Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 282, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1914 — Ragtime Player Conquers Piano in a Long Battle [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ragtime Player Conquers Piano in a Long Battle

CHICAGO.— At one o’clock in the morning Edwin Fridman, the “ragtime slugger,” put all his weight behind the final chord of “This Is the Life" and toppled back into the arms of his trainers. He had triumphed in a 25.

boor battle against a ferocious piano. William Singer, the referee, tapped Edwin on the shoulder as he fell and announced him the winner. Then 300 music "fans" who crowded the Royal theater on Milwaukee avenue jumped into the orchestra pit and crowded about the victor. Fridman had sustained a few injuries. His bands were badly twisted and his wrists were swollen. Bis eyes wore a far-away look as though focused on a distant feather bed. And

his only answer to the shouts of the fans was a whistling obligato snore. Stanley Basse and Philip Katz, the music slugger’s seconds, were tha first into the pit. They bathed his arms with alcohol and fanned him with towels, just like regular seconds. Meanwhile attaches of the theater were administering to the defeated P. Dufing the battle it lost its top and front covers. And its wires were ted out of tune. Its condition is said to be critical. The battler was not permitted to take both hands from the keys at any Ittme during the struggle, and on two occasions the piano had himgroggy,