Portable Harmony
Sut,—Mr. Gibbon's article, Portable Harmony, in your issue of September 5th, reminds me of an amusing incident which happened to me some years ago. The first of a series of Sunday evening services at a naval hospital was to take place, and I had been asked to go to play the hymns. The service was held in a large ward with beds ranged round the sides. A portable harmonium (called, I believe, by the sailors a " squash box ") was placed conspicuously in the middle of the highly polished floor. A hymn was given out, and I played a verse over gently to give the men the tune. All was well, although I was feeling a bit nervous with so many sailors looking in my direction.
Then we began to sing, and, to my horror, with the more vigorous pedalling the portable started to move forward on the polished floor. I could not follow it on my chair, and when I tried walking after it I could not, of course, work the pedals without which the portable would be dumb. Dumb it did become, but not before it had given an expiring gasp which set the occupants of the beds, who were eagerly watching my plight, into ill-concealed fits of mirth.... The next Sunday I found that the portable had been firmly lashed to one of the beds !—Yours
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