The evening world. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, 1894-09-11
A LONG-D|sTANCE PIANIST.
Prof, Schlusselburg Is Training at
a Coney Island Road-House.
Preparing for San Francisco Match
of az Hours Duration.

For an assortment OF ghosts and
things spiritual and spirituous. Coney
Island and its contiguous territory have
long been famous. There have been
awe-inspiring bogies Of nearly every
conceivable shape and OF a good many
shapes beyond conception: there have
been haunted houses too plentiful to
be enumerated. Therefore, when a noe
turnal disturbance of unusual proper
lions and nature makes It's presence
felt, or rather heard. 1t attracts some
comment
Most OF these manifestations have
been reduced by cold, calculating inves-
tigation to easy explanation. and have
been traced to anything but spiritual
origin. This fate has also come to the
latest apparently supernatural peace
disturber.
For several days and nights. diners
on the Coney Island Boulevard have
had their auricular organs assailed by
the tintinnabula lions of a piano, seem
house. There was nothing PARTICULARLY
strange about this, for most road
houses have the piano habit in more
or less aggravated and aggravating
form. but the popularity OF IT was that
no matter at what time OF day or night
the. spot was reached. there still re-
yeerberated snatches from "Mignon,"
Wedding Bells" Say Au Revolt"
"Cavalleria Rusticana." and a host OF
other more or less classic, strains.
Now, man can be driven to dis
traction by music that originates from
an uncertain point, even where blue
monkeys and pink alllgators fail. Henry
Irving, In The Bells" shows Just what
Kind of Jams, are resultant from a
where. But this sound did originate
somewhere, and an Evening World
reporter found the source.
Prof. Fred Schlusselburg is the origi-
nal long-dlstance pianist, and pro-
claims himself the endurance champion.
oscar Hammerstein's famous forty-eight
hours OF captivity with an instrument
he says; is nothing compared to his
feats. He can tackle an able bodied
piano. fresh from the builders hands
and knock the everlasting stuffing out
he is ready to serve a new music pro.
Queer the same way and TO continue II
for a week. The professor, unlike the
strolling Italian, does not perform with
encounters.
Well. the long and short Of It Is that
the professor is matched for a seventy
two-hour contest in San Francisco. to
and Is In active training for the go" a.
Milis's hosiery. Just why he doesn't
Go his preparatory work on the Pacific
coast, instead OF here in the effete East
does not appear. Unlimited quantities
of advice have been poured in upor
him, chiefly from the neighbors, telling
him how he ought to 20 and get &C
climated. Some OF the nearer dweller,
have suggested that he might go to ,
climate which can give the Pacific
coast cards and spades in everything
but rain.
But Schlusselburg is undaunted. and
continues to pound up a piano a week
and the air resounds with musica
fragments as the debris Is scattered
through space with versatility only
equalled by the volume of sound
Schlusselburg eats his meals with on,
hand while he keeps up his merr,
trum-bump-ting," and takes his liquiC
refreshment through a hose, withou
letting up with either hand. He ha
eclipsed his previous public performanc
of forty-eight hours without a break
and is working up to the seventy-two
hour limit with confidence and every in
dication of victory.
1t is said that two local sporting mel
are backing him, and buying pianos 70
the contest. Their names are not given
out of Difference to their families.