The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1882-10-19
The plano.

bought and brought to the house with
much bruising of its beautiful legs and
much muifled profanity on the part of
the draymen, to be played on. What
superlative nonsense! What stale and
preposterous suggeStionl What a relic
OF barbaric ignorance! A piano to be
played on! Go to.
Thank the stars the days of such stu
pidity are oyer, and the true, sole and
natural use of n piano is becoming
generally understood. A piano il put
into a house for these simple pur-
poses and none other. Its top is de-
signed as a place for a photograph al
bum, brilliant lamp mat and a vase Of
flowers. Its rack is intended as rest
1or an open book-an open book COW
cred with pictures of farm, and fences,
upon which are perched innumcrable
black birds. Its stool is placed there
Tor the nervous young nan in company
to sit on and whiri, and writhe and
; wrlggle. Its richly carved legs are
sprawled out for near sighted and awk-
ward people TO run against, and upon
: being solicitously asked by the hostess
; If they are hurt, to reply. with the hot
tears OF anguish gushing into their
eyes: "Not in the least; only just grazcd
! Such are the legitimate uses of an
able bodied and well-lmbed piano in
! Its various parts and proportions. AS q
! whole the piano serves two other and
nobler purposes. The one is it imparts
character, statcliness and an air of
; atlluence to q household establishment.
! The proud-spirted host points to the
! rosewood instrument and seems to say
; to his assembled guests: "You behold
/ that majestic Instrument. 1t is grand,
! square and upright. Is it not symbolic
OF its owncr-is he not grand. square
ana upright?' Of course nobody can
| play on it-not one of his quartet of
I daughtcrs-but it is to be remembered
that it was not put there to play on, and
who would ask its owner to put it to per-
verse use?
But after all the real mission Of y
piano in the house is this-a place for
young lady to sit and idly turn the
leaves of blackbird book, and some
thing for yo"ng gentleman to hang
over and now and then breathe softly
in the young lady's car TO let her know
: that he is growing weak, but he still
j lives. is an affecting sight to observe
young man hang over piano. Few
young men know how to hanr over q
piano in good form. One must not
bend too low, rs il he were looking for n
lost sleeve button or Il nickel. nor yet
bc too rigid and intlcyib G, like wood
en- soldier on Il weather vaur. y COM
prom sc Of these attitudes with little OBJ
liHue leaning toward the stool and its
occupant is about the correct thing in
piano hanging.
! Now and then by way Of novelty an
attempt is made on Il Grand social occa-
sion to actually play the piano. y dis
maj young man leads an exhaustive
young lady to the piano. An awful
silence pcrvadcs the drawing room.
, The Somhcr young man slowly lifts the
! lid. as if he was about to view the re-
mains OF the last relative he had on
! earth. The young lady wildly runs her
! tingers over the kcys-thrrc is a sob,
wall, vocifcration Of violent grief. o
CRY OF comfortlesS despair and ali iJ
over. The young lady sinks upon the
nearest SOFA. The Young man lowers
the lid, t::ns away his head and is seen
no more.
Verify, the day OF superstition and
! mistaken ideas is over and piano play
ing has passed away with the many fol-
lies and fobles OF our purblind and un-
cultured ancestry. -NcV London Icl4-
0rUN.