Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1898 Vol. 26 N. 12

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
it was learned that they were unfounded and
that no one is missing.
Within twenty-four hours after the fire
the music trade firms whose establishments
were destroyed were located in new quarters
ready for business.
This enterprise is characteristic of the
West.
T"HERE is no report yet from the conference
committee who are struggling with the
National Bankruptcy Bill, recently passed by
the House of Representatives. It is sincere-
ly to be hoped that the representatives of the
Senate in the committee will agree to accept
the House measure. The Senate bill provid-
ing solely for voluntary bankruptcy is of no
value whatever, as no legislation can be
which does not provide the means by which
the property of an unwilling bankrupt may be
divided among his creditors.
It seems that the question at issue between
the two Houses is: shall the law be estab-
lished in the interest of the debtors, or shall
it favor just creditors against dishonest and
incompetent debtors, and shall it aid honest
debtors to make a settlement and make a new
start in business?
To summarize the matter in brief, the
Senate bill is for the relief of debtors, while
the House bill now being considered by the
conference committee is for the just relief of
both creditors and debtors. It is designed in
a broad spirit of consideration and should re-
ceive the President's signature during the
present session. Every representative busi-
ness organization in the United States de-
mands such a law on the statute-books.
T H E very graceful and indeed unusual com.
pliment paid Mr. Ferdinand Mayer this
week by the corporation of Wm. Knabe &
Co., and referred to elsewhere in this issue,
will be warmly applauded by a legion of
friends of the firm and of the gentleman so
signally honored. The bestowal of such a
substantial token of esteem and appreciation
of services is rare—hence the more valued.
Mr. Mayer's career in the music trade for
over thirty years has ever been a dignified
and an honorable one, and it is a great
pleasure to The Review to extend congratu-
lations on this auspicious occasion.
These are busy days at the Strich &
Zeidler factory. The output is large and
orders are plentiful. Mr. Widenmann left
town early in the week on a short Eastern
trip.
Pryibil machinery for piano makers occu-
pies a conspicuous place in the Pryibil cata-
logues. The members of the firm say that
they will cheerfully furnish estimates at any
time for ordinary or special work.
HUNDREDS OF PIANOS
GO UP IN SflOKE.
The Heart of the Retail Music Trade in Chicago in Ashes—The Retail Establish-
ments of the Chicago Cottage Organ Co., Emerson Piano Co. Totally Destroyed.
J. O. Twitchell, John A. Bryant, Lyon & Healy, Clayton F. Summy, Julius
Bauer & Co., National Music Co., Sol. Grollman all Suffer Loss—Hundreds
of Thousands Destroyed in Ten Minutes—Many Lives Lost—The Chicago
Cottage Organ Co. Secure New Quarters—Incidents of the Big Fire.
Chicago, 111., March 16, 1898.
The very heart of the piano district of the
city by the lake lies a smouldering mass of
ruins. In less time than will be required to
pen these brief lines, hundreds of thousands
of dollars worth of property was swept away
by the seething flames, while many lives were
lost. At this time it is impossible to tell how
many human beings were swallowed up in the
great fire which swept the business heart of
Chicago, destroying property roughly estima-
ted at a million or over. At about eleven to-
day a fire broke out in the building occupied by
the Conover Piano Co. It originated in the
wall paper establishment of Alfred Peats on
the third floor.
It was only a few minutes before the entire
building was aflame. There were hundreds
of people in the building at the time, and they
poured out of every exit, some on the fire-
escapes, some down the stairways and some
through the windows, meeting death in the
streets.
Ten minutes from the time the fire started
the entire structure was a mass of flames.
The street was quickly packed with people.
The flames reached a store of varnish and
chemicals on the third floor.
There was an explosion. The front wall
was blown out.
Plate-glass windows across the street were
shattered. The flames shot across Wabash
avenue.
Scores were burned. Many more were
struck by the flying debris.
•
The throng in the street was seized with a
panic. The people started to rush along the
thoroughfare. Men and women fell. They
were trampled upon.
In a solid mass the crowd pushed on.
Huge burning brands dropped on their heads.
Teams from the cross-streets plunged into
the struggling mass. Neither horses nor
people stopped. Some of the horses reared
and struck out, wounding men and women.
Policemen tried to bring order. It was in
vain.
For two blocks the crowd pushed on in this
mad chase. Then it stopped for breath, leav-
ing a long trail of injured behind.
Two more explosions followed the first one.
Within twenty minutes the building was a
heap of ruins.
