Presto Buyers' Guide
Analyzes and Classifies
All American P i a n o s
and in Detail Tells of
Fheir Makers.
PRESTO
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CHICAGO, SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1925
THEY ONCE WERE PIANOS
Tropical Dilapidations, Among Which Is "Methuselah", a Haunted Qhost=Ridden Instrument
Which Has Traveled Far and Served Many Kinds of People
By GEORGE CECIL
Long-lived
though
the
piano is, there are, in various
parts of the world, and espe-
cially in Eastern countries, in-
struments which might well
be converted into sideboards
—or burned. They have been
thumped upon by genera-
tions; the yellowed keys are
in the last stage of decay; the
felts are as ineffective as a
sheet of paper; the hammers
refuse to hammer; the few re-
maining strings yield little
response. For decades they
have been subjected to tropi-
cal heat and to the inroads of
the musk-rat, the white-ant
(a pernicious insect which is
GEORGE CRCIL.
distressingly partial to wood-
work) and the devouring moth. Yet their proud and
too-casily contented owners sometimes continue to
use them, and even to extol the utility of these ancient
back-numbers. How true the saying, "Man wants
but little here below."
Ceylon, India, Burma, Java and Sumatra provide
instances of pianos being played upon long after their
days are numbered. A certain elderly Ceylon planter,
for example, is the unfortunate possessor of—well,
what once was a concert grand. Of British origin,
and really imposing appearance, it takes up about a
third of the sitting-room in which the white exile
reads improving literature, assuages an ever-present
thirst, and dreams of the (alas!) far-distant day when
he will be able to afford something less unmusical.
For the aged instrument, which during its sixty
years' existence has served no fewer than seven of
the planter's predecessors, a native chief with Euro-
pean taste and a burgher (half-caste) judge, suffers
from a highly defective interior. Quite three-fourths
of the strings are broken; the pedal (there is but one
left) has not acted for a quarter of a century; the
keys, with half a dozen exceptions, have lost their
ivories. The faint tinkling which the musician (he
professes to be a musical enthusiast) extracts from
the formidable-looking relic is ghostly in the extreme.
A deplorable result.
Where's the Repair Man?
"Are there," you will ask ; "no piano repairers in
Colombo, the—according to the- guide-book—down-
to-date, go-ahead and ever-pushful capital?"
Possibly there are, if one knows where to find
them. Your scribe, however, when last in this super-
heated town, was unsuccessful in his quest, the near-
est approach to a piano-tinker being a chocolate-hued
gentleman who, after offering to mend the hotel piano
and to tune it, admitted that he was by trade an un-
dertaker. And incidentally the fellow had soaked
himself to the teeth in native liquor, it being his
custom to do so.
Ceylon rejoices in many an instrument which has
seen better days, and which might advantageously
be heaved into Colombo harbor, there to feed the
sharks. But, rendered dear by ties of lon"g owner-
ship, they are treated as cherished heirlooms and
given house-room. Really a fatal attachment to an
unworthy "thump-box."
Where the Warrior Kept the Whisky.
Goa (an Indian dependency) also possesses pianos
which have retained but a shadow of their pristine
glory. One of the dark inhabitants, a retired waiter,
who claims that the blood of Portuguese royalty
courses in his veins, recently invested a hundred
rupees (the proceeds of a good day at the Bombay
races) in a sort of upright grand. So infinitesimal a
sum is a mere nothing for a piano, even if it happens
to be a strikingly bad one. But the instrument in
question is as mute as the harp which once decorated
Tara's hall, its unseen mechanism having been irrep-
arably damaged by a former owner, a subaltern of
native infantry. The warrior used the innermost re-
cesses of the doomed piano as a cellaret, brutally re-
moving hammers, sounding-board and strings for
this fell purpose, and introducing sundry bottles of
whisky.
Learning that the baja had originally been imported
from England by the famous Richard Burton, when
studying Pustu, Telague, Urdu and other strange
tongues at Barada, and thus being in a position to
vouch for its antiquity, he named it "Methuselah."
Rather a happy thought.
A Near Piano.
The Goanee, though, alas, realizing that sounds
neither musical nor unmusicalcan be extracted from
his acquisition, is not displeased with the investment.
When all's said and done, a piano is a piano—
whether it is permanently dumb or capable of emit-
ting unlimited melody. And no other waiter in Goa,
either active or retired, is likely to have a hundred
rupees to spend in this direction. Meanwhile, the
old man (he is almost as aged as the piano) takes the
greatest pride in drawing attention to the-rosewood
case, the elegant, well-turned legs, and the faded
green silk, which, by a marvel, has escaped the at-
tentions of the white ants and the enormous moths
which infest the island. None more proud than
Antonio de Souza, Esquire, as he signs his name
when acknowledging the pension which reaches him
monthly.
Java Dutch Want 'Em.
The Dutch settlers in Java also hanker after pianos.
