Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY.
A8TOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
FROM THE CITY BY THE LAKE.
[Special to The Review.]
Chicago, Oct. 9, 1900.
There has been a belief existing in cer-
tain quarters in this city that a strike was
imminent which would tie up some factor-
ies. The rumors have been vague and un-
certain, traceable to no particular source,
but none the less in the air.
I do not believe that there will be the
slightest interruption to the piano trade by-
reason of labor troubles this fall.
The lesson of last year is too fresh in the
minds of the men to again commence upon
a struggle which would, perhaps, end more
disastrously than the last for them.
The present feeling of unrest which has
given rise to these predicted labor troubles
has its origin, in my opinion, in the pres-
ent condition of piano trade affairs in Cin-
cinnati.
Dold is there and two factories are
closed, and naturally enough he sends
daily reports of conditions in that city to
his lieutenants at the various factories in
this city.
Through the mediumship of the men
these reports, percolating as they do through
various channels, have a tendency to keep
the labor question well to the front in this
town. Until an adjustment is made of
the affairs between manufacturers and
men in Cincinnati there will continue to
be reports of impending troubles in this
city. They will not materialize, but in my
opinion, should the settlement of the Cin-
cinnati matter be long delayed, there may
be trouble in the East.
The theatre of Doldism will be trans-
ferred from Chicago to New York, where,
by the way, it will not nourish, for the
unions do not reach to the seat of political
power in that city, and adequate police
protection will be afforded the manufac-
turers who will endeavor to run their fac-
tories with non-union men.
It is a significant fact that only two
piano manufacturers are planning factory
additions in this city, while many are con-
ducting a series of investigations relative
to the advantages possessed by certain
sites at outside points.
Business here is excellent. The factor-
ies are all busy and the retail district is
more than usually active. No one for one
moment can question the excellent con-
dition of trade in this city.
J. V. Steger, at the head of three hun-
dred uniformed men from his factories,
marched this week from Steger, 111., to
Chicago Heights, where they were accorded
a royal reception and listened to a speech
by Judge Yates, the Republican nominee
for Governor of Illinois. On one of the
transparencies carried by the Steger men
was the inscription:
In 1895 we made five pianos a day;
in 1900 we are making twenty-five a
day. Hurrah for President McKinley!
Another transparency bore the words:
We believe in two standards:
1st—The Gold Standard.
2d—The High Standard of the Steger
Piano.
Mr. Steger had provided a generous sup-
ply of fireworks with which the line of
march was illuminated.
I understand that Geo. K. Barnes is
now a big holder of stock in the Cable
Company. It will be remembered that
Mr. Barnes was a member of the Smith &
Barnes Piano Co., and some time since
closed out his interests. It was then thought
that he had forsaken for good the industry
in which he had been so long interested.
Like so many piano men, he has returned
to his early love, for he was interested in
the Chicago Cottage Organ Co. some years
ago.
Through the recent division of the Emer-
son retail and wholesale interests in this
city, an impetus has been given both
branches of the business. J. O. Twitchell
reports a lively retail trade, while manager
Northrop is planning for a big expansion
of Emerson wholesale interests from here
to the Pacific Coast.
The new electric plant which is to be
placed in the factory of the Piano & Organ
Supply Co., of this city, will be 850 horse
power and made up of an engine, three
'boilers and other concomitants. It will be
completed by Jan. 1; meanwhile there will
be no interference with the general work
of the establishment.
Westinghouse,
Church, Kerr & Co. have the contract.
The business of this concern, which in-
cludes the manufacture of piano actions,
keys, organ keys, reeds and reed boards,
has grown from modest proportions with-
in a recent date to such dimensions as to
necessitate ere long a still further enlarge-
ment to meet demands. The fall outlook
is highly satisfactory.
E. V. Church, manager of the local
house of the John Church Co., has brought
suit against the Chicago Elevated Railway
Companies for $20,000 damages. The
cause of the suit is the injury done the
property of the John Church Co., Wabash
avenue and Elm street, by the Union
Loop. A number of these suits, similar
to those filed in New York years ago in
connection with the extension of the ele-
vated railroad, are coming to the surface.
R. K. Maynard, of the Schaeffer Piano
Co., who has been making a trip South
and West, has just returned. He secured
some big orders and reports business as
excellent wherever visited.
The beauties of the famous Weber piano
will be displayed in the leading Western
cities this season by Miss Jeanette Durno.
Miss Durno is a pianist whose reputation
is bound to extend in due time to the East.
She is a pupil of Leschetitsky, Paderewski's
tutor.
John A. Norris, who has been recently
bending his energies with success to the
development of the Eastern trade of Smith
& Barnes, has been exchanging greetings
with his old Chicago friends.
An appreciation and illustration of the
Old People's Home erected by William H.
Bush, of the Bush & Gerts Co., and which
will be known as Bush Hall, appeared this
week in the Tribune of this city I clip
the text:
"Bush Hall, the newly-erected Method-
ist Episcopal Old People's Home on Foster
avenue, Edgewater, is now ready for occu-
pation, and the change of quarters will be
accomplished in the course of this week.
The old home is located on Wesley avenue
in Evanston. Bush Hall was named after
William H. Bush, a piano manufacturer of
Chicago, who donated the land upon which
the building stands and $20,000 in cash as
a contribution to the building fund. So
far, only the main building is completed,
which contains seventy-five rooms, includ-
ing laundry, kitchen and public reception
rooms, and which will accommodate sev-
enty-five inmates and the required number
of attendants. According to the plans,
another building for the accommodation of
additional inmates and a chapel with a seat-
ing capacity of 500 will be erected upon
the gro nds of the home as soon as the
finances permit it.
" T h e new building is of brick and
equipped with all modern improvements.
It will be lighted with gas, but later on
electric lights will be introduced. The
basement contains the laundry, kitchen and
store-rooms. The parlors and public re-
ception rooms are on the first floor and the
rooms of the inmates and attendants on
the upper floors. There are bathrooms on
every floor. Twenty-five of the rooms will
be equipped at once."
E. W. Furbush, the Vose ambassador,
reached town Saturday and left on the fol-
lowing day for points further West. Ow-
ing to the receipt of a dispatch on Tuesday
from Boston announcing the serious illness
of his mother, Mr. Flurbush left at once
for home.
flusic Dealer Fails.
(Special to The Review.)
Beaver Falls, Pa., Oct. 8, 1900.
The assignment is announced of Frank
C. Hicks, dealer in musical instruments
and other specialties in this city. The
failure is not considered a bad one.
Charged With Forgery.
A. M. Ball, piano salesman of Rochester,
Ind., has been arrested on a charge of
forging a note said to be secured from a
man named Simes, on a sale of a piano.
It is said that this is not Ball's first offense,
but it is the first time the penitentiary has
stared him in the face.
At the factory of the American Piano-
forte Manufacturing Co., 207-9 East
Forty-ninth street, a fair measure of ac-
tivity exists. The policy of the firm to
make a higher grade instrument is being
enforced right along the line, and it will
be emphasized and brought to the atten-
tion of the trade in the form of a number
of handsome new styles which are about
being placed on the market.
Among the distinguished arrivals in the
city yesterday were Mr. and Mrs. Ernest J.
Knabe.