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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
TWENTY-SECOND YEAR.
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL,
EBITOR AND PROPRIETOR.
J . B. S P I L L A N E , MANAGING EDITOR.
Executive Staff:
THOS. CAMPBELL-COPELAND
WALDO E. LADD
GEO. W. QUERIPEL
A. J. NICKLIN
PntllsM Every Saturday it 3 East 14ft Street, New Yort.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States, Mexico
and Canada, $2.00 per year; all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEnENTS, $2.00 per inch, single column, per
insertion. On quarterly or yearly contracts a special discount
is allowed. Advertising Pages $jo.oo, opposite reading matter,
$75.00.
REniTTANCEI, in other than currency form, should be
made payable to Edward Lyman Bill.
Enttrtd at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter
NEW YORK, JUNE 22, 1901.
TELEPHONE NUMBER, 1745-E1OHTEENTH STREET.
THE
ARTISTS'
DEPARTMENT
On the first Saturday of each
month The Review contains in its
" Artists'Department" all the cur-
rent musical news. This is effected
without in any way trespassing on the size or ser-
vice of the trade section of the paper. It has a
special circulation, and therefore augments mater-
ially the value of The Review to advertisers.
DIRECTORY OF
The directory of piano manu-
u i U n r i r T i i o c o , facturing firms and corporations
MANUFACTURERS f Q u n d Q n p a g e ^ w m ^ £
value as a reference for dealers and others.
A directory of all advertisers
DIRECTORY OF
in The Review will be found on
ADVERTISERS
page 6.
EDITORIAL
CHANGING CASE ARCHITECTURE.
\JJ HAT a wonderful
Piano cases of the
new century — What
transformation has
our manufacturers are
taken place in piano
contributing to the ed-
ucation of a r t i s t i c
case architecture during
tastes—A progressive
age.
the past few years. It
keeps pace with the changing tastes of the
people.
We see transformation going on before
our eyes, and we fail to note the underlying
motive for the changes thus occurring until
the evidence sufficiently accumulates to form
a test of judgment. One can reasonably
venture the statement, however, that modern
taste is steadily improving, as well it might
with the rapidly increasing facilities for its
cultivation.
The rising generation, through schools of
art, through the spread of education, through
the skill of trained teachers liberally supplied,
is having its natural taste purified, pruned
and carefully and intelligently directed, until
it is coming to be conceded that America is
to be ultimately the home of art, as it is con-
fessedly now the liome of a virile and grace-
ful literature.
It is apparent that piano manufacturers
of this country are not only keeping pace
with the advancing tastes of the people, but
they are factors in directing that taste to
higher things. It is not difficult to trace
the progress of a more artistic and chaste
taste in the abolition of those lumbering,
was already here, a stampede was desired,
but, strange to say, the industry refused to
be stampeded. An air of mystery surrounded
the operations, and even some music trade
editors were talked into supporting the
scheme, through fear that their interests
would be seriously threatened within the
near future, should they attack the dark,
sinister trust which is going to Molochize
everything that offers the slightest resis-
tance to its progress.
"We have options on a number of plants,"
hysterically shouted the promoter. Of course;
THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT.
nothing could be easier than that, in fact,
M OTWITHSTAND-
Latest attitude of
the elementary stages have hardly been
the piano trust pro-
ING carefully pre-
reached in the formation of a trust when op-
moter—By sensation-
al reports seeks to pared, inspired reports to
tions are given.
stampede the industry
—The last play in the the contrary, the piano
In the furniture trade options have been
game of bluff.
trust promoter has en-
given on plants no less than four times,
countered noticeable frosts along the line of
and still the trust has never been formed.
his recent travels, and a careful canvass of the
Will the money be forthcoming when the
piano field to-day proves that the possibility
date set for the expiration of the options
of a combination of any importance which
comes about?
was talked of some weeks ago, is gradually
Options and underwriters may be useful
becoming more remote. While we live in an
in playing a bluff, but wait until the call
age of surprises, and the unexpected often-
is made. That is the test.
times happens, it is sure the sturdy good sense
Stuff and nonsense. The men of this
of the American piano manufacturers will
industry should not permit the spectre of the
prevent them from going into a deal which
trust to haunt their dreams. It is a long
possesses so many elements of uncertainty as
way distant, and when last heard of was
the rainbow-tinted piano combination con-
in Mars, where it will take up a permanent
ceived and fostered by one whose reputation
residence. No evidence has been produced
is not quite up to that of Cesar's wife.
which has impressed the piano mind that a
Piano men would probably bite more readi-
trust will be desirable; on the contrary, such
ly if coin of the realm were offered in suffi-
a combination contains within itself the ele-
cient quantities for their holdings instead of
ments of destruction.
beautifully engraved chromos, the value of
It may furnish a subject for discussion
which is problematical. Better men than the
during the summer, but the reports which
present promoter have tried to swerve piano
emanate from a prejudiced and discredited
manufacturers from the broad path of good
source should be halved, quartered, and
business judgment, but in every case sturdy
then chopped into small bits. They will then
Anglo-Saxon common sense has been found
digest much easier.
to be more than a match for those who seek
A u COMPLEX""QUESTION.
to make use of great names in the furtherance
A LARGE employer of
The topic of the
of their own selfish schemes.
hour—The shadow on
labor said recently,
the wall — Misrepre-
sentation by l a b o r
1
while
discussing the la-
"T HE recent sensational statements which
leaders—The rights of
employers clearly de-
bor question, "I do not
have,come to us from the West should
fined — Independence
care to discuss it; it is
first.
be taken, not with grains of allowance, but
heavy, over-ornate styles of years ago, and
the substitution of a style of piano case ar-
chitecture which is at once simple, grace-
ful and pleasing.
The changing styles of cases show the
influence of healthy American minds. We
are living in an age of cultivation and as-
piration. We are reaching out to the doing
of better things, and the creation of a higher
and purer taste, and it is apparent that Amer-
ican piano manufacturers are contributing a
liberal quota towards the new order of things.
with large chunks of discount. The piano
trust promoter is making his final grand
stand play. He sees large commissions
hanging temptingly near, almost within
reach— a t least so to his disordered and
overheated imagination; but he will never
reach the fruit which hangs so tantalizingly
near—why ?
Because the intelligence of a majority of
our manufacturers will intervene to prevent.
Discouraged and beaten at every point,
he has sought the West, where, from one
manufacturer he has received encouragement.
A new press agent was secured, and reports
were sent out calculated to excite the mem-
bers of the piano trade. The great trust
too complex/'
That may be, but it does not dismiss the
subject. It is one of those things that will
not down, and a study of other trades will
find that absolute indifference does not exist
to one of the great questions of the day. One
of the great questions ! Is it not, after all, the
greatest, most vital ? It is the point on which
the greatest battle in the history of the world
will be fought, and it is to be hoped that it
will be fought intellectually when the crucial
moment arrives. Throughout the country
at the present time there is much agitation,
much insecurity, much fear. Our own indus-
try has suffered greatly in the past and will
no doubt suffer much more in the future, be-