New-York tribune., 1900-07-22
A PROBLEM.

Must the hand organ go? That is the ques-
ton which was brought up at Fridays meeting
of the Aldermanic Committee on Streets and
Highways but not settled, the chairman ruling
that there ought in decency to be another hear
ing for the benefit of those whose investments
and avocatiOn are imperied. Some indication
of the interests involved is furnished by the
statement that five hundred licenses to produce
what is comprehensively described as music in
the streets are in existence; but that official
reckoning does not tell the whole story for it is
affirmed that the licenses are not in practice
exclusively confined to the individuals who tech
ncally own them, but are passed along from
hand to hand among those to whom their use
is suggested by necessity or inclination, so that
considerably more than five hundred persons
are concerned in the resolution which Alder
man Byrne has proposed to his brethren.
Mr.. Byrne was the principal speaker at Fri
days meeting. He appeared in the affirmative
and delivered himself of a persuasive mono
logue. 1t is to be regretted that his argument
did not provoke real discussion, for there are
two sides TO the question. The hand organ is
associated in the memory of adults with that
period of existence which is euphemistically
| designated as childhoods happy hours, and
many a weary parent who has personally
lOnged for the moment when silence like a
poultice, comes to heal the blows of sound
has been willing TO hold out little longer for
the sake of his offspring, and even to supply
them with the means of forming a more init
mate acquaintance with the monkey BY the
way, it occurs to us that the monkey as a
feature Of the business is disappearing from
metropolitan routes. Is there an ordinance
against him? Or is his progressive extinction
due to a commercial calculation such as
prompted the itnerant pedlers plaintive wall
| a I do dor
banan'? However that may be- the joys and
sorrows of childhood and especially of the
childhood which pines in the congeSted districts
of a superheated city, come home with an ire
sistible appeal TO every compassionate heart.
and if there are some hundreds of thousands of
little boys and girls in New-York to whom the
hand organ is delight, or even consolation
their feelings ought not to he lightly dsre-
garded. ... ........
There are doubtless exceptions, which at
present it is unnecessary to trace, to the pro-
found generalization that the man that hath
no music in himself nor is not moved with con
cord Of sweet sounds is fit for treasons strata
gems and spos. But the question at once
arises, What is music? 1t is a rather foolish
question TO ask however, for the only answer
that can possibly satisfy anybody is that which
he himself makes Mr.. Markham, whose Man
With the Hoe" is perhaps destined to an immor-
tality which he doesn't deserve, did a better
thing which has been nearly forgotten when he
defined, or denoted. or suggested. Poetry the
twin sister of Music, as follows:
She comes like the hush and beauty of the night.
But sees deep for laughter;
Her touch is a vibration and a light
From worlds before and after.
1t may be admitted, however that almost
everybody has personal idea corresponding to
che word music and inasmuch as this is free
country it is proper to consider whether or not
in the opinion of the majority the thing as they
variously conceive 1t resides In hand organ
and issues therefrom upon the turning OF n
crank If ii does the solution of the problem
which Alderman Byrne's resolution propounds
presents some serious difficulties AS we have
| already remarked such a discussion as a second
hearing may provoke would not be devoid of