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THE MUSIC TIRADE REVIEW
. . . SOflE DEALERS WHOM W E KNOW . . .
GLANCES AT SOME OF THE MEN WHO HAVE MADE MUSIC TRADE HISTORY IN PROMINENT TOWNS.
M. H. ANDREWS, Bangor, Me.
Up in the historic town of Bangor, Me,,
is a dealer who has gained considerable
notoriety outside of trade circles through
the mediumship of his excellent musical
compositions.
I refer to M. H. Andrews, whose contri-
butions to musical literature have acquired
an enormous sale through some of the
largest wholesale and retail houses in this
country. His "Pride of the Navy' was a
particularly happy hit. This was followed
up by another composition which was
warmly applauded—"Pride of the Army,"
then his "Thelma Waltzes." All of these
show that Mr. Andrews possesses ability of
no light calibre.
He is a native of the old Pine Tree State,
and in 1861, at the age of sixteen, entered
the army. He fought through many ardu-
ous campaigns and applied for his dis-
charge in '66 when peace reigned through-
out the land.
Through all of his compositions runs a
martial spirit. He was early leader of a
band and after the close of the war he
came to B:mgor, where in 1866 he immed-
iately assumed leadership of a Bangor
band and the leading orchestra as well.
He was a teacher of music until 1890 when
he purchased the music business of the L.
J. Wheelden Co. He became absolute
owner of this business in 1895 which he
has since continued under his own name.
Mr. Andrews is a man of geniality and
member of the trade whose early musical
tendencies led him into commercialism.
On April 10th of next year Mr. Barker will
have reached the half century mark as a
Hartford dealer as it was 1850 when he
first opened pianoforte warerooms in that
city.
Mr. Barker is a practical as well as
theoretical musician having been professor
LUDLOW BARKER.
of music. He was also for thirty-six years
one of Hartford's leading organists. He
is a practical tuner as well, therefore in
Mr. Barker we find crystallized the qualities
of musician, theoretician and practical
merchant. He occupies large and com-
modious quarters at 153-55 Asylum street
where he carries a complete line of sheet
music and all kinds of musical instruments
which come under that comprehensive
term '' small goods."
In pianos Mr. Barker's list is long and
comprehensive, and he has handled for
years some of the most noted instruments
made in this country. It has always been
his aim to supply the music-loving people
of Hartford with high-grade and reputable
wares. Mr. Barker is a man of courteous
affability, and is what we may properly
term one of the gentlemen of the old
school, preferring to run his business on
high-grade lines and always has a horror of
anything of the sensational.
Busy Packard.
[Special to The Review.]
Ft. Wayne, Ind., Aug. 1, 1899.
M. H. ANDREWS.
The Packard Organ Co., or as it is cor-
has a large personal following in Bangor rectly styled now the Packard Co., enjoys
where he has built up a very satisfactory busy times.
Yesterday the company shipped a car-
business. His establishment at 98 Main
street is well patronized. He handles the load of organs to the Pacific coast, the di-
Chickering, Mason & Hamlin, Vose, Ster- rect destination being Seattle. The prod-
ling, Huntington, Blasius and Trowbridge ucts of the factory have been known in al-
pianos, also the Mason & Hamlin, Packard most all parts of the world for some years,
but for some reason the trade along the
and Carpenter organs.
Pacific coast has not been worked very
LUDLOW BARKER & CO., Hartford, hard. Mr. W. B. Lane will represent the
Conn.
company along the coast and will make a
Ludlow Barker, one of the best known tour for the purpose of introducing the
dealers of the Nutmeg State, is another organs and pianos.
Does !t Pa
? tojwnte songs?
One would gather from the paragraphs
which find their way into the papers when-
ever a sale of musical copyrights is on,
that it does not pay to write songs although
it pays publishers to print them. As a
matter of fact it pays to write songs and it
pays to publish them—sometimes. The
risks and ramifications of publishing are
not understood by the public. It seems to
be the general notion that after an incon-
siderable outlay on plates, the cost of the
average song or piece is from id. to ij^d. ;
therefore if one song in fifty becomes a
success it pays the publisher handsomely.
But there are other aspects of the question
which are usually overlooked, says our
esteemed English contemporary Music.
Whether a song or piece is destined ulti-
mately to prove a success or a failure, the
publisher has all sorts of expenses to bear
besides the mere printing of the work. In
the case of a song he has to advertise it
extensively, and pay royalties to singers
to induce them to take it up. It costs
just as much to fail as to succeed in popu-
larizing a song. The retail music seller
does not co operate with the publisher in
the least, although he is given the oppor-
tunity of buying "novelties," as new pub-
lications are tenneu, at a very low price,
and might sometimes make a pile of money
by backing his judgment. The unrelia-
bility of that mysterious entity "public
taste " not only makes music publishing
the most speculative of all businesses, but
makes composition, fascinating as it is, a
precarious means of earning a livelihood.
A composer makes a hit with some trashy
song or patchwork waltz, and his publisher,
in a sanguine moment, offers to pay him a
substantial, yearly sinn to secure every-
thing he writes for a term of years. In
nine cases out of ten the composer gets the
best of the bargain. The writer of that
too delicious effusion, which last year took
the town by storm, may never succeed in
tickling the public's musical palate again.
At a sale the plates of his songs may not
fetch more than ninepence apiece—that is,
their worth as old metal.
Nevertheless, opinion does prevail in
some quarters that publishers grow fat
whilst composers starve, and an alluring
and delightful scheme was recently adver-
tised, having for its object the readjust-
ment of matters. It was a cooperative so-
ciety, which, it was claimed, afforded ex-
ceptional facilities to composers for having
their works published and effectively dis-
tributed. The compositions of members
were to have a prior, but not exclusive
claim for consideration, and the society was
to an publish all the music necessary for
the musical profession, and those engaged
in the sale of music, thereby obviating the
necessity of employing a publishing house.
It would have seemed from the glowing
prospectus that the millennium of the great
unpublished had at last arrived, and that
the miserable owners of copyrights might
as well melt their plates and consign their
printed sheets to the flames. But the
withers of the publishers were unwrung,