Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
REVIEW
fIUJICTT(ADE
VOL. XLIII. No. 2 4 . Pubttshed Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 1 MadisonAve., New York, December 15,1906.
TROUP WILL ENLARGE.
NEW MEMBERS
Piano House Will be Doubled in Capacity—T.
H. Hamilton Chosen Architect to Plan Ex-
tensive Changes.
Join the Forces of the National Association of
Piano Dealers of Avnerica.
(Special to The Review.}
Harrisburg, Pa., Dec. 8, 1906.
The Troup Piano House, 15 South Market
Square, long known as the Dauphin Building,
will be remodeled and greatly enlarged next
spring by the owner, J. H. Troup. When com-
pleted the Troup store will be one of the largest
in this part of the State. Its capacity will be
doubled by the changes, and the sales force will
be increased in proportion.
The present store is 62*4 feet deep. Mr. Troup
owns the rest of the property running 95 feet to
the rear, 31 % feet wide. On the rear property
a four-story brick building will be erected. The
present storeroom and basement will be extend-
ed to the rear to Court street, making them 157^
feet long. These large apartments will be used
as sales rooms. A feature will be a number of
sound proof roofs for the demonstration of
pianos and players without interference with
others. These rooms will be decorated hand-
somely. The offices will remain on the first
floor, farther to the rear than at present.
The second floor of the rear addition will be
a lodge room, 96 by 31% feet, and the third will
be devoted to offices and six music studios, each
25 feet deep. The top floor will be for storage
and repair shops. There will be a freight and
passenger elevator. The entrance for shipping
will be in the rear, on Blackberry street.
PLAN TO SIMPLIFY MUSIC.
Makes Great Claims for His Uniclef System.
The latest plan for simplifying music is the in-
vention of the landlord of the Fish and Eels
Hotel, at Dob's Weir, Hoddesdon, England, the
Rev. Samuel W. Thackeray, M.A., LL.D., wrang-
ler, Trinity College, Cambridge, who has had a
romantic career, partly in this country. He
argues that by means of his Uniclef system the
teaching of the pianoforte can be made much
easier, as the pupils are required to learn to play
in one key only, and that the easiest of all—C
natural. The machinery *which he offers to affix
to any pianoforte for $50 or $60 will do the rest.
He says he has spent $25,000 in perfecting this
system and getting it protected in twenty-seven
countries. "Of course," he says, "the pianoforte
makers and music publishers are against me.
They would be, naturally, because my system
condemns all their stocks of instruments and
printed scores practically to the rubbish heap,
unless they avail themselves of my patents, but
they must not, they ought not, to stand in the
way of progress. The old notation and the tonic
sol fa system must go!" Unfortunately, this
great inventor has the reputation of being "a
born dreamer of dreams, often vainly grand."
Mr. Thackeray's system is not new by any means.
He has been anticipated by an American who
asserted, just like our English friend, that his
invention was not taken up because of the jeal-
ousy of piano makers and publishers.
James F. Bowers, chairman of the press com-
mittee of the National Association of Piano Deal-
ers of America, informs The Review that the
following applications for membership have been
received by the secretary from November 1 to
December 1, 1906:
Active.—Frank C. Allen, Cressey & Allen, Port-
land, Me. 1 E. P. Andrew, Farrand Co., Detroit,
Mich.; Eugene Brown, Brown, Page & Hillman
Co., Peoria, 111.; B. B. Burton, the Cable Com-
pany, Norfolk, Va.; Walter G. Fisher, Wilming-
ton, O.; F. N. Goosman, Hallet & Davis Co., To-
ledo, Ohio; Arthur E. Guth, the Hughes & Son
Co., Bangor, Me.; J. H. Halcombe, Jesse French
Piano & Organ Co., Birmingham, Ala.; Theo. J.
Kraft, Boston, Mass.; H. E. Lake, Keene, N. H.;
W. E. Moody, Gariner, Me.; C. J. Murphy, Bidde-
ford, Me.; Melville Smith, Augusta, Me.; John
L. Stowers, Havana, Cuba; C. H. Terrill, Frank-
lin, Ind.
