The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1899-12-05
THE SILENT SYSTEM.
BY BARRY PAIN.

.
White to be most cordially received by
Mr.. Clarence Freebody. Mr. Freebody,
as is well known. is the courteous and
energetic manager of the great piano
manufacturing firm of Broadard &
Bechsway.
"Ah," he said pleasantly, 80 you have
heard of our new system of silent piano
tuning
'Yes, and tha. the credit of the inven-.
ton is chiefly due to yourself, Mr.. Free
body"
'Well," he said modestly, that is per-
haps too much to say. l had the original
idea, and l have given the best years Of
my life to perfecting it, but l might have
had but little success if had not had the
great resources of this firm entirely at my
disposal in my experiments. OF course,
though the expense has been great, it
was to their interest"
"How? And what made you think of
it? Pray tell me all about it."
"Well, when we sell piano in most
cases we also contract for the tuning OF
it, otherwise the tuning might fall into
the hands of incompetent tuners, the in
strument might be ruined, and the igno-
rant purchaser would probably think that
the manufacturer was to blame"
Il see. That must necessitate q very
large staff of tuners"
"It does. We have a perfect army Of
them. Our figures for London and the
suburbs alone would surprise you, and,
| in addition, we have tuners in all the
| capitals Of the civilized world and most
of the principal towns. And though we
| paid extravagant salaries and dealt most
| literally in cases of death or accident we
! always had the greatest difficulty in keep
ing up our numbers The fact is that
piano tuning under the old system was
| dangerous work, and unless a man had a
| splendid physique or was about desperate
he could not be induced to undertake it.
| People talk about lead poisoning. but IL
| they knew the statistics of piano tuning
as know them they would see that there
are occupations even more fatal than
| lead working. l wonder how many men
we've lost in Chelsea alone! Toward the
| end, before my silent system was per-
| fected, we could hardly persuade tuner
to go to a Chelsea piano."
Really"
'Yes, they're a bad lot in Chelsea.
They've got the artistic temperament
| there and don't seem to be able to get it
out. Suppose one of our tuners had been
to piano in a third floor Chelsea fat
and he had by bit Of luck escaped rough
| handling from the people in the fat it
| self, he had still got to get out into the
street again. And if he got out alive it
was not the fault of the people in the fat
| above or the flats beneath. Nobody
much likes the sound of pinno tuning, but
it seems to drive the artistic tempera-
ment actually mad. They were so cum
ming, too. those people. They got to
know the little bags that our men carry
and were on the lookout for them. just
l IL. -. -
our men had his face cut open in Tite
street by an empty meat tin thrown from
a window OF course it was unreasola-
bic, you know. An artist would want
piano in his studio. would buy one from
, us and arrange for us to tune it four
times a year. and then-ah, / remember
the case of poor Jenkinson. He was a
fine man, a regular giant, but foolhardy.
He went out tuning in Chelsea just when
they were finishing their academy pic
lures. He was warned, but he said 1t
would be all right In the very first stu
!, dio he entered there were lot of oriental
weapons hanging on the walls. The
: artist seemed quiet little man and said
nothing. Jenkinson had been at work
few minutes and had got his head in the
, | piano, when he was stabbed from behind
with a Damascus dagger, richly inlaid.
/ III
We are still making him a small allow
ance."
. but the police
"Well, our men didn't care to have
much to do with the police. The pay was
, good, and IL the risks had been generally
, known the trade of piano tuning would
have been prohibited by law. Besides,
these artists were often sorry afterward
D and did what they could to make amends.
] For instance in Jenkinson's case, the art
0 ist said he shouldn't want the dagger
0 back again."
"The amount you paid in compensation
must have been considerable"
"You would hardly credit the figures,
J. and they might have been higher still II
I the law had not decided that the manu-
facturer was not responsible for damage
t by sherry. That was a pretty case, the
0 one that settled the point. There was
v evidence impossible to contradict that 1t
, was a trade custom to offer the tuner
sherry. And the deleterious nature Of
), suburban sherry generally was shown
conclusiyely. Where they broke down
: was in trying to establish that the drink
y ing of the sherry was as much part OF
mans work as the tuning of the piano.
d We could show that teetotal tuners re-
d ceiyed no less pay than the nonabstain-
ing. and that practically finished II. In
deed, it is just as well. for even under the
silent system the risk from sherry still
continues"
e sand what are the general results CT
the silent systemT"
d "The public has gained in comfort, and
:. the lunacy doctors are less overworked.
I The pay OF piano tuners is less, because
the risks are less. Some OF them grumble
=. at the financial loss though il Is nothing
compared TO the gain in safety. and some
e of them. | regret to find. were actuated
o by motives OF sheer cruelty in their tun'
5. ing and put much less care and energy
into their work now that it cannot annoy
ANYBODY. In fact, one OF them. in resign
ing. said in so many words that hc felt as
, if his teeth had been drawn. As for our
selves. We save the vast sums we were
. accustomed to spend every year on COM
J. pensation, we gain on the reduction OF
o salaries and we gain also hv Inc cn0r
e nous extension OF our previously iar@e
n business. You see. We will onlT tlne ~
g st1uments of our own u.auGtncr-"c. ard
). we exclusively employ tie system Of i
/ lent tuning. without the Popqr. Ga )
=, which is our secret, il is Impossible. Con
u sequently everybody IS oruc''ns Load
q ard d Bechswsy. And liie orh". 80 4
81 ufacturers are doing nothing we --h,
le he glanced at the cloek--'are very tr-'
le took the hint and my depauurn
IS Black and White
- Across the Back Yard Fence.
~ doesn't the shape o yer nose suit yer