Fiddle Warns Youth Hiding in Woods

Marietta Daily Times, August 12, 1918

Nero, according to tradition, fiddled while Rome was burning. Mrs. James Beaver fiddled while officers waited Sunday night at her home on the Little Muskingum for the return of her nephew, Floyd Weddle, sought as a draft evader. Thus does history repeat itself.

Weddle, hiding in the thickets on the Beaver place, doubtless interpreted the more or less musical strains as a warning. Leastwise, Deputy Sheriff Frank F. Fleming had a three-hour wait in the darkened farm house before he was rewarded by the appearance of the young man, who is alleged to have come here last spring from his home at Newell, West Virginia, for the purpose of escaping registration with the 21-year-old military eligibles in June.

The young man, who was brought to the county jail at one o'clock Monday morning, is a son of Beaver's sister. He is said to have attired himself in knee-length trousers when he had occasion to go on errands to the store at Reno, about a mile from the Beaver home.

His habit of scurrying off into the thicket upon the arrival of strangers in the vicinity finally aroused suspicion. This was communicated to the officials in Marietta. An investigation disclosed that although the young many was born February 29, 1897, he had not registered for military service with the class of June 6.

Sheriff Posey and Deputy Fleming both were at the Beaver residence Sunday night. Before their arrival, Weddle had fled into the hills where he camouflaged his identity with a rank growth of rag weed, sassafras saplings and blackberry bushes. The officers were given the impression that the young man had permanently changed his abode.

Both James Beaver and his wife remained with the officers, neither retiring to bed. About midnight, when Beaver stepped out into the yard under some pretext, a sound like the plaintive call of a quail separated from its flock smote the ears of the county officers. They heard it answered from the hills.

The fiddle screeched on the porch no longer. Reluctantly the woman surrendered the bow, which was secreted by the sheriff. Posey then boarded his auto and returned to the city. Deputy Sheriff Fleming remained in the house. Within an hour he heard the sound of someone's tapping on the windows. The figure moved around the house.

Beaver, acting under the deputy's instructions, opened the front door. He said nothing, even when the deputy suggested his telling Weddle to come in. When the latter appeared opposite the doorway, Fleming, throwing the rays of a flashlight into his face, covered him with a pistol and took him in custody.

To the officer Weddle declared that he expected to register when he became of age. He said his mother maintains that he is not yet 21.