Music Trade Review
Issue: 1880 Vol. 3 N. 6 - Page 13
October 20th, 1880.
THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
13
Sto
DOMESTIC
VOL. III.
.A.NT) EXPORT
TRADE.
No. 6.
NEW YOKE, OCTOBER 20TH, 1880.
THE BURDETT-ESTEY ORGAN CASE.
T WOULD like to say, by way of
X introduction, that in Chicago
they have taken to calling this de-
partment the " Free Lunch," instead
SECOND ARTICLE.
FURTHER REVELATIONS.
of the " Free Lance."
The reason they give is, that it is L A T E S T N E W S C O N C E R N I N G T H E B R A T T L E B O R O '
devoured so greedily by the entire
DEFAULTER.
trade.
Probably to be turned over to the United States Court.
They tell a good story of a Chicago
dealer, who, in his younger days,
INDICTMENTS ACAINST WAITE.
was a clerk in the store of a well-
known music publisher. A customer
called one day and asked the clerk Continuation of the Account of the Plaintiff's Manipulation of the
for a Sunday-school song book,
Celebrated Organ Case.
called the "Golden Lyre." The
house did not have the book, and
RESULT OF OUR SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS.
never had had it ; but the clerk was
not a man to let go his hold. He
told the customer he would get it,
THE MEANING OF THE KECENT DECISION.
and for two months kept the wretch-
ed individual dangling about the
LATEST CONCERNING WATTE.
store after his "Golden Lyre," the
clerk in the meantime trying to sell
INCE our last issue the case stands thus with Silas M. Waite, the partner
liim each and every known variety of Sunday-school song book but the one
of Riley Burdett, in the celebrated organ case, and lately brought back
he wanted.
to Brattleboro', Vt., by the detectives, on the charge of defalcations in the
At last the customer arose in his wrath and gat him into the presence of affairs of the Brattleboro' bank: It is believed that the session of the United
States court, which will reconvene at Rutland, Vt., on November 16, has been
the publisher, and remarked unto him as follows :
" A clerk in your store by the name of H. has been promising for the called for the purpose of finding, through its Grand. Jury, indictments against
last eight weeks to get me a book called the ' Golden Lyre.' He tells me S. M. Waite, who, it is thought, will be tried by the Government soon after-
-every day that you have it, as a rule, but are just out of it, and tries to put ward. It is stated by those acquainted with the case that the State has finally
me off with some other publication. Now sir, have you got such a thing as decided to waive its claim and allow the Government to take such course as
it may think proper.
the ' Golden Lyre,' or have you not ?"
The defalcation of Silas M. Waite, his stealing of half a million of money,
Then did that publisher regard that customer blandly as he replied :
" No sir, I have not the 'Golden Lyre,' but I have the 'Champion the ruin heaped by him upon hundreds of poor people, his flight from
justice, and his wanderings while being hunted down by those terrible blood-
Liar.' "
As indeed he had, and the individual remains the champion in his speci- hounds sent out by the deparraent of justice—the secret detectives—his final
arrest and incarceration in prison, and, last of all, the complete exposure of
ality to this day.
his rascalities, add one of the most startling chapters ever known in human
*
* *
experience to the history of crime.
Of the many puny papers published in this country and supposed to be
The indictments found against Waite in the State Court, to each of which
devoted, in a measure, at least, to musical matters, the Chicago World is the he pleads " not guilty," were :
sickliest. The reading matter, original with it, which it contains, is not good,
1. For the larceny of $2,500 when he absconded.
*nd the good reading matter which it contains, is not original with it. It is
2. For forging a note of $15,000, purporting to be signed by F. A. Nash,
edited by a contemptible specimen of humanity called W. L. Allen, who treasurer of the Vermont Valley Railroad, of 1871.
bears a hard name m Chicago.
3. For uttering the same, and raising money on it in New York, knowing
This W. L. Allen is a thief, and I can prove it.
it to be forged and fraudulent.
He has stolen original articles from the MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE RE-
4. For forging of a $15,000 note against C. J. Amidon.
VIEW, and transferred them to his own paper without a word of credit to the
5. Forgery of a $20,000 note against Frederick Billings, of Woodstock.
source from which they came. I find in his issue of October 2d, an article
6. Uttering the same.
called " Music in America," which appeared recently in the MUSICAL CRITIC
7. Forgery of a $20,000 note against T. W. Park.
AND TRADE REVIEW, in which he has changed the words, New York, to Chi-
8. Uttering the same.
oago ; also, an article originally entitled, "Love's Labor Lost."
These indictments, of course, do not begin to cover all of Waite's rascali-
The man Allen must be careful in future, or he will feel the lash of jus- ties, but were such as were easily obtained, when the court officials had no
tice keenly, even through his tough moral hide.
idea of seeing Waite back in Vermont.
Original reading matter, bought and paid for, and, moreover, copy
One of Waite's forgeries, not included in the above indictments, was that
righted by the MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW, is no more to be stolen of the name of Lyon & Healy, music dealers, of Chicago, for $20,000.
with impunity than my personal watch and chain, or my pocket-book.
