Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1882 — A queer Story. [ARTICLE]

A queer Story.

[Richmond Palladium.] Harry f. Cam. the leader of the G. R. L. Sjernading Club, aud a violinist of some note, has recently come in possession of a rare treasure, it is no thiugless than a violin madeofwood that grew before the flood, Some forty years ago, workmen engaged in digging a mill-race through the farm owned by Dauiel Bulla, northeast of J. R. Preston’s residence, discovered at a depth of six or eight feet beneath the surface, the trunk of a tree in a good state of preservation. It was lying across the line the of the race, and they had to cut out a piece of it several feet loug before they could goou with their work. Geologists say that the country around Richmond was once covered with water in which huge icebergs floated, or that immense glaciers like those of the Swiss Alps traversed it. The course ol the ice from north to south can still be traced by grooves ou the bedrock. The gravel that underlies the i soil is supposed to be the debiis that ! was carried down by the ice. Traces 1 of organic matter, such as wood aud ! grasses, lying ou the hard pan below j the gravel, indicate that there was ! a vegetation older than the gravel j banks, and some profess to believe that , the frozen water that,covered the land at that time was a part of the flood mentioned in the Bible. Whether it was or not, it certainly occured many thousand j ears ago, and the tree, which the stratiticaton of the gravel snowed ! to have been deposited when it was, ! must have rested there ages ago. It i was coniferous, but none of the woodj choppers to whom it was shown, aud j none of the persons who have seen it since, have been able to tell what variety it was. The nearest kinsman to it tuat now grows in our forests is the red cedar. The wood was carefully lad away, aud was shown as a curiosity. One day Edward Parks, a collector, who has supplied the cabinets aud museums of Richmond wild some of their finest specimens, heard of it, aud went to see it. Before he came back he had induced its owner to part with it. Mr. Parks is an enthusiastic musician, as well as a collector and amateur geologist, and tne idea occured to him that the wood possessed all the requisites for ruakiug a flue violiu. It was light aud porous, the grain was coarse, and the cells were large. Putting it under his arm, he went around to A. B. j Clara, who was engaged in repairing a* Cremona that| was captured in the seige of Mexico by Professor Barnes’s father. Clark was delighted, It was the very thing. He made models of the old Cremona, and in the course of three months had given the finishing tpuches to the new violin. The belly was of the old antediluvian wood, and the back and neck of wavy maple, cut in Pennsylvania fifty years ago, and rafted down the Ohio to Cincinnati, aud carried on to Dayton for an old cabinet maker who was never able to use it. The figure of the old instrument was followed exactly, and when the new one was finished it was an exact sac simile of those built by Btradivarius. When the bow was drawn across it the two counoissuers went into ecstasies of delight. The glue was barely set and the varnish was still green, but when they played the room was filled with the richest, sweetest melody. There was an absence of the thick, raw quality that marks a new violin. The notes came out sharp and clear, .and when the lower strings were set vibrating they gave out rich, mellow music, that reminded thepa of the violins of Amati and Guarnerius.