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THE:
MUSIC TRADE
safely as the most expert business man. This kind of one price
system is merely for advertising purposes, and any old square or
organ can be taken at from $5 to $500, to suit the neces-
sity of the case and land the prospective buyer. When the manu-
facturer has backbone enough to fix a price on his goods and put
the dealer who handles them under bond to get that price, we will
have the one price system in practical operation and not till then.
When we do have this really one price system made by the manu-
facturer, then territorial lines become of less importance. It ap-
pears that the talking machine manufacturers have answered this
question and answered it in the affirmative. It cannot be said that
their business is not being successfully conducted, and yet they have
no territorial questions to solve, and any responsible dealer wdio can
furnish a good bond to follow their instruction in retailing the
goods, will be given an agency. Talking machines of a particular
make are the same price the world over, no trade is taken in ex-
change, no tribute paid to the commission friends, no stencils un-
loaded on an unsuspecting public, no made-to-order bargains in
second-hand machines. Eight or ten agencies for the same make
of machine in the same city, three or four competitive makes of
machines in the sanie store! This seems ridiculous to contemplate
in the piano business, does it not? Yet, there are those who believe
that if the manufacturer of pianos would humbly sit at the feet of
the manufacturers of talking machines and take a few lessons, that
a plan could be evolved which would accomplish the same thing
in the piano business, especially among the high grades and even-
tually on all grades. There are certain high grade makes to-day
that have succeeded in doing this to a certain extent, and we all
respect and honor them for it."
REVIEW
AN APPREHENSION.—"Charley," said young Mrs. Torkins, "aren't
favorite sons remarkably numerous in politics, just now?"
"Yes. What of it?"
"Nothing. Only I do hope it won't wind up in a family quarrel."
IMMUNE.—Mr. Winks (solemnly)—"A noted physician says that
deadly bacteria lurk in bank notes, and many diseases, especially small-
pox, are spread that way."
Mrs. Winks—"Mercy on us! Give me all you have. I've been vac-
cinated, you know."
THOUGHT SHE HAD HIM.—"George,"' said the young wife, sobbing
over her teacup, "you have told me an awful untruth."
"How so, my dear?" asked George, in surprise.
"Why, didn't you tell me that you went to a stag dinner the other
night?"
"Yes."
"Well, I have investigated and found that deer are out or season. So
you couldn't have had any stag for dinner at all."—Chicago News.
NATURALLY.—"Screechem was a barker in a circus once, wasn't he?"
"Yes."
"When did he give up this line of continuous talk?"
'When he married."
W
HEN a single savings bank in New York is able to an-
nounce that its deposits have reached the $100,000,000 mark
the times are surely unpropitious for the doctrine of discontent
based on the notion that great fortunes are growing at the expense
of small competences. It is also significant of the insincerity of
other complaints. We are all poorer, it is said
malcontents, because prices of everything are higher. Yet surplus
incomes laid away in the Bowery Savings Bank have reached this
immense aggregate during the process of extortion. President Wood
thinks the unprecedented record just made by his bank is indicative
of continued prosperity, subsidence of speculative fever, and return
of the people to normal contentment with a fair return on their
money amply secured. The inference is not an unreasonable one.
Four per cent, is not to be sneezed at even in these times when
general securities are selling on a basis considerably higher. The
savings banks at least are probably safe from interference, and the
more the disturbance caused elsewhere the more valuable will seem
the serenity within their gates. Swelling savings bank funds are
not always an index of perfect confidence in other channels of in-
vestment, but with such indication as cited above reasons are fur-
nished why the piano business on the deferred payment plan is
good in New York. The people have the money, and instalment
payments on all lines are fairly maintained.
VERCAPITALIZATION is a serious menace to business
prosperity, and the water must be drained out of various
lines of stocks before values come down to where they should be.
The figures in Mayor McClellan's veto of the Public Utilities
bill should be impressed on the public memory. He has computed
the combined capitalization of the public service corporations
affected by this bill to be $3,322,537,916. Who believes that the
real investment of these corporations equals $1,000,000,000?
There are only seven States in the Union where the assessed
valuation of all the real estate exceeds $1,000,000,000. A billion
dollars is an enormous sum. It is greater than the whole interest-
bearing debt of the United States greater than the two years'
average wages of 1,000,000 men. It is twice the assessed property
of Chicago or St. Louis. It would rebuild thirteen Albany's. It is
four times the assessed valuation of the city of Washington, and
almost equal to the valuation of Brooklyn or Philadelphia.
Yet the capitalization is three times this, half as much as all
the buildings and the land in the five boroughs which make up New
York.
Whether the people must pay on the basis of capitalization or
on the basis of honest investment rnaJses the difference of over
O
$2,000,000,000,
Gladys (at her first violin recital)—Which is it that makes the noise—the
pic-lin or the bow?—Punch.
THE ONE ADVANTAGE.—Jiggers—"Well, how do you like living in
a flat?"
Jasgers—"Great! Splendid!"
Jiggers—"But you haven't as much room as you had in your house."
Jaggers—"That's just it—no room for my wife's relatives."
DISCOVERED.—Teacher—"Is there any connecting link between the
animal and the vegetable kingdom?"
Bright Pupil—"Yes, mum; there's hash."
TIME ALL TAKEN.—Mr. Jolly—"There's one thing I like about Miss
Barker. She never talks about anybody,"
Miss Sneerwell—"No, indeed. She spends all her time talking about
herself."—Smart Set.
NOT A SPORT.—"So an American has won the Derby! Well!"
"That's nothing. I won a silk hat on the last election myself."
INDUCIVE.—Belle (enthusiastically)—"I know that rich old fellow
who's courting Maud is a regular curmudgeon to live with, but she'll have
al] kinds of money."
Nell (dryly)—"She will, indeed, including alimony."
NOT RUDE.—A Germantown woman was not long ago watching a
workman as he put up new window fixtures in her house.
"Don't you think that you have placed those fixtures too high?" asked
she, having reference to the curtain rolls last put in place.
The workman, a stolid German, made no reply, but continued to
adjust the fixtures.
"Didn't you hear my question?" demanded the lady of the house.
"How dare you be so rude?"
Whereupon the German gulped convulsively, and then replied in the
gentlest of voices:
"I haf my mouth full of schrews, und I could not spheak till I svallow
some!"—Harper's Weekly.
INCREDIBLE.—"Was the fishing good down at the lake?"
•'Good? Say, it wa§ so bully that nobody had to lie about it!"