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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL-
Editor and Proprietor
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY
3 East 14th St., New York
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States,
Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per year; all other countries,
$3.00.
ADVERTISEflENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special dis-
count is allowed. Advertising Pages $50.00, opposite read-
ing matter $75.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should
be made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Clast Matter.
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 22, 1898.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745--EIGHTEENTH S I REET.
THE KEYNOTE.
The first week of each month, The Review will
contain a supplement embodying the literary
and musical features which have heretofore
appeared in The Keynote. This amalgamation
will be effected without in any way trespassing
on our regular news service. The Review will
continue to remain, as before, essentially a
trade paper.
ACTION NECESSARY.
TT might be well for some members of
our trade who are bitterly complaining
of existing conditions to take a little jaunt
West and study the situation; get at the
real truth why that section of the country
West of the Apalachian Chain, has within
a decade become an enormous producing
district for pianos and organs.
There are reasons why there has been a
phenomenal development in western trade
during the past four years. The reasons
may be easily found if one seeks for them.
The West is a force, ever increasing, to be
reckoned with in the manufacture and dis-
tribution of musical wares, and the sooner
some of our eastern manufacturers realize
the truth and importance of this, the better
it will be for their business interests.
That there are faults in this trade no one
Can dispute—grave faults which can only
be corrected by the dissemination of a
broader view of the principles of manu-
facturing and distributing, and a more
general recognition of the fact that the
interests of this trade can be best con-
served by applying the same rules which
are operative in all other lines of business.
It may be stated with equal truth that
once a concern has pushed its way to a
certain height, it is pretty difficult even for
those engaged in watching its career most
closely, to detect when it enters upon the
downward grade. The descent does not
always begin abruptly; it is gradual, and
all the more delusive for that reason.
Some of our men cherish the delusive idea
that their trade, now widely scattered,
will return again. They have not recon-
ciled themselves to the new order of
things. They do not discover the won-
drous changes as this old world goes spin-
ning down the grooves of time. Some
argue business will run itself; that is if
things go along without friction or opposi-
tion. They believe that the momentum
acquired in years agone will be sufficient
to give it a certain impetus which will out-
strip new competition. But this is not so,
and no one realizes it better than the man
who looks over the entire field in an im-
partial way.
There is, unless a change is made, inev-
itable disaster for some. A business must
either go up or down. It may preserve a
certain level plane for a while, but there
comes a time when it goes either upward
or downward according to the propelling
force.
In the heart of the continent, where en-
terprise is apparent on every hand, there
is no halting; there can be none. Further
and greater industrial conquests await the
great West.
It is needless to deny that these condi-
tions exist; it is absurd to gloss them over
with superficial language, and some to-day
who have their heads in the clouds are liv-
ing in a fool's Paradise. We may as well
lay bare these conditions—these changes—
these so-called trade mysteries, as the sur-
geon's scalpel shows the secret of the hu-
man brain. There is no use in attempting
to read by a tallow dip in this age when
electricity is within reach. It is true there
is difficulty in climbing, but it is also a
mighty hard matter to retain a foothold at
the point you have reached. You stand in
the path of someone, and unless you get
out of his way by going higher, he is quite
sure to pull you down.
REVIEWINGS.
T^HE average music trade editor while
visiting Boston and Chicago usually
commences a trade portrayal of the situa-
tion by paying little sugar coated compli-
ments to every advertiser who is re-
presented in the columns of his paper. In
Boston with unvarying regularity a letter
begins with Chickering & Sons; in Chicago
the W. W. Kimball Co. at all times head
the epistle of the visiting trade editor to
his paper.
The style is antique and has become
ponderous, ineffective and cumbersome. It
smacks of provincial newspaper work.
Chicago and Boston have long since passed
beyond the "write up " stage, that is when
the " write up " interpreted means nothing
more or less than a continuous series of
puffs, all to put the advertiser in good
humor and remind him incidentally that
the trade editor has called upon him and
that he feels it his solemn duty to say a
few words, always eulogistically, upon
either his personality or the wares which
are sent forth from his factory.
The Review has discarded this ancient
form of journalism. The trade of Boston
and Chicago has assumed too much im-
portance to be treated of in a series of
direct puffs, which are valueless to the
manufacturers inasmuch as practically the
same phrases, recoined, are applied to
everyone named in the letters.
While the trade of the two cities may at
all times be taken in a review, yet to be
included ina " write up " which is nothing
more or less that the rankest puffery, is too
absurd to be seriously considered at this
day.
The Review, we believe, is the first
paper to take this decided stand. The
swaddling clothes of journalism might
have hung loosely years ago, but to-day
the trade of the respective cities demands
larger and more complete garments. The
trade of every city forms an interesting
study to the close observer of the trend of
trade affairs—too interesting to be treated
of in the regular form known in the news-
paper tongue as a "write up." The news-
paper man may show himself as an
ejaculatory projector of shimmering gen-
eralities ; he may be a coruscating success—
a star of the first magnitude—his verbs
may gleam along the horizon like comets,
but in the meanwhile Chicago and Boston
still live.
Seriously, one cannot do justice to cities
which are the homes of vast industries in
a single letter. If letters are confined
wholly to news, then it is quite another
thing. Sometimes we wonder if less accent
upon the personality of individuals and
more emphasis upon the business situation
as seen through business eyes would be
appreciated in this trade. Or have we fed
too long on the thinly diluted pabulum of
personalities so that we really demand it
as a substitute for solid food ? This may
be taken cum grano salus or without as one
pleases.
THE STENCIL JOURNALIST.
p O M P A R E the legitimate trade journal-
ist with the stencil journalist and you
will find that there is a far wider gap than
between imitation mahogany and the
genuine wood.
What constitutes the legitimate trade
journalist, and at what time did he begin
to develop traits to which his success can
be attributed ?
The answer might be plainly: the legiti-
mate journalist is the one who pays close
attention to his calling. He produces a