Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
per mile. Canned^ provisions are"'trans-
ported from San Francisco to St. Louis,
over routes that average 2,500 miles in
length, for about one-half of one cent per
ton per mile. The average charge upon
all freight traffic on our railways last year
was only 0.866 cent per ton per mile.
C
ONSIDERABLE interest attaches to
the disposition that will be made of
the famous Halle collection of violins, the
owner having recently died. The list in-
cludes some of the finest Cremona instru-
ments, some genuine Amati violins, sev-
eral of the Stradivarius make, and a well-
known King-Joseph violin used by a pupil
of Stradivari. Mrs. Halle had been strong-
ly urged to leave the collection to the Con-
necticut Historical Society. I have just
learned that it is probable that the violins
will be sold. Why should they not? In
a dusty old museum they would lie there
forever without contributing to the delight
of the people beyond gratifying some idle
curiosity. A dollar violin with a Stradivari
card attached would fill just as large a place
in the museum, while if they were sold
they would fulfill the grandest destiny of
the violin, that is to produce music. In
the hands of accomplished musicians they
will make countless hearts merry.
* *
* frequent complaints
Notwithstanding the
of piano and organ manufacturers about
freight charges, few persons stop to realize
the tremendous reduction which has taken
place in railway charges within the past
twenty-four years, and more especially with-
in the past ten. According to the last report
of the Interstate Commerce Commission
the aggregate transportation of freight by
American railways for the year 1893 was
equivalent to moving ninety-three and one-
half billion tons one mile. This was equal
to moving fourteen hundred and six tons
one mile per capita of the population.
Now, in 1872, the charge for carrying
fourteen hundred and six tons of freight
one mile on the Pennsylvania Railroad was
$20.50. Ten years later the charge for
that amount of railroad service had fallen
to $12.23, a n d in 1893 it had fallen to $8.72.
This is a very moderate illustration of
the decline that has taken place in our rail-
road freight rates. The Fitchburg Railroad
charged $55.12 in 1872 for hauling four-
teen hundred and six tons one mile. It is
now charging about $13 for performing the
same service.
Grain and flour are now carried from
Chicago to New York over routes that
average one thousand miles in length for
less than five mills per ton per mile.
Dry
goods are being carried from Boston to
Vicksburg, Miss., 1,570 miles, for a little
more than six and one-third mills per ton
*
It sums up the whole story in one im-
pressive statement to say that if the aver-
age railway charges of 1883 had been main-
tained upon the traffic for the year ending
June 30, 1893, the public would have paid
$251,981,813 for passenger service, and
$1,797,078,221 for freight service more than
it actually did pay. The reduction of rail-
road charges in the United States in ten
years amounts, therefore, to over two bil-
lion dollars, which is an amount equal to
one-fifth of the present aggregate capital of
all American railways.
*
Ivory is an important concomitant of
the piano, and the curious way the process
for bleaching it was discovered may be in-
teresting. M. Cloez, being consulted by a
friend and colleague of the Jardin des
Plantes, of Paris, M, Gratiolet, on the means
of removing the disagreeable odor emanat-
ing from skeletons, recommended the use of
the solvents of fatty matters, and especially
advised an experiment with turpentine.
As the smell of this latter was not agree-
able in the room, the glass vases containing
the objects immersed in turpentine were
put outside, when, to the great surprise of
the operator, it was found that not only
had the smell disappeared from the bones,
but also that the latter had become exceed-
ingly white. The same process applied to
ivory gives a perfect bleach, it only requir-
ing exposure for three or four days in the
sun to give it a perfect white; but it is nec-
essary to leave the object, when immersed
in turpentine contained in glass vessels, at
some distance from the bottom on zinc or
other supports; otherwise the white will
not be perfect. Turpentine is a strong
oxidizer, and to this property is due the
bleaching. The same action is not only
observed on bone or ivory, but also on
wood. Besides turps, other essences and
homologues of turpentine can be employed
with the same result.
*
"In your profession, especially, I sup-
pose time is money." " I do not find it
so,' answered the musician; " I do not find
it at all difficult to keep time."
* *
*
A Boston man has invented a machine
capable of turning out thousands of pies a
day, which will surely furnish material for
the next chapter of Max Nordau's "De-
generation." Since the foundation of our
Government there has been no such men-
ace to the health and well-being of our
nation. Thousands of pies a day! "Angels
and ministers of grace defend us."
* *
Professor R. H. Thurston, of Cornell
University, is authority for the statement
that in a single generation production in
the United States has increased from 50 to
75 per cent, more rapidly than population,
through the efforts of inventors.
Machin-
ery has been so improved that a day's labor
now represents in certain classes of work re-
sults 80 per cent.greater than in i860. With-
out protection to the inventors' rights, Prof.
Thurston asserts, we should not have to-
day the aid of steam engines and machinery
representing from three to four times the
working power of the entire population of
the globe. Yet the world, he says, is be-
coming sadly imgrateful to inventors. In
the United States, public sentiment, the
law and the courts seem to be less and less
willing to treat their greatest benefactors—
the inventors—with fairness and liberality.
* *
*
"How is your daughter getting on with
the piano, Murker?"
"First-rate.
She can play with both
hands now. Says she'll be able to play
with her ear in six months."
"Oh, dear!" groaned the Trilby fiend.
"They have 'Ben Bolt' into the barrel or-
gans, and that'll be the end of him, sure!"
People who are not Trilby fiends feel like
saying: "Then hurrah for the organs, even
though we suffer while they grind Ben into
the company of McGinty and Miss
Rooney." "Ben Bolt" is a ballad of cloy-
ing, clinging melancholy. Hear it sung
once or twice, or play it over if you are
rash enough to tempt fate in that way.
Then you will know that there is not a line
of exaggeration in Mark Twain's "Punch;
brothers, punch with care, " for "Ben Bolt"
will be with you by night and by day, and
will surely make you extra bilious. An
innocent man of my acquaintance, not a
Trilby fiend, made himself familiar with
"Ben Bolt" for sheer curiosity's sake.
Now he has got the confounded thing into
his system, and he can't get rid of it. Can
any reader suggest an antidote? A counter
irritant? An anti-"Ben Bolt" toxine?
The notion that electricity is a thing is
obsolete among those competent to judge of
its nature. There is no such thing recog-
nized among electricians as an "electric
fluid." Electricity is a mode of motion.
A wave on the ocean is not a thing. The
sound of an organ is not a thing. Both these
are modes of motion.
We know some-
thing of the mode in the wave and in the
sound, but we do not know the mode in
electricity. When the electric mode of mo-
tion is discovered then we will know what
electricity is.
• *
Under the caption of "How Much Have
You?" the Industrial World has an article
which tells us how much money the citi-
zens of different countries have per capita.
It says: "The Frenchman has more money
per capita than anybody else, leading off
with a score of $36.70. The United States
shows a record of $25.07, being surpassed