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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
is due chiefly to the exorbitant rate
charged for space. A dollar a square foot
is rather a steep price, and piano manu-
facturers could not see their way to pay
that toll.
The directors of the Exposition are cer-
tainly entitled to credit for the magnificent
showing they have made in so short a time,
and the Southern States—Georgia and the
"Gate City" especially—are under deep
obligations to them for their enterprise and
ability, whereby the possibilities of the
great South will be brought to the atten-
tion of the world as it never was before.
The Atlanta Exposition is a great thing
for the South and the United States at
large, and all Americans wish it success.
E. HUDSON, music trade dealer,
Alliance, O., has assigned with liabilities
placed at $3,000. The assets will cover
that amount.
RALPH
THE Emerson Piano Co., Boston, report
business so far this month as unusually
good. In fact, their business throughout
the summer has been way above the aver-
age.
A HANDSOME Decker Bros, piano was sold
last week for use in the Grammar School,
No. 64, at Fordham.
S. G. LINDEMAN, secretary and treasurer
of the Lindeman & Sons Piano Co., has
returned from an extended trip, which took
in the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Ken-
tucky and New York. Several new agents
were appointed, and a book full of orders
secured.
C. H. D, SISSON, formerly with Kohler
& Chase, San Francisco, has been engaged
by the Hallet & Davis Piano Co., of Bos-
ton, as traveling representative. He is
now on the road.
THE Sterling Co., of Derby, Conn., re-
cently received a large order for Sterling v
instruments from Geo. W. Thompson, of
the Montelius Piano Co., Denver, Col.
AMONG the recent visitors to Steinway
Hall was Wm. Rohlfing, of Milwaukee,
who left a large order for Steinway instru-
ments.
JACOB DOLL and family have returned
from their summer vacation in Richfield,
Conn.
HENRY L. COLE, of Nashville, Tenn.,
formerly a member of the firm of R. Dor-
man & Co., of that city, which is now
owned by F. G. Fite, committed suicide
last Sunday by drinking carbolic acid.
AT the fire which occurred at the Acad-
emy of Music, Buffalo, recently, a Chick-
ering concert grand piano which was en-
gaged for the performance was totally de-
stroyed. The instrument was supplied by
C. H. Utley.
IT is said that the Adlon Music Co.,
Oskaloosa, la., have gone out of business
G
EO. P. BENT evidently looks upon a
trip from Chicago to New York as
something not to be considered seriously—
an appetizer, as it were. He ran into town
one day this week, made a few calls which
included Alfred Dolge & Son's, where he
left a large order for supplies, and the
office of this paper, where he delayed long
enough to say "How d' ye do? Glad to
see you. Business? Simply great; selling
all the 'Crowns' we can make. Dealers
like 'em and must* have 'em. Sorry can't
stay longer. Just off for Philadelphia.
Bye, bye."
*
A fine type of man was Harrison Mil-
lard, whose death is recorded in another
part of this paper. He had the soul and
courage jf a warrior—which is illustrated
in his military record—and yet he possessed
a gentleness and amiability of character
which won him hosts of friends who ad-
mired him for his musical talents and es-
teemed him for his manly attributes. His
songs are known the world over, and, like
Dr. Root, he had every claim to be consid-
ered one of our representative song writers.
* *
*
My attention is called to the subjoined,
which appeared in Freund's Musical
Weekly, Sept. 4th:
Mr. E. Heuer, of the firm of E. Heu.er
& Co., Mexico City, Mex., called on the
Automaton Piano Co, and left a large order
for music. A shipment of Bent pianos,
fitted with Automaton attachments, has
just been forwarded to this firm.
Mr. Heuer was much interested in Mr.
Klaber's statements concerning Mr. Davis
and the Electric Piano Co., fcr which, it
had been stated in certain trade papers, Mr.
Heuer had taken the agency.
The attitude of the trade papers toward
the Electric Piano Co. will be watched with
interest, after the developments now pend-
ing have matured. If the statements made
by Mr. Klaber and the Automaton Piano
Co. are true, and there is no reason to
doubt their being so, it is a question
whether the trade will countenance or assist
in furthering such methods.
In the first place the article has a Kla-
berian smack, as if it might have been
penned by another hand than the editor of
the paper alluded to. Let me analyze it:
Mr. Heuer did call upon the Automaton
Co., and left an order for music. It is true
also that he "was much interested in Mr.
Klaber's statements concerning Mr.
Davis," so much interested that when he
returned to this office he was limp and
faint, and said that never in his life had he
heard a man get such a laying out as Mr.
Davis received from Mr. Klaber. The lat-
ter part is really good when it says "it has
been stated in certain trade papers that Mr.
^Heuer had taken the agency for the elec-
tric attachment invented by Mr. Davis."
Had the editor of Freund's Musical Weekly
taken the pains to inform himself he would
have learned, as has been announced in
this paper, that Mr. Heuer secured the
agency for the electric self-playing attach-
ment for the Republic of Mexico, and had
signed a contract to that effect.
Mr. Heuer, after a careful examination
of Mr. Davis' invention, expressed himself
in no light measure as being greatly de-
lighted with it. He said further that dur-
ing his conversation with Mr. Klaber, in
which, as Freund's Musical Weekly sayy,
"he was much interested," Mr. Klaber
offered if he would cancel his contract with
Mr. Davis to supply him with electric at-
tachments at 10 per cent, less than Mr.
Davis' price, never asking what Mr. Davis'
price was. Perhaps this is the part which
the Weekly refers to when it states that "it
is a question whether the trade will coun-
tenance or assist in furthering
such
methods."
As far as the controversy goes between
Mr. Klaber and Mr. Davis, I have but little
to say, preferring to let the courts adjust
that matter; but I do say, and that most
emphatically, that Mr. Davis has shown to
the world the best thing that I have seen
in the matter of electric attachments for
piano playing. I know that many promi-
nent dealers whom I have seen since their
examination of Mr. Davis 1 invention are
with me in my belief.
Mr. Klaber claims that he can make the
same attachment. If he can do as he says,
why then there will be two in the field;
but at the present time Mr. Davis seems to
be taking plenty of orders for his inven-
tion. It takes.
* *
*
I had a pleasant chat with W. M. Blight,
secretary and treasurer of the Keller Bros.
& Blight Co., last Wednesday.
When
asked about business he said: "The trouble
with our house just now is not to get
orders, but to fill them. We are working
late ever}- night with a factory manned as
it never was before; nevertheless, we are
away behind. We have completed arrange-
ments for an enlargement of our plant,
which will enable us to increase our out-
put by forty pianos a week.
"The demand for the Keller Bros, pi-
anos has become most pronounced in the
West. I realized this during a trip which
I made to Chicago a few weeks ago.
Formerly our instruments were sold prin-
cipally in the Eastern States—what may be
termed the home market—and their popu-
larity in that section is certainly a compli-
ment. This demand is now extending all
over the country, hence our present facili-
ties are entirely inadequate. We intend to
push the building of our new factory—in
fact, we have got to—so as to enable us to
fill the unusually large number of orders
which we have on hand."