Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
and his friends have no intention of dropping
out of sight, and as a moralist and a reformer
Colonel Bacon has few, if any, superiors. He
doesn't require a pedometer to discover how
much further along on the track he is than when
he started for his goal, and the machinery of his
energy is tireless and without a flaw. The
wheels of the Colonel's canvass will continue to
go around all summer and the lightning rod of
no candidate has been tempered in a furnace of
more fiery Republicanism.
OLGEVILLE has been in gala dress for the
past few days in honor of the thousands
of Turners who have held their great annual
Turnfest in that rising town. According to the
reports in the daily papers, the event was a
great success in every respect. Not a small
feature of the occasion was the very appropriate
address of welcome delivered by Mr. Alfred
Dolge. Dolgeville occupies a position entirely
unique in the industrial world, and its success-
ful growth as a manufacturing centre must afford
encouragement to the large number who believe
that much of the friction existing between em-
ployer and employee might be avoided by adopt-
ting profit-sharing as a panacea.
N SPITE of tariff agitation and strikes,
Wickham, Chapman & Co., the well
known piano plate manufacturers, of Spring-
field, Ohio, manage to keep things running at a
pretty lively gait, and this has been their good
story for the past six months. This may be due
to the optimistic atmosphere which seems to for-
tunately hover over this concern, but any way it
is a tribute to their solidity and enterprise.
Wickham, Chapman & Co. cater largely to the
Western trade, but the good reputation of their
wares is not unknown to Eastern manufacturers.
They have splendid facilities for turning out
large orders, and they are ready for the good
time which we trust will make its appearance
the coming Fall.
MANUFACTURERS and jobbers in musical
merchandise will hail with delight the
time when a national bankrupt law becomes a
part of our government statutes. The large
majority by which the House has passed the
Bailey bill shows a strong sentiment in that
body in favor of a national system of bank-
ruptcy.
The popular sentiment in favor of the measure
is not less strong. An equitable bankruptcy
law, just to debtors and creditors alike, would
seem to be a necessity in a great commercial
nation. Yet for years the United States has
had no such law, and all efforts to secure the
enactment of one have proved unsuccessful.
This has been a just ground of complaint on the
part of business men who have suffered from
the operation of loose, unjust and conflicting
laws in the several States and the lack of a
uniform national law.
it all playing to the gallery, this disagree-
ment of the conferees on the black-and-
tan Tariff bill, asks the Evening Sun. The
House holds out for its principles, save the mark !
and the Senate does likewise. It looks as if the
managers were determined to give the public a
fight for its money. How Senators and Repre-
sentatives must lay fingers along noses, and
wink the legislative other eye as they meet these
days ! It is reported from Washington that
there is already a perfect understanding between
the Speaker, the members of the Ways and
Means Committee and the leading members of
the House on one side, and the members of the
Finance Committee and the political leaders of
the Senate on the other. After a certain number
of rounds the political police will interfere and
the fight will be stopped. The decision will be
a draw. Well, you can fool all the people some
time, and some of the people all the time, but
even Tariff bill managers can't fool all the people
all the time.
[K. EDGAR BRINSMEAD, of the well-
known London house of Brinsmead &
Sons, was asked recently by a newspaper repre-
sentative to state how many pianos his firm
turns out yearly, and what is the world's out-
put. This is his answer : '' Well, ours varies
somewhat; but you might say two thousand.
