Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
Gaiety in. Albany.
T
HE papers advise us that the present
winter is one of unusual gaiety in
Albany, but they do not record the fact that
the Marshall & Wendell Co. have found it
the gayest winter for orders they have ever
experienced. This is, nevertheless, the fact,
and it finds its solution in the elegant
goods they are turning out at their factory.
The growth of this business is the more
remarkable when account is taken of the
fact that it is almost wholly along the
lines of their finest and most expensive
pianos. They are forging very rapidly to
the front.
Abreast of its Work.
With the Travelers.
P
ROGRESS in the administration of the
HE ever-youthful "Charlie" Sisson
Patent Office is commented upon in
dropped in on us last week with a
Washington.
It appears that for the first
"hello" as cheery and as welcome as a view
time
in
a
decade
and a half the office finds
of "Old Sol" after such a blizzard as we
itself
abreast
of
its
work. There are thirty-
have just experienced.
three examining divisions in the office,
"Charlie," it is hardly necessary to tell
and in each of them the work is now in such
Mrsic TKADK RKVIKW readers, has an end-
condition that a new application will be acted
less number of "experiences" stored away
upon within a month after its filing. How
in the mental storehouse, which he occa-
much this means will be seen from the fact
sionally brings to light. Although on a
that new applications at present average
hurried visit, he made time to tell the fol-
seven and eight hundred a week, while the
lowing, which he said occurred a few win-
amendments which now can receive atten-
ters ago while staying at an hotel in a
tion within two weeks after filing, average
Western city:
about sixteen hundred a week. This rep-
"After I had recorded a sample of my
resents a marked advance over the condi-
chirography on the hotel register I was
tion of things a year and a half ago, when
followed by a typical
cowboy on a
the most important branches of the office
'similar errand bent.'
He had on store
were more than ten months behind hand.
clothes and a red necktie, and what he
Bradstrcef s.
didn't know wasn't worth knowing. Well,
the story can best be told in the clerk's own
Cavalli and the Reformers.
way, as related to me the following even-
ing:
HERE is much sympathy among the
" 'When lie started up to his room at
trade for the princely Cavalli, who is
night, I told him there was a folding
bed in it, and, if he wished, the bell- "under the weather" with an attack of
boy would show him how it worked. But, gout. By the way, this is not an un-
Mayor
not much—he didn't want to be shown any- fashionable malady just now.
thing. He knew a thing or two about the Strong and other reformers seem to be fel-
The mayor designates his
city, he did, even if he did live down on low-sufferers.
attack
as
"my
old enemy."
Friend
the range.
Cavalli's
is
more
recent.
"So I let him go, and in the morning he
T
T
paid his bill without a word and went away.
About noon I happened to be on that floor,
Look Out for Them.
and a chambermaid called me to take a
look in his room. And what a sight met
T is becoming quite the fashion for mem-
my eyes! The bottom drawer of the
bers of the Chicago music trade to cul-
bureau was pulled out as far as it would tivate their muscle, says the Indicator, and
come, and in it were all the rugs in the if they continue in their practice it will be
room, with a towel spread over one end for dangerous for any member of the body poli-
a pillow. Evidently he had tried to sleep tic to refuse to buy a piano when he is asked
there, for pinned up on the glass was a to do so. Among those who have recently
sarcastic little legend reading: "Gol dern joined the Chicago Athletic Club, and who
yore folding beds. Why don't you make are already members, are E. A. Potter, E.
'em longer and put more kivvers onto um ? V. Church, F. W. Teeples, J. M. Hawx-
Mebbe you expect a man to stand up and hurst, E. S. Conway, E. C. Smith and J.
sleep in your durned old cubbard. " The C. Bartlett.
"durned old cubbard" was one of our best
J. N. NOKRIS, who is on the Pacific slope
folding beds.' "
in the interest of the Mason & Hamlin Co.,
A HIM, is to be introduced in the Con- is sending in quite a large number of orders.
I
necticut Legislature compelling the rail-
roads in the State to carry passengers at the
rate of one cent per mile.
IT IS not unlikely that Smith & Nixon
will open a branch house at Buffalo, N. Y.,
one of these davs.
Rare Old Instruments.
E
VERY one who has visited Leipsic
remembers the Musik-Historische
Museum. That this collection of historical
instruments and musical curiosities may
some time find a home in the Metropolitan
Museum of New York is not only possible
but probable. In view of this event, it
may be interesting to get some idea of
them. The}' have been gotten together by
Mr. De Wit, an amateur musician.
Mr. De Wit's treasures differ from those
now in the Metropolitan Museum and pre-
sented by Mrs. John Crosby Brown, in that
they are mostly instruments of European
make, their age or historical connection
making them valuable. For instance, the
little hammer clavier belonged to a belle of
the sixteenth century, and served a double
purpose—it furnished music and was at the
same time a receptacle for her thread and
needles and the various belongings of a
workbox. Behind the mirror, in the cover,
is a space for writing material.
Another curious instrument is a clavi-
chord, from which the piano of to-day has
been evolved. When closed it resembles a
Bible, presumably the family book, as it is
somewhat ponderous.
An old Italian portable organ was used
in processions upon festival occasions or
for funerals.
The gay cavalier who sallied forth of a
moonlight night to serenade his lady love,
when this century was young, sometimes
took a guitar, but more often he carried an
orphica, which was a clavier in the form of
a couched harp.
' " /
The sea trumpet, also called a nun's fid-
dle, was used in church music, especially
in nunneries, as a substitute for trumpets.
The name "sea trumpet" arose from the
fact that it was frequently used on ships
when entering port to signal for a pilot.
These instruments possess but one string,
the harmonics of which are played.
The spinets in this collection are par-
ticularly interesting, from the fact that
they are ornamented with delicate paint-
ings done on a gold ground; in many cases
the entire workmanship leads to the con-
clusion that the instrument was made for
some princely personage.
A charming little lute, dated 1596, has
its entire body of ivory, while an archlute,
with eleven melody strings, has the finger-
board and neck inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
The fool's flute is another odd specimen.
The hollow ball of this instrument is fill-
ed with flour, which flics over the unsus-
pecting player when he attempts to use it.
The music curios are of all kinds, wood,
brass and stringed, together with the vari-
ous types of the piano in its evolution from
the clavichords of the olden days to the
piano of to-day.
A gallery of pictures and other objects
relating to music, forms not the least valu-
able portion of the collection.
HORACE F. BROWN left last week for a
trip in the interest of Behr Bros. & Co.