The daily gazette., 1880-04-06
A Mysterious Pianist.
BY G. ..

lnBS III person. Oh my eAh'o' iounu
q number of old friends assembled to
exchange good wishes and usher in the
dawn OF the new year. As the com
pany was dispensing, some one suggested
a song and as was credited with some
ability in that direction, i was at once
appealed to. consented; and we ad-
.journed to another room, where my
sisters piano had stood untouched
since her lamented dea'h, which had
happened two years before. 1t was
an old instrument, of six and half
octaves, of the Cottage shape, with
nothing remarkable about it save that
solid, substantial look which is 20
foreign to many articles Of modern
furniture. / sat down and ratified off
a few rollicking ditties suited to the
occasion, winding up with the ever
new. "Auld Lang Syne" as our guests
departed. l noticed while playing
that the instrument was much out of
tune, and that several Of the levers
were disordered or displaced. l spe-
cially noted that one wire of the @ in
the fifth octave was much fiatter than
the other, which gave the note a Pc
culiar and easily recognizable sound.
AS was to sleep in the apartment,
sat down by the fire to smoke pipe
and muse on the changes time had
wrought on the little world of my boy
hood. The keyboard of the instru-
ment glistening in the freight insen-
sibly led my thoughts to that vanished
hand that had 80 often nimbly and
skillfully pressed it. Only two short
years ago she had sat there singing my
favorite airs with the rich mellow
voice that was hers alone. AS wave
after wave of memory surged over my
heart, l became SO abstracted that |
fancied l heard the cadence of her
beautiful voice like the distant echo in
dream. 1 remembered to that the
last song / heard her sing was that
.touching melody welded to the words
of Burns weird song, "Open the Door
to Me, Oh"
With my minds ear I heard the
pathetic wall with which the melody
concludes, and was just on the point
of awaking from my day-dream, when
the piano at my side slowly and dis
tinctly repeated the last simple bar of
the music, with the faulty G for key
note. was not startled +; the myste-
rious accompaniment was 80 in unison
with my reverie, that it was some min
utes before realized what had occur
red. My first idea was that, by long
disuse, some of the hammers lad be-
come relaxed and had fallen forward
on the strings. But on trying the
notes found they responded readily
to the touch. For some time tried
to solve the enigma; but at length
coming to the conclusion that l had
been duped by my own ears, I shut
down the key board and jumped into
bed, where l was soon unconscious Of
mortal and spirit alike.
had slumbercd for some time when
l suddenly awoke with that singing
sensation over the whole body which
with me, always betokens nervous ex-
citement and 10 the piano was
sounding. sat bolt upright tried to
shake off the hallucination, and listen
ed again. There was no denying the
fact. Some invisible power was touch
ing both the bass and treble notes. ]
struggled against an eerie feeling that
began to creep over me, and tried to
reason. Judging from a former ex-
perience, thought it might be some
animal traversing the wires but then
reflected that that was impossible in
their perpendicular position neither
could any animal agitate both treble
and bass at the same time, as my ear
informed me was being done. Mus
tering courage, l jumped out of bed
and approached quietly, when the per-
formance suddenly ceased.
l ooped the keyboard and the top lid.
peered into every nook and Granny, ex-
amined the floor and wall but could
discover nothing. stirred up the the
| fire, and sat down with my face toward
the instrument. In this position DIS
tinctly saw several of tine keys move
with gentle, undulating motion /; but
no sound followed. While l sat, this
was repeated more than once, and the
peculiarly was, that when the keys
| moved there was no sound, aud when
the sounds were produced there was nc
preceptible motion of the keys. l fell
the erie feeling steal over me again,
but still sat aud watched for repeti-
tion of the music.
My patience was almost exhausted,
when all at once the mystical performer
resumed his playing at first in an un-
decided hesitating manner, gradually
merging into plaintive irregular kind oil
notes, OF which ths faulty q was again
the key. When the sounda first strnuk
the ear they seemed to be weak and
faint, but gradually increased in volume.
| The treble movement was now and then
accompanied by a chromaticmovemen OH
bass notes, which though not in accord
ance with the rules of harmony, was not
unpleasant to the ear. At times too
the treble made a rapid run to the hi sh-
est possible note thea after pause the
irregular notes were resumed. Selling
moment when the mysterious per-
former seemed much engrossed with his
task, darted TO the instrument, when
the sounds again c. eased, without afford
ing a single clue TO their origin.
endevored to open the front; but it
resisted my efforts; and as | did not
wish to alarm the household, | drew the
piano forward from the wall, gave it
parting shake, and once more curled
myself up In the bed-cloths, not without
iervent prayer that the player might
transfer his musical entertainment TO a
more appreciative audience. All, how
ever, was unavailing; for he shortly be-
gan again as brisk as ever; so bowling to
The inevitable. | endesvored. to convert
the disturbing performance into a we'll
intentloned lullaby. AS l thus lay in a
hAlf-sleeping, half-waking state, no longer
inter ested In the cause of the phenome-