Fraternity-Testvériség, 1956 (34. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1956-06-01 / 6. szám
14 FRATERNITY “COBBLER, COBBLER, MEND MY AILING FIDDLE” By Elmer Williams (Reprinted from the “Detroit Press”) It is not an uncommon thing in Lansing (Michigan) to find a worried symphony musician seeking out the house of Louis Fejszés, shoemaker. The musician is carrying his treasured “sick” Rugerius violin. Louis will pause in the work of putting heelplates on a schoolboy’s scuffed shoes and take the violin in his hands. The owner fears his instrument is played out. Its voice has become thin, it has lost its song. A Quick Repair Louis’ fingers are stout and calloused, his eyes gentle. He smiles, and says: “My friend, it is nothing. The sound post inside was adjusted for other weather. The belly of your violin has expanded a little with moisture, so the post does not fit snugly.” In a matter of minutes, the shoemaker has inserted a new post. The violinist seizes up a bow and eagerly flies through a few scales. His Rugerius sings again. The next customer is different. A child has been brought to Louis, a little girl whose right foot has been cruelly mal-formed by polio. She must have a shoe that will help her in walking, and at the same time not draw attention to her misfortune. Special Shoe Louis has “thinking” fingers. They touch the child’s foot and tell him what must be done. It takes many, many hours to make such a shoe. Delicate woodcarving for the foundation is involved. This has been a life work, and, as in the making of violins for his own pleasure, time is not important. The little violin shop on the first floor of Louis’ home, at 1301 Taft Avenue, is something of a gathering place for the capital’s talented fiddlers. They come to try out the latest violin, and inevitably they ask Louis about the secret of the tone he gets into his instruments. Good Violins But here is one maker who doesn’t pretend to have discovered the hidden tricks of the old Cremona makers. There is no mystical, magic varnish, no mumbo-jumbo about tone-plates, fillers or treated woods. Louis might say what others feel: “The man is in the fiddle.” But he doesn’t, and sometimes only modestly explains that good violins
