Music Trade Review

Issue: 1886 Vol. 10 N. 8

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Nov.to, 1.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
Alfred Moses will leave here this week for your city
to contract for pianos and organs for 1887.
We wish you every success with your paper, and
read it with much pleasure.
Very truly yours,
WALTER D. MOSES & Co.
LEBANON, PA., NOV. 10, 1886.
MESSRS. BILL & CABE :
GENTLEMEN : We have orders ahead fully three
weeks.
Our pipe organ adition is nearly finished.
We have contracted to build two double bank pedal
pipe organs: one for East Berkley, Pa., and one for
Schuylkill Haven, Pa.
We are getting out a new double bank pedal (reed
organ) that will take the cake whenever one is ex-
posed.
Our prospects a are very good and we look for a
boom from this time to Christmas.
We are adding new agencies all over the country
and what is better, when the merits of our instru-
ments aro once known these new friends will remain
with us. In this way our business has been built up
so solid that no competition can take it away from us.
MILLER ORGAN CO.
OSWEGO, N. Y., Nov. 10, 1836.
7th Street. About one year afterward I added No. 129
North 7th Street to my former quarters. Finding
my room still too small for my rapidly increasing
business, I moved to the largo and commodious
store-room, No. 815 Hamilton Street, which is the
principal business Street. I have a good, steady
trade right along, established by honest and fair
dealing.
I handle the Steinway, Decker Bros., Hallet &
Davis, Christie, Behr Bros, Opera and Newby &
Evans pianos; the Estey, Miller, Dyer & Hughes,
Sterling, Packard and other organs.
Yours respectfully,
E. S. MILLER.
ANSWERS TO INQUIRERS.
BALTIMORE, MD., NOV. 11, 1886.
MESSRS. BILL & CABR:
GENTLEMEN : Will you let me know, through the
columns of your valuable journal, where and how I
can obtain the authentic and standard American
pitch, for, as you know, tuning forks will wear, and
therefore one cannot depend on any one fork to ascer-
tain correctly ? A cornet is better, yet an inferior
cornet is worse. Can I not send an " A " fork and
have it tuned precisely by number of vibrations V
Yours truly,
MESSRS. BILL & CARR:
CORRESPONDENCE ON TUNING.
The following corespondenoe explains itself:
NEW ORLEANS, NOV. 1st, 1886.
MY DEAR FRIEND :
During your intercourse with mo in years gone by
you cannot have failed to notice that I have been
favored by kind providence with a very accurate ear
and a fine taste for music. It is time now that I
should look about and do something to earn my own
livelihood; and no business or trade would appear
to be better adaptod for my refined tastes and ex-
ceptional talents than that of piano-tuning. Know-
ing that you have grown gray in the many years that
you have been engaged as an "outside" tuner, I
thought that nobody could better advise me on this
important subject than you ; and if you considered it
to be advantageous for my future welfare, I intend
ed to go to New York and take a course of tuning
lessons in one of the large factories there.
Please answer at yonr earliest convenience, and
thanking you in advance for your kindness,
I remain your friend,
ALGERNON PTJMPKINHEAD.
D. G. PFELFFBB.
$
'
GENTS : In accordance with your request, I beg
leave to say that the firm of Peck & Schilling have
dissolved partnership since the first May Ia9t, and the
undersigned has continued the music and musical in-
struments trade since that time, and am happy to say
that business has been booming all summer, until a
few Weeks past, when trade has been a little dull,
but not so much as former years at the same time.
The prospects for a close ,f uture is very flattering.
Our farmers in Oswego Co. are prosperous and most
of them are becoming more and more inclined to
purchase instruments of some kind. My piano bus-
iness has been much better than that of the organ.
Musical merchandise in general has had quite a large
demand, in fact more so within this year than four
f or five years previous. My leading pianos are those
of Chickering, Hallet & Davis, Vose & Son, W. E.
Wheelock, etc. Those of organs are New England,
Shoninger, Whitney organ (Detroit), etc., and I
think that with the above mentioned instruments I
can give the best of satisfaction to my patrons.
