Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
Working Washington.
An Old Piano Dodge—The~Owner Has Just
Lost a Government Position and all
His Household Effects Must Go at
Any Pric?—Other Articles Are
Advertised
in Connection
With the Instrument to
Catch
the Unsus=
pecting.
A
V ERY clever trick] x in~the'jsale of
* pianos has recently been introduced
on a considerable scale in ^this city, says
the Washington Post, which deserves, per-
haps, to be ranked as kindred to the green
goods game and the gold brick swindle.
There are thirteen established dealers and
several smaller salesmen of reputation
in Washington who traffic in pianos as a
business, and all of them are raising a loud
cry against the alleged imposition. It is
claimed to be a bunco game through and
through, by which several innocent people
have been taken in.
The game is worked by two agents, who
withhold their names from the public.
These agents from time to time run a small
personal notice in one of the daily papers,
stating that a party having lost his posi-
tion in the government service is com-
pelled to leave the city and to sell house-
hold furniture at a great sacrifice. Among
the effects is mentioned a handsome ma-
hogany piano, which will be sold for a cer-
tain figure, always very cheap. The diffi-
culty about the matter is that the adver-
tisements are worded in such a manner
that they cannot easily be distinguished
from those of honest people who have a
piano to sell on bona fide terms. Many
•other considerations appear to "attract a
would-be purchaser, which are worked w T ith
much skill. Sometimes a dog-cart and a
lady's bicycle are offered at a bargain in
connection with the fine piano, the latter
supposed to be thrown in as an allurement
to lady purchasers, for inquiries from gen-
tlemen are rarely answered.
WORKING
THE SCHEME.
The remainder of the transaction is well
arranged and calculated to work without
Of Course...
A high-grade piano costs more
than an instrument which is in
that class know T n as "medium,"
but what a satisfaction to sell a
§^^high-grade piano, and how pleasant
^ to meet the customer and friends af-
ter the sale is made, particularly if it is a
BOURNE
Just make a minute right here to write
to 180 Tremont Street, Boston, and find
•out about it.
friction. When a victim has communi-
cated with the agent, he or she is directed
to the place where the piano is for sale.
•Several such letters have been received by
the clerks and friends of different piano
dealers on Pennsylvania avenue and F
street, who were anxious to fathom the
scheme, and where there has been a request
to call it has generally been either at a
house on Sixteenth street or one on Eighth
street, but occasionally, when the game is
being worked frequently, directions are
given to a different house, where a pal is
supposed to reside, and where the instru
ment has been stored. But in every case,
as far as heard from, one of the two agents,
one of whom is a woman, appears as a per-
son in need of money, who desires to sacri-
fice the valuable instrument.
Whatever the address be, the caller is
shown into the parlor where there is a piano.
The dog cart, lady's bicycle or what not,
that has been mentioned as for sale in con-
nection with the instrument, has invariably
been disposed of to a previous caller. The
agent, after expressing his regret that this
has been so, proceeds to show up the piano
with his best manners and explains that it
is the same as new, having been used but
a few months, and very little at that, by
the daughter of the family, who is an
accomplished musician. To assure his
prospective customer of the truth of his
statements, he produces a bill of the pur-
chase from a firm in Baltimore. The name
of this firm in each case purports to be
Heinekamp & Son, and the price paid is
stated to be $400 on the bill. The date is
three, four or five months back, to suit the
convenience of the seller.
The alleged second-hand piano is then
offered as a starter at a figure in the neigh-
borhood of $200, the reduced price being
made because of the exigencies of the
owner.
Perhaps the caller goes away
with the intention of sending some musi-
cian to test the quality and tone of the
instrument.
A lady who called on the
agent last week and stated that she wished
to invite a friend to look at the piano
for her, was urged to buy immediately,
because the alleged discharged govern-
ment clerk was compelled to leave on the
afternoon train for his home in New Or-
leans. She still refused to be rushed
into a bargain and the agent finally offered
to sell her the piano for $125.
A lady who called upon the woman agent
in the northeast two or three weeks ago, in
response to a communication, was told the
same story about a lovely upright piano,
of the finest make, and nearly new. She
was shown the bill for $400, dated back,-
from the firm in Baltimore, and was made
an offer of $200. She sent a musician to
look at it for her afterward, and he came
back advocating its purchase so earnestly
that she refused because of the belief that
the musician had been bribed by the offer
of a commission. The other agent some-
times adopts different tactics, as in the
case of a letter from a young lady relative
of a piano dealer on the Avenue. She
wrote in a simple manner, replying to an
advertisement under the direction of the
dealer. The agent called at her honse the
next day asking to see her about the letter.
This was Saturday last. He refused to give
his name or address, but made an appoint-
ment to meet her at a later hour, when she
would be at home.
The instruments are supposed" to be
made in Chicago, New York and Boston,
and similar games are said to be worked
upon the uninitiated of those and adjoining
cities. The stencil or name under which
these pianos are sold varies from time to
time, as occasion demands, a new name
being invented' before the instruments
bearing the old name have been proved
worthless. One scheme has been to use
the names Steinberg and Steinhope, as a
play upon the name of Steinway, which is
known in the piano world, although these
names have not been used much as far as
is known in Washington. The names of
old musical composers are placed upon
many of these instruments. Mozart, es-
pecially, on those sold in this city. Mas-
querading under these stencils, innocent
purchasers are more easily deceived. These
pianos will last but a few months, when
the green timber of which they are cheaply
made, shrinks, and great cracks show up
in the cases. The hammers also fall out of
gear with the shrinking of the frame work,
and the tone—what little the instrument
ever had—is, of course, lost beyond the
power of the professional tuner to restore.
The piano merchants of this city say
they might not offer objections to the sale
of these pianos if it was accomplished
in an open way without misrepresentation.
They regard it as an imposition upon the
public, for many intelligent people answer
the advertisements, and not infrequently
purchasers are deceived. One dealer said
yesterday that it was illegal for these
agents to sell piano after piano in this
fashion, as they should under the law, be
commission merchants, and liable to the
payment of the regular license fee.
THE RIGHT PIANO ™
JIEJirF. JHILLEH
M
ANY years of successful man-
ufacturing and the applica-
tion of the most advanced scien-
tific principles as applied to piano
construction, has placed t h e
Henry F. Miller Piano in the front
rank in the piano world.
F. miller & Sons Piano Co.
B05T0N, flASS.