Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Music Trade REVIEW.
The Only Music Trade Paper in America, and the Organ of the Music Trade of this Country.
IF 1
VOL. IX. No. 22.
m. cL © cL
1879.
NEW YORK, JUNE 20 TO JULY 5, 1886.
S3.00 PER YEAR.
SINGLE COPIES. IB CENTS.
PUBLISHED * TWICE * EACH * MONTH.
OF COURSE THEY BIT.
Can be seen to-day or during the week. Box to
ship.
W E L L E S & BILL,
THE BLEECKER STREET CROOK'S SIMPLE SCHEME TO
T ADY WILL SELL CARVED UPRIGHT PIANO-
-L^ FORTE, city maker, great bargain. Apply
East
Street, near Second Avenue.
KEEP THE WOLF FROM THE DOOR.
EDITORS AND PBOPBIETOHB.
WILL. G. CARR,
ASSOCIATE EDITOR.
22 EAST 17th STREET, NEW YORK.
SUBBCBIPTION (including postage) United States and Canada,
$3.00 per year, in advance; Foreign Countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per insertion;
unless Inserted upon rates made by special contract.
Entered at the New Fork Pott Office at Second Class Matter.
ANOTHER SWINDLER COMES TO GRIEF.
S we stated a few Issues ago, piano manufac-
turers and dealers of this city have been
annoyed for some time by complaints coming
to them of thefts from residences, by a man claiming
that he had been sent by the manufacturer to tune
the piano. The impostor would go to a house,
having first ascertained that it contained a piano of
a certain make, and represent that he had been sent
by the concern who sold the piano to tune it.
Having obtained an entrance to the house, the
fraud would steal anything he could lay his hand
on, and, in a great many instances, he " pinched "
some very valuable property—diamond rings, brace-
lets, jewelry, and bric-ii-brac of all kinds.
A
HE Bleecker street crook stood on the top step
of his home, just around the corner from
Police Headquarters, holding a somewhat
worn copy of a country newspaper in one hand. On
the local news page of the paper was a small adver-
tisement, surrounded by a big blue mark, which
some one had made to draw attention to the adver-
tisement. He showed it to a friend who came along.
It read :
T
/COUNTRY MERCHANTS IN TROUBLE. Assist-
V^ ance given to those financially embarrassed, on
the most favorable terms ; it is worth your while to
write to us in confidence. WHIG & CO., Brokers,
Bleecker street, N. Y.
" What's the game? " was asked.
"Simple enough. I placed those advertisements
in a thousand papers at once thoughout the South
and West, at a cost of $50. I was astonished to find
what an immense number of country merchants were
in need of assistance. I got 1,728 answers to the ad-
vertisement. It makes my hand ache to think of
the work I did writing answers. But I persevered.
Letters are better than circulars. I told each man in
confidence that I had, by bribery, secured wax im-
pressions of the genuine greenback $5 plates, and was
prepared to supply $5 bills in any quantity, at twenty-
Being a young man of good address, he readily five cents on the dollar to those who would assert on
obtained an entrance to the residences of his vic- honor that they were In absolute need of money to
tims, and would always go to a house in the middle tide over present financial distress. The price to all
of the day, when he thought the male occupants were others was fifty cents on the dollar, and but $1,000
away. Despite the numerous complaints which worth would be sold to any one person."
poured in to police head-quarters and to the piano
"Bite? "
dealers, the young man carried on his thievery until,
"Certainly.
I think you must give me credit for
by accident—the result of his own carelessness—he
came to grief. He stole a ring valued at $350 from originality in my methods of obtaining the names of
a lady here in the city, but before he left the house people most likely to be tempted by my bait; and, of
he dropped a letter which gave a clue to his identity. course, such genius as mine never goes wholly un-
It was directed to William Williams, and was a rewarded. The sums realized will serve to keep the
gushy effusion from his betrothed, a young lady of wolf from tho door for six months."