Half a hundred engines pumped torrents
of water upon the blaze. It spread to the
Holbrook building, 211 Wabash avenue, and
to the building at 207 and 209.
It was feared that the blaze would reach
as far as Adams street and take in the
building occupied by Lyon & Healy. By
11:45 o'clock, however, the fire was under
control.
It all started from a swinging gas jet in
Alfred Peats.' The jet was in a storeroom,
with wall-paper on all sides, reaching to the
ceiling. The jet swung in the breeze, touched
a roll of paper, and in an instant all the room
was ablaze.
The magnificent structure is a total ruin,
one wall alone is standing.
The piano firms who occupied premises in
the burned district are the Chicago Cottage
Organ Co., The Emerson Piano Co., John A.
Bryant, J. O. Twichell and George P. Bent;
other music firms are Sol. Grollman, stools and
scarfs, agent for Henry Holtzman, Colum-
bus, The National Music Co. and E.
Wilson, piano scarfs.
There were other
business firms, but I am only enumerating
those who are allied to the music trade.
The Chicago Cottage Organ Co. had their
wholesale offices at 215, as well as their re-
tail business. Mr. H. D. Cable said that the
instruments owned by his corporation in the
burned building exceeded four hundred.
There is not a piece of one left. They are
wiped out.
John W. Northrup of the Emerson Co. said
that the number of pianos carried in stock by
his company would approximate one hundred
and thirty-five.
The magnificent establishment of George
P. Bent is damaged only by smoke and water.
He had but a limited stock of instruments in
the wareroom. His new decorations are
much damaged.
I am unable to get figures from John A.
Bryant but I should say his stock must be
ruined.
The stock of J. O. Twichell must be be-
yond rehabilitation, as through the clouds of
smoke it appears that the top of his building
has sunk in. The other firms enumerated
have suffered a total loss of stock.
I understand that all of the concerns car-
ried ample insurance on their stock so that
there will be no loss from that quarter. At
one time it looked as if the entire block would
be swept to Adams street, and that Lyon &
Healy's would go with the rest. The ele-
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
vated road too was ablaze and the scene was
indescribable. Through the gallant efforts of
the firemen the fire was checked and the
damage to Lyon & Healy was very slight,
a few goods dampened.
Across t h e
street, however, there was much damage
done. The plate glass in all the windows
cracked and fell in, while the same condition
extended to the upper stories.
The music stores damaged were Clayton
F. Summy's and Julius Bauer's. Fire broke
out several times in the Summy building and I
should estimate considerable damage done by
heat and smoke. When I passed the dead
line and looked into the store it was filled
with smoke, while the stock was badly mixed.
In Bauer's the same state of affairs existed.
The whole street is black with smoke and a
close "dead line" is maintained by the
police. To-morrow I have no doubt many
bodies will be taken from the ruins.
F. W. Teeples was reported among the dead
in an afternoon paper. I saw him only a few
minutes ago, so I know that he is all ready to
sell Conover pianos to-morrow. A high com-
pliment was paid Mr. Teeples and Manager
Price by the press for their heroic efforts in
assisting men and women from the blazing
building.
The coolest man in Chicago was H. D. Cable.
I saw him ten minutes after the fire and his
countenance was unruffled and serene. Won-
derful nerve, iron nerve, and just across the
street lay a pile of blazing ruins, which a few
minutes before represented hundreds of pianos
and the perfect paraphernalia of an up-to-date
business. It was presence of mind that saved
the Chicago Cottage Organ Co. from enormous
loss. The instant the explosions came Mr.
Cable commanded each of his fifty attache's
to at once place in safe and vault all
papers. This was done, the leases and papers
representing millions were placed in the im-
mense steel receptacles prepared for them,
not a minute too soon, either. Had there
been a delay to investigate it would have been
too late to have placed all of the valuable
documents in a place of safety. It was cool
judgment that saved the day. I will hold
this open a moment to gain later news. It is
all smoke and confusion. The heat was so
intense that the windows in the Wellington
cracked.
I have just seen Mr. Cable. He said:
"We shall sell pianos to-morrow. We have
an option on three suitable wareroom sites
until to-morrow at twelve. We shall decide
to-night and to-morrow have a stock down
from the factory. We can produce thirty
pianos and sixty organs per day, but of
course we shall be short of stock for a while.
I am confident that all of our papers are safe
in the steel vaults. The instruments that
were burned were fully covered by insurance."
Four hundred pianos and all the accessories
for the conduct of a great business cleaned
out! A wareroom and a new business to-
morrow! There's Chicago grit and Cable
grit combined for you.
