s in old. Here figures are impossible; but probably ten
second-hand pianos are sold to one new one. The business of letting
pianos is also one of great extent. It is computed by the well-informed,
that the number of these instruments now "out," in the city of New York,
is three thousand. There is one firm in Boston that usually has a
thousand let. As the rent of a piano ranges from six dollars to twelve
dollars a month,--cartage both ways paid by the hirer,--it may be
inferred that this business, when conducted on a large scale, and with
the requisite vigilance, is not unprofitable. In fact, the income of a
piano-letting business has approached eighty thousand dollars per annum,
of which one third was profit. It has, however, its risks and drawbacks.
From June to September, the owner of the instruments must find storage
for the greater part of his stock, and must do without most of his
monthly returns. Many of those who hire pianos, too, are persons
"hanging on the verge" of society, who have little respect for the
property of others, and vanish to parts unknown, leaving a damaged piano
behind them.

England alone surpasses the United States in the number of pianos
annually manufactured. In 1852, the one hundred and eighty English
makers produced twenty-three thousand pianos,--fifteen hundred grands,
fifteen hundred squares, and twenty thousand uprights. As England has
enjoyed fifteen years of prosperity since, it is probable that the
annual number now exceeds that of the United States. The English people,
however, pay much less money for the thirty thousand pianos which they
probably buy every year, than we do for our twenty-five thousand. In
London, the retail price of the best Broadwood grand, in plain mahogany
case, is one hundred and thirty-five guineas; which is a little more
than half the price of the corresponding American instrument. The best
London square piano, in plain case, is sixty guineas,--almost exactly
half the American price. Two thirds of all the pianos made in England
are low-priced uprights,--averaging thirty-five guineas,--which would
not stand in our climate for a year. England, therefore, supplies
herself and the British empire with pianos at an annual expenditure of
about eight millions of our present dollars. American makers, we may
add, have recently taken a hint from their English brethren with regard
to the upright instrument. Space is getting to be the dearest of all
luxuries in our cities