Music Trade Review
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THENEWYORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILOEN FOUNDATION*.
LIBRARY
I6
VOL XXIV.
No. i.
Published Every Saturday, at 3 East Fourteenth Street,
New York, January 2,1897.
In The West.
A Piano Factory Burned.
TRADE ITEMS FROM THE CITY BY THE LAKE.
THE BUILDING OCCUPIED BY THE SEBASTIAN
SOMMER CO. IN RUINS—W. F. BOOTHE SAYS
THE INTERRUPTION TO BUSINESS WILL
BE BUT TEMPORARY — FAIRLY
WELL INSURED.
T
HE Manufacturers' Piano Co. have is-
sued a circular to its customers and
the public, announcing that the receiver of
the company was discharged on Dec. 17th,
and that the concern is again in the hands
of the company and restored to business
life and. activity. At a meeting held on
Dec. *i7th, the following cfficers were
elected for the ensuing year: Wm. E.
Wheelock, president; Chas. B. Lawson,
vice-president; Louis Dederich, secretary
and treasurer,
The members of the Music Trade Asso-
ciation, of this city, have, to a man, signed
the petition to President elect McKinley
endorsing Chas. H. MacDonald for the
position of Consul-General at Vienna.
They claim he is well qualified for the
duties of that office, and as a representa-
tive citizen and business man, will perform
such duties in a manner that will reflect
credit upon our country. A document
signed by such a representative body of
men is indicative of the esteem in which
Mr. MacDonald is held by his confreres.
R, H. Day, the well-known piano sales-
man, has joined forces with Frank Taylor,
of the National Piano Co., and have opened
retail warerooms at 308 Wabash avenue,
under the firm name of Day & Taylor.
Holiday trade with the retail stores has
been fairly satisfactory and, with a few of
the larger houses, exceedingly good.
May Irwin made a big "hit" at the
Columbia Theatre last week in a song which
she sings with the zobo band accompani-
ment. It is a great ad. for the zobo.
The many bank failures in this city and
locality have created a decided pessimistic
feeling in business circles. Many forget
that the present trouble is due to bad man-
agement, which could not goon very much
longer, in good or bad times. The failure
of one or two banks has precipitated others,
and there you are. There is no reason to
get scared as far as I can see. Everything
will come out all right in the end.
E. S. Conway returned from the Pacific
Coast on Thursday; John W. Northrop has
returned from a business tour which in-
cluded a visit to Boston; H. J. Raymore,
of the Shaw Piano Co., has been in town.
NE of the most destructive conflagra-
tions of the year occurred last Fri.
day morning on East Thirty-third street,
this city. Before the flames were checked,
the two six-story factory buildings which
extend from 211 to 229 were a mass of
ruins. The Sebastian Sommer Piano Co.
had offices on the third floor,If ront, of 211
and 213, and occupied the remainder of
the building as well as the upper floors of
the big factory adjoining.
The New York Polyclinic Hospital in the
rear, which fronts on East Thirty-fourth
street, and a flat house adjoining the fac-
tory building on the west was also des-
troyed. Under the circumstances, it was
marvelous that there was no loss of life.
The total loss is estimated at $500,000.
About sixty pianos a week were being
shipped from the Sebastian Sommer Piano
Co.'s factory and a large number of men
are temporarily thrown out of work.
The Company had a large number of
pianos on hand ready for shipping and their
factory was filled with valuable machinery.
Wm. F. Boothe, who is the general
manager of the Sebastian Sommer Piano
Co., said to THE REVIEW, after the fire:
"Yes, of course, we shall feel the loss keen-
ly, as we had many of our agents depend-
ing upon us for immediate shipment of
pianos, but still we do not propose to lay
down and throw up our hands for anything
like a fire. We at once made tempo-
rary arrangements so that our work may
go on in a comparatively uninterrupted
manner. Of course, there will be a delay
in shipping, but in three weeks, aided by
reserve stock at hand and subject to our
order, with the temporary facilities which
we have engaged, we hope to be shipping
pianos."
"And your loss, Mr. Boothe," asked THE
REVIEW, "how do you estimate it?"
"Well, I should value our stock and
machinery at at least $45,000; on this we
had an insurance of $30,000. That's about
the way the matter stands."
O
$ 3 .oo PER YEAR-
SINGLE COPIES, io CENTE
Wm. F. Boothe and A. B. Cameron are
the principal stock holders. They are men
of tremendous business energy, and the in-
terruption of their business will be only
temporary.
The Bett Violin Case Again.
A NEW DEVELOPMENT.
T
HE Bott violin case was reopened in
General Sessions last week, when Ed-
ward Remenyi, the violinist, identified the
violin in the possession of the court as the
one he had played upon before Magistrate
Flammer, at which time Remenyi testified
that the instrument wasnot the Bott violin.
Victor L. Flechter, who was charged by
Mrs. Matilda Bott with the theft of her
violin, was discharged by Magistrate Flam-
mer on the testimony of Remenyi although
Mrs. Bott and her sister both swore that
the violin in question was the Bott violin.
Flechter was subsequently indicted and
found guilty before Recorder Goff. In this
trial Mrs. Bott swore that another violin
had been substituted by Flechter after the
proceedings in the Jefferson Police Court,
and the jury, charged by Recorder Goff to
find the defendant not guilty provided the
violin was the one exhibited at the former
trial, returned a verdict of guilty, which
was as much as saying that a substitution
had been made. Edward Remenyi was
away during this trial, and his testimony
just given will, it is assumed, have impor-
tant bearing upon the case when it comes
up on appeal next week.
Held for Trial.
OPHUS MORRISON, who was arrested
on a charge of embezzlement brought
against him by Estey & Camp, which firm
he represented in Kaukauna, Wis., has been
held for trial at the January term of the
Circuit Court, at Appleton, Wis.
S
The Blumenberg Press.
HE principal stockholders of the "Musi-
cal Courier" and the "Jewelers'
Weekly" will forma company to be known
as the Blumenberg Press, which will print
both of the above named papers and half a
dozen other trade publications.
T