Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1915-04-21
Tho Old Piano.
From the Kansas city Star.

ErOm the Kansas ClUy olaf.
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 filling space, and so he burned
them.
And as the flames cracked and leaped
no one i'm the crowd that gathered gave a
thought to the tender memories that clus-
tered around those old square-legged pi-
amos. 1T was just a bonfire. nothing more.
But surely many II wrath of bygone
DAYS might AVE been seen taking ghost
ly shape in the curling smoke IL 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 IT
was not 80. 1t was the spirit that dwelt
In the old p%iano-the spirit of other days
the last fond touch of unseen hands
upon the ivory keys. yellow with age, and
worn thin as paper by the pressure OF
dainty fingers that have turned to ashes
years and years ago.
No one knew the story. OF any piano IN
the blazing pile. In what homes the
stood, who owned them, how old they
We're, no one knew. But they We're very,
very old. They were pioneers of music
and culture. They came out INTO TINS
before the railroads.. when this region was
wild and sparsely settled. when the own
ership of "A piano meant wealth and posi-
ton, and u refinement rare upon the IRON
tier.
The getting of a piano in those days
was an eNeHtIul uE~aeTldkIns. ~ Wou!u
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 'sr~asshoppered
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
| pianos went. That much of the story we
do know. The rest of IL must be left to the
| imapjnaijOn
Take that old one there. at the bottom
OF the pile, the varnish of It's mahogany
cas-. 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 now
she claps her hands as the OK team turns
| the bend In the river road and she gets
the first glimpse. of the big pine packing
box in the wagon.
You can see the new piano later in a
corner of the big front parlor. the girl
with the fairy face and figure at the keys
and bending over her Il young man OF the
countryside who listens with "a look upon
his face that only lovers Wear.
Where flows the waters of the blue Juni-
1t has been many a year since you
heard that song, hasn't 1T? Mayhe if you
are one of the younger generation. you
never heard it. But 1t was a prime favor
tie with love-lorn maidens in the days
when this old piano was young.
Tn old piano was a member of the
family and its spirit was in tune will
every emotion that ruled the household.
much OF both. 1t vibrated tenderly with
love; it pealed grandly the wedding
march: it crOoned many Q lullaby In the
long evenings when the smell Of wild