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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
From the City by the Lake.
[Special to The Review.]
Chicago, 111., April 18, 1900.
The local papers this week have again
contained considerable matter regarding
the possible removal of the factories of
several of the leading piano manufacturers
to towns outside the city. The Inter-ocean
has been interviewing some piano men on
the subject, including Geo. P. Bent, who
states that he has been offered nearly one
thousand sites should he be willing to re-
move. He added significantly: "If I pay
the taxes, take the responsibility of the
business, furnish the payroll, I will run
my business to suit myself or go where I
can."
Secretary W. N. Van Matre, of the Smith
& Barnes Co., said: "I don't want to say
that Smith & Barnes will remove from Chi-
cago. At present everything is peaceable;
but during the strike the Rockford factory
was purchased with the intention of re-
moving. Both factories are in operation
now."
A representative of the W. W. Kimball
Co. said: "The Kimball company has had
a great many inducements offered it for
removal from the city. None has been ac-
cepted as yet. We could not remove on
short notice. It seems to us that under
present labor conditions in Chicago no
manufacturing concern can do otherwise
than look outside for a location, where it
will not be interfered with or be at the
mercy of labor organizations."
Vice-president Cable, of the Cable Co.,
denies the statement that there is any
prospect of removal from Chicago. A fac-
tory will be built at St. Charles, 111 , but
it will only be run as secondary to the Chi-
cago plant, which will remain in operation.
This, Mr. Cable states, is due to the in-
crease in their business.
The Newman Bros. Co., are enjoying a
splendid trade in both their organ and
piano departments. In the designing of
their various styles of instruments they
seem to have appealed to the popular fancy
for they have been receiving many com-
plimentary letters from dealers.
Among the visitors to the city this week,
was Geo. Boltwood, the general traveling
representative of the Chase-Hackley Co.,
Muskegon, Mich. He reports business
with this institution as exceedingly brisk,
the demand being fairly well divided be-
tween the Chase Bros., the Hackley and
the Carlisle pianos, which they manufac-
ture.
Robt. B. Gregory, of Lyon & Healy, is
scheduled to sail for Europe on the 25th.
He will be accompanied by his wife and
two daughters. He will visit the Paris
Exposition, as well as the different trade
centers of Europe, where he will buy goods
for the house. J. C. Freeman, also of
Lyon & Healy, is slated to leave by the
same steamer. He intends to make large
purchases of rare old violins. P. J. Healy,
who has been visiting the prominent cities
in the East, is again in town.
Work on the new Kimball Building, cor-
ner of Jackson Boulevard and Wabash
avenue, will not be possible, until the pres-
ent labor troubles in the building trades
are at an end. The delay, however, will
not cause any serious inconvenience out-
side of the fact that the alterations will
not be effected at as early a date as ex-
pected some, time ago. W. W. Kimball
who has been sojourning on the Pacific
Coast with his wife is expected to return
to the city about May 6.
All arrangements have practically been
made for the Convention of the Piano
Manufacturers' National Association to be
held at the Great Northern Hotel on
the 16th, 17th and 18th of next month.
On the evening of the 16th one of the
local clubs will give a "blow-out" in the
visitors' honor. The affair will be in-
formal, the object being to make our
guests from all sections feel that Chi-
cago can do the proper thing when
it wills. On the evening of the 17th
the formal banquet at the Great North-
ern Hotel takes place, and I venture
to predict that mine host of the Great
Northern will throw in the shade the efforts
of the hostelries of Boston and Washing-
ton, where the two last famous dinners oc-
curred. On the morning of the 18th the Chi-
cago trade will entertain the visiting trades
by a trip of inspection down the Drainage
Canal, leaving in the morning, returning
about one o'clock in the afternoon, luncheon
being served en route. On return to the
city carriages will be waiting and the mem-
bers of the Lyon & Healy establishment,
acting as chaperons, will show them the
sights of Chicago. A luncheon and smoker
will follow the ride, when Lyon & Healy
wLl again act as liGsts. This is a program
that would do credit to the Rome of the
Caesars.
