The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-24
PIANO JOE HAS PASSED AWAY.
NO MORE WILL HE PLAY IN THE
DARK. IN A BOWERY CAFE.
He Could Rattle on the Tin Pan Tunes for
the Midnight CarOuse or Dream Over
MasterwOrkS In Daytime Gloom Con-
cert GOer Too and Viewed with Awe.

"o SOuAu nAtte vi inc Tin Pan Tunes for
the Midnight CarOuse or Dream Over
MasterwOrkS In Daytime Gloon Con-
cert Goer Toe and Viewed with Awe.
It was a middle aged woman, known only
a. Nell, who brought word into the Bank
Care at ZIG Bowery yesterday that Piano
Joe had died suddenly during the forenoon
in his room at the Victoria House, 90 Bowery.
From Chatham Square to Cooper Union the
spare little man with the iron gray hair was
looked upon with a sort OF awe, partly be-
cause he had a brother-in-law whom his
aoquaintances knew as "a Judge or some-
thing" but principally because the Bowery
had listened TO him for years play wonderful
things that the Bowery couldn't under
stand but which it knew must be wonder
full from the way Piano Joe's gray locks
shook and tossed while playing and from
the way also that he had Of sitting silently
with head bowed over the keys for a long
time after the notes had died away.
Piano Joe's name was Joseph Gull. One
OF his sisters Is the wife Of Magistrate Breen
and another is Mrs. John Wilkinson. whose
husband is a foreman in the Fire Depart
ment, stationed at Far R~ockaway. Miss
Celia Gull, the third surviving sister, lisa
teacher in one Of the public schools. Piano
Joe was a son Of Augustus Gull, who was
known to a past generation in Manhattan
a. a pianist far above the average.
For years Piano Joe has been the Who'll e
orchestra In the big hall decorated
with whiskey advertising Autographs back
Of the Bank Cafe. He would play there for
twelve hours a day-eighteen and twenty
when pressed on extraordinary occasions
and the only time he was absent was when
Paderewski or Rosenthal or some other
noted pianist gave a recital in town. Then
Joe wouid brush up and go up town to
wait in front Of the doors where the recital
wes to be given long before they were
opened.
~You could hear him play the stuff he
used TO call tin pan music every night
here, Nell said in the Bank Cafe hall yester-
day afternoon. But I used TO come here
early in the day before things got busy
and sit in a corner listenin' to him play the
creepy things, with nobody around to
hear him-except me. And he used to call
me Miss too, and | liked him great for
that. He was the only one that said Miss
to me.
1T was fine on dark days to come in here
and listen to him. You see how dark it
is back here eve to-day. but when it's
rainy you can hardly see across the room.
l don't nov why ! liked to listen to him
better, or why he played more, on dark
days, but that's the way it was. Then he
used to play Chimney music, long pieces
that lasted ten minutes or more, and they
were fine. He called them Hungarian
somethings-
'Rhapsodies?'
That's it. They'd begin awful slow
like and then they'd get quicker and quicker
and then slow again, and they'd end up
all hurried, with pieces OF the pretty tunes
that had gone before runnin' in and out
khro.nxh ali kha khV.ndarfnl EnOrra WI-
liams, he's the barkeep, used to come in
for those windups and he said they were
great. But l liked it all the way through,
even the slow parts.
quiet like, with his head bent down like
he was tired from playin' so fast-gee, he
could play fast when 1t was wrote that
way-and then he'd lift his fingers quick
from the keys and set there with his head
down for an awful long time. The barkeep
would walk out OF the hall soft and I'd go
out into the Bowery again and bed never
bear us go
But one day. was in bad or something
anyway while he was playin' one Of them
fine long ones | up and begin to bleat to
myself. A long time after he stopped
playin' / shifted kinda loud, l guess, for
Piano Joe swung around sharp on the
piano stool and after a while he seen me
settin' there in the dark corner. Then he
walked over to me and he called me Miss
and l liked him after that. He was white,
Joe was.
He asked me what I was bleatin' about
and / told him how ! came in most every
day to listen when he was playin' the long
ones before the gang began to come. Some
Of that Chimney music I'd heard 50 much
and that had nae a hit with me ! hummed
for him and he set down then and give the
grandest concert. just for me. Joe did. that
was ever give. Not long after he handed
me here a green ticket with Paderooski's
name printed on il and told me where this
fellow was goin' to play and TO &c to hear
him on joe
Il thought Joe would be settin' next 10
me in the hall when the playin' began but
he wasn't, but he was in the hall some
place, because he told me so after. That
Paderooski was fine. too. I'll bet he's
the best in the world, now that Joe's dead.
He played long ones like Joe played here
on the rainy afternoons, but | didn't like
them as well. Maybe II P~adarooski played
them down here when it's almost dark
they'd go as well as Joe's, but up in that
hall with all the lights Roin' n people
clappin' il didn't seem right.
y Jim, he's the clerk or something in the
Victoria House, told me this oreno that
Joe had died from hemorrhages sudden.
Joe had consumption, you know, but we
didn't think he was goin' ont 30 quick. He
played here last night till midnight and was
cracln' jokes. k he always did after
playin' lively music, right up to the time he
Last night he was playin' Waltz Me Around
Again and Come, Take a Skate Wit Me,
Katie and stuff like that up to quittin'
time. That's the kind they wanted here
and he could play that, too, He could
play anything, Joe could. II Id a-knowed
ne was in bad I'd try to help him, but we
never seen him except when he was here,
and he didn't talk about himself or his
Affairs to US"
Up in Tinpan Alley the music publishers
and their clerks were lamenting Piano
Joe's death also. They never charged him
for sheet music. He could have what he
wanted for the asking. George Williams,
the bartender, said that Joe a a number
of pupils in nearby tenements.
Joe was a widower. He leaves one child,
a little girl 8 years old, who has been cared
for by Mrs. Wilkinson, his sister. since the
death OF Joe's wife. Wilkinson went to the
Bowery lodging house where Joe died and
took charge Of the body.
TO IMPROVE ENGLEWCOD.