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THE
TRADE NOTES FROM PITTSBURQ.
Changes and Renovations at the Columbia
Quarters—Powers & Henry's New Store—
Bentel Co. Expand—Skelley Department
Store Handle Machines—Mahoning Talking
Machine Co.—Edison Jobbers Busy.
(Special to The Review.)
Pittsburg, Pa., Nov. 11, 1905.
There are things doing all over this district in
the talking machine trade. Large, warm things
—things, withal, which make for keener competi-
tion, with the inevitable betterment in business
methods which are the natural concomitants of
such a condition. If there were proof needed,
one would but have to cite the elegance of the
language in the foregoing sentences, and then
contrast it with the kind of stuff that was doled
out to talking machine men in the not remote
past. Further comment becomes unnecessary.
To recapitulate briefly some of the "things"
which are doing in the Pittsburg field. The Co-
lumbia Co. have torn out the interior of its store
at 615 Penn avenue, and entirely rearranged the
shelving and display rooms so that one would
hardly recognize the place. The front, too, has
been handsomely decorated, and Manager Mc-
Murtry says he has just begun. Speaking of this
gentleman, it is apropos to state that notwith-
standing he just came into the Pittsburg field
from Kansas City, his September business ex-
ceeded that of the 1904 September, and beat the
previous month by a gratifying margin.
But these are only a few of the "things" which
are doing in Pittsburg. Messrs. Powers & Henry,
in their handsome new store at 619 Penn avenue,
two doors below the Columbia store, have been
"raising Cain" tnemselves. They have a beauti-
fully fitted up store, a fine stock of new Edison,
Victor and Columbia goods, and Manager Henry,
who has charge of the store, says business is com-
ing in gobs. The residents in the square on Penn
avenue, between Sixth and Seventh streets, have
no reason to suffer for lack of musical entertain-
ment. Two Columbia Twentieth Century ma-
chines, one in either store, keep the fun going all
day long. Sometimes the machines are "damned
with faint praise," but this has no effect what-
ever on the merry war.
The Theodore F. Bentel Co., just a block up on
Liberty avenue, are also a big factor in making
things lively in the present state of the local
trade. Recently elected a director in the Haw-
thorne-Sheble-American-Record Co., Mr. Bentel
has been appointed the Western distributing agent
for that concern. He has a full line of their
goods, and the addition of these to his already
• large stock of Victor and Edison goods, has ne-
cessitated his doubling the size of his storeroom.
He is making a heavy run on the new machines,
which are just being put out by this concern,
having adopted the plan of giving a machine with
every $25 purchase of American records.
The H. C. & J. K. Skelley department store of
McKeesport has just opened a large and well
equipped talking machine department. They will
carry a full line of Edison, Victor and Columbia
goods.
Joseph A. Pyle, one of the bright young men
who have been developed by the Columbia Co.,
left Pittsburg recently to take up the work
of selling the commercial graphophone in De-
troit. Mr. Pyle knows the commercial machine
in its mechanical aspects perhaps better than any
other man in the service of the Columbia Co., and
there is little doubt but that he will meet with
a large measure of success in- his new field.
Henry P. Keely, the dealer in all kinds of
talking machines in the East End Qistrict, has
just sold his twentieth Premier graphophone.
What Mr. Keeley don't know about the needs
and tastes of his patrons may well be left out
of the calculation.
The store of the Mahoning Talking Machine
Co., in Youngstown, has been entirely redecorated
and refitted. The enterprising proprietor, Mr. F.
J. Sponseller, a former Pittsburg newspaper man,
deserves to be congratulated upon its appearance.
Business, Mr. Sponseller reports, is growing
nicely.
MUSIC
TRADE
RElVlEIW
The Edison jobbers in this city, including Kauf-
mann Bros., H. Kleber & Bro., C. C. Mellor Co.,
Pittsburg Phonograph Co. and the Talking Ma-
chine Co., report an increasing volume of busi-
ness for this fall. The merits of the present Edi-
son goods, both in machines and records, are
keenly appreciated by purchasers. The Edison
territory here is splendidly worked, and with
good results.
"I cannot yet understand."
"Ah, fade away! Back to de bucksaw. Can't
you tell when a jay like dat has been lookin' at
de rosy?"
"Who is Rosie?"
"G'wan, youz! He's drunk."
COMING HELPLESSNESS OF MAN.
The mechanical peril is a difficulty which has
not escaped the attention of the present Parlia-
ment, says Charles Edward Jerningham, in Lon-
How the Colloquialisms of To-day Will Sound don Truth. The special commission which was
recently appointed to inquire into the matter has
in the Ears of the People of Next Century.
issued an interim report, and the following evi-
Some day the talking machine will be so dence of one of the witnesses examined is of
utilized that ordinary conversation can be especial interest:
caught and preserved in cases for examination
Can you write? No; I use a typewriter.
by future generations of school men. Only think
Can you sing? No; I use a phonograph.
what an advantage it would be to us if some-
Can you play any musical instrument? No;
body had invented the talking machine in I use the pianola.
