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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
Recent Legal Decisions.
may be made by means of an epistolary
correspondence, but that this result is not
accomplished until there has been a definite
offer by one of the parties to the correspon-
dence, and an unequivocal acceptance by
the other without condition or variance of
any kind, and the parties must "mutually
assent to the same thing in the same sense;"
and that, although in the case before the
Court the correspondence between the
plaintiffs and the defendant did not of
itself amount to a fully completed and
binding contract, if in point of fact the
parties so treated and regarded it, and if in
consequence the plaintiffs relinquished to
the defendant their claim to certain timber,
and the latter cut and used the same, it was
bound to pay to the plaintiffs the price
thereof as stated in the letters, unless it
showed affirmatively that they did not
really own the timber, but that the para-
mount title thereto was in another, or
others, claiming adversely to the plaintiffs.
IPREPARED FOR THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.]
STOCKS—SUBSCRIPTION—NOTICE.—It
ap-
peared, in the case of Rogers et al. vs.
Burr, recently decided by the Supreme
Court of Georgia, that one was induced to
subscribe and pay for certain shares of
stock in an incorporated company upon the
faith of a written agreement signed by
others, who thereby guaranteed to such
subscriber the payment of certain dividends
upon the stock for a period of three years;
and also therein agreed that if at the expir-
ation of said three years the subscriber did
not desire to carry the stock any longer
they would, upon thirty days' notice from
him, pay to him the par value of the stock
for which he had subscribed. The Court
held that it was not incumbent on the sub-
scriber to make his election as to keeping
the stock, and to give the notice stipulated
for in the contract immediately upon the
expiration of the three years; but that he
could do so within a reasonable time there-
after, and that the failure of the subscriber
to give the guarantors notice that he had
received no dividends upon the stock was
not fatal to his right of action, under the
contract, for the recovery of the same.
BANK - • STOCK — VALUE— FRAUD.—The
Kentucky Court of Appeals held, in recent
case of Anderson et al. vs. Black et al.,
that in a suit by a grantor to cancel a con-
veyance upon the ground that the grantee
by fraudulent representations induced him
to accept in payment for the property cer-
tain shares of bank stock at much more
than their real value, the finding of the
chancellor that there was no fraud was sup-
ported by the evidence; that if the paper
held by the bank had been collectible the
stock would have been worth what defend-
ant represented it to be, and as it was a
matter of opinion as to whether the claims
could be collected, and plaintiff had every
opportunity of investigating for himself,
and, in fact, sought the advice of others
than defendant, and subsequently becoming
a director in the bank, signed a statement
as to the condition of the bank showing the
stock to be worth as much as he paid for it,
his loss, if any, was the result of bad judg-
ment on his part and not of fraud on the
part of defendant, although the defendant
was at the time cashier of the bank.
CONTRACT—EVIDENCE—CORRESPONDENCE.
—The Supreme Court of Georgia held, in
the recent case of Harris et al. vs. Amos-
keag Lumber Co., that where letters in
evidence, plain and unambiguous in their
terms, clearly and distinctly indicated a
purpose on the part of the writer, the de-
fendant's general manager, to make a con-
tract with the plaintiffs, who were the per-
sons addressed, it was error to allow the
former to testify: "It was not my purpose
to trade with them (plaintiffs) by writing
these letters," and that this error, in view
of the entire record, was cause for a new
trial; that a complete and binding contract
The Chromatic Harp,
A NOVEL INSTRUMENT INVENTED BY AN
AMERICAN WOMAN.
M
ME. LA ROCHE, a Chicagoan, who
is at present on a tour of the East
with the Mozart Symphony Club, is the in-
ventor of something novel in the way of a
musical instrument which promises to at-
tract considerable attention. It is called
the Chromatic Harp, and was made under
her personal direction, after a close study
of the ordinary harp, which she formerly
played. It has the appearance of a double
or twin harp of the ordinary type, two sets
of strings crossing each other at an angle
which gives to the front of the instrument
the form of the letter X. It is played after
the manner of the common harp, the prin-
cipal distinguishing feature aside from its
appearance being that the use of the pedals
is dispensed with. This Mme. La Roche
considers the strong point of her invention.
In the course of an interview she said:
makes it more difficult to acquire velocity
in execution, especially in chord passages,
than in playing the ordinary harp.
"On the other hand, my harp has a larger
compass than the common harp, it is possi-
ble to play complete chromatic scales which
cannot be done on the other instrument,
and the whole attention can be given to
the manipulation of the strings, without
thought of pedalling, which, in frequent-
ly changing the tension of the strings,
makes it next to impossible to keep a harp
in perfect tune for any length of time. And
further, I consider that my harp is unques-
tionably superior for orchestral purposes.
Another point in its favor is that it com-
mends itself to the average player, as any
one with a knowledge of the piano key-
board can readily learn to play my harp,
and this fact will, I believe, make it a pop-
ular instrument for acompaniments."
Mme. La Roche thinks she can improve
quite a little on her present harp, and ex-
pects to have made for her soon an instru-
ment that shall be in many respects superior
and more perfect. She talks freely of her
invention, with the frankness and enthusi-
asm of one who believes that she has solved
a problem. The future of the chromatic
harp will be watched with interest.
Exports of riusical Instruments
from New York Last Week.
NEW YORK, NOV. 12,
T
1895.
HE following are the exports of musical
instruments from the port of New
York for the week ending this date:
Argentine Republic—5 pianos, $700.
British West Indies—1 organ, $40; 1 case
musical instruments, $50; 1 piano, $175.
Bale—1 organ, $50.
Brazil—1 piano, $240.
Bremen—1 case musical instruments,
$50.
Chili—2 organs, $134.
Dutch West Indies—1 organ, $25.
Glasgow—9 organs, $600.
Geneva—3 organs, $100.
" I do not consider the instrument I am
Hamburg—12 cases piano parts, $300;
now using perfect by any means, but as the
51
organs, $2,527.
first embodiment of my original idea it
Havre—1
organ, $350.
was made as complete as could reasonably
Liverpool—181
organs, $7,612 ; 72 organs,
be expected. You will notice that it is
$3,092.
broader and seemingly less portable than an
London—97 organs, $8,078; 4 pianos,
ordinary harp, but its appearance is deceiv-
$1,000.
ing in this respect. While it necessarily
Leith—1 organ, $60.
appears cumbersome, it is made light in
Newfoundland—1
organ, $30.
proportion, and is, in fact, not quite so
Newcastle—1
organ,
$40.
heavy as the ordinary harp. The strings
Ring
Kiobing—3
cases
organ material,
correspond exactly to the strings of a piano.
Those running from my left down across $167.
Rotterdam—1 piano, $300.
to the right, as I sit at the instrument, pro-
Southampton—1 case organ material,
duce the same tones as do the black keys
of a piano keyboard; the strings of the $40.
other section of the harp are tuned to pro-
Sydney—10 cases organs. $690.
duce the same tones as the white keys of a
piano. It was necessary to make the harp
THE St. Juhnsville Wood Working Co.
wide in order to prevent the strings from has been incorporated by A. P. Roth, New
vibrating against each other, and this causes York, and Frederick Engelhardt and Selma
a long reach to the lower strings, which Engelhardt, of St. Johnsviile, to manufact-
with certain perplexities in chord passages ure musical instruments and wooden novel-
occasioned by the crossing of the strings ties. Capital stock, $1,000.