Music Trade Review

Issue: 1899 Vol. 28 N. 23

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
. . . SOME DEALERS WHOM WE KNOW . . .
GLANCES AT SOME OF THE MEN WHO HAVE MADE MUSIC TRADE HISTORY IN THE FAR WEST.
THE WESTERN MUSIC CO.
By the time you have reached the North
Pacific Coast cities from San Francisco,
you will have concluded that the matter of
a few hundred miles is considered but a
trifle to overcome out in that country of
immense distances. Unquestionably with
the opening of the Oriental trade the
Pacific Coast will profit largely thereby.
There are a number of important North-
western Pacific Coast cities and travelers
have of late been paying careful attention
tern Music Co. He has the agency for the
Fischer, Franklin, Baldwin, Ellington,
Valley Gem, Kohler & Co. and the Blasius
and Albrecht pianos. He handles the
Weaver and Hamilton organs as well as a
well selected stock of small goods.
Mr. Chesbro said recently: "My busi-
ness has been very successful from the
start, and I feel with the excellent advant-
ages which this locality offers that it will
grow to large proportions. I carry a
splendid line of goods, and by fair dealing
and delivering excellent value to my cus-
tomers I feel that I come in for a large
share of public confidence."
A. E. CROflWELL, Tacoma, Wash.
Tacoma, Wash., is another flourishing
town which demands special mention. A.
E. Cromwell, who has an establishment
at 115 South 12th street has worked up a
very promising trade in that vigorous
young city. I will tell his own story re-
garding his career. When I asked him to
give me some points regarding his career
he said:
" I was born in Faribault, Minn., in
i860. My parents moved to South Weston,
O., where I was educated. At the age of
twenty I was manager for some years of
one of the finest railway eating houses on
the Burlington Line West of Chicago. I
fed well and won a good business experi-
ence, and decided however that the far
West would give me the best opportunities
for future business. My first experience
was in the coal business. The music busi-
ness then seemed to offer flattering induce-
ments and some four years ago I succeeded
the old firm of Piercy & Co. and the busi-
ness has steadily grown into the leading
local music house of the city, it being the
oldest established house here. By my
method of treating my patrons with cour-
tesy and fair dealing under all circum-
HORACE CHESBRO,
SEATTLE, WASH.
to the North Pacific Coast trade. The
Western Music Co., Seattle, Wash., is a
concern which is becoming well known in
that favored locality. It is comparatively
young, but it was founded by an energetic
and progressive young man who takes a
very optimistic view of his business fu-
ture.
The founder, Horace Chesbro, came to
. Seattle in 1889 and took his first lesson in
the music business from Venen and Vau-
ghan. This concern dissolved partnership
in 1890 and Grant Vaughan took control.
Later he sold out to Winter & Harper.
Mr. Chesbro remained with the business
through the changes until 1895 when he
came East to attend a college faking the
scientific and musical courses. After gra-
duating he remained some time with his
A. E. CROMWELL,
TACOMA, WASH.
parents in Santa Barbara, Cal., returning to
Seattle in the fall of '97 when he established stances, I have won the respect and confi-
his business at the present location, 307 dence of the most talented as well as music
White street, under the title of the West- loving people of our city, having estab-
15
lished a foundation principal of integrity
and honest method of doing business. I
am backed up by the best line of goods
handled in the new Northwest. There has
been no escape from financial success when
you enumerate such a line as the Stein way,
Emerson, Estey, Smith & Barnes pianos,
Estey and Story & Clark organs and all
kinds of musical goods. I have often been
told by intending purchasers that they have
been directed to my place of business by
friends as the place where they could de-
pend upon getting just what was repre-
sented to them. I have done well in busi-
ness here and propose to remain at the old
stand."
National Export Exposition.
Up to the present time twenty-two
States are represented in the list of manu-
facturers who have applied for space
for exhibits at the National Export Ex-
position to be held in Philadelphia from
Sept. 14th to Nov. 30th, and there are in-
cluded in the number more than ninety
different lines of manufactured articles.
The music trade industry is not so far
well represented, two firms only being in
line—the Mason & Hamlin Co. and John
C Haynes & Co. Many other concerns,
we understand, intend to participate.
