The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-06-04
THE OLD PIANOS.
many LOT Them Find Market in Phila-
delphia.


delphia.
nat becomes of old pianos ?" was
the Question put to large New York
manu- lhcturer the other day. ''Well,"
was tl5e rather unexpected reply, "the
most 9f ours so to Philadelphia" The
manul acturer could not explain this
TACT efactly to his own satisfaction.
He thot ght perhaps it was because so
many rsons owned homes in Philadel-
phla' 9 possibly because the good peo-
pie ofpthe Quaker town are much given
to attgAding concerts and love music
more t,han the New Workers.
Intre ought to be several hundred
thoushnd old square pianos slowed
awaytsomewhere in the United States
SAID a dealer, in speaking of the subs
Ject. FL have been in the business 20
yearss and personally have seen but
threey fr four of them cut into kindliny
woof,,E 1t is indeed rare occurrence
that q lie of these massive old rosewood
s ana meets with such an unworthy
"A Biography of a good piano is some
time thiiry interesting. They general
ly stSoth If in life gayly, having the most
cons us IS ous position in the parlors of
the mythy and receiving courteous
treatking 7 Thirty years ago good
squarfoRiano was an object of much
grSssA Importance and commanded
vastly more respect than any piano now
adays. This is still to be seen when we
go to remove an old piano to exchange
it for a new one. 1t is purely a matter
of mercantile interest to us, but not so
with the owners. have seen old folks
who had bought piano in the days of
their honeymoon fairly overcome when
they saw the familiar old instrument
which had been with them through
days of joys and sorrow hustled out of
the house by irreverent hands and con-
veyed to the warehouse. 1t is the GUS
tom for piano firms now to take away
the old instruments and allow a fair
price for them, deducting the amount
from the price of the new one. 1t is
absolute loss to us, for we have the
greatest difficulty in disposing of these
landmarks which have seen better days
1T is quite amusing to hear the old
folks say, as they always do when max
ing selection of a new piano: Our
old piano, if it were only tuned up,
would have much better tone than any
of these
"a great majority of these old pi-
amos find their way to the homes Of
comparatively poor people They may
be bought for mere song. There is a
class of men who make living by dis
posing of these cid pianos. A second
hand dealer dropped in here the other
day and said he had just bought six for
$50. Some firms are almost willing to
pay for having them taken away.
These old pianos are by no means
worn out, after going through three.
or even four, hands. New strings and
new hammers are put in, and the old in
strument is tinkered up, so that it will
oftentimes have n better tone than the
cheap piano of to-day. City boarding
houses, where the only object is to have
an Instrument capable of emitting
noise, are extensive harboring places
for these old has beens' Many are
shipped to the west and to country
towns. a number find their way to
museums, where they are exhibited as
the piano on which George Washing
ton was wont to play. Throughout New
England, Ohio and in New York CITY
have seen them used as tables for
kitchen purposes, the works, in MANY
cases, being removed to allow a place
for slowing away jars of fruit. Many
are disposed of at auctions, too, and
some very good bargains are to be Sc.
cured in that way"
At the present time, according to the
dealer, there are about $4,000 pianos
manufactured annually in America.
The same number is produced by Ger,
man manufacturers, while France and
England have an annual output of 40.
900 each. There is very little business
in the exporting of pianos. This is
due to the fact that the change in eli.
mate makes it impossible for a piano
when shipped to a foreign country, TIC
keep its tone. Only $40 were exported
from this country last year. They went
to South America and Germany. The
latter country ships quite number t.
Australia and South America.-N. Y.
Times.