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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
instrument manufacturers, was tendered a ban-
quet, at which he delivered an interesting
speech, part of which he devoted to scoring Mr.
Thacher's system of awards. He could not
quite see the value of a system which placed the
most ordinary {vulgairo) article on a par with
one of the greatest works of art, and wound up
by eulogizing the French exhibitors who, at
enormous sacrifices, without any hope of recom-
pense but the satisfaction of having served one
of the great French industries. They deserved
to have their names inscribed in words of gold
as the faithful sons of the Republic."
jjj|p>N connection with the grand operatic testi-
GT® 8 monial which is to be given to Sir Augustus
Harris, the well-known impressario of London,
by the leading men of the musical and dramatic
world, we learn, from recent cable news, that
among the many beautiful and valuable prizes
contributed are three grand pianofortes of the
kind Queen Victoria owns, by Messrs. Steinway
& Sons. They will be competed for by the
scholars of the Royal Academy of Music, the
scholars of the Royal College of Music and the
scholars of the Guildhall School of Music.
These Steinway grands are encased in frames of
great magnificence and of artistic designs here-
tofore unknown in Great Britain. The compe-
tition will undoubtedly be a very spirited one.
requires more than luck nowadays to ele-
vate a business concern which has labored
under commercial disadvantages to a strong
position—it requires rare business tact. Few
houses serve to exemplify this trait better than
Behning & Sons. The conservative and intelli-
gent manner with which they worked along to
maintain the credit and standing of their house
deserves the highest commendation, and it has
-•a
won them many new friends. During the dull
season they never relaxed the closest attention
to business and as a result they will open the
new year with encouraging prospects. They are
enjoying a fair trade and it is hardly surprising,
for the Behning piano is an old favorite with
the dealers. The recent retirement of Mr. Albert
Behning makes no material change in the per-
sonnel of the business. Mr. Gustave Behning
an extremely popular young man, assumes the
position lately occupied by Mr. Albert Behning
as road representative
trouble between Mr. Walter Damrosch
and the Musical Union over the admit-
tance of his recently imported 'cellist, Anton
Hegner, culminated Thursday night in the re-
fusal of the Union to suspend their six months'
rule and allow Mr. Hegner to play with the
Symphony Orchestra, and the resignation of
Mr. Damrosch. The action of this body—the
majority of whose members occupied a position
similar to that which Mr. Hegner is placed in
to-day—is characteristic, and the aim and pur-
poses of this organization is well summed up
in the characteristic reply of one of its mem-
bers, Mr. Nesbett, to Mr. Damrosch's courteous
request: "Art be
; we are in this thing
for dollars and cents." Self respect could not
allow Mr. Damrosch any other course but to re-
sign. We only hope that the narrow-minded
policy of this musical trust will not necessitate
the disbandment of the Symphony Orchestra.
It would be a decided loss to musical advance-
ment in the metropolis.
Courier, in this week's issue, uncon-
sciously calls the attention of the members
of the trade to a point that we have long since
emphasized and practically adopted as a true
conception of the definite mission of a music
trade paper such as THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
It says, in mentioning what prominent members
of the trade like: "The.se men read a music
trade paper to learn what is going on in the
music trade. Is there is not enough going on in
the trade to fill a music trade trade paper once a
week ? ''
That is what we say ! It has been our argu-
ment time and time again. This is the specialty
age, and the members of the trade are best
served by getting the news from a paper that is
exclusively devoted to their interests. That is
the mission of THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, and
on these lines it has succeeded. It covers the
interests of the trade in a clean, crisp and com-
prehensive manner. It is not always that we can
agree with our contemporary, but in the above
quotation it '' hits the nail on the head.''
gjgOHN BO YD THACHER is in hot water;
(§/• at least he is applying hot water bandages
to his weary brain trying to hunt up a new
mathematical rule by which he will be enabled
to make 50,000 gold medals allowed by the
United States Government to successful exhibi-
tors, suffice for the 80,000 to whom Mr. Thach-
er thought in his sublime opinion were deserv-
ing of awards. Although Mr. Thatcher is a
surprisingly smart kind of a fellow we fear he
will hardly succeed in accomplishing this hercu-
lean task, hence 30,000 expectant awardees will
be practically "left out in the cold." Mr.
