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THE MU3IC TRADE
REVIEW
THE BUSH & LANE PIANO CO.
Something of the Men Identified With This Corporation—Their Long Experience and
Familiarity With the Trade In Its Varied Branches—Admirably Equipped in All Depart-
ments to Build Up a Great Business.
Review Office, 36 La Salle Street,
Chicago, 111., June 22, 1904.
The formation of the Bush & Lane Piano Co.,
the main facts regarding which have already been
related in the Review, marks a new chapter in
the history of the piano trade of the west.
Although the organization is new, the men at
its head are rich in experience in the various
branches of the industry. By reason of their
past connection with the trade they are versed
in its best traditions. Further than this, the
active workers are all comparatively young men,
full of ingenuity and ambition and determined
that the product of the factory shall always rep-
resent the best and most desirable in piano con-
struction. The new organization finds itself in
possession of a well equipped factory under the
direction of the man instrumental in bringing it
to its present completeness and imposing pro-
portions. The Victor piano, which is there made,
has to its credit more than a decade of phenom-
and Chicago Avenue, in which the offices and
wholesale warerooms of the company are located.
Walter Lane, the president of the Bush & Lane
Piano Co., is the man who was responsible for
the popualrity of the product of the Victor Piano
11
and he insists upon personally examining and ap-
proving every piano made in this factory.
Vice-president Louis O'Neill brings to the coun-
cifs of the new organization the ripe business ex-
perience of a well-known man of affairs who has
achieved success and wealth as a prominent
member of the building industry of Chicago. He
is thoroughly versed with all the materials used
in manufactures of all kinds and especially with
wood-working methods. He is a man of wide
acquaintance and his name and influence mean
much to the company. Mr. O'Neill was also vice-
president of the Victor Piano Co.
F. J. Congleton, the secretary, is a young man
of whom the trade is destined to hear much in
the coming years. His sixteen years of business
experience have been spent with the house found-
ed by Wm. M. Bush, and he was therefore the
business associate of Mr. B. F. Bush, who, when
organizing the Bush & Lane Co., was quick to
recognize his superior ability and his thorough
grasp of all matters pertaining to the internal
organism of a large piano house. Mr. Congleton
readily accepted the opportunity to become a
member of so important an industry. He is a
tireless worker, a man of demonstrated executive
ability and possesses in high degree those qual-
ities of brain and heart which so contribute to a
man's success among men.
It. F . BUSH, TREASURER BUSH & LANE PIANO CO.
Company, of which he was president and mechan-
ical director, and to which the present organiza-
tion succeeds. Born in England, he early em-
igrated to Canada, and adopted the trade of
piano making in the factory of Heintzman & Co.,
of Toronto. Six years later he received a flatter-
ing offer from a prominent manufacturing con-
cern in the middle west, with whom he gained
valuable experience and knowledge, thoroughly
mastering all the details of piano construction.
He came to Chicago, and after a wide experience
WALTER LANE, PRESIDENT BUSH & LANE 1'IANO CO.
enal popularity, and it is a recognized fact that
few medium-priced instruments possess so many
points of peculiar excellence and are so notable
for tonal qualities and for beauty of design and
finish. In addition to the popular Victor, the
commodious factory at Forty-ninth Avenue and
West Lake Street will soon be producing the
hign-grade Bush & Lane. The Victorian Grand,
which immediately on its introduction assumed
a place in the very front ranks of small grands,
will become a member of the Bush & Lane line,
while retaining its former name as a style of
designation. The Bush & Lane uprights already
exist in their completeness in the minds of Pres-
ident-Superintendent Walter Lane, B. F. Bush
and their associates, and before fall they will
materialize before the eyes of the trade. That
they will be worthy of a first place in any piano
store in the country is assured by the past record
of the makers.
B. F. Bush, the treasurer of the company, is a
gentleman thoroughly versed in all branches of
the trade with which he has been so long con-
nected. For many years he was an integral and
active factor in the business founded by his
father, the late Wm. H. Bush. As those who have
had dealings with him in the past well know,
Mr. Bush is a quiet gentleman of social but not
assertive personality, and one with whom it is a
pleasure to have business relations. He is a man
of intense reserve force and his connection with
a concern is in itself a promise of the highest
success.
Mr. Bush also owns a controlling interest in
the beautiful Bush Temple at North Clark Street
F. J . CONGLETON., SECRETARY BUSH & LANE PIANO CO.
Summing up, and by way of deduction from
the facts here set forth, it is safe to say that no
concern ever started with a richer equipment of
brains, personality and assured and established
trade than does the Bush & Lane Piano Co.
CLEVELAND DEALERS CLOSE EARLY.
(Special to The Review.)
LOUIS O'NEILL, VICE-PRES. BUSH & LANE PIANO CO.
superintending factories, doing special work, such
as scale-drawing, case designing and practical
promotive work for various manufacturers, finally
became one of the organizers of the Victor Piano
Co. The factory, which was taken over by the
Bush & Lane Co., bears evidence throughout of
Mr. Lane's genius. The veneer presses and much
of the frame making machinery were originated
and built by hm and consequently are not pos-
sessed by any other factory. As the president of
the Bush & Lane Co., he will continue to give his
personal supervision to the manufacturing end,
Cleveland, O., June 20, 1904.
The following piano firms will close their
places of business on Saturdays at 1 p. in. during
the months of June, July and August: The J. T.
Wamelink & Sons Piano Co., B. Dreher's Sons
Co., the H. M. Brainard Co., Smith & Nixon
Piano Co., Hallet & Davis Piano Co., M. R. Slo-
cum, Hart Piano Co., and the Meckel Bros. Co.
This has been done for the benefit of the em-
ployes, who appreciate it very much. There are,
however, several piano concerns which refuse to
close their stores on Saturday afternoons. This,
of course, will mean a loss of business to those
who close their stores, and they have asked the
Cleveland public to do their shopping during the
week or on Saturday mornings.
H. Gazzard, superintendent of the Mason &
Risch factory at Toronto, is leaving for Chicago,
where he will be connected with one of the lead-
ing factories in that city. He has been succeeded
by J. Birsch, at present superintendent of the.
Newcombe Piano Co,