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THE
RfWDY
fflJJIC TIRADE
VOL. XXXIV. No. 2 2
PublisUed Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 3 East Fourteenth Street, New York, May 31,19Q2.
SOME
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EDITORIAL
Many humorous letters are received by pa-
pers in all lines, trade papers as well. All
kinds of questions and queries are propound-
ed for the best recipe for a dull polish, or sug-
gestions for naming babies.
The first named is on our list at the pres-
ent time, and as we do not pose as authorities
on the second, we will say that the recipe
below has been found to be productive of
quite satisfactory results by a number of
manufacturers:
FORMULA FOR FINISHING MAHOGANY.
r
Process No. i—'Stain with good water
stain; preferably No. 2 stain made by Stand-
ard Stain Co., New York.
Process No. 2—Fill with Linderman's No.
579 mahogany filler.
Process No. 3—Coat with white shellac,
very thin; colored slightly with red nicro-
sine.
Process No. 4—Sand lightly; coat with
best white shellac.
Process No. 5—Sand; and varnish three
coats, using good quality rubbing varnish.
Let stand from four to five days.
Process No. 6—Rub with water and pum-
ice slightly. Let stand over night.
Process No. 7—Finish-rub, with burlap
and paraffine oil, using grade F F pumice.
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Another correspondent, who evidently has
been studying coronation effects, writes for
suggestions regarding the colors for decor-
ating some special piano rooms. He asks
our opinion regarding purple and closes with
the query "Is purple a red or not?"
We should say a purple somewhat resem-
bles a dull crimson, but views differ regard-
ing this. Just when "purple" came to mean
what it does to-day we are not sufficiently
versed in etymological history to say, but
there can be no question that up to a very
recent period purple signified crimson, es-
pecially among the literary fellows, who aban-
doned the use of red paint in early years.
Thus Keats in his "Ode to the Nightin-
gale" applies to the word wine :
Oh for a beaker of the warm South
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene!
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And /w/'/tf-stained mouth.
An earlier English poet, Pope, says:
Aurora, daughter of the dawn,
With rosy lustre, purpled o'er the lawn.
And from Shakespeare's "King Richard"
we may quote:
OVERFLOW.
. . . . He is come to open
The purple testament of bleeding war.
Another Elizabethan writer, Fletcher, is
the author of a poem "The Purple Island,"
the subject of which disguised in allegory,
is the human body. Here, too, "purple" re-
fers to the crimson hue of blood.
If we go still further back we shall find
that the Roman poets frequently vised the
word "'purple'' in the sense of crimson. In
the same year, the expression "born in the
purple" originally applied to the scions of
Roman Royalty. However, we have said
enough on this subject and we should ad-
vise our friend to go ahead and trim up in
purple; it's all right. A sort of a Baltimore
line, don't you know!
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A decision was rendered this week by the
Supreme Court of the United States which
is of material importance to business men.
it involved the question whether a policy on
the life of a bankrupt can be included in his
assets. A trustee in bankruptcy had sued
the Equitable Life Insurance Society, claim-
ing that the company ought to turn over to
his creditors the cash surrender value of the
policy held by a certain debtor. This claim
was contested, with the result that the full
bench of the Supreme Court held that a pol-
icy of life insurance for the benefit of a cer-
tain person named in it cannot be surrendered
without the consent of the beneficiary.
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Inasmuch as the statement has been made,
denied, and made again, and denied once
more, that Marshall, Field & Co., the great
Chicago merchants, are going into the piano
business, the following may be apropos re-
garding this same concern:
A rumor has been current in the dry goods
circles this week to the effect that Marshall
Field & Co., of Chicago, were contemplating
the opening of a branch department store in
this city and had been negotiating for the
purchase of the Simpson-Crawford Co. bus-
iness on Sixth avenue.
When questioned as to the truth of the
rumor, Secretary Butler, of the latter com-
pany, made this reply:
"We have heard of the rumor, but have
yet to hear from Marshall Field. It is too
silly to dignify with denial. The fact is,
we are under the impression that we have
here a business proposition that is well worth
tying to and would be more likely to add to
cur holdings than dispose of any."
Sa.oo PER YEAR.
SINGLE COPIES to CENTS
Mr. Butler added that he would not deny
that something of interest was brewing, de-
tails of which would be forthcoming within
a few days.
TRADE DEMORALIZED IN TRENTON.
[Special to The Review.]
Trenton, \ T . J., May 26, 1902.
The piano business in this city is very much
demoralized. It is verily in a red hot con-
dition. What with the nine regular music
dealers of the city and several of the piano
merchants from Philadelphia who have
their agents soliciting everywhere, it seems
apparent they intend to drive the local deal-
ers out of business. But the worst to be
said in regarding the disreputable manner in
which the business is done. These Phila-
delphia houses put pianos in homes for noth-
ing down. They only wish to get them
there. In others they ask a monthly pay-
ment of five or six dollars, mind you, five
dollars is taken as a first payment. This
amount gets you a Philadelphia piano. As
to the price, well, the price of some of them
is very high. The question might well be
asked and answered;
Can the poor people hope to finally ac-
quire the instruments by payment?
No, many of them do not, and that's the
worst feature about the matter and a dis-
grace to those who are selling to them.
Trade conditions are bad enough in Jer-
sey's capital city.
GROWFH OF ANGELUS TRADE.
The popularity of the Angelus piano
player is steadily increasing, and considerable
impetus is given to the Angelus business by
effective advertising which has appeared in
the leading periodicals. All of this work is
helpful to the dealer, and the Wilcox & White
Co. have been doing some artistic work along
advertising lines which is of manifest benefit
to their entire trade.
BAUER'S "REINA" WON.
At last Saturday's Brooklyn handicap
which was run at Gravesend, "Reina," trained
by Julius Bauer of Chicago, came out
a great victor. The odds were sixty to one
against the Bauer steed but it won a splen-
did victory.
E. S. Bramwell, music dealer, of Sheffield,
Eng., was one of the recent visitors to our
city.
The Babcock music store at Cooperstown,
N. Y., is being neatly fitted up for spring
trade.