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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
the customer, and to see that the money will be left there and not
taken out and spent at another place.
r
I ^ H E R E are many people to-day who have no conception of
JL
what manners have to do with the making of a sale; but it is
a powerful factor. Recently we were in a wareroom when a lady
came in and asked about certain pianos. She certainly did not look
like a very interesting prospect, so thought the salesman who arose
from a desk where he was reading a newspaper, and greeted her
coldly, almost indifferently. He carried the paper with him, swung
it in one hand while he talked with her, and looked plainly bored.
The lady evidently was afraid she had interrupted him in his morn-
ing reading, for she quickly went o'ut. The salesman remarked
when she had departed that she was one of those callers who come
in to bother the life out of a man if he would permit her to do so,
without even purchasing or thinking seriously about it. Stepping
in at another wareroom in the neighborhood shortly after, we saw
the same lady talking with a salesman who was using every energy,
coupled with fine courtesy, to please and. to impress her. The case
seemed interesting and we watched it to a finality. At the second
wareroom the lady not only concluded a purchase but paid cash
for a piano. This sale was lost to the first business establishment
through the tactlessness and rank discourtesy of a salesman who
was receiving a good salary to attend to his duty. But he did not
see the gleam of displeasure in the lady's eye at his indifference,
for his mind was more intent o'n reading his newspaper than it was
in making sales for his employer, and when the lady said: "Thank
you, I will look elsewhere," he did not even take the tip. According
to his narrow views his whole duty had been done properly. And
still there are some men who wonder why fortune does not smile
upon them more generously.
T
HE panic started last fall with the closing of the doors of the
Knickerbocker Trust Co. From New York the disturbance
spread in ever widening circles all over the country. And it cer-
tainly should help business interests everywhere when the Knicker-
bocker opens for business, as it will next Thursday. Quite a
number of firms and corporations in the music trade as well as
individuals had money on deposit with this great trust company
when the collapse occurred. They will not only have their confi-
dence reinforced to have this big financial corporation open up,
but it will have a strengthening effect upon business interests every-
where. It will show to the world that the Knickerbocker Trust
Co. was not, after all, in such a bad financial position as many
alleged. At the time of the collapse this big company paid out in
two or three hours over eight millions in cash, and when it opens
next week it will have millions of ready money immediately avail-
able, and with plenty of assets upon which money will be realized
at frequent intervals. The depositors will all be paid in full, so.
after all, things are- not half as bad as they seemed.
YOUNG man writes to The Review and among other things
says: "I am confident that I possess genius for art, but 1
have no opportunity to show its power. What would you suggest?"
First, get clear of the genius idea, cut it out. Substitute in its
place a love for hard work, and if you possess the quality which
you modestly assert you'll be coining nice large full-grown dollars
ere long, and remember that the eternal hustle for the almighty
dollar and its attendant superficiality of culture and refinement will
never evolve a genius in art whose works typify the pulsations and
throbbings of our universal heart yearning. The paramount idea
of the age gives birth to the man of genius, and he is begotten after
much travail and labor. Longfellow thus aptly expresses it:
A
The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight;
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.
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W e are living in a progressive age of monopolies and patent
rights, perforated music roll fights, Rooseveltania paranoia, re-
formed spelling and few other choice tabasco saucelets, but to the
glory of human progress it is pleasant to know that the man of
genius is no monopoly, and to him whom the gods have blessed and
endowed there is always at least a fighting chance. Go in and win,
my son. Put on your shield, pick up your lance, shy your caster in
the ring, and the world may yet be yours.
Politeness is worth money.
Misrepresentation is the thief of trade.
There is no success without plenty of hard work behind it.
Be cheerful, of course, but never lose dignity in your selling methods.
Inattention to details sometimes works serious injury and expense
to any enterprise. .
We have noticed that the man who only half tries does not more
than half make good.
A man without diplomacy is usually as powerless to sell goods as
a bird with clipped wings is to fly.
Successful salesmanship is based upon an Intimate knowledge of
human nature. Study your customers.
Don't be a price haggler. The one price proposition is the only correct
plan just now. Price haggling is out of date.
He—Have you any fine-tooth combs?
It—No, but we have some fine tooth brushes.
A PREFERENCE.—Wife—Which church shall we go to, dear, the
Episcopal or Methodist? The preachers are equally good.
"Episcopal. Better music and less brimstone."—Life.
A. T. Stewart once reproved a clerk for winding the wrapping twine
four or five times too much around a parcel. If the greatest merchant of
his time gave such attention to details why call your employer small if
he objects to waste here and there.
ATTRACTIVE SIGN.—This notice was posted in a pleasure-boat
belonging to a certain steamship company:
"The chairs in the cabin are for the ladies. Gentlemen are requested
not to make use of them till the ladies are seated."
EVOLUTION IN LITERATURE.— Friend—How'd you come to write
that "best seller?"
The Modern Literary Gent—First I was struck by a thought. I
epigramized the thought, sketched the epigram, playized the sketch,
novelized the play and advertised the novel.
WIDELY ADVERTISED BRAND.—Hicks—What do you suppose my
wife has been doing now?
Wicks—I don't know.
Hicks—Why, she told me last night that she went all over town the
week before my birthday, trying to buy me some post-prandial cigars.
She said she had read about them in the newspapers.
CLASSIFIED.—"A philanthropist." said the teacher, "is a person
who exerts himself to do his fellow men good. Now, if I were wealthy,
children," she added, by way of illustration, "and gave my money freely
to all the needy and unfortunates who asked me, I'd be a
"
She abruptly broke off to point at a boy in the rear.
"What would I be, Tommy Saunders?" she asked, fixing him with
her eye.
"A cinch!" shouted the young student.
FAME.—A real estate fi:m had lots for sale in a new suburban addi-
tion. The young, enthusiastic member was writing the advertisement,
eloquence flowed from his pen. He urged intending purchasers to seize
the passing moment.
"Napoleon not only met tin opportunity, he created it!"
The senior partner read this line in the advertisement slowly and
carefully.
"This fellow Napoleon," he observed, quizzically; "what's the use of
advertising him with our money?"
INTERESTED IN ADVERTISEMENTS.—"It was so nice of you to
see me home," she said. "I hope the trip has not been very tiresome
to you?"
"Oh, not, not at all, not at all," he replied. "In fact, it has been
rather interesting."
"You cannot know how glad you have made me. Do you really mean
it, Mr. Worth wads? I shall be delighted to have you call a t any time.
Can't you come to-morrow evening? I felt the first time I ever savr you
that we were destined to become
"
"Excuse me, Miss Oldun. I am afraid you didn't quite understand.
I have found the trip interesting because I supposed we had the most
foolish advertisement in the trolley cars out our way. I find that the
ones in these cars are even more funny—-especially the rhymed ones
which the advertisers have composed themselves."—Chicago Record-
Herald.