The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-25
TALES OF MUSIC men
FUNNY EXPERIENCES WHILE CLOS
ING DEALS IN LITTLE TOWNS.
How n French Harp saved the Day
Queer Use for Composers Names
"A Piano Campaign.

-.
in town He confines himself to personal
experiences with picturesque construc-
ton and manner of telling that is mimi
table The other day he and lot of piano
statesmen were in cool corner of his store,
together with a newspaper man. "A good
many years ago." said Mr.. Pearson, Il
sold little organ to a church down at
Newtown, Ind. Sidney Reed, the organist,
was with me at that time, and one or the
conditions of the sale was that Reed and
l were 10 go down there at some convenient
time and give a concert assisted by local
talent. A little later we received woro
that the affair had been arranged, ana
when we arrived at Newtown on the after
noon of the night of the concert the town
was covered with bills announcing there
would be a concert that night by Sidney
Reed and George c. Pearson, OF lndlahap-
oils AS there was nothing said about be-
ing assisted by local talent, we hunteu up
the committee and told ii that there nad
been some misunderstanding, that L mace
no pretensions as a musician, and II would
be quite impossible to give Wnoie even
ing'S entertainment unaSSlSted we hunteu
up some musicians of the town TO get them
to participate. OF course, the singers all
had bad colds and those that didn re-
fused, as they overestimated our ability
as musicians and wouldn't appear with US
So we decided TO do the best we coulo.
THAT night the little church was crowd
ed-people were even hanging In the VIII
dows. The minister arose and IN nea.
and complimentary speech announced tndl
the musicians from Indianapolis had eX-
pected TO be assisted by local talent, put
that they would use their best efforts, ana S
he had no doubt they all would be repaid
Sidney Reed opened the programme Win
a Bach fugue that fell on the assemplage
like sack of wet sano. Ihey JUS sos1 sd
there with their mouths open ana gaspeu
relief with one acOrd when Ii was over
L came out and played homely air with
variations and it went little better heed
and | continued to alternate and the mem
bers of the audience began to talk 10 each
other in an effort TO entertain themselves.
AT that time Robert ~ Dollins had "a
small goods department in my store ana
a few evenings before that L picked up a
little French harp and put II IN my upper
outside coat pocket, intending TO take IL
home to one of my children. had Tor
gotten about il, though, until that night on
the platform at the church at Newtown
was racking my brain trying TO nnd some
way TO stir the audience, Tor knew IL
we didn't make good would be pro-
nounced rank fakes, and L would never
get my money for that organ. L happened
to feel the French harp in my coat L
came out on the platform, played some
doleful dirge and, when the last note fell
on their ears they burst forth IN Vol
cano of applause. All the applause Whch
was pent up in them came out at one
whoop, and they yelled for more L ex,
hausted my mouth organ repertoire and
the programme with an organ number- L
handed the French harp out into the au-
dience so they could examine 1t, and II
was passed from one TO another ana
"a short time after this l went to an
evening party here in Indianapolis, and one
of my neighbors urged me to tell my New
town experience which did and explained
to them that the people of Newtown had
never seen a French harp. There was a
woman present who spoke up, sharply, and
town and l saw French harp before you
were born.
speaking of small town. said another
elderly member of the group, Il once knew
an old music teacher in country town
that had immense case in his studlo
which was divided into spaces with paste
board flaps in front like letter files in an
office 1t was intended to hold music. The
names of different composers were IN white
paper letters on the flaps. and he had all
of them from Scarlatu to De koVen. Go
ing into his place you would at once be
impressed with his apparently fine musical
library. One day while he was out 1 lifted
up several of these flaps. In the Bach box
| found a brush and comb; In the Handel
found a backing brush and dauber: the
one marked Hayden held tooth brush,
mug and cake of soap; in Mozart was
Uhisk broom: Beethoven contained a worm
out pair of carpet slippers; Mendelssohn,
bOotiack: in Chopin, mouse trap, and In
the box with Wagner on 1t were bottle OF
patent medicine and tin box OF salve.
The only sheets of music in the whole case
were some silly sentimental songs with
words and music by himself
ERAS OF EXPERIENCE.
You know people in the country ex-
perience about four in buying musical
instruments. The first is fiddle. the next
they have is an accordion, after that a
melodeon or cottage organ, and, finally, a
piano 1 was working in a territory of
| several counties west of here where there
was a prosperous farmer that had two or
| three hundred acres of rich black land a
! lot of fat horses and cattle standing around,
! and every thing had well-fed and pros
porous air. | came TO the conclusion that
/ he needed a new piano. One of his daugh-
ters had just begun 10 take lessons, on
! an old square piano they had which the
| kids had knocked all the teeth out of with
] a tack hammer. One day | got in a wagon
with a piano, rode out TO his place and told
/ him | heard that he was thinking about
/ buying a piano. and that 1 had that /
/ wanted TO leave with him TO try. He called
| I'D a farmland for a witness and said Ii
| was all right. but he wouldn't put himself
/ long talk OF course il was soon noised
/ over the neighborhood that he was going to
/ buy piano; my rivals heard of IL and they
| came out 10 see him and each left a piano
for him to try. So many of them kept COM
ing that the dogs under the porch didn [
get any sleep-they were too busy barking.
! Well there were finally seven pianos in
/ his front room besides his old Then
We all came back for another talk OF
4 the other pianos and told him the old gag:
! Ia this kind Of DianO Won are think