Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-12-14

other to look as far down
into the horn possible, with,
evidently the idea of finding out what all the noise
doing to the mechanism beyond
1t was discouraging lemon Monday" That day
fifteen voices were tested, and all rejected.
"The applicants every Monday said the super
ntendent with hint of sadness in his voice. are pentl
full. They range in number all the way from six to
sixty of them being combinations duets quartets
and SO forth, either vocal or instrumental. don't
think we've found dozen suitable voices in this way
In the last eighteen months
Late chat afternoon of the singers regularly
ployed by the company came in to do song, in which
he was accompanied by the orchestra. He knew ex-
actly how far he had to stand from the horn and IN
addition to having good voice naturally adapted to
the monograph he knew how to regulate 1T to nlcety
1t was warm afternoon, and Walter This
Walter) proceeded get comfortable by taking off his
coat and collar After running through the song
with the orchestra he rolled up his shirtsleeves and
sang for the record. The whole time he was employed
hardly than ten minutes and for this he was
paid fifty dollars
NOWADAYS the usual price paid to an average good
singer for each song is forty forty five dollars.
Twenty-Five years ago, In the infancy OF the business,
the rate only fifty cents song This was because
at that time the process of reproducing great numbers
the commercial records from the matrx record of cop
per had been invented In the old days ten recelv
ing horns banked in front of the singer, and if he
or she had leather lungs ten saabe records were pro-
duced. NOW the OF mdtr1x Ie-
production of the records that the big prices to the
singers are possible Many and various things such
reputation, unusual ability great popular demand,
influence the rates at present.
There are no authentic figures what Caruso re-
ceves but high in the photograph business had
this to say about it:
INV understanding is that Caruso, who is under
contract with company for life, is paid fifteen hun
dred dollars week for every week In the year, and IN
addition that he gets immense royalty on the sales
of his records Whether he sings note not, he gets
his fifteen hundred dollars every week And he IS sup
posed to sing than three songs week for the
machine,-fve hundred dollars song With his salary
and royalties told, he received from his company
last year than hundred and fifty thousand dol
lars"
There is popular deluson that all Chinese work for
little money A photograph company sent agent to
Picking get records from of the leading male
voices Of the celestial kingdom The great singer,
wrapped in his Chinese and cerement-ke garments,
made the songs but he did it only after these stpua
tons had been complied with:
"You must convey from my house to your office
in automobile, and after the singing is convey
back to my house in automobile. Moreover, you
will have to pay me eight hundred dollars In American
gold"
The business of discovering or trying to discover
great voices foreign lands of the most important
undertakings of phonograph companies. The COM
bned efforts of their agents and representatives result
in combing the civilized world most thoroughly. The
president of one company has a filled with test
records of voices from all over the earth. Four big
boxes represent what has been gathered IN Paris and
there hundreds and thousands of records made
by BARRIERS, merchants professional singers church
singers and young genuses in Milan, Budapest Prague,
Lisbon ST. Petersburg and all the other big cities of
Europe. The companies in their search for the fine
gold good voice for their horns of plenty, have gone
all South America visited Java and devoted much
study to Australia.
r EFERRING for moment to the wall of the record
expert who emphasized the difficulty of finding