Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
them before carrying them into his home,
and if we turn to the daily papers, the
yellow journals of to-day, replete with ac-
counts of sensational murders, of divorces,
of assaults, we are prone to the belief that
the men who conduct those papers prefer
to cater to the sensational as well as the
diseased side of human nature by extended
accounts of human follies and frailties,
rather than building up the better side of
life. They evidently hold a low estima-
tion of the tastes of the public.
How many times in the course of the
year can there be found in the columns of
the daily paper an extended account of an
invention which is of real and practical
benefit to humanity ?
They are evidently afraid of giving some
advertising, and it is regrettable that our
newspapers are conducted on such narrow
lines that payment should be required to
secure the publication of news that the
public wishes to read.
Our attention was recently called to a
notable illustration of newspaper selfish-
ness by two or three friends who are
connected with the Equitable Assurance
Society. Recently there was held in this
city a meeting of that society's agents, and
at the business meetings, as well as at the
banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria, there were
gathered the brainiest men in the world of
finance.
The Equitable, as it is commonly termed,
ranks, we believe, as the greatest financial
institution not only of America, but of the
world—a notable example of American
brilliant financiering, enterprise and suc-
cessful management.
The gathering in this city was to com-
memorate forty years of superb manage-
ment, resulting in unparalleled success,
and yet this aggregation of brains and
capital, which could not be duplicated by
any organization on earth, was disposed of
by the great dailies of New York with
three or four lines mention, while pages of
sensational matter catering to depraved
tastes were in evidence in almost every
paper in the city. The event would
have passed practically unnoticed had it
not been for the insurance trade journals.
And insurance is something in which we
are all interested. It is a topic in which the
public has a pecuniary interest and yet
the brilliant thoughts, the scintillations of
genius were all lost to an interested world
through a manifest desire on the part of
the daily papers to eschew anything of an
advertising nature. The utterances of
Steve Brodie and Silver Dollar Smith
count for more in the business manager's
eyes than the ebullitions of genius.
As for publishing the name of a piano
played upon by a celebrated artist, the result
of the highest mechanical genius, that is
never even dreamt of.
A vulgar sensation in the tenderloin is
heralded while art and mechanics are
passed by and left to the mercies of trade
publications.
gether before the manufacturer will have
adjusted his affairs fairly to the changed
conditions.
The Strauch System.
That is a striking page that Strauch
Bros., the eminent action, key and ham-
mer firm, have in another part of The Re-
view. Some strong truths plainly and
forcibly expressed. It is one of those an-
nouncements that one reads and reads again
and remembers.
MOVING AHEAD.
A WELL-KNOWN concern located on
Fifth avenue, New York, spent over
Juniors.
$3,500 in advertising during the past week,
There
will
be
a
meeting of the Executive
and this entire amount was expended- in
Committee,
National
Piano Manufacturers'
reproducing an article from The Review,
Association,
at
noon
on Thursday next,
an instance which shows that the utter-
the 17th inst. The meeting will be held
ances of trade papers of standing have a in the office of Mr. Parsons, at the Need-
value to the reading world.
ham warerooms.
While such instances are not frequent,
The Executive Committee of the New
York
Piano Manufacturers' Association
even with The Review, yet we believe it to
will
meet
at the same place on the Tues-
be a fact that no paper in this industry has
day
following,
Aug. 22, at 2 P. M.
been quoted more largely than The Review
Henry L. Mason, of Mason & Hamlin,
during the past two years, and we may
returned
from Europe on Saturday on the
state that during that time The Review has
St. Louis and left for Boston on Tuesday.
made perhaps more substantial progress
Mr. Mason's trip abroad was most success-
than ever before during its career.
ful in the augmentation of his company's
Naturally it causes us infinite pain to European interests.
note that our advance, like the editorials of
The outlook for Weber products grows
The Review, are not pleasing to those of brighter each day. Mr. Woodford, who
our contemporaries who have exhibited has just returned from a trip in the West
little or no progressiveness or originality and Northwest, reports trade conditions as
phenomenally good. The Weber repre-
in the conduct of their affairs.
sentatives in that section, as elsewhere, are
If we were publishing The Review to preparing for an active campaign. Messrs.
please the meagre journalistic eccentrici- Wheelock and Lawson have been in the
ties we should probably have long ago West this week. They attended the meet-
adopted a different policy, but as we are ing of the Manufacturers' Piano Co. at
conducting an institution, which in expres- Chicago.
Charles E. Brockington, of the Mason
sion of thought and sentiment, variety and
accuracy of news service, and in every es- & Hamlin Co., in addition to his duties at
sential goes to make up a successful news- Chautauqua assumed charge of the Sher-
wood and Marcosson piano and violin
paper enterprise, with moderate success,
reeitals at the Higgins Memorial Hall,
we do not feel at the present inclined to Chautauqua. The series includes five re-
materially change the present policy of citals. Miss Kober of Chicago appeared
The Review, particularly when we con- yesterday in a recital for two pianos. The
sider that its success, its influence and its Mason & Hamlin instruments are used ex-
reliability were never more strongly em- clusively.
J. B. Spillane, managing editor of The
phasized than at the present time.
Review, is passing his vacation at Hurley-
HP HE week has been not a remarkable ville, N. Y.
William F. Hasse returned on Tuesday
one in any sense. A number of deal-
from his European trip. He was a pas-
ers have been in town and reports are such senger on the Kaiser Welhelm der Grosse,
that indicate a larger influx during the the same vessel on which he made the out-
next ten days. Many of them are anxious going trip. On the following day Mr.
to place their orders before the rise of Hasse left the city to join his family at
Lake Huntington, Sullivan County, N. Y.
prices comes, which they know to be in- He will return to the city on Monday and
evitable. As sensible men they realize begin a vigorous fall campaign.
that when manufacturers sold to them on
P. J. Gildemeester, the Knabe general
a modest margin of profit on low water traveling representative, is visiting the
Knabe factory at Baltimore.
prices of material, that they cannot con-
Among the callers this week at the
tinue to do so when the tide is kept stead- Mason & Hamlin warerooms was W. P.
ily rising until it has reached pretty nearly Dyckman, Mason & Hamlin representative
the high water mark. The hard times at Paterson, N. J. Shipments have been
made from the warerooms since Monday
wholesale price and the high watermark of to Tokio, Japan, and Cape Town, South
to-day vary, They must get nearer t°- Africa.,