I will send more particulars later of this,
the quickest, the hottest fire Chicago has seen
for many a day.
Mr. Northrup has just now stated to me
that all the Emerson leases and valuable
papers are within the big steel safe and that
his stock was well insured. Probably the
Emerson may have new quarters to-morrow.
Orrin A. Kimball is here.
I should say that between six and seven
hundred pianos have been injured and des-
troyed.
Latest from Chicago.
[Special by wire to The Review.]
Chicago, March 17, 1898.
Chicago Cottage Organ Co. have leased
Weber-Wheelock Building; stock in for busi-
ness to-day; Manager Deitrick leaves for
New York to-night; Emerson Co. have tempor-
ary quarters at 207 Wabash; Bryant moved be-
fore fire to 146; Twitchell has quarters in ad-
joining building.
Edward Lyman Bill.
Of Course We Shake.
The following telegram reached this office
yesterday:
" Music Trade Review, New York:
Were not injured by fire. Stock and store
intact. Are open for congratulations. Shake.
Lyon & Healy."
Waldecker Retires.
Max Waldecker, superintendent of the
Marshall & Wendell Pianoforte Manufactur-
ing Co., has resigned his position with that
concern and is now open for an engagement.
flason & Hamlin Sales.
Several important sales have been consum-
mated this* week at the Mason & Hamlin
warerooms, including three of the large
3-manual organs, one of which was sent to
the Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, and the
others to churches. The two leading 1898
Mason & Hamlin pianos—the "Puritan Mod-
el" and style "E"—have been very success-
ful. Some unusually fine examples are now
on exhibition.
Among the callers this week at the Mason
& Hamlin warerooms were O. H. Unger, of
Reading, Pa., who left a good order for
Mason & Hamlin instruments, and George
A. Smith, of Flushing, L. I.
Carr's Opening.
F. D. Carr, agent in Nashville, Tenn., fo
the Steck, Krell, Schubert, Story & Clark
pianos and Estey organs, had a formal and
successful opening of his new salesrooms at
210 North Summers street, last Monday,
March 14th. The fine lines of instruments
on exhibition were much admired,
That jolly, good nattired and shrewd piano
man Mr. F. Knoll, of Buffalo, was a caller to
The Review sanctum this week. He reports
business as excellent. He had just come
from the Symphony warerooms, where he had
heard the new Wilcox & White Angelus or-
chestral attachment, and was most enthusi-
astic in praise of this unique invention.
Nathan Ford and E. N.Maine have opened
up a new piano establishment in Des Moines,
la., under the title of Ford & Maine. They
have not yet decided upon the line of instru-
ment which they will handle.
J. C. Frampton, claiming to be a piano
agent of Columbus, O., was arrested in To-
ledo, O., last Tuesday night on suspicion.
He is charged with having attempted to take
a room at the St. Charles, and also at the
New York House, without having the money
to pay for them. He will probably be re-
leased.
Frank Burns' stock of stools and scarfs is
becoming so extensive that he will soon re-
quire another floor for the display of his wares.
His manager, Mr. Gottschalk, reports business
active. Mr. Burns left town again on Sunday
for a four-weeks' trip. Already several big
orders have been received from him.
"Mr. Golden is still on the road, sending
in good reports; orders are plentiful from
other sources, and our force is working full
time," was the report when The Review
called at the Stultz & Bauer factory yester-
day.
"Majestic" pianos are largely in vogue
throughout the territory where their merits
have been made known. Henry Spies is
doing good missionary work during his ex-
tended trip.
G. R.Furguson, of Augusta, Ga., is the in-
ventor of a combination parlor and reading
lamp, music rack and work table combined in
one.
E. A. Keiselhorst, the well-known St.
Louis dealer, will remove to his new store at
914 Olive street, on April 1st.
Geo. W. Tewksbury, of the Chicago Cot-
tage Organ Co., is on a pleasure trip to the
land of the Montezumas.
Ehrhard & Hagen report business good
and orders plentiful.
Sturz Bros.
RETAIL AND WHOLESALE DEPARTMENTS BUSY.
During a brief talk with Hugo Sturz, of
Sturz Bros, on Wednesday, he said, in re-
sponse to a query, that the retail business of
the firm, particularly in Greater New York, is
large and continually growing. The whole-
sale business is good in this and neighboring
States, also in the middle West.
The Sturz instruments are well and favor-
ably known for reliability of tone, durability
of construction, attractiveness of style and
a neatness and exactness of finish indicative
of thorough and painstaking workmanship.

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