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THE
BALTIMORE'S BUDGET OF NEWS.
Business Improvement—Big Orders for Knabe
Pianos on Thanksgiving Day—Leading Deal-
ers Report Excellent Retail Sales—$1,000
Weber Sold—Active Campaign of Publicity
— E m i l Sauer Entertained by Mr. and Mrs.
Knabe—Recent Visitors.
(Special to The Review.)
Baltimore, Md., November 30, 1908.
All of the local dealers report a big business
for the week and declare that trade conditions
the past two or three weeks have picked up won-
derfully. This, they say, has been particularly
the case with high grade pianos, with the re-
sult that a number of them have been compelled
to keep their stores open at nights to satisfy the
buyers.
William Knabe & Co., according to Manager
J. H. Williams, on Thanksgiving Day alone re-
ceived orders for 150 pianos and requests for at
least 50 more during the remainder of the week
have come in for immediate shipment. Sanders
& Stayman have sold a great number of Webers,
Fischers and Estey pianos. Among these was a
Weber, which was disposed of for $1,000 cash.
G. Fred Kranz, of the Kranz-Smith Piano Co.,
makes the same statement regarding the demand
for Chickerings, seven of which have been sold
in the past few days. These include uprights
and grands, while the Mehlin, the Behning and
Bradbury players have been popular sellers.
This condition, Mr. Kranz announces, has been
due to the special sale which the firm has con-
ducted for the past five weeks and during which
time the store has been open from early morn-
ing until a late hour in the evening.
The Charles M. Stieff concern has had brisk
demands for their high grade products, while
at R. Lertz & Son, local representatives for the
Steinway, the statement is made that business
has shown a satisfactory improvement.
There is no doubt that the settled condition
business has taken since the election and the
approaching holidays have had a great deal to
do with this improvement, yet another reason
may also be advanced. This is the large amount
of advertising the various firms have been doing
in the daily papers. The Knabe people, Stieffs,
Sanders & Stayman, as well as J. P. Caulfield &
Co., and the Peabody Piano Co., have made a
strong play to the public in this manner. Caul-
field & Co. make some flattering offers of the
Sohmer, Stultz & Bauer, Pease, Becker Bros,
pianos, while the pianos offered by the Peabody
Co. include the Henry F. Miller, Decker & Son,
Kurtzmann, Starr, etc., for the holiday trade.
Ernest J. Knabe, Jr., has gone West on a busi-
ness trip. Before departing, Mr. and Mrs. Knabe
gave a prettily arranged reception at their home,
829 Park avenue, at which the guests were in-
vited to meet Emil Sauer, the distinguished pian-
ist who played at the Lyric last week in connec-
tion with the concert of the Philadelphia Orches-
tra, and Mrs. Sauer. The house was decorated
with white chrysanthemums and palms. An
orchestra played while supper was served. Mrs.
Knabe was assisted in receiving by Mrs. James
H. Preston and Miss Cornelia Mercer, of Wash-
ington.
A carload of the latest styles of Haines Bros,
and Marshall & Wendell pianos arrived at the
Knabe factory, where they were unloaded to-day.
Several of the very latest styles of the Haines
pianos are being displayed in the main show-
rooms of the firm on the first floor.
George Foster, of the Foster-Armstrong Co., of
Rochester, N. Y., and the American Piano Co.,
was a visitor last week at the Knabe store.
Hugh H. Trader has accepted a position as
salesman with the Kranz-Smith Piano Co., local
representatives for Chickering & Sons.
HAS HAZELTON AGENCY FOR 25 YEARS.
Halsey Hazelton, of Hazelton Bros., was in
Indianapolis recently to congratulate George C.
Pearson upon having held the agency in that
city, for the Hazelton piano, for just twenty-five
years. Those who purchased those pianos a score of
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
years ago are so well satisfied to-day that they
frequently send in friends and relatives to se-
lect one of the same make.
SMALL SHIPPERS LOSE.
Court of Appeals Enjoins Commerce Commis-
sion Order of Last June.
