Gov. Bob. Taylor's Tales - The Original Classic Edition. Taylor Pritchett Robert

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      Gov. Bob. Taylor's Tales.

       "THE FIDDLE AND THE BOW," "THE PARADISE OF FOOLS", "VISIONS AND DREAMS."

       ILLUSTRATED.

       Published by

       DeLONG RICE & COMPANY. Nashville, Tenn.

       Copyrighted, 1896.

       All rights reserved by DeLong Rice & Co.

       UNIVERSITY PRESS CO., NASHVILLE, TENN.

       PREFACE.

       This volume presents the first publication of the famous lectures of Governor Robert L. Taylor. His great popularity as an orator

       and entertainer, and his wide reputation as a humorist, have caused repeated inquiries from all sections of the country for his lectures in book form; and this has given rise to an earlier publication than was expected.

       The lectures are given without the slightest abridgment, just as delivered from the platform throughout the country. The consecutive chain of each is left undisturbed; and the idea of paragraphing, and giving headlines to the various subjects treated, was conceived merely for the convenience of the reader.

       In the dialect of his characters, the melody of his songs, and the originality of his quaint, but beautiful conceptions, Governor Tay-

       lor's lectures are temples of thought, lighted with windows of fun.

       DeLong Rice.

       Temples of Thought, Lighted with Windows

       1

       Of Fun.

       CONTENTS.

       "THE FIDDLE AND THE BOW." 9

       Cherish the Little Ones 19

       Fat Men and Bald-Headed Men 22

       The Poet Laureate of Music 23

       The Convict and His Fiddle 25

       A Vision of The Old Field School 27

       The Quilting and the Old Virginia Reel 36

       The Candy Pulling 44

       The Banquet 48

       There is Music All Around Us 53

       The Two Columns. 61

       There is a Melody for Every Ear 63

       Music is the Wine of the Soul 66

       The Old Time Singing School 72

       The Grand Opera 78

       Music 80

       "THE PARADISE OF FOOLS." 83

       The Paradise of Childhood 90

       The Paradise of the Barefooted Boy 98

       The Paradise of Youth 104

       The Paradise of Home 112

       Bachelor and Widower 117

       Phantoms 119

       The False Ideal 121

       The Circus in the Mountains 123

       The Phantom of Fortune 128

       Clocks 130

       The Panic 133

       Bunk City 135

       Your Uncle 137

       Fools 140

       Blotted Pictures 143 "VISIONS AND DREAMS." 147

       The Happy Long Ago 151

       Dreams of the Years to Come 160

       From the Cave-man to the Kiss-o-phone 169

       Dreams 175

       Visions of Departed Glory 178

       Nature's Musicians 181

       Preacher's Paradise 185

       Brother Estep and the Trumpet 189

       "Wamper-jaw" at the Jollification 190

       The Tintinnabulation of the Dinner Bells 193

       Phantoms of the Wine Cup 196

       The Missing Link 197

       Nightmare 198

       2

       Infidelity 200

       The Dream of God 201

       "THE FIDDLE AND THE BOW."

       I heard a great master play on the wondrous violin; his bow quivered like the wing of a bird; in every quiver there was a melody, and every melody breathed a thought in language sweeter than was ever uttered by human tongue. I was conjured, I was mesmerized by his music. I thought I fell asleep under its power, and was rapt into the realm of visions and dreams. The enchanted violin broke

       out in tumult, and through the rifted shadows in my dream I thought I saw old ocean lashed to fury. The wing of the storm-god brooded above it, dark and lowering with night and tempest and war. I heard the shriek of the angry hurricane, the loud rattling musketry of rain, and hail, and the louder and deadlier crash and roar of the red artillery on high. Its rumbling batteries, unlimbered on the vapory heights and manned by the fiery gunners of the storm, boomed their volleying thunders to the terrible rythm of the strife below. And in every stroke of the bow fierce lightnings leaped down from their dark pavilions of cloud, and, like armed angels of light, flashed their trenchant blades among the phantom squadrons marshalling for battle on the field of the deep. I heard the bugle blast and battle cry of the charging winds, wild and exultant, and then I saw the billowy monsters rise, like an army of Titans, to scale and carry the hostile heights of heaven. Assailing again and again, as often hurled back headlong into the ocean's abyss, they rolled, and surged, and writhed, and raged, till the affrighted earth trembled at the uproar of the warring elements. I saw the awful majesty and might of Jehovah flying on the wings of the tempest, planting his footsteps on the trackless deep, veiled in darkness and in clouds. There was a shifting of the bow; the storm died away in the distance, and the morning broke in floods of glory. Then the violin revived and poured out its sweetest soul. In its music I heard the rustle of a thousand joyous wings, and a burst of song from

       a thousand joyous throats. Mockingbirds and linnets thrilled the glad air with warblings; gold finches, thrushes and bobolinks trilled their happiest tunes; and the oriole sang a lullaby to her hanging cradle that rocked in the wind. I heard the twitter of skimming swallows and the scattered covey's piping call; I heard the robin's gay whistle, the croaking of crows, the scolding of blue-jays, and the melancholy cooing of a dove. The swaying treetops seemed vocal with bird-song while he played, and the labyrinths of leafy shade echoed back the chorus. Then the violin sounded the hunter's horn, and the deep-mouthed pack of fox hounds opened loud and wild, far in the ringing woods, and it was like the music of a hundred chiming bells. There was a tremor of the bow, and I heard a flute

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