so the train of evolution will rush onward,
bearing the Joneses with it until fashion-plate marches are things of
the misty, backward horizon, and the family has, by little and little,
come to know and love the whole blessed field of classical music. And
they have found that the word "classical" is not a synonym for
dry-rot, but that it simply means the music that wears best.

However the glorious mistake may occur, it is being made by someone
every hour. By such hooks and crooks as these, good music is finding
its way into more and more homes. Although its true "classical"
nature is detected at the first trial, it is not thrown away, because
it cost good money. It is put away and bides its time; and some day
the surprising fact that it has wearing qualities is bound to be
discovered. To those who believe in the law of musical evolution, and
who realize that mechanical music has reached the wide world, and is
even beginning to penetrate into the public library, the possibility
of these happy accidents means a sure and swift general development in
the appreciation of the best music.

Those who know that man's musical taste tends to grow better and not
worse, know also that _any_ music is better than no music. A
mechanical instrument which goes is better than a new concert grand
piano that remains shut.

"Canned music may not be the highest form of art," the enthusiast will
say with a needless air of half apology, half defiance, "but I enjoy
it no end." And then he will go on to tell how the parlor melodeon
had gathered dust for years until it was given in part exchange for a
piano-player. And now the thing is the joy of the family, and the home
is filled with color and effervescence, and every one's head is filled
with at least a rudiment of living, growing musical culture.

The fact is, the piano-player is turning thousands of supposedly
humdrum, prosaic people into musical enthusiasts, to their own immense
surprise. Many of these people are actually taking lessons in the
subtle art of manipulating the machine. They are spending more money
than they can afford on vast collections of rolls. They are going more
and more to every important concert for hints on interpretation.
Better still, the most musical among them are being piqued, by the
combined merits and defects of the machine, into learning to play an
_un_mechanical instrument for the joy of feeling less mechanism
interposed between themselves and "the real th