The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-07-13
BIRD SONGS ON DRAUGHT.
HowAN INGENIOUS WOMAN UTILIzEs
THE GRAPHoPHoNE.

She Catches the Vocal Pyrotechnics of Her
Feathered Pets on the cylinders and Re-
produces Them at Will For Her Own and
Her Friends Pleasure.
A lady who lives in the suburbs has put the
graphophone to a curious use. She is bright
woman of much originality. Indeed, she calls
herself crank, and it must be admitted that
she has wonderful capacity for riding hobbies,
Of which she has as large a collection as any
woman in Washington. This is saying great
deal, but the lady herself would admit it.; in
deed, she would claim it as distinction to be
proud Of That's the Kind Of woman she is.
One of her greatest hobbies, the one from which
she gets the most personal pleasure of the best
sort, is her birds. OF these she has fine col
lection, and one room Of her house is like an
aviary. Cages of many sorts and sizes dangle
from the ceiling, hang on the walls, and rest
on tables, stands, and brackets. There are at
least dozen of them, occupied by canaries,
mocking birds, thrushes, parrots, paroquets,
and other birds that are commonly made pets
of. When they are in singing or talkative
mood the air of the room fairly pulsates with
the agitation produced by their voices. On these
occasions the horrid discords Of the parrots and
paroquets make bedlam, but they are usually
banished to another part of the house or put
out doors altogether, where their ear-splittng
shrieks and cries do not seriously mar the melo-
dies Of the canaries and the thrushes.
The novel use to which the lady of this bird
ridden house has put the graphophone is In con-
nection with the feathered pets.
''You see,n she said to THE HERALD reporter,
"I often thought how delightful it would be if
l could only preserve the songs of my birds, and
then some tme spell of loneliness coming
over me, it would be such a pleasure to hear
them sing for me at will Often at night, when
I've sat up late reading, have just longed to
hear the birds sing as they do in the daytime, to
put me in mood for sleep. About a year ago
Ned, one of my prettiest canaries, died. had
raised him from an egg, and he had been one of
my greatest delights for several years. He
loved me so much that could do anything
with him, and l greved great deal over his
death, as you may imagine. Shortly after his
death l saw an article III the paper concerning
the uses to which the phonograph had been put
Coupled with the thought Of my pet it came to
me as an inpiration that / could preserve the
songs of my other birds, and when they died I
would always have the most lifelike souvenirs
of them. That very day asked my husband to
get me a graphophone. He put it off for long
Jime. Yes, he's just like other men,, she broke
in as her hearer smiled; ''and only got it about
two months ago. Since then I've been expert
mentng, and now l think | get very good re-
suits. suppose you'd like to hear some of the
songs I've stored awayW
''Would it be possible to let me see the whole
process ?' the reporter inquired.
"Well, don't know that L ought to give any
thing to The HERALD. 1t spelled my name
wrong the last time they had me at Mrs. Is
reception, and worse, got the material of my
gown entirely wrong. Still, as you seem to take
an interest in my BIRDS I'll explain everything
10 I hofn TO hnua nytb II,
about myself, but be sure you get it right.n
And with this femininely logical admonition
she turned to a black walnut case table in
one corner of the room. In few moments,
with the assistance Of her listener, she set the
machine up in position for receiving Impressions
Bringing a cage containing canary from the
next room, she placed it on a table near the
mouth of the receiver, and after few encour-
aging chirps from the lips Of its mistress the lit
tie thing began warbling merrily. The machn-
cry of the graphophone spun away, the cylinder
whirled, and the beautifully varied song of the
bird was recorded on the yielding wax. When
the bird tired the lady removed the cage and
said to her visitor:
"Now, put these to your ears" handing him
two small rubber tubes with earpieces and
starting the machinery. "Do you hear it ?" she
ked eagerly.
Yes sure enough, the song of the bird came
back from the cylinder with wonderful distinct
ness and shorn of littleif any of its original
full-throated sweetness. 1t was wonderful
After the strain had ended the lady offered to
place some of her old cylinders in the ma
chine, and, the offer not being one to be de-
clined, soon after the writer had the pleasure
of hearing a succession Of canaries, thrushes,
and mocking-birds, tue songs all sounding won
derfully natural. 1t was great treat for the
newspaper man.
snow, here have cylinder" the lady said
slowly, picking up one from the table, "which
l think is devoted to my parrot. He's very
erratic bird in his conversations, but they
sound very well indeed from the graphophone."
"Polly wants cracker ~ was screamed into
the reporters ears as he adjusted the tubes and
the cylinder began to whirl. Then came an
imitation OF hand organ playing "Wait Till
the Clouds Roll By'' in the parrots most hor-
ribly cracked voice. Then there were confused
ear-splitting cries of ''0h, Jim Pretty Poll
Get out Pretty Poll r'
"Don't you think he's behaving very well
! was little doubtful about letting you hear
peat it-and parts of it, Pm sorry to say,
! wouldn't look well in a Sunday paper"
"Pretty Poll Polly wants cracker Get
me glass OF water ~ tirelessly grnded out
! Polly meanwhile Suddenly The HERALD man
reached for his hat and cane. The lady's hus-
! impediment OF speech, and somehow, notwith-
standing the lady's care Polly had got in an inn
| itation of this follows: "D-d-d-damn
! it, where's my c-c-cane ?'
! The reporter had heard enough, and arose
with many expressions of thanks to the lady for
the unique entertainment she had afforded him.
81 expect to make more out OF this method of
preserving the songs of my pets than mere
! pastme," the lady said in conclusion. ~ in
tend to write the songs out and see how they
! will go on the piano some day. l have already
done this little, and have struck ON some really
beautiful melodies. Besides, this way of record
ing bird songs may have great scientific value.
! Through IL we may some daY learn the language