June 15 1844, Saturday.

On Saturday, quite a lot of traffic came through Brookville: emigrant trains headed west to Ohio, freight wagons headed east with goods for market, and droves of cows, pigs, and hogs, as well as stage passengers. A fair number of the passengers stopped overnight. Some of them didn't like to travel on Sunday because it was against their religious beliefs. Others were waiting for a connecting stagecoach. Either way, they were ready to enjoy a little entertainment on Saturday evening. This week, the doin's were being held at the Peace and Poverty – and George Hayes and Jim Tanner were leading the bill.

The tavern was already filling up when the 'warm-up act' went on: Jeff Rockmayer demonstrating rope knots. Jeff was up visiting his parents from his job as a boatman in Pittsburgh. Everybody was interested in the knots, which were both clever and practical. Jeff got a lot of applause at the end.

Now it was George and Jim's turn to premiere the 'sketch' George had learned from the wagon driver from Ohio. It was called the 'Arkansas Traveller'. The wagon man said it filled up the taverns in Ohio, big-time, so George was eager to try it out. The sketch required two fiddlers as actors. Since the fancy fiddling part was done by the Traveller, George played him, while Jim played the annoying 'squatter' in the Arkansas cabin.

Arkansas at the time was considered kind of 'wild and woolly', with shootouts and banditry, especially in Fort Smith. The Ozark mountain people had a reputation of being strange, almost feral. George and Jim felt that this was probably exaggerated. Still, it would do for a comedy sketch.

Jim 'took the stage' by sitting himself down on a hay bale and starting to play his fiddle:

He stopped there, in the middle of the tune, and addressed the audience.

Durned if I kin 'member that tune I heard in N'awlins! I only got half of it!

He played the tune, such as it was, a couple more times. Then from 'offstage' (outside the door), they heard a horse whinny, and the sound of hooves. Of course, it wasn't really a horse. Mr Gallagher wasn't letting a horse inside the premises. It was George, imitating a horse and banging some hickory nuts on a washtub for the hooves. Then he called, 'Whoa, there!' and walked into the room, and 'saw' Jim, who was still playing and fiddling around with that tune.

George: How do you do, stranger?

Jim: Pretty much as I please, thank you.

(Laughter)
George: How long have you lived here?

Jim: See that mounting yonder? (Pause) It was there when I come.

(Laughter)
George: Where does this road go to?

Jim: It don't go nowhere. It just lays there the whole time.

(Much laughter)

The room fairly rocked with laughter as Jim's answers to the 'stranger's' questions got sillier and sillier. This sort of humour was very popular, especially in western Pennsylvania, where a lot of the farmers gave similar answers to questions – for the same reason: to make people laugh. Jim could just see several of them mentally memorising the punchlines. He knew they were going to be itching to try them out on the next person they met. In the meantime, he kept fiddling and improvising on the half-tune, as George plied him with more lines. He replied with more silly answers.

George: Why don't you fix that hole in your roof?

Jim: I cain't. It's been rainin'.

George: Why don't you fix it when the sun is shinin'?

Jim: Because it don't leak then.

George pretended to become angry.

Why don't you play the rest of that tune?

Jim stopped playing. He jumped up.

Jim: Mister, can YOU play it? PLEASE?

Eager shouts from the audience: 'Yeah, George, play it! He's drivin' us crazy!' and such. George pulled his own fiddle out of his coattail pocket, tuned quickly, and played:

There was thunderous applause, while Jim, as the frustrated squatter, danced around the stage to the tune. Then, in character, he invited the Traveller into his cabin for a meal, promised him anything he wanted if he'd teach him the song, etc, etc. The sketch ended with them both fiddling to the whole tune. The audience took this as a signal to get up and dance.

The two fiddlers played the 'Arkansas Traveller' song a while, then segued into other fiddle tunes. Jim was in his element. He loved fiddling, and he enjoyed watching the others dance. His only regret was when he saw Cherry dancing with Dan Craig. He wished he could play and dance, too.

Afterwards, the town pronounced 'The Arkansas Traveller' the best show they'd ever seen. They threatened to demand it early and often. If you'd like to hear more of the jokes from that sketch, here's a recording from the Library of Congress, which keeps track of these things.

Dmitri Gheorgheni