bands are put upon both sides of the plank, front as well as back, and dried under pressure; then the final veneer is glued to both sides and again press dried. The beautiful sheets of figured walnut upon the ends of the upright case are very carefully butted together at the centre, giving the design of the grain more symmetrical arrangement by its reversed duplicate from the centre each way. After the several parts have been through the veneering room, they meet at the assembling benches and are carefully fitted together and smoothed with sandpaper, and the case is then delivered to the varnishers and polishers. Here the separate pieces of the cases are varnished and rubbed down with pumice-stone, and the labor repeated over and over, not quite seven times seven, but until the grain of the wood is evenly and solidly filled with a body of the very finest varnish the market affords, rubbed to a perfectly smooth surface, to which the final "flowing" coat gives a mirror-like polish. A case is in the varnish room several months before it is sent to the regulators to receive the frame, strings, and action. Next is a photograph of the complex collection of wood, felt, and leather which they call the "action"; it looks more like a handful of jackstraws than anything else, but it is planned with the utmost care, and is duplicated for every key, white and black, upon the keyboard. It transmits the blow of the finger from the key to the hammer, and does it instantly without a particle of lost motion or rattle, and is immediately ready for another stroke, so that the note may be repeated almost with the speed of an alarm clock. This action is less than half an inch thick, and eighty-eight of them are set side by inside a metal frame, each adjusted to strike its blow at the particular place upon its string to produce the full volume of tone. And now, for months, the piano is adjusted and tuned, and tuned and regulated, and then they do it over again and again, until the mind tires at the thought of the countless little things that are done by one man and another upon every piano before it is considered in proper condition to send along. After the regulators have finished their work, the piano goes to the man, who, in the vernacular of the trade, "voices" or tone regulates it; that is, he shapes and scrapes, files and picks, burnishes and rubs, and even pricks into the faces of the different hammers until there is no break in the scale, and the piano gives a perfectly even quality of tone from every one of its eighty-eight keys. Then the tuner comes along and tries it again, and if he is not satisfied with what he finds, the instrument is side-tracked in his department until he is. Then it is inspected by another man who is looking for any trouble or possible faults, and is by him finally passed along to have its case cleaned and rubbed down for its last and final hand polish. The box is ready to receive it, the polisher's work is done, and here comes the tuner again for final inspection before the piano is permitted to go out into the world. Some two years have passed between the arrival of the lumber at the factory and the shipping of the finished piano, and it represents a great amount of painstaking care to bring out the piano in its present perfected forms. A dozen piano fac Hon. Broughton Davis Harris died suddenly January 19, at Brattleboro, Vt. He was born in Chesterfield, August 16, 1822, and was graduated from Dartmouth in 1845 with high honors. He studied law, and becoming interested in newspaper work, edited, for a year, the Vermont Phoenix. He founded the Eagle in 1847. In the fall of 1850 he was appointed by President Filmore as first secretary of the new territory of Utah. The first governor of Utah was Brigham Young, and the ideas of the two men were so antagonistic that finally there was an open rupture between them. So defiantly did Governor Young disregard the provisions of the enabling act of congress that Mr. Harris finally refused to disburse the money committed to his care for the benefit of the territory, by the United States government, and amid threats of assassination returned to Washington and restored the money to the United States treasury. The administration endorsed his action and afterward offered him the office of secretary and acting governor of the territory of New Mexico, which he declined. Mr. Harris was register of probate for the Marlboro district in 1847, and a member of the state senate in 1860 and 1861. As a member of the firm of Harris Bros. & Co., he was engaged for many years in the construction of railroads. He was one of the corporate members of the Brattleboro Savings bank, and for many years was president of that institution, a position he held at the time of his death. E. J. FOLSOM. E. J. Folsom died in Boston, January 25. His age was seventy-one years. Born in Stratham, he spent his youth in his native town, and at the outbreak of the gold fever in 1849 he went to California, where he spent the following fifteen years. On his return to Stratham, he entered upon a shipping business with his brothers, Peter and Benjamin. Of late years the seat of his operations had been in Boston, where he was the semi-partner in the firm of B. F. Folsom & Co., importers of guano and phosphates from South America. GEORGE L. BROWN. George Lawrence Brown was born in Dunbarton, May 28, 1852, and died in Concord, January 24. He was educated in the common schools of his native town, and New London, and at Colby academy. At the age of eighteen Mr. Brown entered the employ of C. H. Martin & Co., wholesale druggists in Concord, and became thoroughly familiar with every branch of the business. In 1878 he was admitted to the firm, the name, however, continuing the same as before, and this relation he maintained down to the time of his death. Mr. Brown was an ardent Democrat, and in 1881 served with prominence as a member of the legislature from the town of Sutton. He was a member of the First Baptist church and of numerous societies. REV. NARCESSE COURNOYER. The Rev. Narcesse Cournoyer was born in Isle Madam, P. Q., December 1, 1854, and died at Berlin, January 22. He lived with his parents and attended school until thirteen years of age, and then entered the college at Sorelle. He was ordained at the Christmas ordination in 1879. His theological studies were made with the Sulpicians in Montreal. After leaving Montreal he went to Portland, Me., under Bishop Healey. He was appointed pastor in North Walpole in 1881. He had charge of that pastorate until his appointment as pastor of St. Anne's church in Berlin in 1885. being the first resident Catholic pastor in that city, which became during his ministrations one of the largest in the state. WILLIAM LEVISTON. William Leviston, a prominent business man of Enfield, died suddenly January 21. He was born in Sherbrooke, P. Q., March 15, 1830, and there his boyhood days were spent. In 1848, he went to Bradford, Vt., with his brother, Robert Leviston, where they engaged in the business of tanning hides. Since then they had constantly been associated. In 1869 they purchased the tannery industry in Enfield of Hiram W. French, which they continued until about ten years ago, since which time the plant had been closed. CHARLES NUTTING. Charles Nutting, a pioneer in the Concord granite trade, died in that city, January 15. He was born in Charleston, Vt., November 3, 1824, and removed to Concord over fifty years ago, forming a partnership in the stone business with the late Benjamin T. Putney of West Concord. He furnished stone for a large number of the early buildings of Concord, and was greatly interested in the development of the city. RUFUS E. VIRGIN. Rufus E. Virgin, an aged and respected citizen of East Concord, died January 26, aged 81 years. He was a farmer by occupation, throughout a long and useful life. He was a staunch Democrat, and his party honored him by electing him representative in 1881, and member of the common council in 1883-'84. |