to
Diodorus Siculus, XII.; Strabo, VI.; AElian, V. H. 9, c. 24; Athenaeus,
XII. 518; Plutarch in Pelopidas; Herodotus, V. and VI. Compare Laurent's
Geographical Notes, and Wheeler and Gaisford; Pliny, III. 15, VII. 22,
XVI. 33, VIII. 64, XXXI. 9; Aristotle, Polit. IV. 12, V. 3; Heyne's
Opuscula, II. 74; Bentley's Phalaris, 367; Solinus, 2, Sec. 10, "luxuries
grossly exaggerated"; Scymnus, 337-360; Aristophanes, Vesp. 1427, 1436;
Lycophron, Alex. 1079; Polybius, Gen. Hist. II. 3, on the confederation
of Sybaris, Krotan, and Kaulonia,--"a perplexing statement," says Grote,
"showing that he must have conceived the history of Sybaris in a very
different form from that in which it is commonly represented"; third
volume of De Non, who disagrees with Magnan as to the site of Sybaris,
and says the sea-shore is uninhabitable! Tuccagni Orlandini, Vol. XI.,
Supplement, p. 294; besides the dictionaries and books of travels,
including Murray. I have availed myself, without other reference, of
most of these authorities.]

THE PIANO IN THE UNITED STATES.

Twenty-five thousand pianos were made in the United States last year!

This is the estimate of the persons who know most of this branch of
manufacture, but it is only an approximation to the truth; for, besides
the sixty makers in New York, the thirty in Boston, the twenty in
Philadelphia, the fifteen in Baltimore, the ten in Albany, and the less
number in Cincinnati, Buffalo, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco,
there are small makers in many country towns, and even in villages, who
buy the parts of a piano in the nearest city, put them together, and
sell the instrument in the neighborhood. The returns of the houses which
supply the ivory keys of the piano to all the makers in the country are
confirmatory of this estimate; which, we may add, is that of Messrs.
Steinway of New York, who have made it a point to collect both the
literature and the statistics of the instrument, of which they are among
the largest manufacturers in the world.

The makers' prices of pianos now range from two hundred and ninety
dollars to one thousand; and the prices to the public, from four hundred
and fifty dollars to fifteen hundred. We may conclude, therefore, that
the people of the United States during the year 1866 expended fifteen
millions of dollars in the purchase of new pianos. It is not true that
we export many pianos to foreign countries, as the public are led to
suppose from the