Hoping that the above will be found sufficient. I
remain,
Yours etc.,
F. SCHILLING.
WATERLOO, N. Y., NOV 11, 1886.
There are two pitches—the Philharmonic and
French. The Philharmonic or orchestra pitch is %
tone higher than the French. The French pitch is pre-
ferred by vocalists. We do not know that there is such
a pitch as the American pitch. An instrument is
usually tuned to one of the two above named pitches.
If you have an " A " fork which is not correct send it
on to this paper and we will have it tested, and, if
possible, corrected.
PHILADELPHIA, NOV. 17, 1886.
EDITORS MUSIO TRADE EEVIEW:
GENTLEMEN : My trade has increased very much
the last three months in the pianos and organs, but
not so good in the sewing machine department; it
has fallen off greatly. There are a great many
people out of work ; some are out on strike and
others out through the manufacturers moving into
their new factories. In the part of the city where I
do my busine?s there has been a great many fac-
tories built during the last two or three years; so
you see the manufacturers expect a good business.
As for my part, I have laid in a large stock of pianos
aad organs in expectation of doing a big business
through the holidays.
Wishing the TRADE REVIEW success,
MESSES. BILL & CARR:
Yours respectfully,
GENTLEMEN : We have made and shipped more
organs in October than any other month since we
have been in business. Our Mr. Brown has just fin-
ished a trip through Pensylvania and Ohio and has
had splendid success.
If you will call and see me will " set it " up on a
young lady who arrived Saturday, Nov. 6, 1886.
MALCOLM LOVE.
PORTLAND, OREGON, NOV., 1, 1886.
MESSRS. BILL & CARE:
GENTS : Enclosed please find $3.00 for year's sub-
scription Music TRADE BEVIEW. Our piano and
organ trade is increasing. During the past year we
sold hundreds of Earhuff organs and have just re.
cently put the Burdott in our ware-rooms and intend
to push them in our trade. Our Steck pianos and
Peek & Son.'s "Operas" are growing into popular
favor throughout Oregon and Washington Territory.
We anticipate a good holiday trade.
Yours very truly,
*
new instrument. A long and useful life is predicted
for the melocipede.
WILEY B. ALLEN & Co.
ALLENTOWN, PA., NOV. 10, 1886.
MESSRS. BILL & CARR :
GENTLEMEN : Three music stores here: G. C.
Aschbach & Co., C. F. Herman and myself.
Aschbach & Co. handle the Baus, Kranich & Bach,
Mason & Hamlin and MoEwen Piano;" Mason &
Hamlin, Loring & Blake, Worcester and other
organs.
I opened a music store here.two years ago, having
moved from Emans, Pa. I first moved to 127 North
JOHN PIKE.
MUSICAL BYCICLES.
HE latest novelty in the line of musical instru-
ments is suggested in a recent musical jour-
nal. The word used to describe this new
idea is melociped.
The word can not yet be found in dictionaries, but
portrays very exactly the impression which the word
is intended to convey. It is derived from two Greek
words, melo, music andpes, a foot.
A melocipede is, therefore, a musical bycicle, so
constructed that the rider, without any extra exer-
tions beyond that necessary to propel his machine,
can pedal out sonatas, waltzes, marches, and, in fact,
any music which may suit his fancy as he wheels
along. There is a certain luxury about this instru-
ment which would make it popular at once-
The musical bycicle may, therefore, be considered
an established institution. Heretofore the only mu-
sic about a bycicle has been that made by a bugle or
a bell, and there has been, therefore, a great lack of
variety in the music produced. The melociped will,
Irowever, remedy all this. How much pleasanter
will be the warning of the approaching machine,
by hearing an air from " Trovatore," or perhaps one
of Wagner's airs, over the usual jingling of a bell.
And to the solitary rider the musical probabilities of
the instrument will be more than welcome. For a
bycicle club it will also be indispensible, as the club
can now wheel through the country to the music of
its own brass band. One advantage is that no pre-
vious knowledge will be required to play upon the
T
CHICAGO, NOV. 10th, 1886.
