Scan 35
Musical Courier 1891-05-13: Vol 22 Iss 586, 1891
72 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. Printed page 502. See the scan on archive.org.
1Wiggins Weakened.
2Confessed and Then He Didn't Have the Nerve to Die.
4HE BEGGED ON BENDED KNEE.
5Led Astray by a Girl, He Wrote a Missive to be Read When He Was in the Cold Embrace of Death.
7OLIVER WIGGINS, the music man, who has been brought before the public in a rather compromising light several times here of late, has written a full confession of all his sins for the past two years and that intensely interesting and highly sensational document is in the hands of his estimable wife, at No. 1124 Upper Second street. It appears that Mr. Wiggins is not a man of the most robust health and that a few days ago he became profoundly impressed with the idea that his lease of life was about to expire.
9With this conviction, it seems, came a fit of penitence, an hour of remorse. The gentleman sat down and he wrote to his wife—wrote a long, mournful story of his misdeeds, and concluded with a tearful appeal for forgiveness. His confession, written in German, covered 19 pages of manuscript and rehearsed a tale of sin and suffering that would wring salt tears from a snow man. It told of a woman's wiles, of her wondrous witcheries; it told how she beckoned with her omnipotent hand, how he had followed, how he had fallen.
11Beneath the beam of a radiant face—a face wreathed in ripples of laughter—he had forgotten home, his wife, his little children; lost in the delicious spell he had wandered away from the path of right and been swallowed in the vortex of sin.' Wailingly the letter ran on, telling how good the writer had meant to be, how good he should have been but for a siren smile, a sylph-like form. He had done wrong, but the blame belonged not on his shoulders. He had been led astray by a woman in whose beck was a magic potency; but for her subtle agencies, her preternatural powers, he had been pure as the mountain daisy that inspired the poet's song.
13Having assumed the rôle of revelator, Mr. Wiggins went back just two years in his rather eventful life. He began his story with an account of how Miss —— had laid a net to entangle his judgment; how by degrees he had become helpless in its meshes; how he had struggled and writhed to free himself, but how every effort had left him deeper in the toils. The power that this young woman exercised over his volition was profoundly mysterious to him at the time it was accomplishing his disgrace, and it so remained at the moment he was engaged in recording his revelations. He said that she had gone to a drug store and purchased some queer sort of candy, and that in that candy he verily believed lurked the extraordinary property that had intoxicated his reason.
15In conclusion Mr. Wiggins very touchingly referred to the cramped space between him and the tomb. He felt that he must die, and before dying he wanted to get right down on his knees and howl for pardon. If he was not forgiven by his wife for the deplorable errors that had characterized the last two years of his life he felt that upon "crossing over" he would not find the golden gates ajar. He therefore begged, implored, supplicated her gracious magnanimity. As a dramatic climax the revelator got off something about like this:
16"When I'm dead bring —— to my coffin and make her swear to the truth of this confession."
17Just how that would help matters the writer wound up without explaining.
19Along with this lengthy recountal of a strong man's weaknesses, Mrs. Wiggins is in possession of some other epistolary memoirs of a rather startling character. It seems that the lady inadvertently opened a valise or private box belonging to Mr. Wiggins, and that there she found a bundle of letters from Miss —— to her husband. These missives were brimful of a love that appeared to give its victim considerable inconvenience. She advised Mr. Wiggins to do all sorts of naughty things in order to become lawfully and exclusively her own. She suggested that it would be a capital idea for him to get a divorce from his wife and marry her. She believed she could be a mighty fine mother to his children and was satisfied that she could train herself to be an exceedingly clever wife to him. The principal fact that stuck out in all the letters, "like a sore thumb," was that Miss —— was marvelously mashed on Mr. Wiggins.
21And such are the dimensions of this city's latest sensation.—Evansville "Standard," May 4.
2310,000 Pianos
24is a most imposing and dignified number, and to this honorable distinction the B. Shoninger Company have arrived with the current week, and while no formal ceremonial marked the important occasion, still the completion of the 10,000th piano in this particular instance stands for a great deal, for it means not only hard work and an enormous outlay, but it is the record of a constant conscientious endeavor in a most praiseworthy direction; for a good piano is a work of art appealing to the highest and best in humanity, and the B. Shoninger Company has labored earnestly to make every instrument an improvement upon the preceding one. "Improve constantly" is the primal law which governs this great factory, and the marvelous success of the Shoninger piano, as seen in their increasing manufacturing facilities at New Haven, the doubling of their wareroom accommodations, not only at their handsome new store at 96 Fifth avenue, New York, but also at 225 State street, Chicago—all is entirely due to the careful oversight and firm determination to adhere to the same high standard maintained from the beginning of the first to the completion of this the 10,000th Shoninger piano.
26To the active, energetic head of this old and well-known house and his associates we extend cordial congratulations, which we hope to repeat when they shall have finished their first 100,000th instrument.
28THE BIRDS OF SPRING
29If they could be weary of their songs, would find in our great stock an almost infinite variety of NEW melodies. 40,000 kinds of our old music are still called for, and the few are more numerous than the old.
31Cantatas.—THE JOLLY FARMERS, Sargent (40 cts., $2.60 doz.) New, bright, easy, and all jolly farmers and their friends will like it. HEROES OF '76 ($1.00 or $2.00 doz.). Trowbridge for the Fourth of July; and NEW FLOWER QUEEN (60 cts., $5.40 doz.) Root for flower time.
33Sunday Schools like PRAISE IN SONG (40 cts., or $4.20 doz.), Emerson. SONG WORSHIP (35 cts or $1.60 doz.), Emerson and Sherwin. NEW SPIRITUAL SONGS (35 cts., $1.60 doz.), Tenny and Hoffman.
35Choirs constantly send for our Octavo Music—8,000 numbers of Anthems, Sacred Selections, &c., 5 to 8 cts. each. Send for Lists.
37Organists furnished with Voluntary and other music, and players on Violins, Guitars, Mandolins, Banjos and all other instruments supplied with appropriate music. Send for lists and information.
39EMERSON'S VOCAL METHOD for ALTO, BARITONE and BASS VOICES ($1.50) is a new and superior method.
41ANY BOOK MAILED, POST PAID, FOR RETAIL PRICE.
43OLIVER DITSON COMPANY, Boston.
44C. H. DITSON & CO., 867 Broadway, New York City.
46THE "MILLER" ORGAN
47Is the Best and Most Salable Organ of the Day.
49AGENTS WANTED WHERE WE ARE NOT REPRESENTED. CATALOGUE, &c., FREE.
51MILLER ORGAN CO., Lebanon, Pa
53BERTELING'S NEW SOLO Bb CLARINET.
54Flutes, Clarinets, Oboes, &c. Boehm Flutes a Specialty.
55Best Instruments in Existence. Utmost Satisfaction Guaranteed. Correspondence Solicited
56Established 1848.
57T. BERTELING & CO., 177 Bowery, New York, U. S. A.
59GEO. GEMÜNDER, JR.,
6027 Union Square, New York,
61Old and New Violins, Old and New Bows,
62Fine Cases, Selected Strings, Etc.
64VIOLIN MAKER,
65Artistic Repairer and Reconstructor.
67GEO. GEMÜNDER JR.'S "STRADIVARIUS" MODEL
68Copyrighted.
70VIOLIN STUDIO
71For the Sale and Display of Fine Violins.
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