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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
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though, in the plenitude of his knowledge of all matters
connected with the music trade, he must have known
that Mr. McEwen does not stencil pianos, In the last
ESTABLISHED J A N V A H \ . U t O
THE*MUSICAL*COURIER,
issue of the Music TRADE REVIEW we set forth in its
true light this McEwen matter, and published docu
ments which convey the most convincing proof of the
excellent relations existing between McEwen and
Grunewald & Co. At the same time we asked what was
the Couriers object in casting slurs upon McEwen, and
in indulging in misleading remarks concerning the na-
ture of his business operations. The Courier has not
answered our question. We did not expect that it
would. We will suggest the only possible answer by
pointing to the fact that McEwen does not advertise in
the Courier. And in order further to indicate the ani-
mus of the Courier in this affair, and further to illustrate
the sort of relation that exists between Grunewald &
Co. and McEwen, we publish the following letters, which
speak for themselves:
BLUMENBERG & FLOERSHEIM. EOITORS AND PROPRIETORS,
No. 2 5 EAST FOURTEENTH STREET,
PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY,
SUBSCRIPTION, $4 00 >•£» « ™ »
GRUNEWALD TO MCEWEN.
£&> • ,/Kie^*-<*4.
NEW ORLEANS, April 8, 1889.
MR. C. C. MCEWEN,
New York:
DEAR SIR: We have your favor of 5th inst. and note
contents fully. The editors of the Musical Courier had
a notice in one of their recent issues " that we endorse
the McEwen piano as being the nearest to perfection
&c." That we could not do as it would ruin our trade,
and people here would soon lose confidence in us. As
you know we handle many first-class pianos. We must,
however, admit that your piano is fully worth the money
we pay for it, and it is well finished and has a good tone
and seems to stand well, and we are satisfied that it will
suit our expectations.
* * * * *
We acknowledge your liberality in advertising and will
do what we can for you.
*
*
*
*
*
We do not approve of the manner in which certain news-
papers make a living, but it seems to us that if what they
say about your business is not true, you have a good case
of " libel" against them. We have no intention of in-
juring you in any way or doing you the slightest injus-
tice in our communications to the Musical Courier, and
shall write them by this mail.
*
*
* *
Yours very truly,
Louis GRUNEWALD & Co.
On this page we reproduce, in reduced fac-slmile, a
letter written by this high-souled editor to Herlich &
Co., of Paterson, N. J,, in March 1887. There is no
doubt about it. We have seen some hundreds of Mr.
Blumenberg's signatures, and will forfeit five hundred
dollars if he can prove that he did not write, with his
own hand, the letter of which we publish this reduced
copy. Well what of it ? Simply this. At the date of
this letter, in which Blumenberg & Floersheim quote
prices for advertisements to " Herlich, or Swick, or
whatever the name of the concern is," Herlich & Co.
were Stenciling pianos. At the present time they assure
us they are not.
Herlich, or Swick, or whoever he is, declined, as was
perfectly within his right, to favor Mr. Blumenberg's
paper with an ad., and th'erefore this pure, public-
spirited, virtuous editor has, since March, 1887, con-
stantly and adversely criticised the Paterson firm.
Let us proceed to relate other facts in the recent
career of this apostle of the purification of trade from
the evil of stenciling. Two or three years ago the
Courier carried the advertisement of Horace Waters.
None but the most glowing and laudatory terms were,
in those days, good enough for Horace and his pianos.
But when Horace withdrew his advertisements the
Courier turned the tables on him, and now he and his
wares are not deserving of a single word of praise.
Plenty of our readers are in a position to declare
whether or not Horace Waters and his pianos are as
good as they were two or three years ago.
Surely the trade must realize how utterly valueless
are the "opinions" of a so-called trade editor who only
praises the goods of dealers and manufacturers as long
as such goods are advertised in his columns. To put
it in a nut-shell, Blumenberg says, in effect, " When
piano-makers advertise in the Courier, their pianos are
excellent. When they don't, their pianos are trash."
And this critic is never tired of declaring upon the
house-tops that he is the only trade journalist who un-
derstands the construction of pianos ; the only trade
editor whose opinion in regard to music trade matters
is worth seeking. A strange mixture of conceit and
apparent hypocrisy ! What reliance can be placed upon
the statements of such a man ?
" We would not, under any circumstances, handle a
stencil piano." " This," says Blumenberg, "should be the
motto of every firm in the piano and organ trade."
Was it his motto when he was a member of the piano-
dealing firm of Blumenberg Brothers, of Baltimore ?
Oh, no ; the stencil horse was of a very different color
then ! For years he sold pianos in Baltimore, stenciled
Blumenberg Brothers.
We can prove this assertion at
any time, and also produce one of the pianos so stenciled,
and which was sold by Marc A. Blumenberg
in person.
Not being able to make a piano, notwithstanding all
his boasted knowledge, he lied to the public in stencil.
Again, if Blumenberg considers it disgraceful to handle
a stencil piano, how can he reconcile his tender conscience
to the carrying of advertisements of stencilers in the
Courier? Several stencilers have continuously adver-
tised in that paper—a strange circumstance, surely,
when we consider how fearfully tainting and defiling a
thing is the stencil, even in its mildest form !
Recently, in commenting upon an advertisement in-
serted by C. C. McEwen in a Southern paper, in which
Louis Grunewald & Co., of New Orleans, were referred
to as selling the McEwen pianos, the Courier sought to
cast the stigma of the stencil upon Mr. McEwen, al-
GRUNEWALD TO BLUMENBERG.'
NEW ORLEANS, April 8, 1889.
Messrs. BLUMENBERG & FLOERSHEIM,
25 East 14th street.
DEAR SIRS: We do not care to do any one an injus-
tice, and we think in publishing our letter regarding the
" McEwen ad." in the Daily States of New Orleans you
have done them wrong.
McEwen makes a piano fully worth the price we pay
for it. It has a good tone and is well finished, and is bet-
ter than some pianos we had paid higher prices for. We
never knew of any stencil piano made by McEwen, and
they claim that every piano they turn out has their
name on iron plate. Every music house in the country
carries a cheap piano and we try to get the best made
for the price. We do not approve of the wording of the
"ad" in Daily States above our name, but we misrep-
resent nothing to our customers. The pianos we handle
sell upon their merits. We handle the " Steinway,,'
" Knabe," "Sohmer," "Behr " and other standard pianos,
and if a customer wants a fine piano or a cheap piano,
they come to us and they know in advance, "Fair deal-
ings and no misrepresentation" is our motto.
Yours truly,
Louis GRUNEWALD & Co.
Mr. Blumenberg issued The Courier, in the ordinary
course of things, on the 17th inst. Messrs. Grunewald's
letter was written on the 8th inst., and a copy of it was
in our hands on the 13th inst. Why has Mr. Blumen-
berg not published this communication?
We leave our readers to draw their own inferences as
to the omission.
,
We will now glance for a moment at some of Mr.
Blumenberg's transactions and statements in regard to
the Henry F. Miller & Sons' Piano Co. In past years
this firm advertised extensively in The Musical Courier.
During the continuance of such advertising patronage