WAITE'S ADMISSIONS TO THE DETECTIVE.
*
When Waite was returning from Omaha to Vermont in charge of the de-
Very different from the course pursued by this man Allen, is that taken tective he remarked concerning the ranch recently purchased by him in
by Loomis' Monthly, of New Haven, which in recent issues republished some Omaha:
of the MUSICAL
CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW'S articles, with proper credit.
" I was going to live there and have the family come out, and after I got
Loomis 1 Musical Monthly is becoming quite readable of late.
Will (his son), going all right, why, I did not wish to live any longer ; the
sooner I went the better. But if I had got that $160,000 you would have
had a chase for me. Still as long as the government are looking for me, it is
OBITUARY.
better you got me now. If I get out of this I shall leave Brattleboro' and
bring my family out to Omaha."
MASON J. MATTHEWS.
The $160,000 referred to above was the amount which Waite hoped he
MR. MASON J. MATTHEWS, the inventor of the Mechanical Orguinette, died at his and his partner, Riley Burdett, would recover from the defendants in the
•residence, in this city, about 1 o'clock on Monday morning, October 4, 1880, of cancer celebrated organ case ; and his remark concerning it indicates that, if he had
in the stomach.
recovered the amount, he would not have used the $160,000 to right his
He was born near Carlisle, England, and educated as a clock and watch maker; but his crippled bank, but would have run away with it like any common thief.
S
strong musical tastes and inventive genius led him into experiments on musical instru-
ments. In 1870 he came to this country, and was engaged by the Mason & Hamlin
Organ Co. to devise improvements on their organs.
While in their service he invented the orguinette, which has had such a success, and
within one year had, in his connection with the Mechanical Orguinette Co., of which he
was one of the directors, given all of his time to the development of mechanical musical
instruments.
Mr. Matthews was a talented and enthusiastic inventor, and his associates in business
will miss not only his skill and judgment, but also his warm-hearted friendship and genial
•company.
HOW THE CELEBRATED ORGAN CASE WAS WORKED BY THE PLAINTIFFS.
Before we go into details concerning the great organ case, and bring for-
ward all the proofs, which we are sparing no efforts to obtain from every
source in support of our assertions, we shall let the public have, as it were,
a birds'-eye view of the nefarious schemes which the plaintiffs concocted, for
the purpose of giving the case a termination favorable to themselves.
The public have no conception of the extent to which Burdett or Waite
crowded this matter. They made the whole case turn, not upon the just ex-
THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
13
Sto
DOMESTIC
VOL. III.
.A.NT) EXPORT
TRADE.
No. 6.
NEW YOKE, OCTOBER 20TH, 1880.
THE BURDETT-ESTEY ORGAN CASE.
T WOULD like to say, by way of
X introduction, that in Chicago
they have taken to calling this de-
partment the " Free Lunch," instead
SECOND ARTICLE.
FURTHER REVELATIONS.
of the " Free Lance."
The reason they give is, that it is L A T E S T N E W S C O N C E R N I N G T H E B R A T T L E B O R O '
devoured so greedily by the entire
DEFAULTER.
trade.
Probably to be turned over to the United States Court.
They tell a good story of a Chicago
dealer, who, in his younger days,
INDICTMENTS ACAINST WAITE.
was a clerk in the store of a well-
known music publisher. A customer
called one day and asked the clerk Continuation of the Account of the Plaintiff's Manipulation of the
for a Sunday-school song book,
Celebrated Organ Case.
called the "Golden Lyre." The
house did not have the book, and
RESULT OF OUR SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS.
never had had it ; but the clerk was
not a man to let go his hold. He
told the customer he would get it,
THE MEANING OF THE KECENT DECISION.
and for two months kept the wretch-
ed individual dangling about the
LATEST CONCERNING WATTE.
store after his "Golden Lyre," the
clerk in the meantime trying to sell
INCE our last issue the case stands thus with Silas M. Waite, the partner
liim each and every known variety of Sunday-school song book but the one
of Riley Burdett, in the celebrated organ case, and lately brought back
he wanted.
to Brattleboro', Vt., by the detectives, on the charge of defalcations in the
At last the customer arose in his wrath and gat him into the presence of affairs of the Brattleboro' bank: It is believed that the session of the United
States court, which will reconvene at Rutland, Vt., on November 16, has been
the publisher, and remarked unto him as follows :
" A clerk in your store by the name of H. has been promising for the called for the purpose of finding, through its Grand. Jury, indictments against
last eight weeks to get me a book called the ' Golden Lyre.' He tells me S. M. Waite, who, it is thought, will be tried by the Government soon after-
-every day that you have it, as a rule, but are just out of it, and tries to put ward. It is stated by those acquainted with the case that the State has finally
me off with some other publication. Now sir, have you got such a thing as decided to waive its claim and allow the Government to take such course as
it may think proper.
the ' Golden Lyre,' or have you not ?"