Associate.—Martin Austin, the Carpenter Co.,
Brattleboro, Vt.; Ralph N. E. Hunt, Cressey &
Allen, Portland, Me.; Nelson H. Kooker, M. L.
Cope, Quakertown, Pa.; E. W. Sawhill, Whitney
& Currier Co., Toledo, Ohio.
CLINCHING THE SALE.
Some Neglect Golden Opportunity to Close
Sales.
Many salesmen are accomplished "missionary"
men; that is, they can deftly explain and keenly
interest, biut they lack the ability to crystallize
that interest into a sale. Some of the most en-
tertaining talkers I have ever met have, on the
whole, been poor salesmen, because they could
not clinch the sale after adroitly leading up to it.
In salesmanship, missionary work pure and
simple, without any immediate results in the way
of sales, is often desirable in the introduction of
some new article; but, as a general rule, if you
succeed in arousing a man's interest to the buy-
ing point and then neglect to clinch the sale, you
both lose the opportunity of making a customer
and you make it easier for a competitor to sell
his goods In place of yours.
Similarly, if your advertising arouses interest
without clinching the sale or directly paving the
way, it comes pretty near to being a sheer waste
of money.
BURK GETS LOVING CUP.
Louis Bu.rk, an old employe of the Junius Hart
Music House, New Orleans, La., recently com-
pleted his twenty-fifth year in the employment of
that concern, upon which occasion he was pre-
sented with a handsome loving cup by J. P. Sim-
mons, president of the Junius Hart house. The
presentation took the form of a rather elaborate
reception, with speeches from Messrs. Burk, Sim-
mons and others.
Mr. Burk is a native of New Orleans, and en-
tered the piano trade at the age of sixteen. He
SINGL
$?.OO°PEI S VE O AR ENTS -
was employed by various concerns for six or
seven years before becoming connected with the
Junius Hart establishment twenty-five years ago.
In all that time he was only absent from busi-
ness for one day, and that owing to sickness.
ONE PRICE BY THEJVIANUFACTURER.
Some
Arguments
Advanced
Manager.
by
a
Retail
John G. Erck has the following to say concern-
ing the establishment of the retail price by the
manufacturers which has been persistently ad-
vocated by The Review:
"Fundamentally, manufacturers must desist
from supplying unschooled and irresponsible so-
called dealers, and all those concerns who cater
to the nothing down and $1 a week classes.
"When this shall have been accomplished then
the chances of all-around fair dealing will be on
some kind of a footing to enable the legitimate
trade at large to enjoy the correct benefits to
accrue, and to which the following terse lines
point:
"The only fair method readily granted by
thoughtful business minds is to charge interest
on all deferred payments, particularly so when
prices are rightly fixed, thus enabling the cash
or part cash purchaser to justly benefit with
ready money—mostly saved by thrift and
economy.
"Not alone should the proper selling price be
set by the manufacturers, but they should also
set a minimum down, and monthly payment plan
for each of their styles of new pianos, all based
on a simple percentage calculation. Then the
retail customers would, with legal State interest,
on all deferred payments staring them in the
face, take more pains to meet obligations.
"Merit and quality of material, workmanship
and wear would also be placed on a more sound
competitive footing, and salesmanship, in Its
every sense, would be materially enhanced.
"The foregoing benefits would naturally re-
bound to the fountain head—the producers—of
pianos, no matter in what class.
"The question of distance from base of sup-
ply can readily be overcome by adding to manu-
facturers set price cost in round figures of low-
est freight rate, surrounding territorial rights
being honorably upneld one to the other."
HAVANA DEALER IN LINE.
John L. Stowers, a piano dealer, of Havana,
Cuba, has made application for membership In
the National Association of Piano Dealers of
America. He is recommended by B. B. Crew, of
Atlanta, Ga., and R. S. Howard, of New York.
Altogether, in the last couple of weeks, seventeen
applications for membership have been received
by the association.
PIANOS FOR SMITH COLLEGE.
Counting instruments just delivered, M. Stein-
ert & Sons Co., through their Springfield, Mass.,
branch have sold forty three pianos to Smith Col-
lege for girls. The pianos were mainly Stein'
ways and Jewetts.