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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
H
ERE is more bad news for the horse.
They are slaughtering the aniinal in
the West and making him into canned
corned beef, and now he is attacked in
another way in the East. William Steinway,
the great piano maker, has begun the erec-
tion of a factory at the little town on Long
Island that bears his name, and here the
motors for horseless carriages will be made.
It is likely that the plant will be increased
so that the entire carriage, motor ind all,
will be completed on the spot.
The factory is to be three stories high,
and 50 feet wide by' 100 feet deep. The
corporation that will operate the establish-
ment is the Daimler Motor Co., and this
Mr. Steinway controls.
The horseless carriage of Daimler won
the grand prize of 5,000 francs in July,
1894, at the great international race be-
tween Paris and Rouen.
In May, 1895, it
carried off the gold medal and first prize at
Turin, Italy, and last June it took the first
prize of 40,000 francs as well as the second,
third and fourth prizes in the road race
from Paris to Bordeaux and back, the win-
ner doing the distance of 75U miles in forty-
eight hours at an average speed of about
fifteen and two-thirds miles an hour.
In Paris horseless carriages can be seen
in numbers on the boulevards, and the)' are
not uncommon in London.
I expect,
though, that when Americans once begin
to use them we shall see them by the score,
as they are so much cheaper than horses
and more readily handled and managed.
* *
*
A piano in a lion cage is the latest stage
specialty.
It has been introduced by a
hitherto obscure female piano teacher who
first performed in a lion cage in a menag-
erie at Dewsburg, England. The experi-
ment is pronounced a "grand success."
The kingly beasts are said to be very ap-
preciative, and particularly partial to
Chopin's airs.
* *
*
Receipts at the larger postoffices of the
country for the past month, were 17 per
cent, in excess of those for the same month
last year. The showing is a gratifying
one in that it indicates a general revival of
business. It is also satisfactory to the
Treasury Department, which has need of
all the revenues it can secure.
*
The Chinese instruments are not bad.
They are more roughly constructed than
ours, but they make fair instruments. There
is one instrument—the Chi-Hsien chin, the
seven-stringed
chin—upon
which the
scholars in the time of Confucius played.
It was a part, an accomplishment of their
caste. It is a long and slender instrument,
hollow, standing on legs an inch long. The
strings are stretched from the large end,
where they are fastened by pins, and drawn
down and fastened underneath.
From,
say, nine inches it narrows gradually to six
at the smaller end. The top or face is
usually inlaid in places with pearl, to mark
the special notes. I have one, says a
writer in an exchange, presented to me by
a friend, which has been much admired.
Few foreigners ever see this instrument,
and only in the homes of the educated and
wealthy gentlemen is it seen among the
Chinese themselves. They are very rare,
and are to China what the fabled lyre was
to antiquity. Old family heirlooms thou-
sands of years old are found here and there
among the gentry, and are greatly prized.
I have two friends who play exceedingly
well on it. The music is not bad. Its tone
is very sweet, somewhat like the guitar,
only lower and perhaps sweeter, having
more the piano resonance, because of the
long strings.
* *
Tnis week New York has been crowded
with returning visitors from the Templars
Conclave at Boston.
Among them are
many prominent music trade dealers from
all sections of the country, as far West as
San Francisco and South as New Orleans.
W. N. Grunewald, -manager of the L.
Grunewald Co., of New Orleans, came on
with the Jacques d'Molay Commandery of
that city. They occupied two Pullmans,
and brought the famous New Orleans Band
with them.
* *
I dropped into the Behning factory this
week, and was surprised to see the business
activity which prevailed there. Henry and
Gustave Behning are certainly doing well.
I saw some handsome new styles, and from
the quality of work and fineness of detail,
can say that the Behning piano of to-day
eclipses any instruments which have borne
the name of Behning in the past. Gustave
Behning left last Wednesday night for a
trip as far West as Kansas City.
If the proposed plans of the Metropolitan
Traction Co. materialize, we are destined
to have a system of transit in this city
which will transform the Metropolis into
an up-to-date Utopia. It is propOvSed to
run a line of cars around the river front by
means of an underground trolley system,
with a view of furnishing travelers with
the crisp, salt air of the ocean, thus attract-
ing pleasure seekers day and night. In
discussing the plans of the company, one
of the directors said:
"Before the lines are completed the com-
pany will have a number of private cars
furnished with all luxuries and intended for
theatre parties and excursions. These cars
will be furnished with pianos, cooking
ranges and refrigerators, fitted out with
costly furniture, and in every way as finely
appointed as many yachts. There will be
raised seats on the roofs like the Broadway
stages, and all facilities for observation.
Electric fans will be provided, and colored
electric lights. I think the time will come
when business men in the far end of the
cit3^ will have club cars, as they do in the
New Jersey suburban towns, provided with
whist tables, easy chairs, and, perhaps,
sideboards.
It may be said that public
travel would be interfered with, but with
the multitudinous -lines of the company
and better speed travel would not be inter-
fered with "
As a matter of course, the piano will be
operated by electricity.
*
If you are desirous of seeing pianos
which are adorned with something unique
and artistic in the way of panels, trusses
and pilasters, you should inspect the pianos
manufactured by Haines & Co., Park ave-
nue and 131st street. John Haines is build-
ing pianos which have a distinct individu-
ality. Artistic in appearance, and especial
care paid to the nicety of details is certain
to bring them strongly to the attention of
dealers who desire thorough and complete
work.
Mr. Haines' long experience in
music trade affairs has given him an inti-
mate knowledge of the needs of the trade,
and he is now in a position to build pianos
which show strong proofs of his o^'n
originality in piano construction and de-
velopment.
mm
Chatting with a well-known advertising
man a few days ago, he said: " I know a
patent medicine man who says that he can
bottle sea water and make a fortune out of
it by advertising. He says if any man
will put up $200,000 for advertising pur-
poses he will at the end of two years return
not only the $200,000, but clear a profit of
as much more. One man is supposed to
have an income of over $200,000 from his
pills, and there is a tooth wash in the mar-
ket that has realized a vast fortune for its
owners.
Such profits are realized only
through judicious advertising. I am in-
formed by one of the richest manufacturers
that he notices within a few weeks a falling
off in profits when he undertakes to econo-
mize in advertising. His advertising costs
him over $1,000,000 a year. Next year it
will cost him $100,000 more.
That is true of every business. Economy
in advertising is not economy. The busi-
ness man who thinks so is simply making
a huge mistake. Advertising is as essential
to the success of the modern business man
as are handsome and attractive warerooms
to display his wares.
There are men in the music trade, it is
true, who think they can succeed without
advertising, but they will find that when
they economize in advertising they are
simply retrogressing, and that is a poor
business policy to adopt.
The saving of
ten dollars in advertising means the ex-
penditure of twenty or forty, later on, to
recover the place lost.