So that, after all, the killing of Jack Davis, the saw-
good connections, who evidently did not know the
calling her lover pursued. The letter was placed in dust swindler, does not seem to have put people on
Inspector Byrnes' hands, who had the young lady their guard very much. Inspector Byrnes yesterday
informed of her lover's character, and she without told the reporter who writes this, that there were
hesitation gave his address, and ho was immediately just as many complaints about this class of swind-
arrested. The property stolen, the value of which it lers as ever. Instead of growing wiser, people seem
is impossible to state, was invariably pawned ; and actually to grow more foolish. A swindle that has
Williams, who after his arrest seemed very repent- flourished for a long time past, consists in selling,
ant, went around to the numerous pawnbrokers in from some so-called "private house," a nearly new
company with a detective, so that probably most of piano, that "cost $900 a few months ago," for about
the property, the value of which is thousands of dol- $200. Those who purchase pianos in response to
lars, will be recovered. Inspector Byrnes says the advertisements of this class in the Herald and World,
young man's name is not Williams, and that he is are invariably swindled. The " $900 piano," did not
respectably connected. We give below a partia Hist cost more than $100 to build, and in reality is
of Williams' victims, with the value of property not worth house room. The wood is green and un-
stolen from each : Mrs. Oakley, No. 251 West One seasoned, and in six months' time will crack and
Hundred and Twenty-sixth Street, $000 ; Samuel split; the wires will hardly stand in tune for a week;
Heard, No. 137 West One Hundred and Twenty- the action is " faked," and will soon come all to
seventh Street, jewelry worth $1,100 ; Mrs. A. Woods,
pieces. Beware of the " private house piano racket,"
No. 152 West One Hundred and Thirty-third Street,
$120; J. Lord, No. 153 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, whatever you do. A single issue of the Herald of a
$150; J. Lackland, No. 21 Spencer Place, Brooklyn, recent date contained about half a dozen " ads." of
$200; J. T. Tryer, No. 428 West Sixty-first Street, this class. They read as follows, the addresses, of
$30 in cash; Mrs. R. F. Pringt, No. 519 West One course, being suppressed:
Hundred and Fourth Street, $100; H. W. Dowling,
.—BEING OBLIGED TO MAKE AN EXTEN-
No. 232 West One Hundred and Twenty-third Street,
SIVE TOUR, lady will sell magnificent rose-
$80; Thomas Howe, Fourteenth Street, near Third wood cabinet upright Piano, 1% octaves, overstrung,
Avenue, $25; inmates of Connecticut Flat, Ninety- iron plate, used five months, warranted five years by
fourth 8treet and Lexington Avenue, $35 ; Kate Fox, maker, cost $800, for $200, including Stool and Cover.
No. 371 West Eighty-third Street, $300.
Call at private residence, 125 West
Street.
A
SACRIFICE.-UPRIGHT, ALMOST NEW,
A T $135,
cost $350, owner embarrassed. Apply
Room 3, East
Street.
ILL SACRIFICE MY UPRIGHT PIANO,
New Five Months ago, for cash. Call
West
Street.
W
It is pleasant to see that at least one leading
piano house has the courage to warn the public
in plain terms against this species of fraud. Haines
<& Co., of Broadway and Seventeenth Street, adver-
ti.-e in the Herald in very plain terms. They say:
B EWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE!
A WORD TO THE UNSUSPECTING PURCHASER.
BEWARE of all PIANOS advertised for sale at
PRIVATE HOUSES in connection with Furniture.
These PIANOS are advertised to have cost from 600
to 900 dollars five or six months ago, and will now
be sold for $200.
TO THE UNSUSPECTING, WE WILL SAY
THAT WE WILL GIVE $250 IN CASH FOR ANY
FIRST-CLASS UPRIGHT PIANO WHICH CAN BE
PROVEN TO HAVE COST $900 SIX MONTHS
AGO ; AND WE WILL ALSO SAY THAT WE
CAN SELL A NEW PIANO FOR $172.50 AND
UPWARD, ACCORDING TO THE SELECTION.
You can therefore see how absurd it is to pay
$200 for a piano that is claimed to have cost $900 six
months ago, when you can BUY A NEW PIANO
FOR $172.50.
A WORD TO THE WISE IS SUFFICIENT, and
we again repeat, BEWARE of all pianos offered for
sale in PRIVATE (mock auction) HOUSES, together
with household furniture, which is replaced as fast
as disposed of.
Haines & Co. are certainly as good as their word,
for a reporter for this paper who looked over their
stock, in the guise of a prospective customer, found
that it included Haines Bros., Dunham, Weber,
Chambers, Billings, Lighte, Grovesteen & Fuller,
and other well-known instruments, at remarkably
low prices—from $105 up to $1,000. Readers of this
paper, who want to buy a good instrument at a low
price, should by all means visit Haines & Co.—New
York Sun.
DISSOLUTION OF CO-PARTNERSHIP.
OTICE Is hereby given that the co-partnership
heretofore existing between Daniel E. Frasier
and Alpheus K. Smith, under the firm name
of Frasier & Smith, at No. 330 Main street, Cam-
brldgeport, Mass., has this day been dissolved by
mutual consent. Said Fraaier has assumed and will
settle the affairs of the late firm.
N
D. E. FRASIER,
ALPHEUS K. SMITH.
Cambridge, May 81, 1886.
The business of the late firm of Frasier and Smith
will be continued by the undersigned at the same
place, where the old accounts are kept and settle-
ments are to be made.
D. E. FRASIER.
Cambridge, May 31, 1886.