MY DEAR PUMPKINHEAD :
Yours of the first inst. came to hand. Yes, you
are right; my hair has grown gray as a \ "outside »
tuner, although I am comparatively quile a yonng
man; and if you don't know exactly just now why
this should be thus, you probably will k i w by the
time you get through with this letter. Certainly;
Piano-tuning Is a, nice, pleasant business; and if you
are sure that your nerves are manufactjied out ot
chilled steel and your patience is endless, like a cir-
cus-ring, you might try it awhile anyway. In order
to try and find out about your nerves and atience
you may try either one or all of tho following time-
tried recipes, warranted to give satisfaction in every
case or money refunded :
1. Tickle the hind legs of an able-bodied mule.
•2. Fool with a gun which you know isn't loaded.
3. Sit down on a red-hot stove with half a dozen
/
dynamite cartridges in your pant's pocket.
4. Attend a meeting of a Woman's Suffrage Con- "
vention.
If your system can withstand these shocks, (es-
pecially No. 4) without crippling you physioally and
mentally for life, then you stand a fine chance of be-
coming a successful "outside" tuner. Still there
are several small matters connected with the busi-
ness of "outside" tuning, which I think it my duty
to call your attention to before you throw away all
hopes of leading a better life and enter the main-,
road towards some lunatic asylum.
As an "outside" tuner you have to carry tools; the
tools you have to carry in some sort of a satchel and
the satchel you have to carry in your hand. When-
ever you ring the bell of a house where you are to
tune the door will always be opened by the hired
lady, and nineteen out of twenty of them will shut
it right before your very nose when they catch sight
of your satchel, making you feel like an orphan
with nobody to care for you, or like a candidate for
Congress on the Prohibition ticket the morning after
election. You will find that in pianos of the' 'square"
persuasion the dirt has accumalated to such an ex-
tent that with proper cultivation a crop of cabbages
and potatoes might easily be raised in them ; but you
will be expected to clean it out thoroughly; and you
must'nt forget to take out from under the metal
frame the various kinds of pins and needles, nut-
shells, soda-crackers, matches, buttons and shoe-
buttoners—in short all the merchandise that has
gathered itself together on the sounding-board since
the piano was fixed the last time -G to 10 years ago;
if you don't do it you can't expect the people to be-
lieve that you tuned the piano.
You will be expected to leave a box, made to look
like a piano by the "Great Universal Patent raffle-
trap Co.," sounding like a Steinway Grand; if yon
can't do it you will be set down as a poor tuner;
and right here please mako a note that the last
wealthy piano tuner known to history died just a lit-
tle before Mary Anderson started on her first annual
39X109
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
farewell tour, In these modern times a piano-tuner
with money is only possible if ho has won a prize in
the Louisianna State Lottery; you have reason to
know even better than myself th it this is almost, if
not quite, impossible. You will be expected to listen
attentively and with rapture, while the lady of the
house tell3 you all about how the piano first came
i lto the family, and how such a talent for music as
her daughter possesses has excited the admiration
of all the musio teachers for a distance of twenty
miles in circumference.
After you are through tuning, y m will always be
asked: " I s the piano awfully out of tune? " And you
are expected to respond in a cheerful and pleasant
manner that it was very much so. My young friend,
I carry with me a leather medal which I intend to
present to the first lady that does not ask me the
above question ; I have had it with me now for over
fifteen years; but alas! up to the present writing I
have Qot come across the 1 idy who might bo worthy
of the decoration; nor do I expect to meet her in
this life. The daughter of the house wiil always be
called on by'her mamma to try the piano in your
presence to see whether it is tuned ri^ht; and she
will invariably do so by playing either the 'Thunder
Storm," the -'Maiden's Prayer" in three-fourth time,
or "Silvery Waves" with the treble in A flat and the
bass in F sharp. Now do not for an instant imagine
that I have exaggerated matters in the slightest de.
gree Quite the contrary is the fact; and if time and
space permitted I could add about sixty-six more of
these pleasantries, which you willhave to put up with
without a murmer; but I don't want to discourage
you by any means.
Let me hear from you soon again; and wishing
you much success and happiness, I am
Your old friend,
JEREMIAH WIREPULLER.
