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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
night to find his garden all ruint. Now, what
d'you suppose had did it ? '
" ' Hogs got in ? ' ventured the clock agent.
" ' Hawgs ? You make me sick. Hawgs,
nothin'. One of them playful breezes that Kan-
sas sometimes gits up had come along and had
worked that there windmill pump so dern fast
that the water was made bilin' hot by the fric-
tion, and his whole patch of truck had been
scalded to death.'
'' ' That was pretty tough,' said the agent.
" ' Oh ! I don't know,' said the man with the
ginger beard. ' As soon as he got broke he
went into politics, and now he is gitt'n' a good
livin' at the expense of the State. Ef it hadn't
a been for that accident he might be still having
to work for a livin'.' "
The "Opera" Piano.
WITH THE
TRAVELERS.
" raQH, yes, business is looking up all over the
*& country; in every line of trade there's
an improvement. Next year will be a hummer,
and no mistake," said Kochman the other day,
as he gracefully crossed his pedal extremities
under the mahogany.
" How's the stock to-day, Reinhard ? "
"What stock? "
"Stories."
"Nothing new, absolutely nothing. Well, I
can give you a short one on a self-winding clock.
You know out West they used to handle clocks
and almost everything else in the music stores.
This happened in Nebraska, and it was a year
the grasshoppers had left mighty little for the
farmer. I was anchored in a small town, a
junction. I had wandered into the grocer's
store while waiting for the train for Lincoln.
An agent from the city was trying to sell the
grocer a new self-winding clock. There was a
small storage battery connected with it, and it
was intended that the battery should be kept in
operation by means of a small windmill placed
on the roof of the house. The agent had about
persuaded the grocer to buy, when the man with
the ginger beard, who had been watching the
transaction with the deep interest that comes so
natural to a man with plenty of spare time on
his hands, chipped in.
" ' Sometimes it pays to monkey with Nature
and let her have the job of doin' all your work
while you air loafin' around the County Court
House ten mile away, and sometimes it don't,'
said he. ' I knowed a feller out in Kansas 'at
had one of them windmill contraptions that was
the ruin of him.'
' ' ' There never was one of these clocks sold in
Kansas,' said the agent with wrath.
" ' T h i s here wasn't a clock,' said the man
with the ginger beard, ' an' I defy any man in
the crowd to prove that I said anything about a
clock. I jist said a windmill contraption. This
here was a pump. You see, this here feller was
a sort of market gard'ner, an' a? it is dry in
Kansas, as far as the weather is concerned, he
'lowed to rig up a pump arrangement that
would water his garden. So he fixed up a wind
pump, but that wasn't enough. He next goes
to work and makes a kind of swivel arrangement
that would keep the ho3e movin' back and forth
and up and around till the whole patch was
sprinkled. Did all the work itself, you see.
That left him free to go down to the grocery and
talk about Mrs. Leise all he wanted to—or all
he dast to, at least. Well, he goes away one
moruin' happy as a clam, and comes back at
instrument of undoubted merit, an in-
strument that has stood the test of years.
Established by D. T. Peek, in the year 1850, just
forty-four years ago, a gentleman who had a
thorough training and a thorough education in
the scientific school of piano-making. He be-
gan at the bottom of the ladder, slowly but
surely he crept up, till now he stands, with
many others, at the extreme top, and ranks with
those who are considered experts in the knowl-
edge of one of the foremost industries of which
America is truly proud. He was born in 1825,
began the manufacture of pianos in 1850, and
has devoted his whole life from that date to the
perfection of the '' Opera '' piano. Assisted by
his eldest son, George W., who has been a will-
ing as well as an able assistant, the " Opera "
piano stands at present among the popular in-
struments of the day. It is known from Maine
to the Pacific Coast, and the oldest established
dealer cannot speak otherwise than in the most
complimentary terms of it. It is the piano of
the household, or in other words, a family
piano, appreciated and used exclusively in the
family circle. Modest and refined in appear-
ance, sweet and sympathetic in tone, it is well
adapted to grace any home. The Messrs. Peek
are proud of their production, and well may they
be, for the " Opera " piano is entitled to all the
praise bestowed upon it. Mr. Geo. W. Peek,
recently remarked to a representative of THE
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW that he was more than
pleased with the advancement made by the
(
' Opera '' piano during the past three years and
that its future was more than flattering. Messrs.
