The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-09-09
HIS STRANGE SPECIALITY.
Old "MendelSSOhn, Maker Of Queer
Musical Instruments,
Wheelbarrows, Hatracks, PAYERS
Hammers, and Cats Are Made by
Him to Render Music for the varie-
ty Stage.
From the New York Sun.

| In dingy little room on the third floor
| of house on a Brooklyn side street, a
quaint looking little old man works from
morning till night almost every day in the
| year perfecting the most astonishing look
| ing musical instruments.
Although comparatively insignificant
looking old fellow, this man has helped
more people to success on the variety
| stage than any ten song writers or Joke
| manufacturers, and there are few people
| in the theatrical business who do not
| know him. To the profession he is simply
known as "Mendelssohn" That is not
! his right name, of course, but it has been
/ given to him by variety people as a sort
OF delicate tribute to his genius. For
! genius he is, as an examination Of his
! work room and his work will reveal.
For fifteen years old 'Mendelssohn' has
been making musical instruments for Va
rlety actors, and although he could be a
! rich man to-day had he chosen to enlarge
his place and hire assistants to help him.
he has simply .plodded along doing his
own work and not sharing his money with
any man
For. years variety people had been
| amusing audiences with such things as
musical sleigh bells, musical gongs,
musical tumbIers, and some have even
performed with musical hatracks and
musical cats and dogs. 1t would take
columns of space to give anything like a
complete list of the different kinds
of Instruments that have been
| produced on the variety stage
by musical comedians, and of these many
are the inventions of old "Nlendelosohn. .
! He is the only man in the business in this
| part OF the country, and his orders some
times pie IN SO thick and fast that he is
unable to attend to them all A number
OF men have tried to steal the old mans
business away within the past few years,
and, while few have managed to get
/ some OF his customers away for a time,
they have never been able to keep them
long The variety people a gree that no
! one OF his many lmItatorS are in the same
class as "Mendelssohn,' and to-day the
OLD 1e!loW enjoys monopoly Of the bust
ness
A noteworthy thing about the old man
| is his wonderful ear for music. He
| acknowledges that he knows absolutely
nothing about written music, having
never spent day in studying it, but his
natural musical genius makes him a
musician Of no mean order. He can play
as many different Instruments as a first
class orchestra leader, and he plays them
/ al! with remarkable precision.
/ Next door to the house in which the old
/ instrument maker has his quarters is an
/ iron foundry, and although the clang of
I steel oar and sheet iron plates is to be
/ heard all day it doesn't seem to disturb
him bit
Il love to hear it, " he said to a Sun re-
! porter, who called to see him the other
/ day There is music in il if one can
only be made to hear it. Why. get
! some OF my best ideas from hearing the
rattle OF steel and iron in that place. and
! think that if it should move tomorrow
/ / would move it and try TO obtain quar-
tiers near enough to hear the perpetual
! changing. l tell you, it is music to me,
and love to hear It,"
A secret service detective coming upon
! "MendelsSohn' quarters Unexpectedly
/ would Immediately think he had struck
/ counterfciter's den. ON every side are
/ pipes, bells, molds, plates, queer-shaped
/ metal instruments, packages OF plaster Of
/ paris and hundreds of other things not
/ easy to describe In the middle of the
/ room is a small stove. arranged somewhat
/ in the manner Of a blat ksmith's furnace,
while all over the floor queer-looaing
/ tools are strewn. The Sun reporter
/ found the old man busily engaged in
/ trying TO shape bar of steel according
/ TO design on piece of paper beside him.
| "Contound that actor he remarked to
/ the reporter What do you think of
I MN, any Wdyf came III mere The other
/ day with new scheme. Said he wanted
piece OF steel twisted in such a way
that he could suspend it by a string, and
then by letting it come in contact with a
piece OF marble bring music out of it. You
see, he wants il made so that each time
he lets II drop against the marble he will
be able to strike a different piece of the
steel. | don't believe it's pc sible to make
1t, but promised him I'd try and ding il.
If it can be done i can and will do it,"
And the old man went back TO his work,
grooming like 'longshoreman with a
packing case on his back.
After much solicitation by the reporter
the old man at last consented TO talk
ABOUT himself
You see. don't need any advertising,
/ he SAID. I've got more business now
/ than can attend to, and | think I'm
/ pretty well known among these actor
loIks. You see, when ] started in this
business IN 1880. it was because l had
I nothing else TO do. | was always pretty
mandy at the piano and the violin, and
one day an aston fellow came along and
/ wanted me TO see what could do about
maklrg hun some new kind OF an inslru-
ment which would surprise people He'd
oeen banging away vt musical sleigh bells
ana other chestnuts for long time, and
/ wanted something new.
/ give me something thatI can hang
up IN plain sight Of the audience, some
tnlng tlat will look as though il was part
OF rooms furnishing. so that when |
take 10 up no one will suspect that am
] gong 10 play Oh it, he said.