The United States Circuit Court of Appeals, in
an opinion handed down Friday on the applica-
tion of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western
Railroad for an injunction restraining the en-
forcement on Dec. 1 of an order of the Inter-
State Commerce Commission requiring the rail-
road to accept freight from small shippers with-
out discriminating as to rates for full carloads,
says:
"An injunction will be granted suspending the
operation of the order of June 22,1908. Inasmuch
as both sides, upon the oral argument, agreed
that the facts were fully presented, this applica-
tion may, if all parties consent, be turned into
a submission on final hearing and disposed of
accordingly."
The Export Shipping Company, now in bank-
ruptcy, made the complaint on which the order
of the Inter-State Commerce Commision is based.
TRAVELERS UP IN ARMS
Against the Suggestion of a New England Man-
ufacturer Eliminating the Traveler and Giv-
ing to the Purchaser the Benefit of the
Money Thus Saved.
The piano travelers are up in arms against a
New England manufacturer, who in a circular
letter to dealers claims that by eliminating the
traveler he is enabled to sell pianos at a greatly
reduced figure, and it is likely that the matter
will be taken up at the next meeting of the Na-
tional Piano Travelers' Association. The objec-
tionable paragraphs were:
"Have you given a serious thought to the cost
of road men to secure your orders? Of course,
the expense of the same is added to the cost of
the manufacturers, and, therefore, the dealers
have to pay for the same. We have concluded
to eliminate salesmen on the road, and have come
to the conclusion that the mail is the cheapest
way and the best way to come in direct contact
with the purchaser."
The travelers contend that the statements are
an insult to their profession and that in upbuild-
ing business they create profits greatly in excess
of the expense incurred and without adding to
the cost of the individual piano.
ATTRACTIVE BREWSTER CATALOG
Issued This Week Contains Illustrations of Six
Styles of Uprights Most Pleasing in Design.
Some six styles of Brewster upright pianos
are illustrated and described in the handsome
catalog just issued by the Brewster Piano Co.
These embrace style A, style B, style C, style D,
style M and style Z—all sufficiently varied in
architecture to suit the most fastidious cus-
tomer. The introductory pages of the catalog
are devoted to a presentation of reasons show-
ing why the Brewster is such good value, both
musically and structurally, and in answer to
a question as to how such a piano can be sold
at so moderate a price we read:
"That the Brewster factories are equipped
with modern inventions, which materially re-
duce the cost of production, and that the large
output of the Brewster factories, namely, five
thousand pianos annually, reduce the manufac-
turing expenses to such a degree as to make
the Brewster piano a value that cannot be dupli-
cated."
The catalog, which was arranged and designed
by the Nolley Advertising Agency of Baltimore,
is printed on heavy coated paper in olive and
black with a very artistic cover design in gold
and brown.
How about
after Christmas?
Mr. Piano Dealer, after
December your sales and
your profits begin to dwindle
month by month. That's
so, isn't it ?
It is not so with the dealer
who adds the all-year Victor
to his selling strength.
Victors have no height of
season and no "off" season.
They sell well in December—
there's nothing quite so pop-
ular for Christmas gifts.
The wonderful fund of en-
tertainment they p r o v i d e
keeps them selling well
throughout all the "stay
indoors" months. Summer
shows no let up—there are
the dances, and lawn parties,
and sociables and campings-
out where Victors simply
cannot be done without.
And Victor records—think
of the money in the constant
re-orders! You can do a
supply business five times
greater than even the Victor
sales net you.
Can you afford to ignore
this, and lose the generous
profits every sale commands ?
Can you afford to send
prospective customers—your
customers—across to a com-
petitor and have them buy
from him what you were
asked to furnish?
Can you? Talk it over
with your distributor, or
write us.
Victor Talking Machine Co.
Camden, N . J. t U. S. A.
Berliner Gramophone Co., Montreal,
Canadian Distributors.
To get best results, use only Victor Needles
on Victor Records.