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THE MUSIC 'TRADE REVIEW ~
The New Bankruptcy Law.
THE BUSINESS MEN OF CHICAGO
AGAINST ITS PROVISIONS.
PROTEST
The wholesale merchants, large job-
bing houses and trust companies of Chicago,
are making complaints againts the new
bankruptcy law. They claim it sanctions
commercial piracy and permits unscrupul-
ous merchants to make assignments and
have their debts wiped out. In the lan-
guage of one of the representatives of a
large mercantile establishment these bank-
rupts may then "dig up their buried as-
sets. "
Hardly one provision of the act escapes
criticism by these business interests.
Wholesalers confidently predict the new
act will share the fate of past bankruptcy
legislation, and will be repealed. Although
there is no united movement among the
large jobbing houses said to be affected by
the law, all believe the measure will be
repealed.
Harlow N. Higinbotham, manager of
the credit department of Marshall Field &
Co., Manager H. W. Leman, of the
Chicago Title and Trust Co., voice the op-
position of the wholesale establishments
and trust companies to the Bankruptcy
act, which went into effect recently.
The opinions formed of the bankruptcy
bill by the Chicago merchants is entirely at
variance with, the views of the leading
authorities who claim that nine months
trial of this measure has proved its worth.
It aids the small merchant, enables the
honest debtor to re-establish himself and
prevents preferences in assigning effects.
As a result there has been a perceptible
decrease in the charges of fraud and other
wrongs in connection with commercial em-
barrassments.
time the alterations on the lighting lines
were doubled, and when he tried his in-
strument the last time he was getting the
night current, for which his motor was
not fitted. As a consequence the armature
burned out. This apparently ruined the
prospects of his company in Newark.
firs. Olmstead Asks Damages.
CLAIMS $ 5 , 0 0 0 FOR HER HUSBAND'S DEATH IN
AYER BUILDING FIRE.
Helen M. H. Olmstead, the widow of
William A. Olmstead, the proprietor of a
school supply establishment, who perished
in the disastrous fire in the Ayer building,
Chicago, on March 16, 1898, started suit in
the Superior court this week against F.
Ayer, the proprietor of the building, and
the Chicago Cottage Organ company, the
lessees at the time of the fire, for $5,000
damages for her husband's death.
Patent Affecting Piano Tone.
Among the inventions relating to pianos
patented this week was that of August
Richter of New York. It bears the num-
ber 622,782, and applies to all varieties of
upright pianos and relates to the provisions
for softening the tone, which when carried
to a great extent is sometimes designated
"mute." In this, as in other mechanisms
for this purpose, Mr. Richter employs a
movable hammer-rail which restrains the
backward movement of the hammer and is
connected to the pedal, so that on depress-
ing the pedal the rail will be moved
upward toward the hammers and prevent
them from falling back to the limit required
for full effect. The reduced movement of
the hammers being produced by the same
amount of movement of the key as before
induces a tendency to lost motion in the
key when the soft pedal is in action, the
first part of the movement of the key
being of no effect and the last part only
acting on the hammer action. ; Many ef-
forts have been made to overcome this
difficulty and induce a uniform but less
motion of the hammer with each portion
of the movement of the key—in other words,
to cause the key, and consequently the finger
of the player upon the key, to feel the resist-
ance of the action the same as in ordinary
playing, the resistance being less, but con-
tinuous throughout the whole movement
of the key. One of the modes whereby
the lost motion is avoided is to shift the
comparatively fixed centers of the back
ends of the horizontal levers, ordinarily de-
signated "tongues," moving them back-
ward when the soft pedal is depressed. The
rods extending upward from the keys,
generally designated "extensions," being
correspondingly moved backward and the
tongues being now acted upon by the
capstan-screw nearer its front end than
before there will be a smaller motion of
the extension, and consequently the re-
quired smaller movement of the hammer,
while it is continuous throughout the
whole movement of the key. Mr. Richter
has devised a new construction of the me-
chanism by which it is effected by provid-
ing, separate pendent links, one for each
key, extending downward from the ordin-
ary transverse rail to the corresponding
tongues and operate the, whole series of
such pendent links by a single bar mounted
below and engaging with a sufficient notch
in the lower ends of such links and moved
backward when it is required to make the
tone soft.
An 1899 "Winner" Hade by the flcPhail Piano Co,
The Power that Failed.
A short time ago an effort was made
in Newark, N... J..,. to organize a company to
conduct business with a new musical in-
strument operated by an electric motor.
A number of prospective investors as-
sembled and listened with great pleasure
to the automatic music. They were thor-
oughly impressed with the value of the
invention and went through the prelim-
inaries incident to incorporating. It was
getting on toward nightfall when the
electric lights went out and flashed up
again in a second or so. They had put on
their hats and coats and were about to
go, when one of the party said to the
agent: "Let's have just one more tune
before we break up." The agent started
the machine, and the instant he did so
there was a flash inside of it and smoke
filled up the case. ."Burned out," he said,
and he knew at once that the accident was
fatal to the project, although he did not
know what caused the trouble. None of
those prospective stockholders had enough
faith to continue the organization of the
company. The agent sought an explana-
tion from the, lighting company, and
learned that every evening at a certain
STYLE E.