The Exposition Bulletin makes a point
in connection with the exposition which is
timely. It says editorially: "Many a
manufacturer has never given export trade
any consideration. He has felt that it was
too bothersome and expensive. He did
not know whether his goods would be in
demand or not. The National Export Ex-
position being an exposition of American
manufactures for the extension of export
trade will solve all these questions for the
manufacturer or business man who has
never exported goods. It will put him in
touch with the buyers from foreign coun-
tries. It will give him a chance to see the
styles and qualities of foreign-manufac-
tured goods that sell quickly. It will show
him how to pack, label and ship goods to
foreign countries, so they will be in the
proper condition demanded by foreign pur-
chasers. Every manufacturer in the coun-
try should have an exhibit at this Exposi-
tion, for it will be of material assistance to
him. If he already exports goods this
Exposition will help him to increase that
trade. If he never has exported any of
the goods he manufactures, he will have
every opportunity to study the needs of the
foreign countries for goods in his line and
can arrange to supply them."
Henry G. Hitzel, who for a number of
years was employed by Wm. Knabe &
Co., and who recently was engaged in the
piano tuning and repairing business, died
last week at his home in Baltimore, Md.,
of heart disease. He was born in Ger-
many eighty years ago and had resided in
Baltimore for fifty-five years.
In Syracuse a reduction of 90 per cent,
has been made in the price of water fur-
nished churches for pumping organs, so
the cost for that service at present is but
nominal,
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A Warning to be Heeded.
fledine Music Co. Win.
[Special to The Review.]
New Orleans, La., June 4, 1899.
An interesting case has just been decided
in the United States district court of ap-
peals.
It hinged upon the seizure and
subsequent sale by the United States
marshal of the steamboat Liberty, owned
by Captain W. P. Aucoin, her master, and
J. P. McElroy, running between here and
points on Bayou Lafourche. The Liberty
was seized September 22, 1898, and sold on
October 24 following, bringing the sum of
$2600. Numerous creditors had libeled the
vessel for material, supplies, etc., and a
number, of intervenors came in.
An interesting phase of the question con-
cerns a piano. When the Liberty was seized
there was on board a piano which had been
placed there by the Medine Music Com-
pany. The boat not having been bonded
on October 12, a writ of venditioni exponas
was issued, and on the same day the music
company presented its claim to the court
for the piano and asked to be allowed to
bond the same pending the final determina-
tion of its rights. This application was
granted and the piano was removed before
the boat was sold. The decree of the lower
court awarded the piano to the Medine
Music Company and directed the cancella-
tion of its bond. The facts in the case as
found by the Appellate Court are that the
Medine Music Company made a verbal
agreement with Captain Aucoin of the
Liberty whereby it placed a piano on the
boat and took to its store the one then on
board. This was done as an advertisement
for the music company, it being well un-
derstood that the pianos were to be held at
the risk of the respective owners, and upon
demand either could have been restored to
their previous places. This, however, was
made impossible by the fact that the Me-
dine Music Company with the boat's piano
in its store, was destroyed by fire.
The Appellate Court held that the music
company never parted ownership with the
piano, and hence the lower court was sus-
tained in its decree as to them.
A Traveler with a Gold Mine.
The many friends of R. S. Howard will
be glad to know that the "Great Northern "
mine in which he is largely interested is
panning out unusually well.
Col. Ike
-Guker is president, and is considered one
of the greatest mining experts of the West.
Mr. Howard is one of the directors. The
opinion of experts is that this mining prop-
erty is a very valuable one. It has a large
acreage and has buildings and water supply
so that work is being constantly carried on.
An expert who recently visited the mine
said that he had never in all his experience
seen a property which promised to pay as
generous returns as the " Great Northern."
It would seem as if Mr. Howard had struck
it exceeding rich.
POOLE
Suing the Haines Assignee.
The Review has often emphasized the
point that manufacturers seeking foreign
trade must conform to the requirements of
the market sought for. In a recent report
from Australia, Consul Gen. John P. Bray
dilates upon the importance of this action,
and says:
" The marked improvement which has
obtained in the importation of goods of
American manufacture into the Australian
colonies has been due primarily to the fact
that our manufacturers have taken the
trouble to consult and consider the re-
quirements of the Australian importers,
and have maintained a uniform standard
of quality and finish in their goods, and
have made few alterations in prices.
