The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-09-09
WAY OF TIE CRGAN-GRlNDER.



That occupation once so popular
among the city's Italian population
organ -grinding-seems to be growing
less and less every year. In this respect
the Scriptural precepts, as famed in Ec-
clesiastes xii, 8, A, seem to be working to
| a fulilment, for there one reads: I'm
the day when the keepers of the house
shall tremble and the strong men shall
bow themselves and the grinders cease
| because they are few and the
doors shall be shut in the streets when
the sound of the grinding is low
There are probably very few people
who have any. conception of what a
considerable number of these busy
grinders there are, and how and where
they live or anything atpll about them.
Their interest ends when they have
paid the conventional copper for the
privilege of hearing one of Dave
Braham's latest successes, or possibly a
| nocturne from Chopin.
In little shop in Elizabeth street,
just around the corner from Grand and
in the very heart of the Italian quarter,
may be found the headquarters in this
country for the manufacture of barrel
organs, street pianos and carousal or
gans. Ranged on either side of the
room are instruments of all patterns
and values brought in for tuning or re-
pairing, while their owners stand lazily
about smoking cigarettes, nibbling raw
onions and jabbering in their fascinat-
ing tongue with each other. Against
khe wall at the end of the room hangs
b card which declares in the Italian
that Organs are tuned while you
wait" and this is impressed on the Wis
itor by the active movements of the two
young men who do the work and the
monotonous sounds they make in do
ing it
There you are. Dollar and a half.
Thank you. Good day." and one of the
proprietors of this primitive little organ
factory helped a fat, sleepy-looking Ne
apolitan hoist a sixty-pound barrel or
gan on his little round-shouldered back
with remarkable ease and facility.
What does an instrument like that
cost?"
THAT one cost 500 when new, and it
is good one, for l made it. We have
them, though, for ss5, and from that up
to 5000 The latter price will buy pi-
ano organ of the finest pattern.
When the Italian walks down the
steerage gangplank of an ocean liner
just arrived from his sunny home over
the sea, his first idea is to secure posi-
ton as a street worker, for he has
learned before he left home that his
countrymen who have proceeded him
here are employed in great numbers in
that capacity.
When he fails at this and his small
savings are exhausted he will borrow
from an uncle, brother or cousin,
and they are all related in some man.
ner, his organ and start out with it to
make his fortune in the great new
country. Probably that same organ
was brought over from the native land
score of years before, an d has served
to lay the foundation for the fortune of
many later arrival. With it he may
make thirty cents a day and he may
make dollar. The amount depends
on the quality of the organ. the age of
the music and the liberality of the
audience. That is one reason why they
prefer to secure employment as street
CLEANERS at seventy-five cents day: the
other is because they fancy the latter
more elevating, and an Italian has
pride and hates to beg.
The first warm day of spring will see
yx-h -.
pack their ponderous organs on their
backs and make for the provinces.
They scatter all over the country, going
as far west as Denver and all through
the New England states They work
their way, as a rule, tramping often
times from town to town, Juggling their
tifty-pound instruments through the
hot, dusty country for score of miles
to make probably few dollars and
then on to the next. The monkey long
since made his exit from the cities and
it is only rarely that they are now seen
in the small towns. A man in BROOKLYN
made fortune in raising and training
them, and he received often as much as
$50 Tor well-trained monk
nv hahu vi sdu lids ny urtu cOnSplcu-
ously many times in high social life in
this city. Not long since it was one of
the forms of entertainment at swell
dirner in a fashiona BILE home in West
Fifty-seventh street, while many times
are recalled when it has been used at
masquerade parties when played by one
of the smart set got up as an Italian.
The weakness of some well-known men
for barrel-organ music is an established
fact. Chauncey Depew has been seen
to stop on the side walk and wait for
five minutes to hear out stirring air
which particularly pleased him. Edwin
Booth has kept many an orgau-grinder
playing away for him in front of the
Players club. dealing out small silver
every few minutes, much to the musi-
clans delight. Gen Sherman would
willingly patronize any organ, provid-
ing it didn't play Marching Through
Georgia. 1t is said that President
Harrison had grinder dealing out
Italian opera by the yard in front of
the steps to the executive mansion for
the amusement of Baby Mckee
Many OF the piano organs are sup
piled with miniat ure figures behind
glass fronts, which work as the organ
plays. They are an expensive luxury.
ani O,,lu thASa v-bA