Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1886-08-04
MICE IN A BARREL ORGAN.
How they Converted O Noble Instru-
ment Into a Sausage Machine.

Slgnor Giovanni Cannio Is an italian
| gentleman with turn for music, who
some years ago bade farewell to the figs,
macaroni, and funnOchio of his natiyelair
in balmy Padua and accepted d call to
| New York city, to the end that he
might peg shoes during the day and en-
| ploy his leisure evenings profitably with
| hand organ In the sylvan shades of
Gramercy Park. The organ was COM
paratlyely new for an instrument of its
kind, certainly made some time in the
last century, and beyond lacking several
teeth from the barrel and having the
chronic bronchitis and touch of asthma
naturally incident to tropical hand or
| gans in this climate, was in superb con-
dition. 1t cost Giovanni four dollars
| Just after the war, and for some years
he struggled to save up pennies enough
to buy consumptive monkey in a red
flannel zouave dress, owned by the pad
rome, but the monkey died of disgust
before the bargain was complete, and
Giovanni went out and reckleSsly squan-
| dered his hoard on 4 new shirt and bade
the one he had brought from Italya sor-
rowful farewell.
Gramercy Park may be conservative
and lack electric lights, surface rail
! way, beer saloons and other modern
Improvements, and some ribald and en-
viOuS persons who live on Madison
avenue and run up livery bills and are
otherwise enormously swell, have even
gone SO far as to say that Gramercy
Park is sleepy and looks something like
cemetery; but nevertheless 1t is musi-
cal to degree and there is no citizen of
its sacred commonwealth but is captiOuS
when it comes to hand organs. and an
imperative local ordinance is that the
grinders keep at leaStwithin an octave of
being in tune, and furnish airs COM
posed some time within the past few CEN
turieS. Yes indeed: Gramercy Park
may be little slow and may be nervous
about accepting modern kIckShaws, but
she knows good music and insists on
having it and the hand organs coming
right up TO taw every time. So when Clio
yanni Cani0 came in possession of his
costly outfit he felt himself bound to
live up to his new shirt, and not play TO
any but naughty and exclusive ears, and
with this noble ambition fixed in his
soul pre-empted the right to grind for
Gramercy Park, and has been unOffi-
cially recognized as organist in chief
ever since. Giovanni was on the alert
and realized his social responsibilities,
and gave Gramercy Park the best Tota-
ry melodies going. When Harrigan
and Hart got out new piece you would
be sure to hear doleful reminders of the
most rollOcking air in Gramercy Park
before month had passed; Giovanni
kept track of Colonel John \. McCaull,
worked III an occasional touch of the
Bijou, and whenever there was rush
at the Casino he would give the opera a
turn which was somewhat wheeZy, per-
hapS, and ON the wrong key, maybe, but
solidly on deck every time. This
spirit of enterprise won him both pen
MES and recognition, and Giovanni has
been enabled not only to be thoroughly
solvent at his lodgings, but to lay lit
tie by every season to get another shirt
by and by when this one drops off, SO as
to insure being always able to keep up
an appearance in harmony with the
place of his choice. He never had any
serious difficulty with the organ. When
he wanted new tune he would take the
barrel to the padrone, who, after hear
ing the desired tune whistIcd, would
merely knock out few teeth and insert |
Others and the change was made. Some |
times difficult piece of music, like a |
''Mikado" medley or a pOtpourri of 1
Wagner, would bother. the padrone, but |
by hammering in few dozen tackS on /
the bass and breaking few teeth in the 4
treble the air would come out close .
enough to satisfy Giovanni.
One morning, recently, however, Clio
yanni noticed that an important note
was missing from the "Crowing Hem
jamboree, which was his latest novelty.
In the evening another note was drop
ped. Next morning two more, and by
the third day there. was hiatus of Il
whole octave, and very important
octave, so that the Growing Hem lost
its brightness and consisted principally
of wboops, sneezes, and profound grunts.
lie consulted the padrOne, who took out
the barrel but found all the teeth i'll
position. Next day the gap between the
gruntS and grOanS was longer, and then
Il new trouble arose. Twice when Clio
vanni was grinding for one of the
haughtiest of his patrons he felt an I'M
pediment, as though something had
been inserted in the machinery, and fam
cied he heard faint squeak from the
interior. On applying extra power,
however, the obstacles would be ground
fine between the cogs, and the progress
of the ''Crowing Hen, such as 1t was,
would continue. On the evening OF the
fourth day, Giovanni noticed another
curious complication, which was that
his organ was emitting something else
quite as powerful as the music, and not
as pleasant, and he experienced a sensa-
ton as one who lives to leeward of a
fertilizer works lie thought at first
perhaps the time had come for another
change, but brief investigation con- 4;
vinced him that the organ, IN addition
to its bronchitis and pulmonary troubles,
had contracted dyspepsia or something,
and so went again TO the padrone, who
made a surgical opening and uncovered
the works. The mystery was solved.
Two romantic and music-loving mice
had set up housekeeping within and
raised family, and one of the young
sters would now and then accidentally
get foul of the cogs and be minced. The
others when hungry would refresh
with light snack off the
catgut connections which worked the
valves, had gone completely through the
treble, and were well into the bass.
There were fragments of mouse in most
of the reeds, and two or three dried tails
spiked on the teeth. so the whole thing
looked like mausoleum-
The padrone says he can't clean mice
out of an organ and make a good work
job of it for less than =, and
Giovanni only has % cents i'll bank, and
will need that for another shirt next
winter. He is heart-brOken, and as the
case now stands the musical circles of
Gramercy Park will be furnished for
some weeks % come