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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
HALIFAX, N. S., March 4, 1887.
MESSBH. BILL & CAER :
GENTLEMEN : Enclosed I hand you a post office
order for $3, in payment of a year's subscription to
your paper, which is bad enough, gracious knows, but
you can console yourself with the fact that it could
be worse, and that there are worse music papers, and
as bad as it is a great many of us pay willingly three
dollars per annum for it. Of course we could all tell
you how to make it better.
Trade and traffic. Well, it has been fair to mid-
dling dull in Jan. and Feb. We have had regular
New England weather, and a good many and all
other kinds, particularly a good many kinds, the
thermometer skipping up and down in a most amaz-
ing manner. Then we have been in the throes of a
general election, the most exciting since the confed-
eration of the British provinces in 1867. The outs
raised the secession cry, which is the edge of the
wedge of annexation, but the Union and Protection-
ist party was sustained. Therefore Uncle Sam will
not get this rich little province of Nova Scotia for a
while yet excuse the digression, but it is one of in-
terest to manufacturers—excitement was intense;
you could not give some people a piano or an organ
(except a political organ). I only managed to give
away (for a consideration) about 40 pianos and or-
gans in Jan. and Feb. Prospects appear good from
this time for a good trade. I rented and sold 300
pianos and organs in 1886. The Halifax Piano and
Organ Co. are fitting up fine new warerooms, which
they will move into in a few days. Halifax will
then have two large, fine piano establishments.
Very truly,
W. H. JOHNSON.
BRANDON, WIS., March 12, 1887.
MESSRS. BILL & CARR :
GENTLEMEN : This section of country has been over-
run with " Dealers," (so-called) who were not re-
sponsible for «my small amount, who got their goods
on the "consignment plan " and of course paid con-
signment prices and would sell to any one on install-
ment plan,and after a time perhaps take the goods
back and re-sell and slaughter prices, and finally run
behind ; and the Company backing them would come
and "snuff them out." This thing seems to be chang-
ing now, and a man who buys good goods at the fac-
tories for spot cash, can find good, well-to-do cus-
tomers, and trade is healthy here.
Yours respectfully,
H. D. WHITE.
MEMPHIS, TENN., March 15, 1887.
MESSRS. B I L L & CARR :
GENTLEMEN : I send you an extract, verbatim, from
a letter I recently received from one of our custom-
ers, who sends us an accordeon to be repaired :
" Let me draw your attention to a note in the lower
octave. I cannot designate better than to ask you to
play the song 'Sweet Bye and Bye' in that octave.
When you come to the word ' than ' in the first line,
that note is incorrect, also the other two notes. We
are both musicians." What do you think of this?
We have been more successful with the Kroeger &
Sons and the Sterling pianos than any we have ever
handled before. Trade is very good.
Yours
H. G. HOLLENBEKG.
KNOXVILLE, TENN., March 14, 1887.
MESSRS. BILL & CARR :
DEAR SIRS : Mr. Traoy, representing the Starr piano,
has just visited me in the interest of the firm he so
ably represents and telegraphed the manufacturers to
send me quite a number of these beautiful instru-
ments for my new and elegant room.
This new discovery in the starry firmament shines
very brightly in this locality and delights its fortu-
nate possessor. I never hear anything but praise of
this worthy instrument. Everybody likes it.
Later. The real estate boom has struck us so hard
that I have re-rented (temporarily), my new store-
room for only three months to a syndicate of capital-
ists. Consideration : money and accommodation.
Yours respectfully,
J. A. GILBERT.
MONTPELIER, VT., March 11, 1887.
MESSRS. BILL & CARR, New York :
GENTLEMEN: Ourtradein organ springs wasnever
better at this season of the year, from which we
judge that our customers arejhaving ajgood busi-
ness. Our foreign trade is also Increasing.
Yours truly,
SABIK MACHINE CO*
AN OLD AND PROSPEROUS CONCERN,
BERNARD SHONINGER, THE FOUNDER
OF THE B. SHONINGER ORGAN
AND PIANO CO.
WHAT ENERGY AND PERSEYERENCE
WILL ACCOMPLISH.
T is with pleasure that we call attention of our
readers to the remarkable success of the B.
Shoninger Organ and Piano Co., New Haven,
Conn. For many years this house has held an envi-
able position in the piano and organ trade, gained
through strict, fair and honest dealings with the
dealers, together with the excellence of the goods
manufactured. The head of the house, Mr. Bernard
Shoninger, is of a conservative nature, yet never
backward in grasping any new idea whereby the in-
struments made may be improved. His long experi-
ence in manufacturing has enabled the firm to build
up one of the largest manufacturing establishments
in the piano and organ trade.
An illustrated history of the city of New Haven,
which has recently been published, gives euch an
exact description of Mr. Shoninger and his house,
that we reproduce it below :
I
BERNARD SHONINGER.
Like the majority of the prominent men of this
progressive age, Bernard Shoninger is the "archi-
tect of his own fortune." Born in Bavaria, Germany,
in 1828. He came to America in 1841, the possessor
of nothing of visible value, except his scanty baggage
and money to the amount of fourteen dollars and
fifty cents. His most reliable capital, however, con-
sisted in his native integrity and enterprise, for the
exercise and development of which, the United States
afforded an inviting field. Active and venturesome
Mr. Shoninger, casting about for a profitable chan-
nel into which to direct his business enterprise and
sagacity, soon centred hi8 attention upon the manu-
facture of organs and pianos, then in a somewhat un-
stable condition, and with scarcely a promise of its
subsequent importance.