HE SKIPPED WITH THE $200.
W
ALTER A. Church, piano tuner, and late of
R. J. McDowall's music store, went to
Napanee about two months ago. He sold a
piano at Colebrooke to C. Ward for a Napanee agent,
received $200, hired a man to drive him to Kingston,
and skipped across the border with the boodle. He
belonged to Binghampton, N. Y. Ward had to pay
twice for the piano.—Kingston (Canada) Daily News.
to the man who printed it there and not to him. By
the way, he carries a book of testimonials which show
him to have won the championship as a snorer. A
few days since he took a berth in a sleeping car and
fell asleep. He says he is ready to swear he did not
hear himself snore ; but others did. He had retired
very early, and the comm Mcinl travelers, who oocu-
pied most of the car, were told by the porter, whom
they implored to " shake that fellow up," that it was
a young lady of some seventeen summers who occu-
pied that lower berth. Morning came and all eyes
were turned to No. 8 to see what sort of snoring
houri was behind its curtains running opposition to
the locomotive. At last Solomons emerged, a good
200 pounds of masculine flesh, and it was well for
the porter that he was not just then in sight. A col-
lection was taken up, appropriate resolutions were
passed, a suitable memorial volume was purchased,
in which the resolutions were engrossed, and the
book is now held by Kranich & Bach's best man as
the championship belt or pennant for snoring.—
Kunkel'e Musical Review.
LISZT'S WILL.
PRIVATE letter received from Weimar tells
that Liszt's will has now been found. All his
money, including the savings which he depos-
ited with Rothschild, of Paris, will pass to his
natural daughter, Frau Cosima (Wagner's widow
and Dr. Von Bulow s divorced wife), and his grand-
child, the son of his natural daughter, Madame
Olllvier. The will is dated August, 1861. All his
music, letters, furniture and effects Liszt leaves to
the Princess Wittgenstein, whom he names residuary
legatee and depositary of his last wishes. Among
these effects are Mozart's harpisohord and Beet-
hoven's piano, both of which will probably be de-
posited in the single-storied house where Liszt lived
at Weimar, and which will now be the "Liszteum."
Liszt's private fortune is far larger than was sup-
posed.
A
MUSIC AS A HOME ATTRACTION.
T
A
H
J. SOLOMONS, the ever-genial superintendent
of agencies of Kranich & Bach, made us a
• pleasant call recently. Just by way of rec-
reation, while doing his other work, he had in two
weeks, since he had left New York on this trip, sold
126 pianos. Solomons is not much of a salesman (at
least, that is what he says), but his piano sells itself.
It is true that when he said he was not much of a
salesman we noticed a little card attached to his vest
with this legend upon i t : " I am something of a liar
myself." He, however, claims that the legend applies
{Scientific American )
The so-called malleable iron is not fit to make
castings of; it is as diflicult to melt as wrought iron.
You may melt steel at a very high heat.
Confine
your work to the melting of soft gray iron. Good
cast iron scrap, mixed with charcoal or Scotch pig,
will make good, sound castings.
KIND WORDS.
RICHMOND, VA., NOV. 10, 1886.
We wish you every success with your paper and
read it with much plaasure.
WALTER D. MOSES & Co.
JUNCTION CITY, KANSAS, NOV. 1), 1886.
MESSRS. BILL & CARR :
GBNTLEMEN : Herewith Hud N. Y. draft for $3 00
for subscription to TRADE REVIEW.
HERE is nothing that gives more pleasure, or
that can be enjoyed at less cost, than music.
Unlike most enjoyments, it leaves behind no
ill effect, nor is it followed by any disagreeable re-
PIANO TAX SUGGESTED FOR PARIS.
action. Music is at all times appropriate, for its
strains can be modulated to suit every condition of
NEW and strange crusade is being preached in
the human mind. It serves to cheer the drooping
Paris, where just now it is sought to turn a
spirits, to nerve the warring to deeds of valor, and it
source of nuisance into a source of revenue. soothes the anguish of a dying hour. In the home
Pianophobia has declared itself virulently in the circle the power is beyond estimate. For the in-
most unexpected quarters. M. Reyer, who is a
mates it supplies entertainment ever acceptable; to
member of the Institute, and himself a composer of
the young it does more; it constitutes a strong home
no mean ability, has drawn up a bill which, if passed,
attraction, and by its sweet influence more than one in-
will bring into the Treasury some 9,000,000 francs or
experienced youth has escaped the " tempter'8snare."
