Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
VOL. XLI. No. 2.
REVIEW
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 1 Madison Ave., New York, July 15, 1905.
NEWS FROM THE NORTHWEST.
Dealers Cheerful Despite Bad V/eather—Hap-
penings of the Week in Detail.
(Special to The Review.)
Minneapolis and St. Paul, July 10, 1905.
Not yet has there been any promise of good
times for the piano business in the Twin Cities
this summer. A month of soaked streets, drip-
ping casements, dreary skies, and such weather
as keeps people in the house is not conducive
to good piano business. Dealers are cheerful
and say they are doing better than they could
expect, but they feel that they have been badly
treated by the weather man.
"I feel that if the weather had been any-
where near normal this spring," said S. W.
Raudenbush, "we would have been able to show
a record-breaking business. This is borne out by
the very fair sales we have been able to show in
&pite of the weather. In fact, I think I can say
that our sales will average up very fairly with
other years, when they are footed up at the
end of the month, and judging from that, if the
weather had been good, we would have broken
records. We are going out after it just the
same and hope for a fine spell of weather yet."
R. K. Armstrong, who for twenty years has
been managing the sheet music department of
the W. J. Dyer & Bro. store, has been advanced
by having an offer made him to take over the
department to himself. He has accepted the offer
and now owns the department. This is follow-
ing up a policy tried in the Minneapolis store,
when Joseph Frank, who had built up their
splendid sheet music department, was given an
opportunity to purchase and the result warranted
the same thing in St. Paul.
On the first floor of the Cable branch in Minne-
apolis, space has been given to a sheet music,
small goods and talking machine department,
which is being opened by the Weber Music Com-
pany, a new concern which is to be operated
along new lines and in modern style. They give
good promise of starting out with a fair businss.
M. Schultz & Co., of Chicago, who had a
branch on the fourth floor of the Dayton building,
have made arrangements to take a splendid cor-
ner store at First avenue, south, and Eighth
street, a fine new location and new building.
They will have one of the best locations in the
city.
Elmer Brooks, of the Brooks-Evans Co., re-
ports a fine trade in out of town business in
spite of the fact that the crop condition is not
very promising. He asserts that while rain has
made it very dubious as to whether there will be
much of a grain crop, farmers and small country
dealers are hopeful that clear weather will save
it all, and are making preparations for a fair
business. In this section of the country the
wheat and grain means the pulse of business,
which greatly guides the trade in the piano as
well as other business.
Elmer Foster: the star salesman in about the
"town trade, has been making record sales for
Foster & Waldo, and has been especially suc-
cessful in placing McPhails, their old leader.
They report trade as fair and collections very
good.
W. J. Dyer reports sales of high grade instru-
ments in St. Paul. A Steinway grand has gone,
making two for the month so far, which is quite
a feather in the cap of his firm. They also re-
port collections good and prospects good in spite
of the uncertainty of crops.
SHIPMENTS MAY BE MIXLD.
The Western Classification Committee Wiil
Now Allow Pianos to be Included in Mixed
Carloads With Organs and Players at Second
Class Carload Rate.
Thomas C. Moore, traffic manager of the Na-
tional Piano Manufacturers' Association of Amer-
ica, writes to The Review under date of July 8,
as follows:
"Dear Sirs:—The Western Classification Com-
mittee have provided, effective at once, that ship-
ments of square or grand pianos may be included
in mixed carloads with cabinet organs, upright
pianos and automatic piano and organ players at
second class carload rate, minimum weight, 8,000
pounds for a 36-foot car; minimum weight in-
creasing with the size of the car at the rate of
3 per cent, for each foot. This ruling affects
shipments destined to points west of Chicago,
except points in Illinois."
"COMMENDATIONS OF THE PACKARD/
A Handsome Volume of Imposing Testimony
Regarding the Packard Piano Which Will
Interest Buyers and the Trade.
