Morning journal and courier., 1882-01-26
Price Four Cents.
nearly all had organs undergoing repairs or

'1 have no objections to telling you any, i thing you want to know about the business said the manager, 'for, though people gen erslly know little about it, it is only because l they do not take the trouble tc inquire. | There are no secrets in it any more than there are in the piano or parlor organ busi- ness-indeed, not as much, for some of the piano-makers have processes of their own which they keep to themselves. We have ! no secret at all, and no patents. One man is as free to make 8 hand organ as another, If he knows how. The technical skill re- quired for putting the tunes in an organ is sufficient protection to the business without any legal safeguards. There are only three men in America who can mark an organ bar rel for the tunes, and I doubt whether there are 90 men in the world who can do it. So you see 1t is something of a monopoly with out any patents. There is very little com petition in the business anywhere; in this country there is none. There is house in the city that imports hand organs from Eu- rope, and at one other place here they are made. We all sell at the same prices, and all have fair business, without making sud- den fortunes. Last year was the best year we have ever seen for the business in New York. ---..
 ''It may seem strange to you,'' the hand organ man continued, '' that there should be 8 sudden increase in our business in any par hcular year. It is easily explained. In the first place, you must have noticed that a large majority of the organ grinders are Ital- ians. Italy Is the home of the hand organ, and an Italian out of work takes almost es kindly to turning the handle as he does to eating maccaroni Among the emigrants who arrived within the last year were a great many Italians, who all have to gather, in some way, enough money to keep them alive. Some of them are not able to work and others are not willing. large percent a..fk1 H. IL ing organs. This is one cause of the increase in business. An Italian in the organ business does not gen. orally expect to earn enough money himself, but sends his wife ont also, be talk ing one organ and she another, the children being divided between them In this way they sometimes pick up good deal of mon ey. The other cause is the unusually mild winter. The Italians do rot like cold veath- CT, and generally keep in the house as much as possible in the winter months But this year there have been so many warm days there has been great demand for organs. These two things taken together have given the hand organ business lift"
 "Yes, the organ man went on, In reply to 8 question, ''the organs you sec in the streets are generally rented, and do not belong to the people who play them. There are five or six large places in the city where any number of organs can be rented, besides a number of smaller places where only one or two organs are kept for hire. There is one place in Mott street and two in Mulberry street, both with in block of police headquarters. There is another in Crosby street, and still another, the largest place of ths kind, in Bleecker street In the Bleecker street place Is to IS organs are kept and on fair day they are generally all in use. No, the people who keep these places do not buy their organs from us. They are generally old organ grinders them ealvae a,,d k1aovv ahout xzhak is worth They watch their chances till they find man with an organ who is in need of money and lend him SIC or $I5, taking his instrument for security. Nine times out of ten the borrower is not able to repay the loan. and the capitalist keeps the organ When he gets enough instruments to start in buSi- ness he rents them out by the day. The rent he gets depends very much upon the organ and the number and character of the tunes it plays. The customer has something to do with it, too. For instance, if a man has poe session of good corner, where he csn talks in g. and s day, he has to pay higher rent for an organ than man who goes wherever he can find chance An organ in good condition playing 10 popular tunes will sometimes rent for ss much as Sl day. From this the rent comes down as low as 10 cents day. 4 regular professional organ grinder who IS known can generally rent an instrument without any trouble. But 6 new
 
 for the safe return of the instrument. Wo- men have fancy for sick organs, and they generally rent for about 25 cents day.n
 ''Sick organs Pf
 That is some of the slang of the trade. The squeaky little music boxes you often see melancholy looking women playing on the corners we call sick organs. They are not out of tune, or even worn out, as they seem to be. but are often quite new. They are made with die-away tunes to excite sym pathy. woman with one of these sick organs, half-starved baby, and a sorrowful countenance is sure to make good living. But these things are all outside of our part of the business. We have nothing to do with them, of course. We make the organs only to order and for cash, and there our part of the business ends.
 ''Hov many organs are there in the city. It is impossible to say. We have made nearly 2,0e0 here in this factory, but they go all over the country, though they were nearly all made for New York men. The organ grinders have regular routes, many of them just like theatrical company. But there is this difference, instead of going east and west they travel nofth and south, so as to be in the north in the summer and the south in the winter. They do all their travelling on foot, of course, so it is slow work. But they play all along the road whenever they come to a house, and are sure of making their traveting expenses at least It has been so warm this winter that great many of the travellers have not started southward, but taksthsir chances in the city. What an organ grinder can make in the city streets is just as uncertain as what a merchant can make. He may take in 8 in 8 single day if he has good place and strikes streak of luck On the other hand he may not get half dollar, work as hard as he will
 !" I tell you," said the enthusiastic organ maker, "the hand organ is the worst ma ligned musical instrument in the world Be- cause there are a great many bad ones all hand organs are declared a nuisance The instrument can be made with as fine tone as the best piano. Drum away on piano for 25 or 30 years and what would be left of the tune? But hand organs last longer than that, often without any repairs l have put new tunes in organs that were made in Flor ence 40 years before and that were still in good order, That is one of the drawbacks of the business. Organs last too long. Lis ten to this one and then tell me whether you think therei is any music in a hand organ
 The organ maker, as he spoke, adjusted the stops of a rev instrument that had ap- parently just been completed, and turned the handls. The result was as sweet music al- most as could have been extracted from piano.
 s'That is not an unusually fine instru- ment," '" be continued, though 1t is 6 good one; and it just shows that there is as much music in an organ as in any instru- ment when it is properly made and in good order That was made to ! order, like ail our organs, and is worth Sl5o. It plays 10 tunes, and it is good for at least 30 years steady use, with occasional changes of tunes. We do great deal of tune-ehang- ing. Two or three popular airs will coax out more pennies than dozen stale tunes. The tunes are very easily changed when you know how to do it. Do you know anything about the construction of hand organ S'
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