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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
I had a call this week from Mr. R. O. Foster
of Foster & Waldo, Minneapolis. Mr. Foster
is a clean cut, forceful, and energetic business
man. He has a way of divesting the piano
business of all sentiment and resolving it to a
straight commercial basis. He said " Our
business for 1896 was the best in every point,
both as to extent and results obtained, of any
year since we have been in business. Now I
do not mean to say that we gained % this with-
out strenuous effort, but our method of selling
pianos seems to be successful, and this year
. J
R. O. FOSTER.
we propose following on original lines as here-
tofore. We handle the Behr Bros., McPhail,
Sterling, and Huntington pianos, and, by the
way, I have just returned from a trip to Derby,
Conn., where I had the pleasure of inspecting
the Sterling and Huntington factories. What
magnificent plants they have! There is a firm
which have clearly solved the piano business
both as to product and its distribution."
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Henry Muller, a practical piano-maker and
acoustician, who has been residing in San
Francisco for the past ten years, and who has
patented a tuning-pin device which possesses
many points of merit and originality, was a
visitor to The Review sanctum on Tuesday.
He expects to have his tuning-pin device
taken up by a New York manufacturer. He
is also the inventor of something new in the
line of musical instruments, of the harp fam-
ily, which he is about to introduce to the Eng-
lish trade. He sailed for London on Wednes-
day. His stay abroad will be indefinite.
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The following amusing anecdote told by an
English paper might fit some people, includ-
ing a certain music trade editor, on this side of
the pond:
A musical composer of much talent and
popularity—we will call him Smithkins—has a
happy appreciation of his own work, as his
friends all know. So highly does he estimate
Smithkins's compositions that some of his
friends were much startled the other day when
he said gravely:
" Did you ever notice that the names of all
the great composers begin with M?"
" M!" ejaculated his astonished audience.
" Yes, M," said the composer. " Mozart,
Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Moszkowski—and
Me!"
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Robert H. Benary, of the Metropolis Mu-
sical Instrument Co., this city, speaks hope-
fully of the general trade outlook for this year.
Mr. Benary was a visitor at the office of a
well-known Broadway importer during the
week when The Review was making one of his
periodical visits. In speaking of the trade out-
look, Mr. Benary stated: " I look for a
splendid year's business. Dealers in my line
of goods—guitars, mandolins, and banjoes—
are entirely out, merchants, jobbers, and re-
tailers got scared with the general outlook and
stocks are much depleted; they are bound to
buy; we are bound to get business.
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William J. Street, well known through his
connection with the retail department of C. j .
Heppe 81 Son, Philadelphia, was so royally
treated during his tarry in the Metropolis last
week, that he is of the opinion that such ad-
mirable hosts as Geo. N. Grass, Robt. C. Kam-
merer, of Geo. Steck & Co., Robt. Widenmann
of Strich & Zeidler, and Mr. Hall the Pease
representative cannot be duplicated. These
gentlemen know how to make life pleasant
for their guests, and Mr. Street is well aware
of the fact. He thoroughly enjoyed his New
York visit and appreciates the many courte-
sies shown him.
The approval by the President last week of
the new act of Congress amending the Re-
vised Statutes of the United States in relation
to dramatic and musical copyrights will render
the procedure in the Federal courts much
more effective in behalf of plaintiffs who ob-
tain injunctions against persons who are at-
tempting to produce plays unlawfully. Here-
tofore, an injunction to restrain the perfor-
mance or representation of a musical or dra-
matic composition was operative only in the
particular judicial district in which it was
granted. An injunction which forbade a par-
ticular act of dramatic piracy in the Southern
District of New York, in this city, availed
the playwright nothing in Philadelphia, which
is situated in the Eastern District of Pennsyl-
vania. The amendment, however, makes an
injunction in such a case operative and en-
forceable anywhere in the United States.
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It is recalled that it is not so many years
since it was deemed effeminate for a man to
play the piano and unladylike for a woman to
practise the violin. On one occasion at a party,
giv-n by Sir John Millais, Lady Halle rose to
play the violin, when to her intense amuse-
ment she heard Landseer exclaim: " Good
gracious! A woman playing the fiddle!" On
the other hand, an old-fashioned nobleman
when he saw a gentleman sit down to the
piano, contemptuously remarked: " I wonder
if the creature can sew!"
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A novel use of the telephone was recently
made in Des Moines, when at the dedication
of the new chimes of St. Paul's Episcopal
Church, the chime ringer of the bells was
enabled to play in unison with the organ in the
church, where the organist was rendering a
selection composed for the occasion by Mr.
Henry B. Roney, of Chicago, and entitled,
" The Consecration of the Bells."
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Black walnut has proven such a decided
favorite with piano and cabinet makers that
the forests of the North have been pretty well
cleared out, and the Southerners are now look-
ing forward to a chance in the market. In
this connection Tennessee and Arkansas take
the lead. Black walnut timber has been cut
in almost incredible quantities in both of these
States, and land owners have reaped a rich
harvest.
Next come the States further south. They
have immense tracts of timber land, covered
not only with the walnut tree, but also with
the best woods required in piano building.
The time is not far distant when Northern
capital will be invested in manufactories on
the edge of Southern forests and the banks of
Southern streams.
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Papers for the incorporation of the Kersh-
ner Piano Co., were filed at Portland, Me.,
Tuesday, January 19th, capital one hundred
thousand dollars ($100,000.00), of which ten
thousand is paid in cash. The stock-holders
are Wm. H. Poole of Boston, Henry A.
French of Nashville, Tenn., Oliver Kershner
Houck, John C. Houck, and Jesse French
Houck of Memphis, Tenn.
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Any music trade firm that secures the ser-
vices of Wm. B. Wilson, of autoharp fame,
will find that they have contracted with a man
who is well posted, and has a strong personal
following all over the country. Mr. Wilson
can be addressed, care of Alfred Dolge & Son,
n o East Thirteenth Street, this city.
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W. H. Turner, treasurer of the Braumuller
Co. this city, left for a three months' Southern
trip on Tuesday of this week. Mr. Turner
will combine business with pleasure.
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J. Reimers, Geo. E. Cramer, and Jacob
Corlies, of the Reimers Piano Co., Pough-
keepsie, N. Y., were visitors to this city this
week.
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C. L. Burchard, of Behr Bros. & Co., ex-
pects soon to take the road in the interest of
his house.
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The Century Piano Co., Minneapolis,
Minn., are reported to have assigned on Jan-
uary 20th, to Hans O. Peterson.