MONEY IN STREET MUSIC.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9626, 19 October 1909, Page 7

MONEY IN STREET MUSIC.

PROFITS FROM THE HURDY

GUKDY.

His business is to move pity, and so the street musician stands a somewhat woe-begone figure at the street corner. .Naturally he is out-at-elbows and down-at heels, and his countenance haa a melancholy cast; sometimes he is blind or lame. His music is geneially of a plaintive strain, for sprightly music does not | move compassion. There are a numberof such musicians at the Auckland ntreet corners, says the Auckland "Herald"; some turn a hurdy- 1 gurdy, others stand by a grama- j phone, while the stock in trade of j others is a tin whistle or a fiddle, i They do not dress in the latest fashion, because it would interfere with their business, but it is stated that they earn n fair livelihood, and I some of them are making small forj tunes. One of those who play an instrument was overheard the other day to boast that his earnings for the day were £l4. Yet another gentleman, who owns a gramaphone, has been heard to state that he does not require to be long in the streets each day. five or six hours being sufficient' to keep him going in pocket money. A reporter was informed on good authority that some of the in- j strumentalists in the Auckland i streets earn anything up to between £l6 and £2O a week, which, | if the average be near the higher figure, works out at about £I,OOO j a year. Our authority for this statement says he has noticed that sons of the plough, give more liberallv to the corner man than their city cousins. He has observed visitors from the country approach and put in florins and half-crowns in the receptacle for coins. Naturally, if few of these coins go in every hour, the box becomes pretty valuable. This may ! be considered an indication that '< country people are naturally more j generous than town residents. On the other hand, the city man might " have something to say wh-y this general inference should not be drawn.