Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1900-01-10
THE SILENT SYSTEM.
BY BARRY PAIN.

as is well known, is the courteous and
| energetic manager of the great piano
manufacturing firm of Broadard IL
Bechsway.
"Ah," he said pleasantly, $50 you have
heard of our new system of silent piano
tuning"
Eyes, and that 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 ! have given the best years of
my life to perfecting it, but l might have
had but little success il had not had the
great resources of this firm entirely at my
disposal in my experiments. or 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 q 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 very
large staff of tuners"
ut does. We have q 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 man had
splendid physique or was about desperate
he could not be induced to undertake 1t.
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."
"ReallyT'
"Yes. they're a bad lot in Chelsea.
They've got the artistic temperament
there and don't seem to be able to get 1t
out. Suppose one of our tuners had been
to a 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 1t
was not the fault of the people in the fat
above or the fats beneath. Nobody
much likes the sound Of piano 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
before we started the silent system one Of
our men had his face cut open in lite
street by an empty meat tin thrown from
a window. OF course it was unreasona-
BILE, you know. An artist would want a
piano in his studio, would buy one from
us and arrange for US to tune it four
times year, and then-ah. ! remember
the case of poor Jenkinson! He was q
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
do he entered there were lot Of oriental
weapons hanging on the walls. The
artist seemed gu. little man and said
nothing. Jenkinson had been at work a
few minutes and had got his head in the
piano, when he was stabbed from behind
with a Damascus dagger, richly inlaid.
He recovered, but his nerves all gone.
We are still making him 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
4 Al II - fnnin0 Vunnl6
have been prohibited by law. Besides,
these artists were often sorry afterward
and did what they could to make amends.
For instance, in Jenkinson's case. the art
list said he shouldn't want the dagger
back again"
"The amount you paid in compensation
must have been considerable"
"You would hardly credit the figures,
and they might have been higher still il
the law had not decided that the manu-
facturer was not responsible for damage
by sherry. That was a pretty case, the
one that settled the point. There was
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
conclusively. Where they broke down
WIS III Trying W eStdohou thoe ehS wilma
ing of the sherry was as much part or
a mans work as the tuning of the piano.
We could show that teetotal tuners re-
| ceiyed no less pay than the nonabstain-
ing. and that practically finished it. In
deed. it is Just as well. for even under the
silent system the risk from sherry still
continues"
"And what are the general results Of
the silent SYSTEM
1.-THE public has gained in comfort, and
| the lunacy doctors are less oyerworked.
| The pay of piano tuners is less. because
the risks are less. Some Of them grumble
at the financial loss. though it is nothing
! compared to the gain in safety. and some
4 OF them. l regret to find. were actuated
| by motives of sheer cruelty in their tun-
ing and put much less care and energy
into their work now that il cannot annoy
anybody. In fact, one of them, in resign
ing. said in so many words that he felt as
IL his teeth had been drawn. AS for our
selves, we save the vast sums we were
accustomed to spend every year on COM
pensation. we gain on the reduction Of
salaries. and we gain also by the enor-
nous extension of our previously large
business. You see, we will only tune in
struments of our own manufacture, and
we exclusively employ the system of 81
lent tuning. Without the apparatus.
which is our secret. il is impossible. Con-
sequently everybody Is ordering Broad
ard & Bechsway. And while other man.
ufacturers are doing nothing we"-here