A Story Written by Israel Schlaffer z"l

The following story entitled "A Terrible Incident" was written in the 1930's by my grandfather, Israel Schlaffer, to his children:

Dear Children, I wish to relate to you an incident. It happened thirty years ago on the day of Lag Baomer in a little town in Russia.

In those days I was still a little boy like you now. I studied in Cheder the whole day from morning to evening. I had no spare time except Shabbos and holidays and even then I had to go to Shule with my father in the morning and evening, and in the afternoon the teacher used to come to our house to examine me so that my father could see what I studied the whole week.

But one day of the year was distinct, --outstanding in our lives. That was Lag Baomer. That day we were free from studies and we could play and run around in the woods and in the fields out of the city.

On one Lag Baomer day, the day that this incident occurred we gathered in front of our teacher's house. We were all armed with bows and arrows. We lined up and we went to the woods with the teacher. There we had a good time and we enjoyed ourselves the whole day. Then the command came, "Home."

Another boy and I decided to remain here in order to play some more. We sneaked out from the line and we remained alone in the woods. The sun set, some stars already appeared in the sky -- it was a beautiful evening. Suddenly we heard beautiful music that attracted our attention. We followed the sound of the music because we wanted to see the man who sang so beautifully. And, behold, we stood before a house at the end of the woods. We wanted to see through the window who was singing inside. But we didn't see anyone. All we saw was a round box from which the sound came out. We became terribly frightened and with all our strength we started to run away from this terrible place. We thought that devils were mocking us. Really, how is it possible that a box should produce such charming and wonderful music?

This, children, was the first victorola that was brought to our town and we never heard about it and never saw it before.