STRANGE REVENGE

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1927, Page 20

STRANGE REVENGE

BY PIANO-TUNERS.

If you happen to be a pianist, you should make a point of showing consideration to your tuner, for your fate may lie in his liands, writes Mark Hambourg in the May "London Magazine." One such tuner who travelled with me took exception to something my manager had done, and lo revenge himself, unknown to anyone, he filed a small bit off the tops of the hammers of my piano just before I went on to the platform to play. I began my performance, and practically no sound came from my instrument! I sweated and pressed, and nearly burst myself in the effort to get some tone out of the piano but nothing would como but a faint tinkling. It was a-dreadful experience, and the audience sat there in gathering amazement—such a display of energy on my part, ana no result. A similar incident, they say, happened to a great piano virtuoso when he was touring in Australia. Something for some reason or other, upset the "tuner, and while ostensibly preparing the piano for tho evening's performance he loaded each of the keys with four ounces of load. They became s<s heavy, as to be almost immovable, and the pianist, not understanding what could bo wrong with the action of the piano, had to retire from the unequal contest, bleeding from every finger and exhausted. The concert had.to l>a postponed, the public's money returned, and the tuner's revenge was complete.