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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
is ever adding to its development in a
musical and in an architectural sense.
How greatly the Pease piano has improved
during the past"few years! The placing of
the Pease grand upon the market, too, has
largely augmented the status of the Pease
upright, and, in fact, the whole tendency
of business is progressive.
« * «
I
N spite of the prophets of disaster there
is no longer room to doubt that the
people of this country are entering upon a
time of great commercial prosperity. There
appears to be hardly one line of trade in
which the signs of coming growth in vol-
ume, and improvement in price, are not
plainly visible. During the past few weeks
I have visited many important cities in
America, and have had every opportunity
of judging the business conditions. I have
felt the pulse of the trade, so to speak, and
by personal observation and by many
opinions expressed to me by leading
business men, I am sure that I can vaticin-
ate with a degree of certainty a good,
large, well-developed trade for the fall of
'95. It will begin early, too; and piano
manufacturers should look well to it that
they are in line to supply the demands
which will surely be made upon thim a
little later. It is unnecessary to trace in
detail the reasons for this universal revival
in business. The fundamental basis
whence it sprang seems to have been the
advance in the price of farm and mining
products. Months ago these were selling
below the cost of production. There has
not only been a real upward movement,
partly natural and partly speculative, but
it has reached the point to-day where it
seems that the producer can dispose of his
products at a fair margin. Then again the
wage earners—the purchasing power of the
country—seem to be getting in clover, red
clover at that.
I called at the factory of Muehlfeld & Co.,
this week, and had the pleasure of inspect-
ing the entire establishment under the guid-
ance of Mr. Muehlfeld. They have now
nearly ten thousand square feet devoted to
factory space, and they are utilizing every
foot of it. They are making good weekly
shipments, and have apparently a fine out-
look for fall business. They are getting in
excellent shape for fall trade, too, for they
have a number of new styles, and I saw
among them some pianos which, without
doubt, will be eagerly sought for by deal-
ers. Mr. Muehlfeld is a quiet, unostenta-
tious sort of a man, but he knows how to
build pianos, and he is attending strictly
to it.
*
John D. Pease is a member of the trade
who makes an intelligent analyzation of the
business situation up to date, and he is a
man who never remains at a standstill in
the development of the Pease piano. He
Jersey can produce everything from a
mosquito up; but it has now found a new
use for a piano. There is a hotel on the
road midway between Rutherford and
Passaic, where people of the cities suffering
from Sunday drought repair, and while the
time away with goblets of foaming beer,
and eke with schmeerkase and cigars.
Thither went two well dressed and agree-
able young men who entered the bar in
search of such refreshment as would natur-
ally occur to one just from Hoboken. In a
room adjoining the bar was a piano, and
one of the twain went in and began to
play.
"Paderewski has come!"
The
rumor was quickly circulated, and in a few
minutes the room was filled with an ad-
miring and applauding throng of bar-tend-
ers, customers and members of the land-
lord's family. For half an hour the musi-
cian charmed his audience, and then after
a final round of applause, he rejoined his
partner and the two swept gallantly back
toward Hoboken on the bounding platform
of a trolley car. But all the time that
Orpheus had been playing, his companion
Mercury had been exploring the house, and
had secured much treasure of jewelry and
watches.
Bill Sykes, Charley Bates and the Artful
Dodger are no longer to be considered.
The new college of burglary can have no
Fagin for a president. And the recently
formed trade union of appropriators has no
use for such master workmen as Debs and
Sovereign and Connelly, whose talent ex-
tends to getting their associates into trouble
and fails at the task of getting them out.
The new college of burglars will have a
staff of instructors worthy to take jobs at
Harvard. There will be chairs of politics
and aldermanic privilege, so that when the
graduates make their piles they will know
how to conduct themselves in public boards
to which their admiring constituents ma} 7
elect them. There will be a department of
chemistry for tsaching the skillful use of
dynamite, knock-out drops and other ex-
plosives, and by all means there must be a
musical staff, because the latest Jersey ex-
perience shows that a burglar will get on
twice as well if he is an expert pianist.
Either that, or he must learn to play on a
fiddle or something so execrable that all of
the hearers will be driven in terror from
the house, leaving him to loot it from cel-
lar to garret. The pistol of the Duvals and
Sheppards gives way to the finger technic
of a Von Bulow.
* *
*
Chas. Mehlin will return next week from
his long Southern trip. It will be re-
membered that Mr. Mehlin embarked from
St. Paul, Minn., on a boat of his own
manufacture, to sail the entire length of
the Mississippi, and from New Orleans
around to Mobile to visit his sister. While
on the way down he had numerous boat
races, and invariably came out victorious.
At St. Louis, after winning a victory over
the St. Louis Club, he proceeded on his
way as far as Memphis, wheje he was in-
tercepted by one of the members of the St.
Louis Club, who was so enthusiastic over
the sailing qualities of Mr. Mehlin's yacht
that he desired to purchase it. A sale was
effected, and he proceeded on his journey
by rail.
m *
* comment regarding
I notice considerable
the proposition to have bull fighting as one
of the features of the Exposition at At-
lanta, and protests have been made by the
Humane Society protesting against the ad-
mission of bulls and matadors into this
country. The Secretary of the Treasury
has decided that the admission of bulls
does not come within the prohibition of the
law. By all means let the bulls and the
matadors and the picadors come to Atlanta,
where they will be one of the drawing
cards of the Exposition, and I am certain
that it will be a mighty profitable invest-
ment for those who are interested in it.
Every one who visits Atlanta will be
anxious to see a bull fight, I know; it was
so in Mexico when I was there last season.
The mechanical piano, or the piano with
the automatic attachment is evidently run-
ning the bicycle a close race in popularity.
On the roof gardens, in all the bicycle
schools, at the summer resorts, and in the
few theatres open now in this city, pianos are
playing a prominent part. One of the most
laughable burlesques I have seen for some
time is "Thrilby," at the "Garrick." The
way which Spaggeti, alias Svengali, hyp-
notizes the piano is exceedingly amusing.
At the "Casino" and also the "Imperial,"
the hypnotized pianos help to tickle the
risibilities of the summer audiences. This
brings to mind a story I read some time
ago about some poodle dogs performing at
a theatre in London. One dog played the
"Marseillaise' on the piano with faultless
precision. Whether one of the audience
had a spite against the showman, or was
only actuated by the spirit of mischief, at
all events he called out "rats" just as the
pianist was about to begin. The dog leaped
down in pursuit of the vermin, but, strange
to say, the music went on. It is needless
to say that the performing dogs did not
ppear the following night.
LYON & HEALY have just received an
order for one of their famous Lyon &
Healy harps from one of the great artists
of Berlin, and also an order for another
from a member of the English nobility.
THE Emerson Piano Co. have closed a
contract whereby their advertisement, oc-
cupying a full page, will appear in a million
novels this year.
GEO.
Park.
W. PEEK is summering at Asbury