Now I see how easy it is to get MMD lovers to generate
controversy/opinions, relevant or not.

 [ Thats the way publishers like it... Usually ]

The question of whether it would have been possible to have a player
piano in the Yukon at the turn of the century or thereabouts when poet
Robert W. Service wrote "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" has already been
addressed by another reader.  Moreover, the issue that a player could
have been transported there is moot; if they had pianos during the Yukon
gold rush,  and if the player had already been invented, then clearly
the music box in the poem might be a player.

In the last digest, a reader points out, as I did, that the dirty miner
who "stumbles across the room and flops down like a fool" at the piano
does  actually play it.  But as far as I know, player pianos can all be
played manually. Hence, the fact that the miner who "clutched the keys
with his talon hands" does not necessarily prove that it is not a
player.

Regarding a more factual matter, I'm a bit surprised that no one has
challenged my assertion that Robert W. Service was an American poet; in
fact, he was born in Scotland, and came to Canada, where he wrote his
poems of the northern frontiers.  In  addition to "The Shooting of Dan
McGrew" is his "The Cremation of Sam McGee", both of which involve
moiling for gold.

Finally, I am humbled to learn I have joined such personages as  the
Queen Mother who can recite "The Shooting of Dan McGrew".  Another
famous leader taking pride in this ability is former President George
Bush.

Cheers,

Dan McGrath

P.S. Back on MMD subjects, (why not, after all?) I appreciate the
several readers who have indicated sources of an original piano roll
cabinet.