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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Piano Men Hustling and Good Holiday Trade Predicted—Stock Comes in Plentifully—Estey Co.
Closing One of the Best Years in Their History—Heppe Gift Pianos Much Appreciated—
Advisory Committee Started by the Heppe House—Seven
Departments
Interested
Will
Meet Every Two Weeks—A. B. Chase and Poole Pianos Big Sellers With Joseph Allen—
Chas. H. Fischer & Co. Make Encouraging Report—Gimbel Bros.' Twenty-first Piano Club.
(Special to The Review.)
Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 13, 1900.
The December piano business in Philadelphia
has started in very brisk, and the dealers are
looking for a hustling trade from this on through
the month. In fact, they are holding out strong
hopes for January, as they say that the year
has been so good in a business way that they
are positive January will be a good month, as
the people will find that they have made lots
of money and will be in a position to spend con-
siderable of it. Prom one end of Chestnut street
to the other the piano men are hustling. They
are arranging attractive windows, they are fill-
ing up their stock and they are leaving nothing
undone to capture all the trade that is possible.
Since the first of December the piano dealers
have been in a much better shape than they had
hoped to be. The manufacturers have been able
to load them up, and the stores that toward the
end of last month looked barren of stock, are
now almost filled to overflowing. The pianos
just received are of the latest designs from the
different factories, and although almost impos*
sible as it would seem, the new pianos coming
in are more artistic and more elegant in design
than those ever before offered.
The Philadelphia manufacturers are keeping
pace with the manufacturers of other cities, and
have been getting out their stock very rapidly.
This is not alone true of pianos, but the Phila-
delphia organ factories have been having a pros
perous time, as have the manufacturers of
smaller goods and the jobbers.
D. E. Woolley, of the Estey Company, says that
his house has been and is having a splendid pro-
Christmas trade, and he expects the holiday trade
to foot up the largest the house has ever en-
joyed. The Estey Company in Philadelphia are
closing a tremendous business year, and a year
which will help the Estey name very much in
the future. The many organs already placed
from the Estey house are giving such universal
satisfaction that they are expecting a tremend-
ously increased business during 1907. And as to
their player piano, the Estey Co. have never yet
been able to get sufficient of these instruments
in the warerooms to warrant them in advertising
and pushing them.
William Wilson, of the Bailey Piano Co., was
a Philadelphia visitor this week, and he speaks
enthusiastically of the year his firm has had.
The Heppes have sent out practically all of
their gift pianos, and have received compliment-
ary letters from all the recipients. The follow-
ing is a sample letter from the management of
the St. Agnes Hospital, which is one of twenty-
five institutions to be favored with free pianos:
"Last evening we were one of the fortunate re-
cipients of a piano and in return for your splen-
did generosity we beg to thank you most sin-
cerely. Being a square we were unable to use
it in the place we proposed for lack of space,
but it will be of equal service in another part
of the institution. Reassuring you of our appre-
ciation, and praying God to bless and compen-
sate your charity ten-fold, I remain, etc."
The other letters are similar in character.
Two institutions that had been awarded pianos
asked to have organs in their place, as they could
use them to better advantage, and the Heppes
acquiesced in this desire, and sent the two pianos
to other institutions not included in the award.
The two institutions desiring organs were the
Helping Hand Mission and the Welcome Mission.
W. S. Stackhouse has returned to work at the
Heppe house after a number of weeks of illness
and says he is feeling much better than he has
felt in several years.
The Heppe house recently started an advisory
committee, which is of a character in work which
more stock than most of the piano dealers give
them credit of doing. The branches of the com-
pany are all doing well, but the only way," Mr.
Fischer says, "to get anything out of the branch
stores is by strict economy. If you don't watch
this they eat their heads off before you know
where you are at."
The Heppes have just gotten out a fine whole-
sale catalogue, probably the finest ever gotten
out by a Philadelphia firm.
Gimbel Brothers announce this week their
twenty-first piano club. It is also the second
Packard piano club. They sell the. piano $10 at
joining and $2 a week.
it might be well for other houses to follow. It
is a committee composed of seven department
men, who meet every two weeks, and the idea
is for these men to make recommendations and
offer suggestions to the board of directors of the
company of C. J. Heppe & Son. Robert S. Mc-
HOME FOR AGED MUSIC TEACHERS
Carthy, practically in charge of the Heppe in-
door selling force, is chairman of the committee,
and J. W. Irwin, in charge of the Heppe adver- Opened in Philadelphia, Where Worthy Men
Can Find a Home in Days of Necessity.
tising department, is secretary. The other mem-
bers of the committee are H. J. Hillebrand, in
There is now in Philadelphia a fully equipped
charge of the aeolian and and pianola depart- home for music teachers who have passed the
ments; W. S. Stackhouse, in charge of the out- age of activity and are in a state of dependence.
