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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
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Ferdinand Mayer Honored.
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ADMITTED TO AN INTEREST IN THE KNABE CORPORATION AND ELECTED A DIRECTOR
CAREER IN THE TRADE REVIEWED A LEGION OF FRIENDS DELIGHTED AT HIS
GOOD FORTUNE.
At a special meeting of the stockholders of
the Wm. Knabe & Co. Manufacturing Co.,
of Baltimore City, held this week, Mr. Fer-
dinand Mayer, in view of his long and faith-
ful services, and of his having been admitted
to an interest in the corporation, was unani-
mously elected a director to serve till March
1, 1899.
Mr. Mayer's innumerable friends and ad-
mirers will be sincerely gratified to learn of
his advancement in the confidence of the firm
he has served so long and so well. It is,
perhaps, not strictly right to say " advance-
ment in their confidence," for he has had
their full confidence from the start. This
admission to the directorate is a new mark
of their high esteem for Mr. Mayer as an in-
dividual, and also as an important factor in
the development of their business success in
the East.
When seen by The Review on Wednesday,
Mr. Mayer said he felt very grateful for this
latest indication of the firm's good will in his
behalf. "My faith in the Knabe firm and in
the Knabe products has never for a moment
been shaken, and in the future, as in the past,
I shall devote my best energies to the advance-
ment of the Knabe interests."
Ferdinand Mayer's career in the piano trade
has been long and unusually successful. It
began with Marschall & Mittauer in this city,
in 1867. Two years later, on the dissolution
of that house, Albert Weber, founder of the
Weber firm, asked Mr. Mayer to enter his
service. He did so and remained eighteen
years, working his way up steadily, without a
single set-back, from the post of junior sales-
man to that of manager of the Weber retail
business at the headquarters in this city.
Subsequently Mr. Mayer was sent by Al-
bert Weber to Chicago, where for five years
he held the responsible position of associate
manager of the Weber branch. At the
death of Albert Weber, Mr. Mayer was ap-
pointed a trustee of the Weber estate.
When Herman F. Keidel, of the New York
branch of Wm. Knabe & Co., died, Mr. Mayer
was chosen as his successor. He remained
with the firm at that time for four years.
Then came a flattering offer from the firm
of Chickering & Sons, which was accepted.
Mr. Mayer remained at his post until the end
of his contract term of four years.
When this term expired, advantage was
taken of the opportunity to secure a much-
needed period of absolute rest and relief from
business cares. Mr. Mayer went to Europe
in March, 1896, and remained away until
September of the same year.
During his absence he received a second
call from the Knabe firm to resume the posi-
tion he formerly occupied in charge of the
New York house.
Mr. Mayer, who now, in connection with
the Knabe firm, controls the wholesale in-
terests of the house for New York State,
Maine, Vermont, parts of Pennsylvania
and New Jersey and also Canada, has during
his long experience with famous firms been
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HIS
brought into close contact with many pro-
minent professional musicians, and is now in
touch with nearly every eminent artist in this
country and in Europe, where he enjoys the
advantages of a large and valued acquaintance.
Mr. Mayer possesses the rare combination
of business and musical talent, the latter has
been inherited from his parents. He is a
versatile pianist and is past grand master of
the much misunderstood and difficult art of
knowing how to show off the best character-
istics of the piano. And what is most im-
portant, he knows how to sell it too. His ac-
complishments in thisrespect are unique.
The portrait of Mr. Mayer shown on this
page is considered by his friends to be a
faithful representation. With him in the pic-
ture are his three sons, Ferdinand H., on the
right, William W., on the left and Albert C.
Mayer, standing in rear.
Ferdinand H. Mayer is associated with his
father at the New York Knabe warerooms
and is a valuable assistant. He is now in his
twenty-fourth year, is a good salesman and
an accomplished musician.
The eldest son, William W. Mayer, thirty
years of age, is bookkeeper and cashier of
the American Machinist Publishing Co. in
this city, and has the full confidence of his
employees.
Albert C. Mayer, now studying music and
languages in Germany, is in his nineteenth
year. He is a young man of great promise.
In fact each of the Mayer boys gives favor-
able indications of a prosperous career.
Ambuhl Bros, of Pittsburg, Pa., have
leased for a term of years the three-story
building 433 Wood street, formerly occupied
by Crawford & Cox, and will move there on
April 1st.
Between seasons is the time to sow the
seed, and "whatsoever a man soweth that
shall he also reap."
Bent
>
Piano
_Advertiser.
George P. Bent, of Chicago, spends $2,000
a month in advertising Crown pianos, but
some of the most effective publicity Mr. Bent
has ever received did not cost him a cent,
says H. B. Howard in the current issue of
Printers' Ink.
To the piano trade the Chicago manufac-
turer is known as "One Grade" Bent. The
sobriquet was earned by the earnest advocacy
of a policy.
Bent believes that a factory
known for the excellence of its output can-
not add a cheap article to its line without
eventually cheapening the whole establish-
ment, and in the past year the trade papers
have printed pages of argument, pro and con,
all resulting from an article which Mr. Bent
signed.
The Bent theory is simple: " M y factory
is first-class," says he. " I cannot afford to
pay first-class men first-class wages to make
second or third-class goods. On the other
hand, should I employ second-class help and
material to get a cheap product, I should
drive my first-class article out of the market,
for, in the nature of things, few dealers would
buy my high-class piano while I offered an-
other a few dollars cheaper. I have com-
petition enough without supplying any of it
myself."
Nearly every maker of a cheap piano has
attempted to controvert Mr. Bent's conten-
tion in print, but the one-grade arguments
have been found to be sound logic and irre-
futable. As they have been proved by the
experiences of several well-known concerns,
most makers of standard instruments have
concluded that it is injudicious to risk identi-
fying the name of a fine piano with that of a
cheap article, and Mr. Bent is largely winner
by the success which has attended his cham-
pionship of the cause.
Pluck and persistency have done much for
this comparatively young man. Twenty-five
years ago he came to Chicago an unsophis-
ticated country boy. Hard work and frugality
gave him the opportunity, some fifteen years
ago, to start in a modest way to manufacture
reed organs. Ten years ago Crown pianos
were put on the market. Mr. Bent's latest
invention, and the thing which he advertises
most, is the orchestral attachment, by means
of which the piano may be made to imitate a
harp, mandolin, zither, guitar, banjo, bag-
pipe or fife and drums.
Mr. Howard then proceeds to sample the
original verse with which Mr. Bent seeks
publicity for this novelty, and proceeds to
interview him about advertising in general.
In this connection he says:
" The difficulty lies, not in his reluctance
to talk, for he is at all times willing to assist
Talk is GQeap
Don't pay $100
for a
When you
can buy
one for
For terms and particulars,
UNITED STATES TALKING
MACHINE CO.
57 E. 9th St., New York City