't it. While the money was being counted out he took up the fiddle nnd examined it. " Where did yon <rct this from ?"' he asked, taking it to the light in order to examine it closely, "Is it yours?" "No," answered the man, telling the story. " But do you know my good fellow,"' said the gentleman, "I am a judge of these thing?, and this is most valuable. Where does the boy live? You doVt know? here is my card (you may have heard my name!, and directly he turns up send him to me. please. This is a genuine Stradivarius, and a beautiful one too. I'd give ,i hundred guineas for it myself, and it may be worth more." Thinking the matter ovcrthat evening, the shopman made up his mind to make something by the transaction ; so when the lad came a couple of days afterwards with the threepence and a long story of how father and he had a fall out with the " hobbies" and had been in "quod," tho man asked him point blink if he would sell the fiddle. "No," he was answered ;he had been <z\\-p.n it, by an old chap when tramping through Italy, win h.nl told him it was very valuable. It took half an hour at least for the shopman to persuade the lad to part with the instrument for £40, and half an hour to arrange that tho piyinent should be made at once in gold over the. counter, no cheque taken, as paper money was not understood ; and then, with a remark that lie was sure that hi? father would whack him, the lad went slowly off. The shopman chuckled. " I've made i'fiO by that," lie said, and then, he prepared to resell at somthiug like a profit. On the way he passed a music-shop and determining to fim] out thn real value of the article—for it, might lie worth £200 instead of £100—he went in, and asked the man to look at it carefully and tell him what it was worth. " Seven and sixpence. German make. We get'em over by dozens every sprint , ," said tho nirnio-seller, promptly. H is needless to siy the gentleman did not ih'o at the address given ,aud it is rumored that he was nearly related to a small liddlur.