ry different from that
which another organ had on the benevolent old lady we read of
in _Our Parish_. She subscribed L20 towards a new instrument
for the parish church, and was so overcome when she first
heard it that she had to be carried out by the pew-opener.
There are various references to the organs in the City churches,
and probably the description of one of them given in _Dombey
and Son_ would suit most instruments of the period.
The organ rumbled and rolled as if it had got the
colic, for want of a congregation to keep the wind
and damp out.
_Barrel-Organ_
In real life the barrel-organ was a frequent source of annoyance
to Dickens, who found its ceaseless strains very trying when
he was busy writing, and who had as much trouble in evicting
the grinders as David Copperfield's aunt had with the donkeys.
However, he takes a very mild revenge on this deservedly
maligned instrument in his works, and the references are, as
usual, of a humorous character. A barrel-organ formed a part of
the procession to celebrate the election of Mr. Tulrumble[10]
as Mayor of Mudfog, but the player put on the wrong stop,
and played one tune while the band played another.
This instrument had an extraordinary effect on Major Tpschoffki,
familiarly and more easily known as 'Chops,' the dwarf,
'spirited but not proud,' who was desirous of 'Going into
Society' (_G.S._), and who had got it into his head that he
was entitled to property:
His ideas respectin' his property never come upon him so
strong as when he sat upon a barrel-organ, and had the
handle turned. Arter the wibration had run through him
a little time he would screech out, 'Toby, I feel my
property coming--grind away! I'm counting my guineas
by thousands, Toby--grind away! Toby, I shall be a
man of fortun! I feel the Mint a-jingling in me, Toby,
and I'm swelling out into the Bank of England.' Such
is the influence of music on a poetic mind.
Dickens found the streets in New York very different from
those in London, and specially remarks how quiet they were--no
itinerant musicians or showmen of any kind. He could only
remember hearing one barrel-organ with a dancing-monkey.
'Beyond that, nothing lively, no, not so much as a white mouse
in a twirling cage.'
We must not forget that he has two references to pipe organs
in his _American Notes_. When he visited the Blind School at
Boston he heard a voluntary pla
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