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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
fir. Boothe Asks Questions.
EDITOR MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
SIR: Being a subscriber and reader as
well of your valuable journal, and having
observed that you never suffer articles of a
personal nature to appear in your publica-
tion, I am constrained to make certain in-
quiries hoping that you will give them
space in your columns.
Can you tell me to what cause can be at-
tributed the. habit of making bitter per-
sonal attacks, indulged in at very regular
intervals by certain music trade editors,
their reasons in general for so doing, and
why they seemingly possess so complete a
feeling of security against making repara-
tion through the hands of the law?
Whether or not certain music trade edi-
tors are respectors of pocketbooks, I cannot
say, having (aside from my personal ex-
perience) no tangible evidence of the same,
but that they are no respectors of persons
seems to be the very generally accepted
belief. It being known that in the past
few years the business reputation and char-
acter of some of the oldest members and
houses in the trade have been most bitterly
questioned, Steinert, Knabe, Chase, H. F.
Miller & Sons, Everett; Hardman, Peck &
Co., W. W. Kimball, and scores of other
firms and individuals with the well-earned
and deserved reputation of a score of years,
seemingly must sit quietly by and read in
contempt, it is to be hoped, as well as in-
dignation, the most dastardly and cowardly
attacks against what they hold most dear,
sparing nothing, aiming apparently to take
from them their very subsistence and
means of livelihood.
In order to show the inconsistency of
these editors, I quote a few expressions
taken from some papers now before me:
"It is high time that this house should
stop selling pianos on the mere strength of
a name, pianos that are worth less than
one-half asked for them."
"Any dealer who sells these goods com-
mits a venal and criminal act."
"That this house in offering these goods
at these exorbitant figures, wreaks an in-
jury to the trade, goes without saying. If
we cared to do it we could show the opinion
of several dealers who lament the unfair
advantage taken by this house because of
their great wealth."
"All the advertising in the world will
not make a good piano out of a bad one.
Stop selling these pianos at exorbitant
prices and appease your conscience by
selling at legitimate figures. "
This is enough to show that there seems
to be a sentiment against manufacturers
holding up the trade by asking dignified
figures. But here are a few more excerpts
of a different character:
"The cheap piano is a menace to the
trade, and like the Chinese, must go."
"It is a well-known fact that no first-class
piano can be built under $140."
"This man is foisting a fraud upon the
public, and the dealers who buy his cheap
pianos, are encouraging fraud and taking
the bread from the mouth of the manu-
facturer who asks legitimate figures."
Occasionally one of these editors is taken
with a sort of cholicky virtue, and launches
forth in bold fulminations against some
other editor who is indulging in some
pleasantries, and you feel a spasm of virtu-
ous indignation against the editor culprit,
and in sympathy with his adversary, until
you.turn over a page or two ;uid find him
working his own little game in an article
in which terms "thump boxes," "fraud,"
"rotten stencil," and other choice endear-
ments are used in profusion.
Now, Mr. Editor, it seems that if a manu-
facturer sells his wares at a high price, he
is asking twice too much; if at a low price,
twice too little. Naturally this is confus-
ing, perplexing to say the least.
Imagine, for instance, a journal devoted
to the textile industries, publishing an
article as follows:
"The maker of this cloth knows it is rot-
ten; in selling this cloth he perpetrates a
fraud on the public, and the dealer who
buys it encourages fraud as well. The
goods are rotten to the core."
In about as quick time as the courts could
act the writer would be serving time as a
common criminal, and such he would be.
' Can music trade journals publish things
with impunity that would in other trades
be considered criminal? If so, why?
Am I right in thinking that any music
trade editor who attacks the character and
business of a piano manufacturer is a crimi-
nal, in comparison with whom a common
thief is a saint? This being so, and I be-
lieve it is the case, why have manufacturers
labored so tamely under the abuse and in-
sults that have been heaped upon them by
various members of the music press? Is it
because no one has had the courage to
press the issue, arrest the offender as he
would any common thief, and proceed to
secure conviction, or does the law protest?
Certain men whom I call to mind, possess
honesty, courage, brains and wealth, and
yet are seemingly unable to defend their
character and business from the calumnies
of these editors who possess none of these
virtues. Yet these very manufacturers
can be seen in friendly converse with these
men, breaking bread with them, knowing
that in so doing they practically put the
stamp of approval on a band of ghouls who
are constantly adding to the height of a
monument reared to the shame and dis-
grace of the piano trade of the United
States.
Is the piano trade itself responsible for
these conditions? Is it music to the ears
of the manufacturer to hear the name of
his competitor dragged in the mire? Are
these music trade editors catering simply
to an unfortunate desire in the trade, to
read filth? Admit even a part of this, and
you say practically chat the piano industry
of the United States is composed of a class
of men in whom all sense of honor and
decency is totally wanting.
If this is not so, why is it that so im-
mense an industry has encouraged the
growth of these contemptible sheets, and
made possible a living for men who im-
pudently assert their right, with their piti-
fully small capital and shallow intellect, to
dictate to the entire trade. Mr. Editor,
can you throw light on the subject?
W. F. BOOTHE,
Treas. Sebastian Sommer Piano Co.
JOSEPH BARF.UTHKR, with Ernest Gabler
& Bro., leaves next week for a long trip
through the West as far as St. Paul and
Kansas City. Mr. Bareuther is one of the
younger men of the trade who is fast win-
ning a national reputation as a piano man
of the first water.
BENJAMIN STARR, of Richmond, Ind., has
been sojourning a few days in town this
week.
THE Schimmel & Nelson Piano Co.,
Faribault, Minn., have issued a handsome
new catalogue. . •; •-.• /• • ••
THE new factory which J. V. Steger in-
tends to erect at Columbia Heights, Chi-
cago, will be 60x150, and five stories high.
It will be chicfy occupied by the Singer
Piano Co.
Miss WHJTNEY, daughter of Calvin Whit-
ney, president of the A. B. Chase Co.,
Norwalk, O., was married recently to Mr.
Dillon, of Columbus, O., a prominent law-
yer in that city.
J. & C. FISCHER are working on a series
of new style pianos for the early fall trade.
N. B. AND W. P. SEARLKS are proprietors
of the new Durham Music Co., at Durham,
N. C. W. P. Searles is the manager.
THE Hauschild Bros. Music Co. have been
incorporated at Victoria, Tex. This con-
cern was formerly known as Hauschild
Bros. They have taken the agency for the
Kranich & Bach piano, and intend to push
this instrument in the South.
NEWMAN BROS. CO., of Chicago, are pre-
paring a very handsome catalogue of their
popular organs, which they will have ready
for the trade in a short time.
KELLER BROS. & BLIGHT CO., Bridgeport,
Conn., have built up a remarkably fine
trade in the West. Dealers in that sec-
tion, like dealers in the East, have come
to realize what an excellent seller the Kel-
ler Bros.' piano is—hence they are anxious
to handle it.
THE rumor that the Everett piano fac-
tory will be removed from Boston to Cin-
cinnati or Chicago is entirely unfounded.
THE "strike" for increased wages made
by the workmen at the Kimball factory,
Chicago, has been satisfactorily settled by
concessions to the men.
A aT1
thoroughly experienced practical
pi ° rnaker, with not less than ten
thousand dollars capital. Must be
capable of taking entire charge of factory. To such a man
will be given the practical management of a company hav-
ing an established business, a fine instrument and a thor-
oughly equipped factory. None others need apply. Cor-
respondence solicited. " Address "Piano Manufacturer,"
care T H E MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.