Word: pumpers
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...Pumper's Fly-Pelts...
...their official anthem (chorus given above*) to the rhythmic accompaniment of pounded beer mugs in a big private dining room of the Hotel Brevoort, Manhattan. It was the "47th, 48th & 49th Fiscal Meetings and First Bicentennial Hard Times Party'' of the Guild of Former Pipe Organ Pumpers, a thriving, purposeless organization of men who at some time or other manned the pump-handle of an organ. Last week's meeting was typical of most (there have been nine), but it was bigger & better. Presiding was the founder and Grand Diapason, spare, bald-pated Author Chester Werntz ("diet...
...small boy (like himself) whose weekly chore before the electric-blower era was to sweat and grunt over the pumphandle in the organ loft. Theirs was the duty, indispensable to organist and choir, of keeping a crude pressure-gauge above the danger mark. On rare occasions, dreadfully unforgettable, the pumper might lag from exhaustion "and wreck a full throated anthem or a shrill soprano solo in the agonized screeches of the high pipes and the guttural grunts of the low ones as the wind suddenly expired." Least penalty for such dereliction: dismissal in disgrace. Reward for faithful service varied from...
Occasionally a former pumper who has heard vaguely of the Guild, takes it seriously, and, upon joining, attempts to guide its affairs into purposeful channels. His effort never survives his first meeting...
...Tune: "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush." Theme: doppel-rohrgcdeckt, the name of the organ-stop that produces a flute effect. Gedickef is meaningless, inserted to jingle. * Enlarged to book form: THE PIPE ORGAN PUMPER * Greenberg, New York, 70pp...