Chaucer's time. We should know that English
Can you sew? No; I use a sewing machine.
speech for a different matter from that which
Can you draw? No; I use a kodak.
now appears to us. Lamentations are heard
Can you walk? No; I use a bicycle, a motor
now and again over the disappearance of flexib- car, a tram car or a train.
ility in our language. We say that it is losing
Can you see? No; I use glasses.
its poetry, its symbolism, that it has ceased
Can you hear? No; I use a trumpet.
to grow, that it no longer expresses shades of
Can you digest? No; I use digestives.
meaning. What rubbish! The fact is, that for
Can you sleep? No; I use narcotics.
one way of expressing a thought in Shake-
Can you form an independent political, literary,
speare's day we have a dozen on the Bowery artistic or ordinary opinion? No; I belong to an
in this twentieth century. Suppose for a mo- "organized" political party and take my opinions
ment that the perfected machine has overheard in this direction from the wire-pullers. As re-
and recorded a dialogue on the East Side be- gards literature and art, I receive my impres-
tween a resident and a missionary, and some sions of those matters from the reviews in the
philologist or etymologist or the curator of fos- newspapers and in ordinary circumstances I fol-
sil expressions finds the record a century hence low general public opinion.
and puts it into the machine to do a turn.
Can you breathe? No; I use artificial respira-
What a disclosure it would be of the fertility tion.
and variety of our English language. Imagine
a bit of it:
A FEW NEEDLE POINTS,
Missionary—Is that man ill?
Bowery Statesman—Naw; he's got a bun.
Cardinal Merry Del Val, secretary to Pope Pius
"I didn't observe that he was eating buns."
X,
has written the Victor Talking Machine Co.,
"Come off! I said, he's got a skate."
congratulating them on their great success in
"Skating in summer! How very unusual!"
"Rats! What's dis you're givin' us? Dat securing an exact reproduction of the Gregorian
galoot's got a slant—he's all lighted up—he's full Chant, which is now being so generally used in
the services of the Roman Catholic Church.
o' budge—booze—bug juice."
-"What an extraordinary variety of afflictions! There is an increasing demand for these records
from choirmasters in all parts of the country,
Is it catching—any of it?"
"What—jags catchin'? Gee, I wish day was. who are now introducing Gregorian plain songs
in their choirs.
I'd get near myself."
"Jags? I understood you to say it was buns."
"So I did. It's de same t'ing. He's on a bat."
While great strides have been made in perfect-
"I didn't happen to notice any bat."
ing records, and many produced are really mar-
"Well, you're a blind one. You want to get velous in their beautiful sound-producing quali-
next to a spetticle factory, you do. Why, you ties, a yet greater degree of perfection has been
could see a mulligan like that half a mile."
reached in the laboratories. The cost of manu-
"Is his name Mulligan?"
facture, however, is so great that they are so far
"I dunno what his name is. I said he's got a outside the commercial pale. Great efforts, how-
brannigan."
ever are being made to reduce the expense, and
"Dear me! Won't you tell me what is the then, experts say, the ideal record will be real-
matter with the man?"
ized.
"You make me tired.. I been tellin' you for
de last half hour. He's been hittin' de can—
The latest get-rich-quick scheme is the porta-
chasin' de duck—rushin' de growler. He's been ble phonograph, which an enterprising Italian
strainin' red-eye troo his face. He's been paint- has substituted for his street piano. In carrying
in' his tonsils wit' Delancey street varnish. He's on this new venture he is assisted by his wife,
been gettin' loaded. He sees twins. He's gettin' who carries the records. The wife adjusts the
snakes. De menagerie is after him. But de cops records and winds the crank, so that the man's
is wise. Dey'll have de hurry wagon out."
sole duty consists of holding out a cup for pen-
"It must be dreadful to be so afflicted."
nies. Their repertory is not large, but is se-
"Afflicted nothin'! He's up to de neck in lected with discretion, including popular songs
purple joy."
and an extract from a recent famous trial. This
scene, the Italian says, always calls forth a
shower of change from women.
PRESERVED FOR POSTERITY.
Anything'
Bind
Everything
in
TALKING
MACHINES
Wholesale
James I. Lyons, m -» 4
ST<
The State Historical Society of Nebraska is
utilizing the talking machine for the purpose of
making records of the music and songs of the
Indian tribes of that State. The different camps
have been visited and some splendid records made
which will be handed down to posterity. The
voices of the principal chiefs, the war songs of
the different tribes, as well as their incantations
of sorrow and joy, are faithfully preserved.
A. E. Emery, of Orange, Mass., piano dealer,
has moved into larger quarters in that town.