D. II. Baldwin & Co. and the Story &
Clark Co. are now "at home" in their new
quarters at 255-7 Wabash avenue. The
general decorative scheme is pleasing, and
as soon as both firms are settled down,
their warerooms promise to be exceedingly
cosy and attractive.
The Hymnolia.
As first announced in The Review, the
Hymnolia, made by Frank Taft, will foim
one of the pleasing features of the display
of musical instruments in the Wanamaker
piano warerooms which will be brought
prominently to public notice, through the
formal opening next Monday.
The Hymnolia is a pipe organ with a
surprising number of musical effects con-
centrated in a limited size. For orchestral
and home use as well as in churches, it is
destined to win a place all its own. Dealers
who have any "prospects" in view for pipe
organs for small churches, halls, schools or
any other purpose where space is a consid-
eration and tonal quality a requisite, would
do well to correspond with Frank Taft at
the Wanamaker piano rooms, Ninth street
and Broadway, New York. The Hymnolia
is also made to order in special cases to
match the furnishings of libraries or music
rooms.
The parties who burglarized the music
store of Chas. A. Cowen, Mt. Vernon, N.
Y., last week have been apprehended and
held for trial on that charge.
OBITUARY.
Mrs. Lorana Needham.
Mrs. Lorana Needham, widow of Elias
Parkham Needham, whose mechanical ge-
nius evolved the reed organ of to-day from
the old melodeon, and who was also the
inventor of many of the appliances which
have made these instruments popular, died
last Monday at her home, 218 East Nine-
teenth street, from pneumonia after a
three-weeks illness.
Mrs. Needham was a descendant from
the early settlers in Connecticut and was
the only daughter of William Newbury,
an Ohio pioneer. She was born in Belpra
in that State February 1818 and formed
the acquaintance in Buffalo of Mr. Need-
ham, whom she married on Oct. 4th, 1840.
They moved to this city in 1848, since
which time she has been an interested ob-
server of metropolitan religious and char-
itable work, and helper therein as far as
home duties would allow. She is survived
by two sons, Dr. Chas. G. Needham and
Chas. A. Needham, a landscape painter of
note, both of whom live in this city. The
funeral sei vices occurred last Thursday
evening. Elias P. Needham, husband of
the deceased who died Thanksgiving Day,
1889, was the founder of the business which
is now so successfully carried on under the
title of the Needham Piano & Organ Co.
James Fogarty.
James Fogarty, foreman of the varnish-
ing department of the Steger factory, died
last week in Steger, 111. Mr. Fogarty was
born in Troy, N. Y., and was with the Es-
tey & Camp Co. in Chicago, 111., previous
to his connection with the Steger Co. He
was highly respected and his loss is keenly
regretted by his employer and comrades.
The funeral, which occurred last Sunday,
was attended by the Fire Department and
employees of the Steger Co.
Val Schehl Secures Contract.
Val Schehl, the well-known manufactur-
er of heads for drums, banjos, etc., closed
a contract with the United States Govern-
ment on Wednesday last for supplying the
War Department with 250 small drum
heads for use in the different regiments at
home and abroad. This, following a pre-
vious contract with the War Department
for 300 bass drum heads, speaks most elo-
quently of the excellent values which Mr.
Schehl is furnishing.
The Famous "Regina."
In the world of music boxes the Regina
Co. have greatly augmented their already
considerable fame since the introduction of
the "Regina Corona." As the musical
merits and wonderful automatic possibili-
ties of the Corona become more and more
widely known, the pressure from agents
and from retail aistomers for supply, in
one or other of the three sizes, becomes
more intense. The thousands who have
witnessed the "Corona's" human-like move-
ments have but one word to say: "Marvel-
lous!" and, truly, the mechanism is mar-
vellous.