California 1852

[Susan Kline]

At 01:45 PM 1/22/98 -0500, Anne Beetem wrote:
>
>
>Susan,  Thank YOU!!!   I have forwarded the information to Laurette.
>She'll be thrilled.
>
>A toast of the coffee cup to the pianotechlist inhabitants!
>
>ab

FOUND IT!!!! I can't believe I dug it up! I have a photocopy of the chapter,
buried in the paper chase about 10 years and three moves deep. The passage
comes from an autobiography written by Margaret Blake-Alverson, published in
1913, and entitled "Sixty Years of California Song." She was a contralto,
and lived from 1836 till 1923. The book it was quoted in, from which the
photocopy comes, is entitled "Women in Music", author unknown, much more
recent. 

Anne, I'll type it in and post it to you privately. Rereading it, it was
rather as I remembered, except that the piano was only described as a "fine
Chickering", and nowhere did it mention whether it was a grand or a square.
Probably a square, is my feeling now. It did arrive in Stockton ("the first
piano in Stockton") on Christmas Day in 1852. Her father went to the door,
and saw a lot of men gathered outside to listen to the music. He had the
curtains pulled back and the windows opened, so the girls could play old
favorites for them.

Yours,

Susan 

Susan Kline
P.O. Box 1651
Philomath, OR 97370
skline@proaxis.com

"My picture of the world keeps changing before I can get it in focus."
		-- Ashleigh Brilliant