In 1850 he founded the B. Shoninger Organ Com-
pany. The business of the concern, like many others
now of magnitude and world-wide celebrity, was at
first small and unimportant, except for its influence
upon the future of its projector, and the immense
trade in which it has become so conspicuous a factor.
During the succeeding years, down to the present
the Shoninger Company has amply done its part in
the development of the organ and piano manufacture
and trade throughout our own country, and the world
at large. At the outset, Mr. Shoninger laid down for
his guidance certain principles pertaining chiefly to
the character of the goods manufactured, demanding
the best material, the most skillful workmanship,
and the finest finish internally and externally. To
the many practical inventions emanating from his
own skill and experience, Mr. Shoninger has added
every valuable improvement made by his compeers,
and year by year the B. Shoninger Company has
steadily advanced, crowning excellence with excel-
lence, until their Instruments are renowned through-
out the civilized world.
Mr. Shoninger has taken position with the most
distinguished of those well known manufacturers,
who have made their way against countless difficul-
ties, to the highest commercial and social station.
Honest, pushing and industrious, he has steadily
kept in advance of the times, and with far-seeing sa-
gacity, has been fully prepared to grasp opportuni-
ties, and battle with obstacles as they presented
themselves. It was his upright, unswerving enter-
prise that, during the earlier history of his house,
advanced it to a position of prominence among those
of its kind in America; and it is owing no less to his
ripe experience and able counsel, than to the sturdy
business daring of his associates, that it is now class-
ed with the leading musicalinstrumentmanufacturing
firms of the world. A noted musical writer and critic
has referred to Mr. Shoninger as "one of the most re-
spected and certainly one of the wealthiest manu-
facturers in the trade," and this may be regarded as
a concise summary of the merited personal results of
his long years of hard-working application to one
object, to the furtherance of which, he has conscien-
tiously devotedjremarkablejenergy and perseverance,
rare skill and judgment, and an unquestioned com-
mercial integrity that has caused his name and word
to be regarded as literally, "as good as his bond."
The acknowledged musical ability and culture of
his two sons, Simon B., and Joseph Shoninger, rpn-
der them peculiarly fitted to assist him in the diffi-
cult and purely technical department of construc-
tion and improvement, which both in the organ ami
piano, on the part of the Shoninger Company, have
been many. One of the most notable was the intro-
duction <>f a chime of bells, upon which a patent was
obtained in 1875. The Shoningers are quiet and con-
servative, and, though enterprising in the highest
degree, eschew all boastful show and parade, depend-
ing upon the excellence of their instruments, to win
them customers wherever introduced. Together they
have brought their immense business to a wonderful
degree of perfection.
For considerably more than a third of a century,
identified with the prosperity of New Haven, not
alone as the head of his own great establishment, but
by his incidental connection with other important
enterprises, and as a real estate owner, Mr. Shoninger
is recognized as a prominent and public spirited citi-
zen, and one of the most liberal of employers. Many
tokens of public and official approbation have been
bestowed upon him.
Mr. Shoninger is essentially liberal and helpful in
all the relations of life, an honor to the city of his
adoption, to the prosperity of which he has so gen-
erously contributed ; the revered head of the great en-
terprise he has founded and managed with such signal
ability, and respected by his fellow citizens, and
loved at his own fireside. Few men nearing the close
of life's journey, have greater cause for self-congratu-
lation than he. He has been eminently successful,
and so honorably and uprightly has he borne him-
self, that his reputation is untarnished before the
world. His fight has been well fought, and the vic-
tory nobly won.
THE COUNTRY BOY.
HE country lad who is trained to simple ways
and homely virtues, and who learns what a
dollar is worth, by actually earning it, undrr
the laws of imperative necessity, has a tremendous
advantage over the town boy. The country schools
are far inferior to the town or city schools, but this
is counterbalanced by the fact that the country boy
is trained to work from the time he can pick up corn-
cobs to run the kitchen stove, till he ^oes out to his
own home. The country boy has a mile or so of
walk to and from school, which give him vigorous
appetite and health. The country boy or girl is face
to face with practical realities. He sees how slowly
money is made on the farm ; he is taught from youth
up the need of economy; he has the nature of saving
first explained to him every day in the week ; he is
not exposed to the temptation of the saloon or the
ballroom ; he is not tempted so much to be a lady's
man before he has occasion to use a razor on his
downy cheeks. He may be a trifle rude, he may not
feel easy in company, but in the long, closely contest-
ed race of life, it is the chap who trudges to school
bare-footed in summer and in stogas in winter,
whose mother cuts hair with sheep-shears, that
leads the chap that goes to the city school with the
starched shirt front and fancy slippers, and whose
head is shaved with the lawn-mower in the barber-
shops. Such has been our observation, and we think
we know what we are talking about. Speaking from
experience, we never read any books with such avid-
ity as those we devoured while the horses were rest-
ing at the end of the plowland. The boys we envied
forty years ago, because they wore cassiraere and
laughed at our jeans, have-dropped so far back In
the race that we have almost forgotten them. The
chaps who had plenty of money at college, and the
city-bred fellows, have not been, as a rule, heard
from much since; while the country boys, who wore
plain clothes and kept close to their books in the
old college, are leading the thought in Iowa and
other states to-day.—Iowa Homestead.
T
THE new invention, the tone muffler, of Mr. Paul
Gmehlin, of Behr Bros. & Co., Is being received by
the trade enthusiastically, and although the firm has
been manufacturing them but a short time the de-
mand has been far in excess of the supply.