Charles Chauncey Meli.ok. 



495 



his exercises upon a dumb piano, which he had had made for him- 

 self a few years before, constantly exercising one hand upon the 

 instrument, while with the other hand he held a book. The pur- 

 suit of music and the delights of literature thus went together. 



Already in the summer of 1856 he had become the organist of St. 

 James Episcopal Church located at the corner of Penn and Seven- 

 teenth Streets. On the first of January, 1857, he was engaged as 

 the organist of Christ Methodist Episcopal Church located at the 

 corner of Penn and Eighth Streets. About this time he formed the 

 acquaintance of the late Professor Clement Tetedoux, a man of rare 

 accomplishments, who with his cultivated wife came to reside in 

 Pittsburgh, she giving instruction in French, and he in vocal and 

 instrumental music. There was a strong bond of sympathy between 

 young Mellor and the fascinating, but impetuous Frenchman. The 

 reputation of Professor Tetedoux as a teacher rapidly grew, and 

 he never lacked for pupils during all the years that he made his 

 home in Pittsburgh. Constant intercourse with Mr. Tetedoux and 

 daily work at the piano presently created in the young man the 

 belief that his calling in life was to be that of a professional musi- 

 cian. He all but resolved to sunder business relations with his 

 father and to attempt to carve out for himself a career as a public 

 performer. The father, while rejoicing in his son's ability, never- 

 theless saw matters in a different light, and endeavored to persuade 

 him that while cultivating and using his talents as a musician, it 

 would nevertheless be far more profitable for him to remain where 

 he was and ultimately become his successor in what by this time 

 had come to be a well-established and reasonably profitable enter- 

 prise. It was a hard struggle, but finally native prudence and good 

 sense prevailed, and the young man, not without regret, settled 

 down to a career in which music became a secondary interest. It 

 is possible that the musical world lost a great performer, but Pitts- 

 burgh gained by this decision an able man of affairs, who because 

 of his musical abilities did perhaps as much as has been done by 

 any one individual to make Pittsburgh the music-loving metropolis 

 of the upper valley of the Ohio. 



The business in which he and his father were now engaged pros- 

 pered, and in June, i860, as a partial relaxation and for the pur- 

 pose of widening his knowledge of men and things, young Mellor 