The defalcation of Silas M. Waite, his stealing of half a million of money,
Then did that publisher regard that customer blandly as he replied :
" No sir, I have not the 'Golden Lyre,' but I have the 'Champion the ruin heaped by him upon hundreds of poor people, his flight from
justice, and his wanderings while being hunted down by those terrible blood-
Liar.' "
As indeed he had, and the individual remains the champion in his speci- hounds sent out by the deparraent of justice—the secret detectives—his final
arrest and incarceration in prison, and, last of all, the complete exposure of
ality to this day.
his rascalities, add one of the most startling chapters ever known in human
*
* *
experience to the history of crime.
Of the many puny papers published in this country and supposed to be
The indictments found against Waite in the State Court, to each of which
devoted, in a measure, at least, to musical matters, the Chicago World is the he pleads " not guilty," were :
sickliest. The reading matter, original with it, which it contains, is not good,
1. For the larceny of $2,500 when he absconded.
*nd the good reading matter which it contains, is not original with it. It is
2. For forging a note of $15,000, purporting to be signed by F. A. Nash,
edited by a contemptible specimen of humanity called W. L. Allen, who treasurer of the Vermont Valley Railroad, of 1871.
bears a hard name m Chicago.
3. For uttering the same, and raising money on it in New York, knowing
This W. L. Allen is a thief, and I can prove it.
it to be forged and fraudulent.
He has stolen original articles from the MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE RE-
4. For forging of a $15,000 note against C. J. Amidon.
VIEW, and transferred them to his own paper without a word of credit to the
5. Forgery of a $20,000 note against Frederick Billings, of Woodstock.
source from which they came. I find in his issue of October 2d, an article
6. Uttering the same.
called " Music in America," which appeared recently in the MUSICAL CRITIC
7. Forgery of a $20,000 note against T. W. Park.
AND TRADE REVIEW, in which he has changed the words, New York, to Chi-
8. Uttering the same.
oago ; also, an article originally entitled, "Love's Labor Lost."
These indictments, of course, do not begin to cover all of Waite's rascali-
The man Allen must be careful in future, or he will feel the lash of jus- ties, but were such as were easily obtained, when the court officials had no
tice keenly, even through his tough moral hide.
idea of seeing Waite back in Vermont.
Original reading matter, bought and paid for, and, moreover, copy
One of Waite's forgeries, not included in the above indictments, was that
righted by the MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW, is no more to be stolen of the name of Lyon & Healy, music dealers, of Chicago, for $20,000.
with impunity than my personal watch and chain, or my pocket-book.
WAITE'S ADMISSIONS TO THE DETECTIVE.
*
When Waite was returning from Omaha to Vermont in charge of the de-
Very different from the course pursued by this man Allen, is that taken tective he remarked concerning the ranch recently purchased by him in
by Loomis' Monthly, of New Haven, which in recent issues republished some Omaha:
of the MUSICAL
CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW'S articles, with proper credit.
" I was going to live there and have the family come out, and after I got
Loomis 1 Musical Monthly is becoming quite readable of late.
Will (his son), going all right, why, I did not wish to live any longer ; the
sooner I went the better. But if I had got that $160,000 you would have
had a chase for me. Still as long as the government are looking for me, it is
OBITUARY.
better you got me now. If I get out of this I shall leave Brattleboro' and
bring my family out to Omaha."
MASON J. MATTHEWS.
The $160,000 referred to above was the amount which Waite hoped he
MR. MASON J. MATTHEWS, the inventor of the Mechanical Orguinette, died at his and his partner, Riley Burdett, would recover from the defendants in the
•residence, in this city, about 1 o'clock on Monday morning, October 4, 1880, of cancer celebrated organ case ; and his remark concerning it indicates that, if he had
in the stomach.
recovered the amount, he would not have used the $160,000 to right his
He was born near Carlisle, England, and educated as a clock and watch maker; but his crippled bank, but would have run away with it like any common thief.
S
strong musical tastes and inventive genius led him into experiments on musical instru-
ments. In 1870 he came to this country, and was engaged by the Mason & Hamlin
Organ Co. to devise improvements on their organs.
While in their service he invented the orguinette, which has had such a success, and
within one year had, in his connection with the Mechanical Orguinette Co., of which he
was one of the directors, given all of his time to the development of mechanical musical
instruments.
Mr. Matthews was a talented and enthusiastic inventor, and his associates in business
will miss not only his skill and judgment, but also his warm-hearted friendship and genial
•company.
HOW THE CELEBRATED ORGAN CASE WAS WORKED BY THE PLAINTIFFS.
Before we go into details concerning the great organ case, and bring for-
ward all the proofs, which we are sparing no efforts to obtain from every
source in support of our assertions, we shall let the public have, as it were,
a birds'-eye view of the nefarious schemes which the plaintiffs concocted, for
the purpose of giving the case a termination favorable to themselves.
The public have no conception of the extent to which Burdett or Waite
crowded this matter. They made the whole case turn, not upon the just ex-
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).