Any figures I give you are but approximate ; but
you may state that the annual output of London
—very few English pianos are made outside the
metropolis—is thirty-five thousand. It is semi-
officially asserted that Germany makes seventy-
three thousand—probably that is an over-esti-
mate—for France say twenty thousand, and for
the United States twenty-five thousand. Of
course, some are made in Italy, Spain and other
countries." " How about the German pianos ? "
" Oh, some, of course are really good instru-
ments ; but still it is the 4 manufactured in Ger-
many ' that floods our markets, though it is get-
ting driven out of the field. You're glad to hear
it ? Yes ; but unfortunately trash is not made
in Germany only, and the public have not
grasped the fact that there is a minimum price
for a good piano, and that anything sold below it
must result in a loss to the seller or else to the
purchaser. You see, pianos cannot be made
cheap. For different parts we require different
woods, and almost every country contributes ;
cheap substitutes are inefficient. Moreover, the
wood must be seasoned, and that takes three to
five years. You can see that the loss of interest
on a stock of seven hundred and fifty thousand
feet, such as ours, while it is being seasoned, is
a serious matter ; but if, in order to make cheap
goods, imperfectly seasoned wood is used, the
result is disastrous.''
R. S. PATTERSON & Co., dealers in musical
instruments, Port Huron, Mich., held a formal
opening of their new store in Opera House block
last Saturday evening. The new store is 45 x
143 feet in size, and is the largest in Port Huron.
A full line of musical instruments and musical
merchandise is carried in stock. A large crowd
visited the warerooms on the crening night.
THE; CHICKERING PIANO will henceforth be
represented in Baltimore, Md., by R. Lertz &
Son. Chickering & Sons are to be congratulated
on the excellent selection made. The Lertz
house is one of the progressive and rising houses
in the trade. On the other hand, R. Lertz &
Son are fortunate in securing an instrument tha f
will add to their reputation and trade.
MR. ROBT. PRODDOW
is making New Rochelle
his summer home.
MR. VAN WICKLE, the Washington represen-
tative of the Bradbury piano, is meeting with
much success in his new advertisement scheme.
He presents a savings bank to Washingtonians
for the purpose of saving their pennies. The
accumulated pennies will go to purchase a
Weaver organ.
A. NEILSON, who has been carrying on a piano
manufacturing business at 29 Tenth avenue, has
decided to discontinue manufacturing.
J. E. FRANK, manager of the sheet music de-
partment of W. J. Dyer & Bros.' music house,
St. Paul, is in New York. His visit is one of
business and pleasure.
CLEMENCE ZURCHER, an old and valued em-
ployee of A. B. Chase Co., Norwalk, Ohio, died
recently. •
THE Opera House at Faribault, Minn., has
recently been supplied with a handsome Schim-
mel & Nelson piano.
FRANK H. KING, the well known hustler for
the Wissner piano, is in the West.
MR. WM. E. WHEELOCK has returned from a
short vacation spent in Canada.
W. J. DYER & BRO., St. Paul, are booming
the '' Mehlin '' piano in the West. Their '' ads.''
in the daily papers are well-written and attrac-
tive, and should not fail to draw trade for these
excellent instruments.
MR. CHAS. H. BECHT, traveler for the Pease
Piano Co., will leave shortly for an extended
trip.
MR. ALBERT STRAUCH, of Strauch Bros., is
doing some good business for his house in the
West despite labor troubles and " hard times. "
J. FREDERICK KRANZ, head salesman with
the Baltimore house of Wm. Knabe & Co., is on
his first trip East, and will remain in this city
some two weeks as the guest of S. M. Barnes, of
the New York house of Wm. Knabe & Co. We
can safely predict a very enjoyable time for Mr.
Kranz during his sojourn in the Metropolis un-
der the guidance of so genial a spirit as S. M.
Barnes.
MR. WM. J. STREET, of C. J. Heppe & Son,
Philadelphia, has been the guest of Geo. Steck
& Co. during the past week.
MR. HAMILTON S. GORDON, who is spending
his vacation in the Adirondacks, met with a
serious accident last week while fishing. A de-
tached rock rolled on his leg, crushing his ankle.
The accident will delay Mr. Gordon's return to
the city for a couple of weeks. He is stopping
at St. Hubert's Inn, Beedes, N. Y.
A SUIT has been brought against Heinekamp
& Co., of Baltimore, by Alexander Slaysman,
Junior, for $2,000 damages. He alleges he
bought a piano on the instalment plan, and that
the company, without any known reason, forci-
bly took the piano from his house.