182 MEN 1 HAVE FISHED WITH. 



to Charley he showed me some great scars on his legs 

 where he was bitten under similar circumstances, only 

 that he seized a hanging limb and drew himself into a 

 tree, and fortunately some strangers heard his yell and 

 came to his rescue, or he would have bled to death. 



Charley Guyon inherited the taste of his countrymen 

 for the violin, and he and another noted fiddler named 

 Montpleasure had played with a travelling minstrel 

 troupe which went up through Wisconsin and Iowa, and 

 some of his experiences were laughable. Said he: "We 

 struck a little town in northern Iowa just in time for a 

 late supper and to get to the hall. The box of burnt 

 cork couldn't be found, and there wasn't corks enough 

 in the single hotel to make 'paste' for the troupe of ten. 

 Yes, we had ten, all good men, too, if we did take in small 

 towns; but what was to be done? The hall was filling, 

 and we had small boys out looking for corks and coming 

 back saying, 'Mother says she ain't got no corks/ or 

 Tap says he'll get you a cork ef you'll give him six 

 tickets/ The hall was full and the people began to get 

 uneasy, when in came the landlord to the dressing-room 

 with four boxes of shoeblacking and asked if that 

 wouldn't do. Charley French thought it would, and we 

 wet it up, and used it and rushed on the stage. The 

 overture went off well, and the opening chorus was half 

 way through when the boys began to feel uncomfortable. 

 The stuff had stiffened and we felt as if we were var- 

 nished, and soon it began to peel off. Such looking nig- 

 gers you never did see. We got laughing and the audi- 

 ence roared; our tenor tried to sing 'Swanee River/ but 

 it was uphill work; he looked like a darkey with the 

 smallpox; we shook our sides, and the people screamed 

 until he got mad and left the stage. It was well for us 

 that it hit the audience as being funny, but we got 



