A PIANO FIRE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 2, 23 April 1914, Page 7

A PIANO FIRE.

MUSIC FIRM’S BONFIRE, Fires involving the wholesale destruction of pianos are not uncommon, but the voluntary burning of many of these instruments is an unusual occurrence in Australia. A bonfire, fed by 50 old pianos, from the warehouse of Allan and Company Pty., Ltd., Collins Street, Melbourne, was Jit last week at the West Melbourne tip. The | pianos were placed one upon another, I until tire" stack was about 25ft. high. 1 Many tins of kerosene were poured j over the frames by several workmen, j who then applied torches, and in little | more than a minute the pile was a mass of roaring flame, tiie heat of which could be felt several hundred : feet away. The spectacle attracted a number of sightseers, including many paotographers, and the now almost übiquitous cinematograph operator'.'’ ■ ' > The pianos, which were reduced to ashes and tangled webs of wire, were in many instances manufactured 50 years ago T and it is believed that several had reached the age of 70 years. None of these ancient instruments, all of which had wooden frames, and were antiquated in action, could have been effectively repaired, and Allan and Company, Pty., Ltd., decided to destroy them rather than risk their falling into the hands of unscrupulous dealers, who might effect trifling repairs-,' and then sell them to some unwary buyer. From a musical standpoint the wholesale destruction of these pianos is commendable, and the immolation of an infinitely larger number of the jangling instruments which are so frequently heard in various parts of the city and suburbs .vould be regarded as a boon to many persons. ■ While 'awaiting the firing the stack presented almost a pathetic sight. One could- dimly guess horn muc.i clijoyment some of these- instruments nad given in the days when pianos, in Australia, were hardly more numerous than aeroplanes are at the present time. Two grand pianos, so an’■Equated in shape that they appeared almost like their precursors—the harpsicord—lay as if abased at the foot of the pyre. The discolored ivoys toys of an upright-grand, placed above them, looked as uncanny as the yellow teeth in amskiill; and at the summit of the heap were several quaint old cottage pianos, whose silk fronts were -,oiled and faded by time, despite the protection afforded by the delicate fretwork placed before the-material. They had outlived 1 many of their former owners, and now they thihriselves had outlived their-usefulness. •- In a piano, which had rather a rakish appearance, on'e of the workmen, just before the pile waS'.Tirod,. discover'd an election i-a'frl, signed by George Battlohread in tiro year 1857, . oik which he recorded his' vote for Mr William M. Croll for the ,; offico of: councillor for GoelohjV. Possibly tl)e card had been sighed "by 1 flic would-be voter, ;Andydoul)tless7hioii£' hun-tTffrUTfad' taken place on eelction day. The fact that it had fallen into the piano was not to ho discovered until 57 years afterwards.