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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
PASSING OF OLE BULL'S VIOLIN.
Cbc Small Goods trade
THE EMERGENCY AND THE MAN.
How a Strike Stimulated Improvement in Machin-
ery—An Interesting Development at the Fac-
tory of the American Graphophone Co.
The labor troubles of the present year
have developed some unexpected things of
interest to both employers and employed—
things that are deserving of amicable and
fair consideration by both sides to labor con-
troversies, and which are as the "facts" of
Sairey Gamp, those "stubborn things not
easy drove."
One marked effect of the machinists'
strike, for example, was noticed in the fac-
tory of the American Graphophone Com-
pany at Bridgeport, Connecticut, a concern
whose annual product runs into the millions
and whose methods of manufacturing are
thoroughly up to date. As a result of the
disaffection among their workmen, this Com-
pany found it necessary to close one of its
most important departments. Operations
were suspended for a fortnight, but during
that time it was once more demonstrated
that necessity is the parent of invention, and
special machinery, designed by ingenious
men, was quickly supplied through the use
of which one man was enabled to do the
work of three, then four, and finally nine
machinists.. The result of this was that the
special machinery, evolved under stress of
circumstances, and which might never have
been forthcoming under ordinary conditions,
was operating so effectively, long before the
strike was over, that the need of many of
the former employes had ceased to exist.
Consequently, while the feeling toward
the men who had been absent for several
weeks was of the most kindly character, and
they were received without prejudice, it was
out of the question to take back more than
a fraction of them when they were ready for
duty. This condition applied in a lesser de-
gree in other departments of the same factory,
the obvious lesson of which is that whether
the grievance which impels men to leave
their work be real or fancied, their action
undoubtedly brings on an emergency which
is full of dangers. While in other countries
an economic upheaval, such as a strike, may
so dishearten and embarrass manufacturers
as to force them to yield, at least sufficiently
to effect a compromise, the occasion, in this
country, seems simply to arouse the latent
ingenuity of mechanics, with the result that
the same thing that has been done in one way
is accomplished in another and usually with
?lut«, Piccolos,
Guitars,
mandolins, Banjos, Zithers
fln* Everv Instrument
Chat's musical • •
JOHN C HAYNES & CO,
Importers and Manufacturers,
451 Washington St., Boston, Mass.
fewer-men. In every crisis in history the
occasion produced the man who was needed
for the emergency, and in the same way, in
the United States at least, the factories de-
velop with unfailing certainty men who were
evidently created to lead the way out of
emergencies and whose ultimate ingenuity
is not realized, even by themselves, until the
problem to be solved is suddenly presented.
SCRIBNER'S GREAT BUSINESS.
Business with Frank Scribner, whose
fame as an importer is world-wide, was
never more satisfactory than to-day. Dur-
ing a call at his office, 415 Broadway, this
week, he reported the demand for the Brass
Band Clarion and his latest twentieth cen-
tury musical novelty, the Metallochord, as
simply great.
The latter device should find a big market
this fall among the dealers, and should,
moreover, prove a great seller during the
Christmas holidays. Dealers would do well
to write Frank Scribner and get a full list
of his novelties and prices.
VIOLINS MADE FROM PORCELAIN.
An interesting bit of information comes
from Meissen, Saxony, the celebrated por-
celain manufacturing center. Max Freyer,
a maker of ocarinas in that city, has, per-
fected a process by which he can turn out
mandolins and violins of porcelain, the
advantage lying in the clearer tone
of the instruments. Leading musicians,
who have seen the first porcelain instruments
turned out, have only praise for the inno-
vation, which is to be patented in every coun-
try of the world.
INGENIOUS ELECTRIC MANDOLIN
PLAYER.
Next to the violin the most difficult
stringed instrument to master is the man-
dolin, this difficulty being largely due to the
necessity of producing a rapid and uniform
tremolo or vibration of the plectrum with
which the strings are struck. Alexander I.
Mitchell, of Rumford Falls, Me., has ap-
plied the electric current to the solution of
this problem. He has provided a bottle-
shaped holder of a convenient size to be
held in the hand, and inside this holder a
pair of magnets is located, together with a
spring arm to be actuated by the current
passing through the magnets. One end of
this arm projects through the mouth of the
holder, and is provided with a thumb-screw
for gripping the plectrum. When the player
desires to use his instrument he connects
the binding-posts at the rear of the holder
with an incandescent electric light socket or
a storage battery, and the device is ready for
work. At the under side of the neck is
shown a spring push-button, which controls
the vibrations of the arm, the button being
pressed in to allow free movement as the
plectrum is held in conjunction with the
strings.
The Famous Da Salo Instrument Which He Played
Donated to the Museum in His Native Town
at Bergen.
The widow of the famous Norwegian vio-
linist Ole Bull has presented his favorite
violin to the museum in his native town of
Bergen. It was a foolish thing to do. Vio-
lins are made to be played on, not to repose
in glass cases in museums. Nor should so-
ciety or the government allow such prepos-
terously selfish individuals to flourish as col-
lectors of violins. It was one of these foes
of the human race who owned the violin
which became Ole Bull's (beside about 200
other valuable instruments). It was made
in 1532 by Gaspard da Salo, and is said to
have been decorated by Benvenuto Cellini.
Cardinal Aldobrandini bought it for 3,000
florins, and gave it to the Museum at Inns-
bruck. When Napoleon's army invaded the
Tyrol it disappeared, and afterwards came
into the possession of a Viennese banker.
This banker, who, as just stated, had de-
prived the world of two hundred other val-
uable violins, was approached, in 1830, by
Ole Bull, who offered him a fabulous sum—
nearly his w r hole possessions—for it; but
the banker refused to part with it. Some
years later Ole Bull got a letter at Leipsic in-
forming him that the banker, on his death,
had left him the coveted violin. And now
it is condemned once more to remain mute,
perhaps forever! It is too bad that senti-
mental considerations or the vanity of collec-
tors should thus deliberately diminish the
small number of first-class violins in our
concert halls.
LIBRARIES OF SOUNDS.
Lots of Trouble to Keep up With the Latest Musi-
cal •• Records."
The owner of a graphophone or any other
of the numerous "talking machines" is put
to the same trouble and expense as a musi-
cian to keep his repertoire up to date and
his library of selections in good condition.
Unless new "records" are procured pretty
often the instrument is of about as much
practical use as one of the old cylinder music-
boxes playing "The Blue Bells of Scotland,"
"America," "The Carnival of Venice," "La
Paloma," "The Old Folks at Home, with va-
riations," and the overture to "William
Tell."
There are a good many agencies in this
city that make a business of supplying the la-
test pieces of music, recitations, or "special-
ties" to their customers on phonograph cyl-
inders or disks. Some of them keep several