The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1915-04-22
Tho Old Piano.
From the Kansas city Star

From the Kansas City Star.
A piano dealer of this city hauled a load
Of old, wornout square pianos to a vacant
lot last week and made a bonfire of them.
He had got tired of having them around.
uselessly filing space, and 30 he burned
them.
And as the flames cracked and leaped
no one in the crowd that gathered gave a
thought to the tender memories that clus-
tered around those old square,legged pi-
amos. It was just a bonfire. nothing more.
But surely many a wrath OF bygone
days might have been seen taking ghost
ly shape in the curling smoke If some
one there had been blessed with sentiment
enough to look for them. The unfeeling
crowd said 1t was the heat that made the
rusty old strings sing in the way they did
when the flames reached them. But 1t
was not so. 1t was the spirit that dwelt
In the old piano-the spirit OF other lays
upon the ivory keys, yellow with age, and
worn hin as paper by the pressure OF
dainty fingers that have turned to ashes
No one knew the story Of any piano In
stood, Who owned them, how old they
very old. They were pioneers Of music
and culture. They came out into this
western country with the first white folk,
before the railroads, when this region was
wild and sparsely settled, when the own
ership Of a piano meant wealth and posi-
ton, and a refinement rare upon the from
tier.
The getting Of a piano in those days
was an eventful undertaking. 1t would
probably be bought In New York, would
come by rail to Pittsburgh or Cincinnati,
and from there by boat to st. Louis and
up the Missouri on one Of the old stern.
wheeled packets that ",gra~sshoppered'
over the sandbars and made slow progress
| against the muddy current In the deeper
reaches.
There was sure to be at least one young
woman in each of the homes where those
! - -,a,t uhot 1n1,ph nf tho StOrIy wa
do know. The rest of 1t must be left to the
Take that old one there, at the bottom
| of the pile, the varnish of its mahogany
| case black with age. Can not you see the
| girl waiting there at the gate of the farm
/ house, her sunbonnet pushed back from
| the setting sun as she Watches; and how
| she claps her hands as the OK team turns
the pend In the river road and she gets
the first glimpse OF the DIG pine packing
You can see the new plano later in a
corner Of the big front parlor, the girl
with the fairy face and tigure at the Keys
countryside who listens with a look upon
his face that only lovers wear.
Wild rowing Indian maid, sweet Alferetta'
Where flows the waters OF the Dlue 1uhl-
alta.
It has been many a year since you
heard that song, hasn't 1t? Maybe. IT you
never heard 1t. But it was a prime favor
ite with love-lorn maidens in the days
when this old plano was young.
The old piano was a member OF the
family and its spirit was in tune with
every emotion that ruled the household.
whether of Joy or sorrow. And it knew
much of both. 1t vibrated tenderly with
love; 1t pealed grandly the wedding
march; 1t crooned many a lullaby In the
long evenings when the smell Of wild
honeysuckle f1oated in through the opened
windows; it sobbed mournfuliy the old
funeral hymn: asleep IN Jesus Blessed
ancholy service for Its dead mistress. al
though Its spirit was almost breaking as 1t
sang. :,
And so the years went; and the old
friends went, and with them went the
sweet old tunes. and the sweet old ways.
The square piano became "old,fashioned"
ways. 1t atill retained its pride. but pow
erty came to it. 1t sank lower and lower
in Inc social scale until it became an out
cast, a shabby relic OF better days. with
rheumatic joints and keys that ratified.
and the spirit of joy was dead within 1t.
It was time to mingle Its ashes with the
dust OF the earth.