" In instances where quality has been
deliberately varied and prices have been
advanced, the results have been disastrous
to the exporters, and have had a reflex
action on manufacturers in similar lines of
business.
" These colonies present a vast opening
for the introduction of our goods."
As Mr. Bray, in a list of the commodi-
ties now imported into Australia mentions
musical instruments, the American manu-
facturer is given another world to conquer.
The consul, however, sets a danger signal
just where it is needed, and the warning is
timely.
___
Death of J. W. A. Cluett.
The death s announced of J. W. A.
Cluett, of Troy, N. Y., which occurred on
Saturday last. Mr. Cluett was a native of
Wolverhampton, Eng., and the son of
William Cluett, the founder of the music
firm of Cluett & Sons, Albany and Troy.
From 1857 to 1863 he was associated with
his father in the music business, but retired
to take up the collar business in 1863. In
that year the firm of Geo. B. Cluett, Bro.
& Co. were organized. Their success in
the collar business is evident from the fact
that to-day this is the largest plant of its
kind in the world. The deceased was one
of Troy's most public-spirited citizens, a
good platform speaker, and was connected
with many social, religious and educational
interests.
M. P. A. to fleet.
The annual meeting of the Music Pub-
lishers' Association of the United States
will be held at the Broadway Central
Hotel, in New York City, on Tuesday,
June 13, 1899, at 10 o'clock A. M. J. F.
Bowers is president and Charles B. Bayly
secretary of the Association.
Baltimoreans' Visit.
Upwards of thirty prominent business
men, from Baltimore, including Ernest J.
Knabe of Wm. Knabe & Co., visited Phil-
adelphia last week to familiarize them-
selves with the preparations under way for
the great National Exposition, to be held
there in the fall. As they alighted from
the train, at South Street Station, they
were welcomed by Dr. William C. Wilson,
Director of the Commercial Museum, and
Director-General of the Exposition, and
several other officials.
Carriages were
awaiting, in which the visitors, some of
whom propose to be exhibitors, were
driven to the grounds. Then the scope of
the Exhibition, and the progress already
made was explained, and later the party
was entertained with a luncheon, at the
Museum, on South Fourth street.
Judgment for $1,004.82.
Stevens, Besson & Lewis, of Hoboken,
this week filed in the office of the county
clerk a transcript of a judgment taken by
default in the action of the American Blow-
er Company against Jared J. Looschen, the
piano manufacturer of Paterson, N. J., for
$1,004.82.
Unimportant Things.
Bad Piano Man.
Wm. J. Gadsby a piano and organ tuner
who "cleared" from Manchester, Va., ow-
ing a board bill is in trouble. While em-
ployed in putting in an organ at Mt. Pleas-
ant Church in Washington he had access
to all parts of the building and a silver cor-
net valued at $60 disappeared while Gads-
by was working there. Detectives traced
the theft to Gadsby who after arrest con-
fessed his guilt. He has been held for
trial. Judging from the letters in his pos-
session Gadsby was a "shining light " in
church circles—a man after several minis-
ters' " own heart."
PIANOS
[Special to The Review.]
Glens Falls, N. Y, June 5, 1899.
At the term of the Supreme Court for
Warren County, which convenes at Cald-
well next month, will be argued the case
of D. P. Fellows, of Glens Falls, against
John A. Jarvis, as assignee of Haines Bro-
thers, of New York. This is an action to
recover money alleged to have been paid
on the purchase price of five pianos from
Haines Brothers, who afterwards failed.
Don't make yourself too busy with unim-
portant things. It doesn't pay to let your
work crowd you. If it is crowding you,
hire more help. You've got to have time
to think, and plan, and contrive. Every
successful business must have a thinker at
the head of it, and he must have time to
think. The successful men are not those
who are doing the work of a ten or fifteen-
dollar clerk.
Philip Haeger, a piano maker fifty years
old, committed suicide by drinking carbolic
acid at his home, 348 Ninth avenue, this
city, on Monday morning.
Precious, Perfect, Peerless
As to Tone, Touch, Design,
Durability and Value. . . ..
5 and 7 AFFLETON STREET. BOSTON. MASS-

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