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The courthouse on the site where Abraham Lincoln
practiced law was decorated with Christmas trees, garland, and
candlelit windows. Volunteers were available for tours, and a table
of cookies and punch was set up on the first floor for snacks while
enjoying the entertainment.
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Seasonal entertainment was provided
by Mike Anderson, the Dulcimer Guy, who played Christmas carols on
his dulcimer and took requests for songs from the audience. Anderson
also demonstrated a bones rhythm instrument and a mouth harp and
offered historical interpretation during the Christmas performance.
He explained that while movies may show pioneer dances and Christmas
parties with fiddles, banjos, and guitars, these instruments would
have been expensive and hard to come by on the prairie in those
days.
During Abraham Lincoln’s time, the more likely instruments
accompanying dances and parties would have been bones and a mouth
harp.
The bones instruments were carved from actual animal bone and used
for percussion. Anderson had carved his from a cow femur but noted
that most “bones” used as instruments today were carved from wood.
In the 19th century, most young boys were gifted
mouth harps which meant all the men of a town could play and would
take turns playing mouth harp for a dance. Indeed, Abraham Lincoln
himself played the mouth harp “fair poorly,” as he said about
himself. Anderson said that Lincoln mostly played mouth harp to
irritate his friends when they made fun of his gangliness.
Anderson, a retired elementary school teacher and folk artist,
provides music and storytelling programs for children and adults for
holidays and historical events. In fact, anyone who missed his
performance at the Postville Courthouse can attend his free all-ages
family show at Lincoln Public Library on Wednesday, December 13th
from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. where he will appear as Hugo Kringle, Kris
Kringle’s little brother.
[Stephanie Hall]
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