Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
Enterprise and Art.
T
HE very handsome and artistic supple-
ment presented by the noted New York
piano house . f Haines Bros., in this week's
issue of THE REVIEW, is,, to our way of
thinking, not only suggestive of marked
enterprise, but a fitting monument of high
endeavor and realization in the artistic
realm of piano manufacture. The work of
art—we use the term advisedly—is a re-
duced fac simile of a variety of photographs
handsomely framed, which is being pre-
sented by Haines Bros, to dealers who han-
dle their instruments. In the Haines Bros,
piano the manufacturers justly pride them-
selves not only on perfect construction,
marked individuality and beauty of tone,
together with a responsive touch, but also
lay stress on the extreme beauty and ele-
gant symmetry of their case-work. Here,
we have, through the medium of the pho-
tographer's art, a careful reproduction of
the varied styles manufactured by Haines
Bros. The artistic lines, perfect symmetry
and beauty of case-work design of these in-
struments, so admirably reproduced in the
supplement, are sufficiently inviting to sug-
gest the desire to view the originals.
The instruments manufactured by Haines
Bros, will stand the closest scrutiny; after
an analytical test we are able to confirm
with confidence that in tone, touch, perfec-
tion of finish and general ensemble they
will satisfy the most exacting. The tone
is pure, musical and resonant; the new
open scale—to which we shall make further
reference later—a model of equality; it is
equipoised and scientifically adjusted to per-
fection; and, in addition, the general finish
of the instrument is in harmony.
Among the prominent and reliable deal-
ers who handle the Haines Bros, pianos,
maybe mentioned: B. Dreher Sons Co.,
Columbus, O.; J. O. Twichell, Chicago;
D. H. Baldwin & Co., Cincinnati, O., and
Louisville, Ky. ; Estey & Camp, St. Louis;
B. L. Rich & Co., Fitchburg, Mass.; Gal-
lup & Metzger, Hartford, Conn.; F. J.
Schwankovsky, Detroit, Mich.; W. A.
Pond & Co., New York, etc., who all testify
to the superiority of the instrument and
its qualities as a ready seller. B. Dreher
Sons Co., Columbus, O., write under date
of March 28 last, "Your 'style 19' is certain-
ly a daisy." In style 22, however, Haines
Bros, appear to have reached almost the
apex of the piano maker's art; it is in this
instrument that the new open scale of
Haines Bros, first makes its appearance,
and of which extended mention is necessary
to convey an adequate idea to the reader.
A close observer of piano construction
can readily perceive in a number of instru-
ments the piano strings running together,
or what is technically called "riding,"
where the strings are fixed to the tuning
pin; this defect is liable to cause imperfect
intonation, as the strings touch each other,
and in tuning, a slight movement of the
one string is liable to imperceptibly inter-
fere with a parallel string of the same tone,
which had been previously "set." In the
new open scale of Haines Bros., the pins
are bored so perfectly in position that this
defect is remedied; it is another important
step in the direction of that "perfection"
which all conscientious piano makers are
endeavoring to realize.
Trade Names and Trade Harks.
T
HE nature and extent to which protec-
tion is afforded for trade marks and
names has been very clearly defined in a
recent issue of a technical magazine.
A trade mark is a symbol arbitrarily selected
by a manufacturer or dealer and attached to
his wares to indicate that they are his
wares. In selecting such a device he must
avoid words merely descriptive of the
article or its qualities ( or such as have
become so by use in connection with known
articles of commerce. He must also avoid
words—e. g., geographical names—which
are descriptive of the local origin of the
goods, if other persons have the right to
deal in goods of similar origin. When it
has become generally known in the trade
that this word or symbol has been taken by
one dealer or manufactuier to indicate his
goods, he acquires a title to it for that pur-
pose, and no one else can use it even inno-
cently.
VfoSELL.NlCKEL8j(fR0SS
NEW YORK
For instance, the cut which we append
herewith illustrates the foregoing. It
covers, with excellent effect the field to
which Wessell, Nickel & 1 Gross cater. In
their trade-mark they naturally claim "that
thier piano action is the standard of the
world." It is unusually forceful and
broad in design, and Wessell, Nickel &
Gross can be congratulated on the posses-
sion of such a neat mark by which their
wares can be distinguished.
A trade name is of a different character.
It is descriptive of the manufacturer or
dealer himself as much as his own name is,
and frequently, like the names of business
corporations, includes the name of the place
where the business is located. If attached
to goods, it is designed to say plainly what
a trade mark only indicates by association
and use. The employment of such a name
is subject to the same rules which apply to
the use of one's own name of birth or bap-
tism. Two persons may bear the same
name, and each may use it in his business,
but not so as to deceive the public and in-
duce customers to mistake one for the
other. The use of one's own name is un-
lawful if exercised fraudulently to attract
custom from another bearer of it.
Trade marks, properly so called, may be
violated by accident or ignorance. The
law protects them, nevertheless, as prop-
erty. Names which are not trade marks,
strictly speaking, may be protected likewise
if they are taken with fraudulent intention,
and if they are so used as to be likely to
effect this intention.
It has been very correctly said that the
principle of the decided cases is this: That
no man has a right to sell his own goods as
the goods of another. The principle may
be expressed in different form by saying:
No man has a right to dress himself in
colors, or adopt and bear symbols, to which
he has no peculiar or exclusive right, and
thus personate another, for the purpose of
inducing the public to suppose either that
he is that other person or that he is con-
nected with and selling the manufacture of
such other person, while he is really selling
his own. It is perfectly manifest that to
do these things is to commit a fraud, and a
very gross fraud.
The right which any person may have to
the protection of a court of equity does not
depend upon any exclusive right which he
may be supposed to have to a particular
name or to a particular form of words.
His right is to be protected against fraud,
and fraud may be practiced against him by
means of a name, though the person prac-
ticing it may have a perfect right to use
that name, provided he does not accompany
its use with such other circumstances as to
effect a fraud upon others.
The offense is not merely in duplicating,
for similarity, not identity, is the usual
course, when one seeks to benefit himself
by the good name of another; but in many
cases the effect of imitation depends upon
the propinquity, especially where the name
is one applied to a business or a store, and
the similar use would not lead to deception.
But it is different where the field of action
is a locality, or the commercial world, as
in the use of a trade mark. Though some-
times a name assumed at the formation of
a business on a small scale may become im-
portant, where the success of the article or
the enterprise of the proprietors extends
the original limits, and the right to protec-
tion will grow with the growth of its repu-
tation and the territory covered by its sale.
The Harp-Guitar.
ARL BROWN, of Columbus, O., is
the inventor of a harp-guitar, of
novel design, which has been on exhibition
at the store of one of the principal dealers
in that city during the past week. The
harp-guitar has ten strings, six of them
being tuned exactly like those of an ordi-
nary guitar. The remaining four strings
run parallel with and about a sixteenth of
an inch to the left (looking toward the
neck) of the four larger strings, and these
four extra strings are tuned an exact octave
above the strings paralleled. The harp-
gnitar resembles two instruments in tone—
the mandolin and guitar—and by means of
a simple arrangement either effect can be
produced. A patent has been applied for.
C