All this sounds like a chapter from the dark ages, of long, long ago, and we do not deem such things possible now.
But listen! In the year 1895 what was practically the first Hope-Jones electric organ sold was set up in St. George's Church, Hanover Square, London, England.
The furor it created was cut short by a fire, which destroyed the organ and damaged the tower of the church. With curious promptitude attention was directed to the danger of allowing amateurs to make crude efforts at organ-building in valuable and historic churches, and to the great risk of electric actions. Incendiarism being more than suspected, the authorities of the church ordered from Hope-Jones a similar organ to take the place of the one destroyed.
About the same time a gimlet was forced through the electric cable of a Hope-Jones organ at Hendon Parish Church, London, England. Shortly afterwards the cable connecting the console with the Hope-Jones organ at Ormskirk Parish Church, Lancashire, England, was cut through. At Burton-on-Trent Parish Church, sample pipes from each of his special stops were stolen.
At the Auditorium, Ocean Grove, N. J., an effort to cripple the new Hope-Jones organ shortly before one of the opening recitals in 1908 was made. And in the same year, on the Sunday previous to Edwin Lemare's recital on the Hope-Jones organ in the First Universalist Church, Rochester, N. Y., serious damage was done to some of the pipes in almost each stop in the organ.
Robert Hope-Jones died at Rochester, N. Y., on September 13, 1914, aged 55 years, and was interred at Elm Lawn Cemetery, No. Tonawanda, near Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Since his association with the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company in April, 1910, they have built under his personal supervision the organs in the Baptist Temple, Philadelphia; the rooms of the Ethical Culture Society, New York; and amongst others the unit orchestras in the Vitagraph Theatre, New York; the Crescent Theatre, Brooklyn; the Paris Theatre, Denver, Colo.; the Imperial Theatre, Montreal; and the Pitt Theatre, Pittsburgh, Pa., which last Hope-Jones considered his chef d'oeuvre.
[1] Dr. W. C. Carl, of New York, who is well acquainted with these instruments, considers the one in Notre Dame to be better than St. Sulpice and more representative of Cavaillé-Coll's work, even if a little smaller. We therefore give that specification, page 157.
[2] Exhaust tubular pneumatic had been practically applied in France as early as 1849 and pressure tubular pneumatic in 1867. See page 23.