A very impressive volume is "The Commenda-
tions of the Packard Piano/' which has just been
issued by the Packard Co., of Ft. Wayne, Ind. It
contains communications from some of the most
eminent musicians in all parts of the United
States who pay enthusiastic tributes to the musi-
cal and constructive merits of the Packard
pianos, both grand and upright. Their words of
commendation have been uttered after extended
experience with these instruments, having found
them as satisfactory at the end of many years of
use as when first received.
Their views are entirely in line with the many
words expressed in The Review from time to
time regarding the Packard pianos. In tone, in
construction, in finish, in design, they have won
an enviable place—one well merited by reason of
their individual and meritorious qualities. No
stronger argument to insure a Packard sale could
be placed in the hands of a salesman than this
volume. It presents not generalizations, but
actual facts, written and signed by authorities,
any one of whom will be glad to confirm what is
therein contained regarding his opinion of the
Packard.
Throughout the volume are interspersed por-
traits of many of the leading artists whose com-
munications appear. They form a galaxy of stars
in the musical firmament of whose words of
praise the Packard Co. can well feel proud.
The frontispiece to the volume is a cut of
Anders Holmstrom, the well-known piano maker
and scale drawer, who has charge of the manu-
facturing department of this company, and whose
SINGLE COPIES, 10 CENTS.
$2.00 PER YEAR.
skill is so splendidly demonstrated in the crea-
tions which are being placed in the market by
this institution to-day.
GREAT CALL FOR LAUTER PIANOS.
(Special to The Review.)
Newark, N. J., July 12, 1905.
There is no summer dulness in the Lautar
piano factory here. On the contrary the capacity
of the factory is being taxed to its utmost, for
the Lauter Co. are having a remarkable demand,
and the demand, as President Cameron explains,
is not confined to any particular territory, but is
coming from all parts of the Union.
Several dealers have been here during the past
week and have expressed themselves as delighted
with the beautiful Lauter output. Many orders
for immediate and fall delivery have been booked.
Charles A. Borst, the popular Lauter traveling
man, is at present in Newark. He leaves in the
course of a few days for a trip that will take
him through Indiana, Michigan and other West-
ern States.
MAY INCREASE PIANO PLANT.
(Special to The Review.)
New Castle, Ind., July 8, 1905.
The big plant of the Krell-French Piano Co.,
was closed down for invoice last night, and the
500 employes will be given a two weeks' vacation.
The question of an addition to the plant will be
considered and decided. Should the additions
be built, it will increase the size and capacity
of the plant more than one-third. During the
past year the business has been very satisfactory
and pianos have been shipped all over the world.
VOUGH PIANO LIKED IN PENNSYLVANIA.
(Special to The Review.)
Waterloo, N. Y., July 10, 1905.
William S. Skinner, sales manager of the
Vough Piano Co., reports that in visiting the deal-
ers in Pennsylvania the past two weeks, he heard
much favorable comment on the Vough change-
able pitch piano. The dealers in this State are
taking hold of the Vough in a way that is most
gratifying. They find the piano to be an instru-
ment which gives perfect satisfaction to the pur-
chaser, and one which is profitable for them to
handle, because of the power of the changeable
pitch patent to interest new customers. Mr.
Skinner says that the prospects are exceedingly
bright for a record breaking business this fall.
KRELL-FRENCH
BENEFIT
ASSOCIATION.
(Special to The Review.)
New Castle, Ind., July 10, 1905.
A meeting of the Krell-French Benefit Asso-
ciation was held Friday afternoon, and the fol-
lowing directors, new and hold-overs, are an-
nounced for the ensuing year: C. Arnold, E. Dit-
mar, J. N. Tracy, E. Hipp, Frank Burke, R. N.
Wells, George Davis, Charles Hayslip, C. F. Reeps,
C. J. Winterbotham Dan J. Ray and James
McClain. The board of directors met to-day and
elected the following officers to serve the year
just commenced: C. F. Reeps, president; J. N.
Tracy, vice-president; E. Ditmar, secretary; Dan
J. Ray, treasurer.