Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/91

Rh caused the jangle when one particular note was struck. The lady player had previously declared that she would send for a tuner the next day, and laughed at my attempt to fix it by hunting about the room while she pounded. However, she did not conceal her surprise when the trouble was removed, and admitted that there was something about this sound business that she did not quite understand.

In regard to locating these jangles, however, I will say that it is not always so easy. It requires some practice before the ear becomes capable of locating with any degree of success the direction of sounds of this kind. This was my experience with the first piano jangle, that of the cracked globe, which was quite difficult; that of the window shutter was easier, as well as many others which I have located since. A correct musical ear is also an important adjunct in the case. I have often observed the responsive jangle in concert halls, churches, etc. One church in particular in Brooklyn that I often attended had a responsive note high up in one of the windows which I was able to locate from the pew where I sat. I formed a sort of secret attachment for this jingling note, and I looked as much for it to respond every Sunday when the organist touched the proper key as for the audience to respond to the readings of the service.

Business called me away from home and church, and after a lapse of four or five years after returning home one of the first things I looked for on again attending church was my jangle. But alas! it was gone. During my absence inside windows had been placed over all the windows in the church, and my jangling friend was silenced. No doubt the cause of this jangle was some detached piece of glass from a cracked window pane, but it was too high up to be seen.

This locating of jangles originating from musical notes having become somewhat of a hobby with me, being almost always on the lookout for them, many curious instances similar to those I have mentioned could be related, but I will give only one other, which was the first that ever came under my notice, and which took place several years ago.

This most peculiar case happened in a church on an Easter Sunday. During the singing of a hymn I at once became conscious of an occasional discordant sound quite near where I stood (the congregation were standing), and this jangle was so marked that the music for me at least had no further charms. After listening in various directions I finally located it as coming from the mouth of an elderly lady who was singing with a good deal of vim in the seat in front of me. The fact was, her false teeth were loose, some of them at least, and the effect, notwithstanding the surroundings was to me more ludicrous than inspiring. In