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398
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW,
" Sup
PIANO STOOLS MANUFACTURED BY THE HOUSE"
CO.
7§?SUR attention has been called to the new
^
catalogue issued by the House-Milner
M 'f'g Co., of Cleveland, Ohio. It is a little book
of convenient size and contains many points of
interest to intending purchasers of piano stools.
We are enabled to present to our readers some
specifications of the new stools.
exposed, even when the seat is at full height.
The screws are all made with double square
thread, being two and a quarter double to the
inch, i. e., two and one-quarter turns of the seat
raise or lower it one inch, making it quick to
adjust.
SEAT AT FUIyl. HEIGHT.
The accompanying cut shows the parts of the
pedestal ready to assemble. These consist of
malleable iron legs, neat in design and very
strong; a steel rod, on the upper portion of
which the thread is cut. A three-armed brace,
made with eyelets to hook into the legs and a
ring in the center, into which the end of the
steel rod nicely fits, and the whole is put
together with one screw.
Simple, neat and beautiful; and withal pos-
sessing the necessary stability. Of equal im-
portance with the tripod is the screw adjust-
ment. This entirely obviates the vexatious
rocking which is so common to some stools
after slight wear. The screw being attached to
the legs instead of to the seat, goes up from
below and is entirely protected from dust and grit,
which are the principal cause of wear. Below
the thread there is a bearing 3 y 2 inches long, to
which a sleeve, cast together with the nut on
the seat, fits very nicely, thus entirely doing
away with all rocking and rattling found on
some stools on account of wear in the thread.
No wood bushing is necessary to prevent the
screw from wobbling. This is the greatest de-
TRIPOD.
sideratum in this line, viz.: a stool that will not
wobble, rock or rattle. No part of the thread is
Special attention is also called to the adjust-
able back ; a back which is not only a support,
but a complete rest. In this back the inventor
has kept pace with the high standard of his other
achievements. This back is adjustable to any
position desired, backward or forward, up or
down, by the aid of a neat little device, which
readily admits of change, but when once placed
will stay there. The adjustment to the back is
perfect, and, being firm, affords good solid
comfort.
of
piaijo ai}d
Orgai?
attention of all piano and organ tuners
is called to the fact that a meeting of The
National Piano and Organ Tuners' Association
will be held at Royal Arcanum Hall, 52 Union
Square, Tuesday evening, December 20th, at 8
o'clock. It is earnestly requested that all tuners
attend, whether in the wholesale or retail trade,
as matters of great importance will be discussed
which are of interest to all tuners.
li$zt'$ Qypsy Protege.
f
ity Of
>ATHOLOGICALLY speaking," writes
Mr. Nisbet, " music is as fatal a gift to
its possessor as the faculty for poetry or letters ;
the biographies of all the greatest musicians
being a miserable chronicle of the ravages of
nerve disorder, extending like the Mosaic curse
to the third generation." Handel's mother
was subject to paralytic siezures, in one of which
she lost her eyesight. He himself was struck
down with paralysis at fifty ; lost his eyesight
like his mother; and during the last years of
his long life—he lived to seventy-five—was
totally blind. Mozart's father died of gout; his
mother succumbed to an epileptic seizure. Soon
after his thirtieth year, the composer broke
down mentally and physically. During the
composition of the " Requiem " he labored un-
der the delusion that he was being poisoned,
frequently swooned away, and became partially
paralyzed. In his thirty-sixth year he died of
inflammation of the brain. His head was too
large for his body, which was stunted ; and
towards the end of his days he indulged in con-
vivial excesses, frequenting the society of low
and unprincipled persons. Beethoven was ec-
centric to a degree that bordered upon insanity.
He was constantly changing his lodgings, and
although miserably poor, had sometimes to pay
for three or four places of abode. From the age
of thirty he gradually lost his hearing ; in his
later years was completely deaf, and the music
he wrote he never heard. It was conceived and
perfected in his imagination. He was only five
feet four inches in height; his head was unusu-
ally large ; his hair bushy and always in disor-
der. He died of dropsy at fifty-six. He never
married ; his father was a drunkard. Both
Donizetti and Schumann were paralyzed. Doni-
zetti died at fifty in a lunatic asylum ; his only
son was insane. Schumann had fits of melan-
choly, accompanied by suicidal tendencies in
youth, afterward had hallucinations and died at
forty-six in a lunatic asylum. Weber fell into
melancholia, and died of consumption at forty-
two. Herold died of the same disease at the
same age. Rossini had a cousin an idiot, and
at times was himself under the hallucination
that he was miserably poor.—J. F. NISBET'S
Insanity of Genius.
Blasius 0 Sops.
TO INCORPORATE WITH A CAPITAL OF f I,O0O,OOO.
Blasius Piano Works at Woodbury, N.
HE great pianist, who was passionately
J., will in a few days incorporate their
fond of the gypsies, once endeavored to
educate and civilize a gypsy lad, but failed business into a stock company with a capital of
ignominiously. The wild spirit of the nature $1,000,000. The stock is all subscribed for by
of countless generations could not be tamed, a few capitalists. It will be a close corporation.
This move became necessary owing to the large
and though as a child liking the novelty of the
business Blasius & Sons have been doing lately
new life the young gypsy submitted, but with a in establishing agencies all over America and
bad grace, to the instruction of the teacher Mexico, where the Blasius piano has met with
Liszt provided, he soon broke loose, and became instantaneous success, so much so that Blasius
arrogant and inordinately conceited. However, & Sons find it almost impossible to fill orders.
his untutored playing was excellent, and he Their factory has been working day and night
became the pet of those foolish women in society for a month, and their product is now forty-two
who are ever on the lookout for some new craze pianos per week, ranking them among the larg-
to feed their flighty craving after variety. Soon est piano makers in America.
The corporation will be known as the Blasius
the child of nature pined for the freedom of the
fields and savagery, and so he went. He ran Piano Manufacturing Company, Incorporated,
and will be distinct from their Philadelphia
away three times and was brought back, and business.—Philadelphia Inquirer.
then Liszt let him go for good.
In after years he turned up again in one of
"Jndge," said a portly man in the police
the numerous wandering gypsy orchestras, but court, " I vish you vould send dat poy of mine
he was only then a mediocre player—instruction to der reform school. Id vill be a gread favor to
had actually killed the real ability that, as a me."
child, he had possessed. So was shattered one
'' What has he done ?''
of the dreams of Liszt's life ; he learned that a
'' Chust ven I vas ready to blay my new sym-
savage man could not be tamed quite so easily phony he slipped ' Ta-ra-ra, boom-de-ay ' be-
as a savage beast, as many had discovered be- tween der pages of der moosic."—Washington
fore him.—Belgravia.
Star.