Peek & Son deserve the success which has been
awarded them by the public and we congratulate
them most heartily.
Through Snow and Ice.
shades of night were falling fast, as
through the streets of Gotham passed a
man who bore through snow and ice a banner
with the strange device,
" Sock it to Blumenberg."
He was believed to be the editor of the Music
Trades.
Extremely Interesting.
HE LAST OF THE DANVERS," is the
title of a book written by Edward Lytnan
Bill, the talented journalist, editor and pro-
prietor of THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW and The
Keynote, two well-known trade and musical
journals. Mr. Bill is a native of Lyme, son of
Hon. John W. Bill and one of the well-known
Bill family of that town. This latest work of
Mr. Bill's is very finely written and extremely
interesting.—Eastern News, Niantic, Conn.
Massillon, O.
O.—Meuser & Co., resident piano
manufacturers, have asked for a lot, desiring to
build a new two-story factory, 40 by 100.
MASSILLON,
Bloomsbury, N. J.
BLOOMSBURY, N. J.—A new piano factory at
this place has put up a new steam gong, which
spreads a sound for 12 miles around.
Toronto, Can.
TORONTO, CAN.—The Heintzman Piano Co.
have laid off a number of hands.
Austin, Tex.
AUSTIN, TEX.—The Corslcan Musical Co.,
with a capital stock of $2,000, have filed a char-
ter. H. T. McCullom, R. M. Green, A. Bunet,
and others, are the incorporators.
Chicago, III.
House & Davis Co., of
Chicago, 111., are building a new factory at Des
Plaines, three miles from the city limits, and
will add the manufacture of organs to their line;
they received «a large sum of money and three
acres of land.
Oswego, N. Y.
OswEGO, N. Y.—Mr. Oliver Peck has just re-
turned from New York, where he purchased
a third interest in a piano manufacturing firm |
said to be very reliable ; he will locate there per-
manently in a short time.
CHICAGO, III.—The
New York, N. Y.
NEW YORK, N. Y.—A mass meeting has been
called to consider the proposition of uniting
with the International Pianomakers' Union of
America and Canada.
Newark, N. J.
N. J.—Suit for $300 damages has
been begun in the First Di&tiict Court by
Schleicher & Son, piano dealers, against Henry
Roemer and wife. The plaintiff avers that Roe-
mer refuses to return or pay for a piano which he
bought from them.
NEWARK,
Austin, Minn.
AUSTIN, MINN.—Mr. Fred. Fairbanks has
opened a music store in the Pooler Building.
Bloomington, III.
BLOOMINGTON, I I I . — E. E. Jones, better
know as "Hayfork " Jones, recently organized
a company known as " The Columbia Piano Co.
of Chicago ;" he secured credit of Adam Schaaf,
who let him have a piano valued at $125, to use
as a sample ; he has swindled farmers to the ex-
tent of $32,000 by getting them to sign so called
receipts, which were in reality notes ; he has not
yet been captured, but his arrest is hourly ex-
pected.
Johnstown, Pa.
JOHNSTOWN, PA.—Mr. J D. Ho:king, a sales-
man in the employ of A. W. Kennedy, music
dealer, of Johnstown, Pa., brought a piano to
the Mansion House, Berlin, Pa., and commenced
canvassing the territory for the sale of musical
instruments. Having poor success, he left, ow-
ing a hotel bill of $60. Kennedy telegraphed
landlord Zimmerman not to allow Hocking to
remove or dispose of the piano, as it was his pro-
perty : Zimmerman levied on the piano for the
amount of his bill, and upon trial verdict was
rendered in favor of Zimmerman. Kennedy has
twenty day3 in which to appeal.