The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-10-01
Plano Paving

' opinion about pianos. I know . poe
who thinks he gets his inspiration
from the tones Of o grand square, and
also know an editor who is unable t,
write q puff for groceryman next door
If he hears a certain young lady in tn
apartments across the street strike tn
premonitory chords of q waltz.
Some men just adore the cadence o
the acknowledged fingers of the fail
sex upon the ivory keys, while others
in the language of. the immortal para
graphist. "curse and howl and swear
It seems to be altogether "a matter o.
individual taste. One can not tell be
forehand how this magic instrument il
going to affect the listener.
Some n suggests that it a be de-
termined by knowing in advance
whether the person is a musician or not
The writer begs leave to doubt. The
| best musician he ever kr ew made up
the most awful faces, and squirmed the
most a~trociolsly of all, in a little circle
of music lovers invited by a certain
rich papa to come and hear his board
ing-school daughter play. I was
charmed, of course; but then the girl
had a remarkable pretty profile, and
was worth, prospectively, a few millions.
It became me to be charmed.
Ireally do not think that the effect
of piano-playing a be determined,
definitely, until the subject has been
experimental upon. I once was told
of a ferociousIy brave Indian, who had
captured au innumerable number of
scalps, and was well-known to all the
hair-dealers of Chicago heard that
he once crept into a Montana settlers
cabin, while the folks we're all away ex-
cept the daughter of the house, with
the laudable intention of increasing his
stock in-trade by inducing the said
yound lady to part with her luxuriant
t~resses. He discovered her seated at
what he supposed to be a new-fangled
kind of a meat chopper, and stealing
softly up behind her, was just reaching
out his sanguinary fist to grasp her
long scalp-lock, when, with all the en-
ergy of a western girl, she brought
down her f1oury fingers upon the first
chord of Johnny Comes Marching
Home Again."
This was too much for the unsuspect-
ing red man. With a wild yell of ter
ror, he dropped his butcher-knife and
sprang through the window, carrying
sash and all with him. The belle of
the prairies jumped up just in time to
see Ochewochee (which being translat-
ed, signifies Fundamental Barber")
over the crest of a neighbor-
ing swell, with the sash dangling down
back and slapping his leg at every
It will be readily admitted that the
young lady could not have forseen this
enthusiastic reception of her musical
effort; neither could she with certainty
have counted upon its opposite effect.
There are Indians, no doubt, who would
have just sunk into q chair and per-
their ravished souls to melt in
tears of rapture and exquisite sympa.
On the other hand, we may safely as
sumo that had the male relatives of the
young lady been compelled to listen to
The same palpitating strains, they would
have called for the frying
Dan and assuaged their souls with the |
more seductive andante of the frying |
,ork.
It will be seen, therefore, that piano
is one of the things which the
age Josh Billings would call "onsartin."
There are those whose souls yearn for
{, as the soul of the youthful artist
earns for a paint pot and a square
ard of board fence. There are those
Tho can sit by the hour listening to the
trains-beg pardon, the endeavors ola
Dung lady in O pink satin waist and a
earl necklace, as she hammers away at
he divine harmouies of q Mendelsohn
r O Beethoven. Eut there are others
'ho would rather not. Tastes certainly
o differ. It is with music as it is with
like EN- and some don't.
Occasionally there will rise upon the
orion of art, a being whose very pres
nee breathes the soul of light and
eauty-a divine, unapproachable, fore
genius. And when such a one
the energies of youth, and the
of maturity, upon the mys-
ries of the many-keyed instrument,
ractising early and late, and inficting
1told agonies upon innumerable brain
at last-at last, mind you-
hen the wrinkles of toll and care be-
n to seam the fresh young brow, and
days Of youth are floating out into
shadowy past, like sunset clouds
nbayed in gathering dusk-then it
i'll be said that one, by those who have
ne artist souls, that lie or she knows
Nv to play the piano. :.
But as for the much-enduring editor,
I'd the money making citizen, and the
an Of prosaic tendencies in general
i'll he be able to detect to difference?
OF muchi All piano-playing is alike