Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
From a Traveler's Note Book.
A JAUNT THROUGH "NEW ENGLAND—GLIMPSES OF THE TRADE TN NEW HAVEN, MERIDEN, HARTFORD,
NEW LONDON, WORCESTER, LEEMINSTER, BOSTON
RADE in New England has not
been particularly gratifying
since the advent of the New
Year. Visiting as 1 have since
January i, a number of the im-
portant points in the Eastern
States, I have not a particularly
optimistic report to make as the result of ob-
servations taken during my journey ings. The
fact is that business men are prone to relax
their energies during the first few weeks of
the year. They are busy stock-taking, arrang-
ing their programme for the year and all that,
and in the meanwhile their energies slacken,
consequently they do less business; a curtail-
ment of their advertising, a slackening of
their energy, means a corresponding curtail-
ment of trade.
Connecticut in good times is an excellent
State for the distribution of pianos. In the
first place there are innumerable manufac-
tories within its borders, and consequently
when times are fairly good there is a vast dis-
tribution weekly of money among the wage
earners, and this weekly distribution of dol-
lars causes them to percolate through all trade
centres.
New Haven has been of late a mighty poor
town for high grade pianos. Talk with all tho
dealers there and they will tell you that their
trade is run almost entirely on cheaper lines,
and it is a city in which the distribution of
the brand commonly termed " commercial
pianos " is exceedingly large.
The members of the trade expressed some
little surprise in New Haven over the recent
transfer of the Chickering agency from C. M.
Loomis & Sons to the Sonnenberg Piano Co.
The move surely should be beneficial to Mr.
Sonnenberg, as it will give him a piano of
great renown for his leader.
Meriden is a thrifty manufacturing city, and
sirange to say it boasts of no piano store
worthy of the name. It seems to me that not-
withstanding the New Haven dealers work
Meriden fairly well, yet there is an opening in
that city for the right kind of a man. Get a
good line of instruments, and manage a busi-
ness in an up-to-date manner, and there is
a good business future for such a man in
Meriden. Aside from the great distribution
of moneys throughout the factory channels,
Meriden is classed as a wealthy city.
Then again there are towns and villages ad-
jacent which could be used to draw upon in a
business sense.
There is New London, the home of Tom
Waller, a rich town and has always been a
good point for high-grade pianos. It is an old
settled and thrifty city, and manufacturing of
late seems to have been fostered there to a
considerable extent. The dealers of New Lon-
don seem to have no cause for complaint re-
garding trade conditions.
Hartford is another city, which, in the ver-
AFTERMATH OF THE BOSTON TRADE DINNER.
nacular of the day furnishes good piano feed-
ing ground. The trade there is looked after,
however, by a progressive line of men. Take
such firms as Ludlow Barker & Co., Wm.
Wander & Sons, Gallup & Metzger and others
of lesser renown, and the fact will impress it-
self upon any one who is acquainted with the
trade in that city, that it isn't necessary for the
Hartford resident to go outside the city limits
to purchase good pianos. In fact we may add
that nearly every instrument of renown is
represented in some way in the capital city of
the Nutmeg State. Hartford ranks as a good
piano town.
Springfield, Mass., is a city which affords a
magnificent distributing point for pianos.
While I do not consider that the piano busi-
ness is overdone in this city, yet it surely does
not lack in numbers as far as dealers are con-
cerned. There are in all, good, bad, and indif-
ferent, a round dozen of dealers in Springfield.
Nearly all of the great names are well repre-
sented, and some of the firms exhibit unusual
activity and business acumen in pushing their
enterprise with encouraging success.
W T m. C. Taylor has centrally located ware-
rooms. They are well arranged for trade con-
venience. He carries an excellent line of
Chickering, Sohmer, and Newby & Evans
pianos. He also has the agency for the
Symphony and Lehr organ. Mr. Taylor tells
me that he has been quite successful with the
Lehr piano-cased organ; he also handles the
Graphophone, and w T ith it has been success-
ful. I wonder that more dealers do not look
into the merits of the Graphophone.
