Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-08-19
FREAKS IN MUSIC BOXES
Som 9 of the Queer Shapes
They Come In.
A Host Can Entertain His Guests
with MelOdious Tunes i'm Many
CuriO ways.

All sorts of freaks in music boxes are IN
| fashion just now.
l. AT dinner party you pick up a glass
water pottle TO help yourself from it, and
TO your surprise, it begins to play a pretty
tune. 1t keeps on playing with mysterious
harmony while you fill your tumbler and
| until you set II down again What looks
| like Ice in the bottom of it is a concealment
| for a bit of machinery that produces two
| tunes. The price of the article music and
| all, is only $50
After dinner your host offers you a cigar
iou choose one ana strike a match on a
corrugated surface attached to the cup from
which you took the weed. At once sweet
| music begins to be heard, the striking of the
match having released the spring that
starts IT rms piece of mechanism is wound
up Dy a rev turns of the ash receiver, which
makes a part of the smoking apparatus
described The price asked for such a con-
trivance at the snop is $3.50.
IN the dressing room provided by your
entertainer on tins same occasion you may
nave found toilet set in a box on the bu-
reau. When the box was opened very likely
~ began to play a tune, the musical ma
chinery being concealed in the lower part
Oh the receptacle. AT the conclusion of the
aihher a fruit plate is set down before you.
Harmonious sounds proceeding from II
excite your wonder. and your hostess ex-
pains that the pretty piece OF china is
loaded with melody by winding IL up. Ii
plays for i've minutes and has two tunes.
one can get such plates for $40 each.
II the hostess mas occasion 10 summon q
servant by means of call bell the instru-
nlent responds with tune. No winding is
needed in this case. the pushing down OF the
button at the top supplying the power TO
run the mechanism for half a minute or so.
This continuance costs Sc. On the sideboard
Is water pitcher which resembles the
music box. Adjourning to the drawing room
you venture to look inside of a photograph
album on the center table. On being opened
II begins to play.
On the manteipiece is a miniature Swiss
chalet, in the front of which appears the
face of an eight-day clock. Every hour the
timepiece plays a tune. instead OF striking.
hidden music box being run by the time
keeping machinery. 1t has six tunes. BY
the way, clocks are made nowadays which
go 400 days without winding. But their
mechanism is exceedingly delicate. and any
jar Is likely to put IL out Of order. How
ever. your attention is withdrawn from the
timepiece by your host, who offers you q
pinch of snuff from a gold snunbox.
No, you do not take snuff. 1t is Just as
well. for the snuffbox is not real one.
Your host touches a spring and. the lid of
the box flying open. out pops little bird IN
bright feathers. which MARBLES most beauti-
fully for two or three minutes. Then ii
pops back again, the lid shutting upon IL
and concealing it from view. The contriv-
ance is quite complicated one, the mech
anism being as elaborate as that Of a
watch. 1t is run by a spring and clock
work. with a little bellows and a whistle.
You cannot buy one for less than $3.50.
The bird in this case is very small-not
a full-sized artificial songster in gilded
cage, which will carol to your hearts con-
tent for the trouble Of winding II up. You
can have a canary. robin. or nightin-
gale, as YOU choose. For 800 you can pur-
chase such bird, with porcelain vase and
mutation flowers among which the feather
ed warbler perches. The mechanism of
clockwork. bellows and whistle is the same.
Two songsters of this kind render melodi-
GUS the diningroom attached to Phil Days
gambling house at Long Branch.
Y.Si hos hax hoo 6ar f,,1rx
cheap of late years. Nearly all Of them are
made in Switzerland. Although forty-five
per cent duty is charged on them. YOU can
buy one with a single tune for as little as
40 cents. For sl.45 you can get one with
three tunes. These are Of the cylindrical
pattern. somewhat resembling cans Of
pressed meat in outside appearance. Chill
dren have them for playthings in the nurs-
cry. Their melody is produced by the con-
tinual turning Of little crank. For s. 60
one can purchase a rectangular box with
four tunes, which goes by means of a
spring. just like big one. A very pretty
box with eight tunes can be bought for SIS.
renders It possible to produce these boxes at
such prices. OF course. the most essential
parts OF the mechanism are the roller and
from the surface Of the roller catch the
teeth Of the comb and make the music
Necessarily. the adjustment Of the pins on
the roller IL slow and careful process.
They have to be put in one by one by hand.
Women do this work, the distances of the
pins being gauged by mechanical contriv-
ance.
The comb Is cut out by machine and is
filed down hv hand to the tone required nv
the automatic shifting of the roller it is
made to serve for several tunes. But not
more than eight tunes are put ordinarily on
one cylinder. The fewer the tunes The bet
ter the tone of the instrument, the comb he
ing finer. When there are many tunes
wider spaces must be left between the teeth
of the comb for the pins to pass through
which are not intended to contribute to the
music.
One style of music box is made with two
combs for the reason just mentioned This
is. called sublime harmony" The volume
of sound produced by IL is much greater.
Such box with ten tunes costs 500 Other
styles are called respectively the "piccolo."
the the 'tremolo. the guitar" and the man
they are supposed to initiate The comb of
the 'piccolo" has an octave OF short and
most shrill notes, like the little flute it
counterfeits. These notes, high above the
stat produce a beautiful effect.
like the singing of a third rate tenor This
is very pleasing to some people, though not
to good judges of music. Attached TO most
giving what is called the either effect"
This is simply an arrangement for bringing
into contact with the teeth of the comb
strip of tissue paper. Its effect on the notes
is very much like that of a sheet of naper
laid upon the strings of piano. 1t is not
pleasing to the educated ear.
plete orchestrion four or five feet long. With
bellows and reeds. 1t is a complete orches-
ira in box and will fill a large room with
sound, having sweet bells and rolling drums
to help out the ensemble. An instrument
like this costs 81 $50. Some people make the
objection that such big music boxes look
too much like collins. To get over this diff
Guilty. articles of furniture resembling side
boards are made to inclose thein, with
shelves underneath for extra cylinders.
The best music boxes are commonly made
with interchangeable rollers. One of the
latter can be readily taken out and another
substituted for ii at moments notice
with fresh tunes. For such an orchestrion
as the above described each extra cylinder
costs $50. Another style of orchestrion is
run by an alcohol motor, which keeps 1t GO
ing for two hours continuously. All YOU
have to do is to light the lamp and of she
goes. The instrument perforated
music sheets. like an orguinette. The music
costs 20 cents yard 1t comes in books. a
single volume containing a whole opera.
which unfolds itself page by page and is
fed automatically to the machine. The lat
struck by hammers. 1t sounds ~ery much
like piano and costs s175. Another new
style music box is accompanied by as many
big sheet iron disks as one cares to buy.
Each disk is one tune. AS IL revolves per-
forations in 1T catch the steel teeth of the
comb.
Music boxes cost a little more now than
they did in 1890 when the duty on them was
only % per cent. The manufacturers say
that the musical Photographs have not
done their business any harm.
Billions OF Gold, hut as Yet Unmined.