side men; George T. Hardy and R. M. Stultz, It is ready for occupancy, with accommodations
two of the quartette of $100,000 beauties of the for twelve persons, t u t the building can easily
house, and John T. Ash. They take up every be enlarged to double the capacity.
subject in connection with the business to dis- The house has been purchased outright, and
charging some incompetent employed in window the financial support of the institution is as-
dressing. Let me say, as an outsider, that since sured, the parties directly responsible for its es-
this committee has been meeting that there seems tablishment being fully capable of placing it on
to be a lack of incompetent men at the Heppes a sound financial basis, not only for the present
and a great improvement in window dressing. but for the future as well. The management of
This organization, it seems, ought to be very ef- the affairs is in the hands of a committee of
fective for good in a house as large a s the seven.
Heppes, where the employers must, in a measure,
The building was handsomely equipped for a
depend upon their men to look out for their clubhouse, hence the appointments are of the
interest, and by the suggestions they present best, including the latest methods of heating and
much improvement should undoubtedly accrue in lighting—the electric and plumbing fixtures be'
every way.
ing of the latest and most approved device.
Joseph F. Alien, the Philadelphia representa-
For the present the home will be open only to
tive of the A. B. Chase and Poole pianos, says men, but later on provision will be made for
that he is enjoying a very gratifying business, women music teachers as well.
which he expects to run into the new year. He
The rules of admission are not stringent, only
says that last January he had a better busi- setting forth in a general way that the applicant
ness than any other month of the year so far, must be sixty-five years of age, and shall have
and he believes that the day is past when Decem- followed the profession of a teacher of music in
ber is the only big month of the year. He be- the United States for twenty-five years as a sole
lieves that January is going to loom up for the means of livelihood, and be at present incapaci-
rea'son that business people right after the first tated for such work from old age or other good
of the year will know in what shape their cause.
finances are and whether they can afford a new
The fact that this music teachers' home is the
piano. There seems to be some logic in this.
first of its kind to be established in this country
Mr. Allen is very much pleased with the new
would seem to indicate that instructors in music
style A. B. Chase style K, several of which they
might be more forehanded than some other pro-
have just received. It is an artistic little in-
fessions, yet it is nevertheless true that when
strument, being only 4x4. He also reports that
poverty does come to these it is with startling
they have been doing very nicely with the A.
distinctiveness and heavy weight. Hence this
B. Chase player piano, the only trouble being
home must fill a need, furnishing, as it does, a
that they are swamped with orders at the fac-
place of refuge from the privations of a poverty-
tory, and Mr. Allen cannot get the players fast
stricken old age.
enough. This week he sold one of his finest A.
Information concerning the home may be se-
B. Chase grands to Mrs. Fernley, of Oak Lane,
cured or application made by addressing the
and another one to A. Horace Cook, the Phila-
secretary, 236 South Third street, Philadelphia,
delphia architect, who draws the plans for the
Pa.
Philadelphia public schools.
Charles H. Fischer is still hustling for all
SOME ADVERTISING POINTS.
there is in it in spite of the fact that he re-
There was once a prominent editor who in-
cently paid that he believed the individual piano
structed the beginners in journalism in these
selling was drifting department storeward. He
words:
was not as serious about this as his fellow deal-
"When you have something to tell, begin at the
ers took him to be, and he says that he never
beginning, tell the story, and when you have
intended to relinquish his company to go into
reached the end—stop!"
Ihe department store when he tried to get con-
In other words, do not follow the English cus-
trol of the piano department of Snellenburgs.
tom of telling a joke, and then explaining it.
He said that if the Heppes find it profitable to
The modern writers of advertising seem to be
be in charge of the department in Strawbridge
learning
this lesson. But there are still too many
& Clothier's, why should not the Fischer
exceptions.
Company find it equally profitable to be in charge
There are too many who do not tell enough.
of the piano department in any other depart-
Altogether
too many who attempt to tell too
ment store. Mr. Fischer said: "Our business
is increasing all the time, and I don't believe much. There are no instructions more fatal than
that any house in Philadelphia is doing busi- these: "I know this copy is too much for the
ness on as small a basis of expense as is # our space, but use the smallest type you have and
company. We have gotten our expenses down to crowd it in somehow."
a minimum, and while we are keeping up the
A new piano store will shortly be opened in
prices of our instruments, we are making a big- Tipton, Iowa, by C. K. Ross. He will handle the
ger profit on what we are selling than we have Baldwin, Howard and Hamilton pianos.
ever made before. The Fischer Company's two
R. O. Falk, a piano dealer, of Stoughton, Wis..
best sellers are the Steger and the Reed & Sons.
They are still selling stock, and I have seen evi- will open a branch in Edgarton, Wis., at an
dences that the company are selling considerably early date.