M. P. Conway has imposing warerooms on
Main Street. His sales of the Emerson piano
are particularly large. Aside from this he
handles the Gordon, Brown & Simpson, Kel-
ler, and Baus pianos. Mr. Conway also con-
ducts an extensive business in his Holyoke
store.
Mr. L. M. Pierce, 351 Main Street, has been
particularly successful with the Sterling
pianos. His annual sales of these pianos run
large.
Otto Baab is a hard worker and seems to be
meeting with considerable success. He hand-
les the Behr, Vose, and Majestic pianos. He
has recently placed a trial order for the " Wal-
dorf " piano made by Henry Behr.
J. E. Bretzfelder, local manager of the
Steinert branch says he has no special cause
to complain of business conditions.
Mrs. C. N. Stimpson, who formerly gave a
large portion of her time to the management
of her retail piano store in Springfield, I
learned is in ill health, and it is doubtful
whether she will ever again take an active part
in business.
Harry G. Gibbs sells the Sebastian Sommer
and other pianos. J. M. Bruce, W. B. Carter,
James Lewis all have their business establish-
ments in Springfield, and it may readily be
seen that Springfield is not lacking in music
stores.
A hurried call upon the retail trade in Wor-
cester elicited the information that conditions
had brightened up materially during the past
week. Worcester is an excellent piano point,
and there is not an overplus of piano stores.
Take such firms as Leland, Gorham, Lamb,
Hanson and the wants of the average Wor-
cester music lover are fully attended to.
I had a pleasant chat with my friends In-
graham and Clark, proprietors of the Taber
Organ Co. They have just moved into their
new quarters at 25 Union Street, where they
are pleasantly located. Regarding the organ
business with them, I may say their home
trade has been steadily augmented by the
foreign demand for their organs which keeps
them busy. The Taber organ is in every way
a reliable instrument, and dealers who have
had their attention called to the merits of the
Taber have found in it an instrument which
is not only honestly constructed in all its de-
tail work, but it is an admirable instrument
throughout. Try a Taber and you'll buy
more.
The Jewett Piano Co., Leominster, Mass.,
have closed a very satisfactory year's busi-
ness. The Jewett piano is handled by some of
the largest dealers in the country with grati-
fying results. At the time of my visit Frank
J. Woodbury, the business manager, was away
on a short run visiting the principal points in
Maine.
Trade in Boston does not differ materially
from other sections of the country. Occa-
sionally I find a manufacturer who paints
things in such a roseate hue that I am led to
believe that he is singularly blessed, but there
are not many who have been eating plenti-
fully of the lotus since January 1st.
The recent trade banquet in Boston was one
of the most prominent social events which has
ever transpired in the annals of the music
trade in that city. The dinner committee,
which consisted of Henry F. Miller, Edward
P. Mason, and Alex. Steinert, certainly de-
serve great credit for the successful manner
in which they planned and carried the dinner
to such a pleasing end. In my opinion the
direct result of the Boston dinner will be to
draw the trade closer together in all sections
of the country. The committee made a par-
ticularly happy selection in their choice of
speakers, and the dissemination of the ideas
expounded by Mr. Jones and Mr. Sayward
will cause many to think that there is really
more good to be evolved out of commercial
trade unions than they had hitherto believed.
Mr. Wheelock's remarks anent the trade
press have been criticised. There are many
who think that he should not have interjected
the subject of trade papers in his remarks, but
personally I am of the opinion that Mr. Whee-
lock intended no affront to the papers.
Mr. MacDonald made many friends, and
one man said " when he comes to Boston again
he will be lionized."
Geo. P. Bent enjoyed the dinner, every bit
of it, and I know from his deep interest in the
speeches that they were not lacking in interest
for him either.