10,000,000 francs. His idea is to tax pianos. As a
Parents and those having charge of the education
nuisance they have lately got beyond all limits in
of children can bestow upon their offspring or wards
Paris. M. Reyer speaks pathetically of what he and
no more precious boon than a knowledge of music,
his fellow-countrymen have suffered from arrange-
whether parLial or thorough; for if one is only able
ments of " Guillaume T e l l " or " T h e Huguenots," to sing or play as a means of self-amusement, even
and says, indeed, with some truth, that such per-
that is worth all the time and money requisite for
formances have stifled music as an art. He proposes its attainment. — Loomis' Musical and Masonic
that 20 francs a year be paid as a license for the use Journal.
of each piano, the tax, however, only applying to the
capital. There are to be exemptions from its in-
RENDER UNTO SEIZERS THE THINGS
cidence. Governesses and persons who derive their
incomes from the study of music have not to pay the
WHICH ARE SCISSORS.
tax, and special cases may be made for relief from
it. If M. Reyer's suggestion is not carried out, it is
City Editor (to reporter)—"How thick is the ice on
proposed to make the playing of a piano in a room
the mill pond, Robinson? "
with an open window liable to a fine. Paris does not
Reporter—"About an inch."
in this case hesitate to take a hint from Germany.
C. E.—" Well, I saw a little boy going in that di-
Pall Mall Gazette.
rection with a pair of skates slung over his shoulder.
H. J. SOLOMONS AS A SNORER.
FACTORY SUGGESTIONS.
You had better saunter down that way."
Rep.—" Shall I stop him from going on the ice ? "
C. E., (with intense scorn) -•' Stop— him—from—
going—on—the—ice!
(Turning to speaking tube)
Cashier, pay off Robinson and discharge him.
We find the REVIEW one of the necessary adjuncts
to our business.
Yours truly,
S. W. PlEBCE & Co.
CHICAGO, 111., Nov. 16, 1886.
MESSRS. B I L L & CAKR, New York :
GENTLEMEN : We enclose check for $3.00 in pay-
ment of account, as per enclosed bill.
Pleat>e send us the REVIEW next year; we like it.
Truly yours,
C. A. SMITH & Co.
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.
Hamburg,
Pianos,
Copenhagen,
Organ Materials,
Liverpool,
Organs,
London,
Musical instrum'ts,
British possessions
in Africa,
Organs,
Br.t. West Indies, Piano,
"
Orguinette,
"
Organs,
"
Music,
Brit. Australia,
Organs,
"
Autophones
3
$1,900
4 cs.,
120
9
875
2 cs.,
585
2
1
1
5 cs.,
1 "
71
21 os.,
180
440
22
217
18
5,770
500
IMPORTS.
$18,488
250 packages,
MR. GEORGE STECK is on a Western trip, and doing
a fine business.
CHARLES M. S T I E F F , of Baltimore, was in town
last week.
THE
Musir TRADE REVIEW is indebted to Mr. J.
Alpeunte, of Chickering & Sons, for courtesies
shown our representative.
MR. ALFRED D. MOSES, of the firm of Walter D.
Moses & Co., Richmond, Va., is in the city, stocking
up for 1877. Hardman pianos and Kimball organs
have the call with this enterprising firm.
THE REYNOLDS COMBINATION PIANO MOVER
CONTROLS ALL PIANO M07IWG WHENEVEB USES,
end for circular ami terms to
R E Y N O L D S & TOMBLilN, D e K a l b , 111.
MANUFACTURER OF
"Grand, Square & Upright Action,

(ESTABLISHED 1851.)
113 BROADWAY, CAMBRIDCEPORT, MASS.

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