Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1915-08-26
THE OLD PIANO.

A piano dealer of this city hauled
a load OF old, WORKOUT square pianos
To vacant lot last week and made a
bonfire of them. He had got tired Of
having them around, uselessly filling
space, and so he burned them.
And as the flames cracked and leap.
ed no one in the crowd that gathered
gave a thought 10 the tender memories
that clustered around those old square.
legged pianos. Ii was just a bonfire,
nothing more.
But surely many q wrath OF by
gone days might have been seen tax
ing q ghostly shape In the curling
smoke il someone 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 sin@in the way they did
when the flames reached them. But II
was not so. Il was the spirit that
dwelt in the old piano-the spirit OF
other days-the last fond touch of un-
seen hands upon the ivory keys, yell
low with age, and worn rs thin as
paper by the pressure of dainty fing-
ers that have turned to ashes years
and years ago.
No one knew the story of any piano
in the blazing pile. In what homes
they stood, who owned them, how old
they were, no one knew. But they
were very, very old. They were pio.
neers 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 sparsley settled, when the owner.
ship of piano meant wealth and posi-.
tion, and refinement rare upon the
frontier.
The getting OF piano in those days
was an eventful undertaking. II
would probably be bought in New
York, would come by rail to Pitts.
burgh or Cincinnati, and from there
by boat to st. Louis and up the Mis-.
souri, on one OF the old stern wheeled
packets that "grasshoppered'' over
the sandbars and made slow progress
against the muddy curren. In the deep.
er reaches.
There was sure TO be at least ons
young woman in each of the home:
where those pianos went. That mucf
of the story we do know. The rest O
il must be left TO the Imagination.
Take that old one there, at the bot
tom of the pile, the varnish of its ma
hogany case black with age. Can no
you see the girl waiting there at tn,
gate of the farmhouse, her sun-bonne
pushed back from her face, her hans
shielding her eyes from the setting SUI
as she watches; and how she claps he
hands as the OK team turns the ben.
in the river road and she gets the frs
glimpse OF the big pine packing box II
the wagon?
You can see the new piano later in
corner of the big front parlor, the cir
with the fairy face and figure at tn,
keys, and bending over her a youn,
man of the countryside who listen
with look upon his face that only
lovers wear.
Wild rowing Indian maid, sweet AL
fretta,
Where flow the waters of the blu
Juniatta.
1t has been many long year sine,
you heard that song, hasn't itS May
Ice, you are one of the younger gen
Grafton, you never heard IL. But
was q prime fayorite with lovelor,
maidens in the days when this oil.
piano was young.
The old piano was q member of tn,
family, and its spirit was in tune win
every emotion that ruled the house
hold, whether of JOY or sorrow. An,
it knew much of both. IL yibrates
tenderly with love: it pealed grand,
the wedding march; il crooned many /.
lullaby in the long evenings when III,
smell OF wild honeysuckle foated 1,
through the opened windows: IL sobbe,
mournfully the old funeral hymn
"Asleep In Jesus, Blessed Sleep" /
was proud TO do that last melanchoI,
service for its dead mistress, although
its spirit was almost breaking as i
sang.
And so the years went, and the ols
friends went, and with them went IN,
sweet old tunes, and the sweet old
ways. The square piano became ''olt
fashioned" and its spirit out of tun.
with modern ways. II still retainet
its pride, but poverty came TO 10. i
sank lower and lower In the socia
scale until IL became an outcast, I
shabby relic OF better days, with rheu
matte joints and keys that ratified, and
the spirit of JOY was dead within il
Il was tins TO mingle It's ashes viii
the dust of the earth. Cit,
Star.