Hi All,  This is in response to Joyce's post on Monkey Organs [in
"Phantom", MMD 980622].  I wrote a book on how to build a barrel organ.
My barrel organ is a monkey type barrel organ.

Now the bad news!  Large barrel organs were used in churches that did
not have an organist.  Smaller barrel organs then appeared in private
homes of the rich.

Street organs on carts pulled by horses were the next step.  The
street organist would play popular tunes of the time.  Money would be
collected from the crowd of listeners.

The monkey organ was "the bottom of the barrel".  Poor men would walk
the streets cranking out a tunes.  The men would also have pet monkeys
that were trained to collect money from people in the crowd.  The
monkey would also climb sides of building to get money and food from
people hanging out of windows.

As you can see this is a visual picture of hard times.  The monkey
organ is also used to defame a certain ethnic group.  While building
my barrel organ I ended up in the hospital.  The man in the bed next
to me told me he dressed up like an organ grinder for a party.  His
older relatives at the party were upset by his actions.

John Conrad Kleinbauer
Kleinbauer@Juno.com

 [ The organ-grinders were often despised, yet they survived.  I have
 [ a nice story about Alfons Gluschke, the beloved Orgelmann of Hamburg,
 [ which I hope to translate soon for MMD.  Very few full-timers work
 [ the streets anymore.  -- Robbie