Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
T
HOMAS F. G. FOISY, one of the larg-
est piano manufacturers in the Pro-
vince of Quebec, was a visitor to New York
the closing days of last week.
Mr. Foisy is a man of magnetism and
personal force, and his popularity in Mon-
treal and adjoining cities is not to be won-
dered at. Although still a young man, he
occupies a prominent position in the social
and business community, and in due time
we may expect high honors to come his
way. When asked about the condition of
business in Canada, he said:
" I t is not over brisk now, but like our
friends in the States, we are looking forward
with confidence to better times. As far as
the Foisy pianos are concerned, the dealers
who handle them, as well as the people who
buy them, consider that for material, style,
workmanship, finish and elasticity of
touch, they are equal to any."
The purchase of supplies was the chief
object of Mr. Foisy's visit.
*
The intense competition, which is one of
the factors of business as conducted in this
fast-moving age, has its redeeming features,
for it brings out of necessity the best there
is in a man. There is no longer a chance
for success for the slow-going, the careless
or the inattentive. They are not even in
demand for the most subordinate positions.
The young employees who are to be the
trade magnates of the future are not the
ones who think that any kind of service will
do, so long as idleness and inattention and
half-hearted work remain undetected.
Employers are more observant than this
class of employees seem to think. The
fact that they could tell a good thing when
they saw it, and knew how to take advan-
tage of it, is what made them employers,
and it is folly to suppose that they do not
know when they are well served. As a
rule they do, and are glad to utilize the
services of the faithful, the intelligent and
energetic in higher positions. Hence the
subordinate who wishes to rise will give
his whole thought to business, which will
surely be recognized by his employer, or
by some other, as well as by that portion
of the world at large with which he is
brought in business contact.
* *
Frequently people saj' their eyes are not
alike. They cannot see as well with one as
with the other; and persons hearing better
with one ear than the other are more com-
mon than would be supposed. With a large
number of people the hearing of tones ean
be greatly improved, and on stringed in-
struments the success of the player depends
on it. Constant practice in listening and
being corrected by one with a good ear,
will develop the power of distinction very
much. Some players will remark that they
cannot bear to hear a person play out of
tune, but when they play themselves are
unable to distinguish C natural from C
sharp. Often this is affectation, and must
be allowed for accordingly.
Piano players are frequently met who
have excellent technical abilities who are
unable to tell when their piano is in tune.
A tuner said to me one day, he had no fear
but what the piano was satisfactory when
the owner would, after he had got through
tuning, pound on the keys from the bass
notes to the highest treble, but he was anx-
ious if the owner touched the keys very
lightly and listened.
*
This is a common question, and one upon
which the career of many a musical aspirant
rests. People are frequently met who de-
clare they cannot tell one tune from an-
other, and often music is distasteful to such
persons.
In this connection Geo. Brayley relates
the following interesting anecdote in the
"Leader": A short while ago, a young
man who was a native of a small town in
Maine, was desirous of becoming a piano
tuner. He acquired the mechanical part
of the business to perfection and came to
this city to try for a position in one of the
piano firms here. When it came to practi-
cal work he could accomplish nothing. In
vain was he directed, over and over again,
in regard to tuning the strings correctly;
he could not get them right. It seemed to
make no difference to his ear how they
sounded. He had to give it up and went
home disappointed, to work in a sawmill.
Neither he nor the piano people could ex-
plain his difficulty. Within a year, while
working in the mill, he was struck in the
ear by a flying bolt, and when he recovered
from the serious wound that resulted, he
found that all sounds were different to him
than ever before. The injured ear had be-
come deaf, and he was hearing with but
one ear, and he soon recognized the fact
that one ear was giving him an impression
of sound unlike anything he had before ex-
perienced. He was simply hearing sounds
as other people did. He came back to Bos-
ton and found no difficulty in tuning
pianos. His trouble, no doubt, was due to
the fact that his ears were not the 'same.
Either one tympanum was thicker than the
other, or for some reason they received dif-
ferent impressions of sound, so that he
could not recognize harmony of two or more
tones, but one tone alone was discord to
him.
John Boyd Thacher has written a play.
This is just what the music trade papers
have been waiting for, and by the time the
critics get through reviewing that play
there won't be enough left of it to make a
curtain raiser.
.
Mr. F. W. Teeple.
__
TALKS ABOUT THE CHICAGO COTTAGE ORGANS
IN ENGLAND.
M
R. FRANK W. TEEPLE, confidential
representative of the Chicago Cot-
tage Organ Co., came over on the steam-
ship "New York" last month to visit the
concern's European agencies. While in
London for the purpose of conferring with
Messrs. Barnett, Samuel & Sons, relative
to future consignments of these popular in-
struments, Mr. Teeple paid us a visit and
talked to us of many things in a way that
proved him to be a man of acute under-
standing and broad sympathies. He gave
a glowing account of the organ trade, which
there have been so many dismal attempts
to prove is declining, and informed us that
he had just booked such an order from
Messrs. Barnett, Samuel & Sons, as was
never before obtained by mortal organ man.
He would not, he said, divulge the precise
number of organs ordered nor their value
in dollars, but he was ready to stake his
last cent on the truth of his statement that
it was the biggest order for organs ever
booked. Mr. Teeple, who was to visit
Germany, Holland, Norway, and Sweden,
Denmark, and Switzerland, before return-
ing to Chicago, spoke in the warmest terms
of Messrs. Barnett, Samuel & Sons, whose
perfect organization, he said, made them
ideal agents for his company. Business
relations between them had been of the
pleasantest character, and had been mutu-
ally advantageous. Messrs. Barnett, Sam-
uel & Sons had entire control of the British
and Colonial trade in Chicago Cottage Or-
gans, and the vast proportions to which this
part of the company's business had grown
was powerful evidence that Messrs. Bar-
nett, Samuel & Sons directed their busi-
ness with the utmost energy and enter-
prise.—Music, London.
THE branch store of the Mathushek &
Son Piano Co., New Brunswick, N. J., is
considering the advisability of moving their
piano warerooms from their present loca-
tion in the post office building to another
building in New Brunswick.
THE Estey Organ Co. has hired the room
in the Arms Block, formerly occupied by
Clarence Van Deusen, and will open a
piano and organ wareroom there.—Spring-
field, Mass., Republican.
M. A. ELLIS, piano salesman, has severed
his connection with McKannon Bros., of
Burlington, Vt., and engaged with Bailey's
Music House in the same city.
MRS. E. R. MCCAA, the enterprising-
piano and organ dealer of Lancaster, Pa.,
has removed her stock of pianos, organs and
musical merchandise to 45 North Queen
street, a move which has been made neces-
sary owing to the growth of her business.
F. E. CRANE, bookkeeper in the piano
department of O. Ditson & Co., Boston,
died at Montpelier, Vt., last week. Mr.
Crane was an accomplished pianist and or-
ganist.