Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-05-27
music FOR HAND-oRCANS-
What the Organs Cost and Whore the
Money is Made.

Money is Made.
There is a little shop on Elizabeth
street, the owner of which has a fac
tory in Brooklyn, where most of the
new hand organs are turned out, and
the old ones repaired, and this is the
season when times are busiest. For
hand organs" said the head of the
shop, seem never to get too old to be
used. They can be patched and
patched again, and passed from hand
to hand and from town to town, until
every part Of them has been renewed
over and over again. The voyages
and adventures of a hand-organ are
as varied as those of tramp steamer.
They take in every side of life, from
the beginning, in the swell quarters of
the metropolis, to the end, knocking
around the country in company with a
monkey and his owner"
The choice of the music for the hand
organ lies with the manufacturers.
The publishers of songs send him the
popular songs as soon as they have
been marked success, and the manu-
facturer uses those which he thinks
are the most popular. The particular
tunes which are chosen for any one
instrument, though, depends on the
quarter of the city through which lies
the beat of the man who turns the
crank. Every city organ grinder has
a definite beat, and covers a certain
round of streets more or less regularly
every day.
If the beat lies through the German
or Italian quarter, then German or
Italian national characteristic airs are
added to the repertoire of the organ.
If the organ is To travel through upper
Fifth avenue in the region of the
Fifties (and this is the best beat in
New York, for if the man gets any
thing at all there he gets good deal,
and the pay for moving on is higher
than elsewhere), some opera airs and
romance" are used. In the Bowery
region it is rag-llme and waltzes that
bring in the most money.
'If man will tell us the beat he
wants to travel, in the city or out, up
the Harlem, back in the state, or any
where in the whole country" said
the maker of the organs, well give
him the proper set of tunes to fit his
trip. Hand-organs are kept more ur
to date now than in old times, and the
airs in the barrel of an instrument
can be changed easily enough to fit
the popular taste, though, of course,
not without any expense"
There are about 300 licenses issued
in New York City, mostly to Italians,
and that is a conservative estimate of
the number of performers on the
streets. The work of this particular
variety of cigale gives the lie to the
proverb, for two men on a good beat
will make as much as $1.50 apiece a
day, or ever more in the best months.
August and September are the best
months for the city, and for the coun-
try too, though in that part of the
world any summer month is profit
able one for the organ grinders. The
factory, of course, is busiest just now,
getting ready for the summer season.
Hand-organs are not cheap. A good
one will cost as much as 5000, though
the price varies good deal, according
to the quality of the instrument. There
are organs made with additional instru-
ments, such as drums and cymbals,
and these are more expensive. Some
of them are made with arrangements
for turning the crank mechanically.
One kind in particular which is a good
deal used by women who want to
have their hands free to do tambour-
inc act while the music is going one, is
run by spring, which is wound up by
two or three vigorous turns of the
handle before each tune.-New York
Post.