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HE 9RG/\N 9H
VOL. XX. No. r
Down East.
Every Saturday.
•
flew Yoi% January 5, 1895.
Chlckering firm. Mr. C. H. W. Foster,
naturally, is highly gratified at the eloquent
results, of: '94. He has good reason to be,
for the weekly, shipments of this firm, par-
ticularly
during the past two months, have been
A Hummer in the •» Hub"—The Boston
exceedingly
large. I may add, also, that dur-
Trade Well Satisfied with the Results
ing the usually dull months of summer they also
of the Past Year—The 1894 Chick-
maintained a fair degree of activity.
ering has been a Winner—Hal-
" Christmas trade," said E. N. Kimball, Jr.,
let & Davis Encounter a
to me, after I had exchanged pleasant saluta-
Splendid Holiday
tions with him, in the Hallett & Davis ware-
Trade.
rooms, "was superb. We haven't a word of
Victorious Vose Achieve Greater Renown — complaint to make ; on the contrary, we are more
than gratified at'the result of our labors during
Charlie Cummings Still " i n it"—The
the past quarter. In fact it has been clearly a
Bourne Piano and their New Music
surprise to us. We sent out some very hand-
Desk—The Briggs as a Strong
some instruments for holiday purchasers. " It
Factor for 1895—The Pre-
might be incidentally remarked that the whole-
sent " Piano Row "—
sale business of this firm has been in prime con-
" J a c k " Merrill's
dition for some weeks past, particularly have
Success.
their orders been large and frequent from the
Henry F. Miller, Emerson and their West.
When I greeted Mr. Willard A. Vose with the
Branches—flason & Hamlin's
query, "How's trade? " he replied by a state-
Big Holiday Trade.
ment which was at once an answer to my ques-
tion and conveyed a still deeper meaning. "All
AST Thursday, in Boston. Well, it may sold out," said he; "cleaning up in mighty
properly be designated as a hummer. good shape. Just look at the warerooms."
With every sidewalk a freshet, every crossing a The Vose concern have reason for self congratu-
river, every street mighty dangerous for naviga- lation on their achievements during the past
tion ; a conglomeration of snow, hail, rain and year. The Vose piano has a large clientele of
slush, made things not enticing, to say the admirers among the leading dealers all over the
least, for a man who was unfortunate enough to continent.
Charlie Cummings still claims that he is
alight in Boston on such a morning. However,
blue sky, which is our natural heritage, dawned going to retire from the piano business, but I
suddenly upon us, much to the delight of notice that while Charlie says this he keeps
steadily at it just the same.
"peds."
There were strong and heaity plaudits heard
Charles E. Bourne tells me that he has closed
on every hand, regarding the trade carried on in a very satisfactory holiday trade. He makes a
the year just closed. There is no disputing the piano which certainly should attract the atten-
fact that Boston has maintained a fair degree of tion of dealers. It is worthy of the closest in-
activity in the music trade lines. This is appa- vestigation. The Bourne piano has been made
rent from statements which I heard on all sides. in Boston for over fifty years, and has a splendid
Of course I do not mean to be misunderstood in reputation locally, and is an instrument which
the statement that men claim '94 as their banner is worthy of commendation. The patent auto-
yiear. They do not. But there were ominous matic music desk recently invented by Mr.
cljouds which portended serious business dis- Bourne is, without question, one of the clever-
asters when the curtain was rung up on '94. est devices on the market to day. It is more
The storms did not materialize to the extent than a talking point.
wihich many predicted, and although business
Down at the Briggs factory things seem to be
w ns not conducted in a free, untrammelltd man- running along very smoothly. Mr. Furbush
nltr, there being limitations placed upon almost said that the year had closed much better than
«very line of trade, yet when men look over their he had anticipated at the opening, that the class
Transactions for the past twelve months they of agents which the Briggs Piano Company had
Jfiud them as a whole much better than they had established during the year made a strong argu-
looped for at the beginning.
ment to the statement that the Briggs was an
It is generally admitted on all sides that the instrument thoroughly appreciated by the trade,
Whickering piano—to specialize their product for that with the class of agents which had com-
—has created more favorable comment than menced to push their instruments it was only
he instruments turned out during any previous fair to presume, on his part, that 1895 would be
ear since the firm began the manufacture of for them a big year in many resptcts.
lianos. I have heard dealers in every section of
Boylston street is the future " Piano Row " of
he country—and I have traveled a bit during Boston. The first wart room as you pass down
he past year—speak in the warmest, most eulo- Boylston to Tretnont is the new home of ihe
'stic terms of the new pioduct of the Henry F. Miller Piano Company. It is superb
*3 00 PER VBAR.
SINGLE COPIES. 10 CENTS.
in equipments throughout. A detailel account
is given these rooms in another section of the
paper.
The genial "Jack " Merrill has snug quarters
a little further on. " J a c k " Merrill is in high
feather over the holiday trade, and has good
teison to be. He has closed up a good year's
business, and in the year now opened the Merrill
piano will become a strong factor in the retail
trade of Boston.
Business with the Emerson Piano Company,
as a matter of fact, has never been in a more
satisfactory state. Three months of the year
just closed have resulted in good business deals
among their agencies, and in their own branches
in New York and Chicago.
"Just a moment, and I'll have this sale
closed," said David McKee to me as I greeted
him shortly after I had entered the warerooms
of the Mason & Hamlin Company. Mr. McKee
was correct in his statement, and in less than
five minutes the sale had been closed and we
were comfortably ensconced chatting over old
times. Mr. McKee has made a mighty good
record since he assumed the management of
the retail business of the Mason & Hamlin
Company. " M a c " is an all-around hustler,
and there is no question as to his success in
Boston. The Mason & Hamlin Company have
transacted the best holiday trade that they have
ever experienced in that city. Taken on the
whole, It seems to me that the deductions
drawn from a hurried call at the various musi-
cal establishments in Boston convince one that
an improvement in business has been encoun-
tered by the trade in that city, and further, the
present appearances certainly justify the con-
clusion that the improvement in business will
be permanent.
A New Piano Case.
T&TR. ALFRED J. NEWBY, of this city, has
i-t^J- patented an invention which relates to
the mechanism for .automatically moving up the
front of the case by the lifting and pushing in of
the keyboard fall. The case has a swinging
front, with fall and movable slide plate hinged
to it, and a lever hinged on the case has its
lower end connected with the slide plate and its
upper end extending opposite the swinging
front, there being also a vertically movable
guide bar parallel with the slide plate, and J
cranks secured to the guide bar and pivoted t fA
the slide pla'e.
Something New in the BramJ
Jgfr VERY effective, and what is
®^> prove valuable device is a]
bodied in the Brambach pianc
at Dolgevllle, N. Y. It is si'
which adds to the carryinj
and also to its prolongation,