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THE MUSIC TRADE
throughout the country and are well calculated to do good. My
observations tell me, too, that we are going to have a pretty good
holiday trade notwithstanding the financial depression."
We may say in this connection that we have received several
hundred replies during the past week to questions propounded by
The Review to dealers in the various sections of the country rela-
tive to collections, general business and holiday trade. It will be
interesting to note that there is throughout these communications
a decidedly optimistic tone. In fact, almost surprisingly so and
it is that spirit kept well to the front which will help to create holiday
trade. The more optimistic men are the more business they will
secure. There's plenty of good business to be secured; if men go
at it in the right way they will capture it. We know of some men
who are not saying much, but they are just hustling. The music
dealers are not going to lie down quietly and permit business to get
by them. We are unable to reproduce many of these communica-
tions this week owing to lack of space, but the answers to our ques-
tions are most encouraging and they show that business is far from
being annihilated by the unfortunate conditions which have pre-
vailed in the financial world.
R
ETAIL merchants throughout the country are just now per-
fecting plans for the successful winning of holiday trade.
It may be well for dealers in their advertisements of pianos to
impress upon the people the value of piano investments, and while
there may be shrinkage in stocks there can be no shrinkage in a
piano investment which endures for a lifetime and will pay annual
dividends of pleasure and enjoyment to the whole family. Adver-
tisements should be attractive and novel, and if the piano merchants
of the country would win good holiday trade they must patronize
the columns of their local papers. The department stores will use
printers' ink liberally and it behooves piano men to impress upon
the people the importance of piano purchasing during the holiday
season, for this year general interest may lag somewhat in special
lines unless the attention of the people is drawn to these creations
and the advantage of purchasing them clearly shown. This is the
time for wideawake action on the part of dealers all over the coun-
try. Advertise—be systematic. System in the store during the
holiday season is like many other good things absolutely essential,
and system will help to do away with waste.
T
HERE has been a tremendous crumbling of paper wealth. The
speculative rich, the Wall Street gambler, and speculators
with other peoples' money have been hit hard, but does it really
mean that the middlemen, the backbone of the Nation, the honest,
industrious class are worse off than before? As a matter of fact
if there is a little drop in the necessities of life as the outcome of
the recent panic will that not mean added prosperity to a large class
of our population ? Not one man in a hundred on a salary has had
it increased in proportion to the rise in prices of everything which
he and his family consume. Outside of a few trades, wages have
not been increased in proportion to the increase in rents and prices
of food. Wages and salaries which were raised least will fall least
and their purchasing power will increase more than the lessening
of their number of dollars. For a series of years the dollar has
been buying less and less. It may now buy more and more. Food
will be cheaper. Rents will be lower. The saving, industrious man
whose thrift is the foundation of the country's prosperity will have
his innings. Which is the better for the average man: To have
prices for necessaries so high that his expenditure^ leave no surplus
over his earnings, or to have the prices lowered so that his earnings
will exceed his expenditures? When the cost of living is not so
high wage earners will have more money to spend for pianos and
other home accessories. They will have more money to meet their
piano instalment payments promptly, and if there is a drop in the
cost of living as the outcome of the recent flurry, will not the
country as a whole profit thereby ?
I
N times like these it is well to place special emphasis on quality
sales. Business men will know better how they stand and they
will also be in better shape to meet any protracted business depres-
sion which may come upon us. It is well to have every enterprise in
the best possible shape to withstand any kind of shock or disaster.
Then again, with quality sales the business man is never fooling
himself by a mass of figures which will stand a big reduction before
he comes down to bed rock.
REVIEW
Just dig, that's all.
A good many people expect to get something for nothing.
Are you doing all in your power to bring about a restoration of con-
fidence?
A business genius is a man who knows to-day what the people will
want to-morrow.
It isn't always what you think of yourself, but what other people
think of you that counts.
People don't like to find out that they have been humbugged.
of the people like to believe that the other half are honest.
Half
Tom—If, as you say, Pearl is such a jewel, why don't you marry her?
Jack—I'm afraid there is a flaw in the mother-of-pearl.
And so the Cackling Old Woman of Paris has had another bon mot
handed out to her in the shape of a $100,000 lawsuit. It is powerful cruel
to trouble the old lady with so many petty annoyances of this kind.
Trade papers should be extremely careful about printing rumors.
Some of the trade publications seem fond of stating the fact that certain
factories have discharged a number of employes. Tut, tut boys, go slow
on such matters as these; the less said about them the better.
Well, the banks are doing some advertising nowadays. After the
meat trust exposures all the big concerns bought four-page supplements
in all the leading magazines in the country in order to demonstrate the
fact that their canning was above reproach, and now the banks are buying
printers' ink. Many of them for the first time in their history. "It's an
ill wind"—you know the rest.
ALWAYS NEAR.—"We would like you to go on our personally con-
ducted tours," said the ticket agent.
"Don't care about it," replied the meek little music dealer behind
the mountain of luggage.
"But wouldn't you like to know that some one was always keeping
an eye on you?"
"Oh, don't worry about that. My wife is going along."
LIKE MARRYING A TITLE.—Old Auntie Mandy, who did the wash-
ing, was such a happy, brave old soul that although she worked very hard
early and late and must often have been weary nothing could depress
her. In everything that occurred she saw only "good luck" for herself.
One day she brought home the washing in a high state of glee.
"Jes' think, Mis' Arnold," she said, "I'se goin' ter git married! Isn't
dat jes' fine luck fo' poor, ole black woman like me?"
"I shall be very sorry to lose you, Mandy," said Mrs. Arnold, "but
I'm glad if your life will be easier."
"Lose me!' gasped Mandy. "Lor'! Mis' Arnold, I can't afford to let
you lose me jes' now. Why, I'se goin' ter marry Br'er Johnson an' his
five chillun. I'se got ter hustle now, fur sartin."
"But I fail to see where your good luck is coming in from such a
marriage, Mandy."
"Why, chile, if I marry dat man an' his chillun he's promised me
six mo' big washes his fust wife done had! Dat's clar luck, Mis' Arnold,
clar luck, 'sides habin' de honor ob marryin' in Br'er Johnson's fambly!"
VERY MUCH ALIVE.—Marcel Perot, one of the chefs of the famous
Ritz Hotel in Paris, is in America to learn how to make cocktails, to stew
snapper, to fry oysters and to prepare canvasback duck.
M. Perot, discussing cheese in Baltimore, where he was studying the
snapper question, said:
"The taste in cheese has grown more delicate on the Continent. A
cream cheese, raw, is now our favorite, whereas in the past we demanded
cooked cheeses of the greatest harshness and strength. Why"—
The noted chef laughed:
"Why," he said, "when I was at the Petit Riche many years ago a
remarkable thing happened, a thing that indicates the sort of cheeses that
in the past were eaten.
"A patron, seated at a corner table in the Petit Riche, called suddenly
to the waiter:
" 'Baptiste, take away this cheese!'
Baptiste approached.
" 'Pardon me, sir,' he said, in his polite way, 'but can I fetch you
something else?'
"The patron made a gesture of impatience.
" 'Take this away first, hang it,' he exclaimed.
" 'Yes, sir; very good, sir,' said Baptiste. 'We have some fine Gorgon-
zola, or perhaps the Gruyere'—
" 'Great Scott,' the other interrupted. 'If you don't take this stuff
away at once, I'll send for the police.'
" 'I am very sorry, sir,' said Baptiste. 'Is there anything wrong
with it?'
"'Wrong?' shouted the guest. 'Why, its eating all my Bread,'".,