But the Javanese climate plays the very mischief
with the action and with everything else, the tone
becoming as feeble as that of the early clavichord and
harpsichord. Even the Governor's piano, a drawing-
room grand, of antiquated make and shape, has long
been a derelict in which the mice and the insects have
taken up their quarters.
Perhaps the strangest instrument of all is one
which was brought out to Java by the good Italian
missionaries about the time that Bartolommeo Cris-
tofoxi invented his gravecenibalo col piano e forte.
Upon it these well-meaning—though unnecessary—
divines accompanied themselves while singing hymns
to the heathen. During a certain fatal twenty-four
hours the enraged yellow men, taking umbrage at
what the mission people had to say about the local
gods and goddesses, emulated the Kanakas. Seeing
red, they slaughtered each of the twenty priests and
confiscated the piano.
For many a decade not even the most intrepid
native dared strike the keys, a naat (ghost) having,
according to the populace, elected to inhabit the hut
in which the gravecembalo col piano e forte had been
boused. Only a few years ago was the interesting
museum exhibit unearthed by a Dutch curacao manu-
facturer with a taste for the antique. But all he
found was a heap of worm-eaten wood and a few
imperishable accessories.
The Japs Dote on Music.
Japan, happily, is favored with "a climate in which
stringed instruments thrive, while the emancipated
Japanese geisha sometimes charms her admirers by
playing upon the imported piano. Yet, there may be
found in remote districts antiquities from which, as
the poet so aptly puts it, the soul of melody has fled.
One of these curiosities is not unlike the claveciu a
malletiers, a very early eighteenth century French
harpsichord with hammers. How this forerunner of
the modern piano came to be exported to the land of
the cherry blossom is unknown; perhaps some digni-
tary accepted it from a "foreign devil"—as the trav-
eling European merchant of the period was termed—
in return for trading favors granted after the cus-
tomary presents had been made. Meanwhile, it is
(or, at all events, was some years ago) to be seen at
a tea-house near Kobe. The hoary proprietor of the
establishment, by the way, is known as "the first
native to have worn trousers," his wife, a singularly
enlightened person, having introduced corsets into
Japan. When, in the 'eighties, confronted with a pair
of pantaloons, the innovator buttoned them up wrong
side before, and the lady wore the stays outside her
kimono. Still, they meant well.
. A Jap's Pride.
The Jap who has been educated in Europe some-
times prides himself on his musical taste, and, to that
end, he returns to Nippon (all patriotic Japanese en-
title their country "Nippon") with a piano amongst
his luggage. Those who learn the equivalent for
"reading, writing and Yithmetic" on the spot also
yearn to distinguish themselves in a musical direc-
tion, especially if they have been promoted to wear-
ing trousers. It perhaps is as well that these people
do not demand passable instruments. For the pianos
on which they are condemned to perform often are in
the last stage of decrepitude, the sounding-board hav-
ing collapsed and the strings being in tatters. The
case also is in a sorry plight.
Mercifully, these travesties of the genuine article
are gradually disappearing, a scarcity of firewood ac-
counting for many a desirable gap.
Blood Bath for Piano.
There is, however, in a nagasaki tea-house, where
sailors of all nationalities make merry with drink and
song, a piano which is worth preserving if only as
an object of interest. Made by a London firm, in
the days of very long ago, it adorned the picturesque
and flower-embowered mansion of a blue-blooded
Japanese marquis, who, owing to domestic troubles,
was forced to commit hari-kari. The instrument
(splashed with the rash man's blood) then found its
way to the coast, being carted from one purchaser to
another and sustaining accumulated damage in
transit, to eventually find i'.s present haven. Thou-
sands of seafaring men must have pounded the rat-
tling keys and tippling Japs have in foolish moments
poured saki into the interior. Yet it is not destitute
of sound. . . .
Astonishing pianos also may be found in other
Eastern ports. They are like nothing else on earth.
GEORGE CECIL.
Hotel rln Dauphin, \2 Rue St. Roch. Paris, I.
J. R. A. LANG APPOINTED
WESER BROS.' SUPERINTENDENT
New Head of Big New York Factory Well Known
for His Ability in Piano Construction.
An important item of news from the New York
field is the appointment of J. R. A. Lang as superin-
tendent of the factory of Weser Bros, Inc. It is a
perfectly suitable combination, as Mr. Lang's abilities
are equal to the exacting requirements of the Weser
Rros.' plant.
Mr. Lang is known as one of the ablest piano
superintendents in the country, and his past experi-
ences have been in the construction of pianos of the
better grades. It is an assurance that the depend-
able qualities in the Weser Bros, pianos and players
will be preserved. Being head of the Weser Bros,
plant has always been considered a recognition of
piano making ability. The factory has always been
associated with the production of pianos sold with
the assurance of durability. The announcement of
Mr. Lang as superintendent of the Weser Bros, fac-
tory is good news for Weser Bros, dealers.
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