Thacher has such autocratic power and has
done so many extraordinary things that we will
watch with interest the outcome of the dilemma.
One thing, however, all the firms who get
awards cannot rely upon receiving medals, and
the parties receiving medals will, as a matter of
course, consider their wares of surprising merit.
What will the whole affair resolve itself into ?
And now he is coming to Washington, just the
place for a purist like Mr. Thacher to get cor-
rupted.
<»t» contained many notices regarding Alfred
Dolge & Son ; the closing down of their mills
at Dolgeville; the removing of their plant to
Germany, etc. It is hardly probable that Alfred
Dolge & Son will close down their mills for an
"indefinite period," or that they will immed-
iately arrange for the opening of a factory in
Germany. It is impossible for the felt business,
or any other business, for that matter, to resume
its normal status until the tariff question is out
of the way. Business concerns will not buy at
protection prices, owing to the probability of
having to sell at a greatly reduced basis, and
manufacturing will not produce goods for a
doubtful market, in the probability of having to
sell on an entirely different basis from that of
manufacturers. The present condition is that
the dealer is buying only such goods as a certain
demand justifies, and the manufacturer is forced
to run accordingly. Stagnation follows, and
will continue until the cause is removed ; and
the underlying cause of the business depression
now existing in this country is the uncertainty
which has prevailed, for more than a year, about
the tariff.
j g A W V E R JEROME BUCK, of 108 West
Gi^P I32d street, this city, has, apparently, no
soul for music—that is, classical music, and has
appealed to the Board of Health to prevent Mrs.
Hough, a next door neighbor, from continu-
ously playing on the piano, from 8 in the morn-
ing till 10 at night, to his great damage and loss
of peace of mind. Mr. Buck could not be con-
vinced of the truth of Shakespeare's quotation,
"Music hath," etc., and he has placed the
matter before Gen. Clark of the Health Board.
Mrs. Hough has retaliated by intimating that
the lawyer doesn't know the difference between
Wagner and " Daddy wouldn't Buy me a Bow-
Wow," and she said to a reporter: " I am a
student of music, and I play nothing but classi-
cal pieces. I am an early riser, so I often begin
right after breakfast, but never before eight
o'clock. At night I play until 10. Now, I'll tell
you what Mr. Buck and his family do. They have
a piano. It's a rattlety bang concern that
hasn't been tuned for ages. On that machine I
have known them to thump for a half hour run-
ning without one correct note. It would be a
mere jumble of sounds ; but I suppose they did
it merely to annoy me. "
The very interesting question here arises;
which is the most injurious—the half hour of
'' thumping on a piano that hasn't been tuned for
ages " or the fourteen hours of a high-class
repertoire played upon a good piano, which Mr.
Buck claims is under mining his peace of mind ?
Rather an abstruse and complex question for
"sanitary officers " to decide.
WINNING ITS WAY.
§
ROM time to time we notice that consider-
able ado is made about overproduction of
pianos, and a consequent necessity for selling at
low prices, etc. It seems to us that if there is
an overproduction of " c h e a p " pianos, which
cannot find a market, it is a costly object lesson
for their manufacturers that could easily have
been avoided if an effort was made to raise the
standard of the instrument, for a medium grade
piano, if it is a good instrument, can always
maintain its price—and a living price at that.
It is a simple illustration of an accepted econ-
omic and scientific law. The fittest must
survive, even in the piano line.
We have a case in point in the progress of the
Claflin Piano Company, one of the bright young
houses of the trade. At the start they recog-
nized that in order to win a distinct place in the