Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1910 Vol. 50 N. 3

Page 4 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportoiial Staff:
L. EJ. BOWEBS,
QBO. B. Kw"m.
W. H. DTKHS,
R. W. SIMMONS.
AUGUST J. T u r n .
B. BRIT-TAIN WILSON,
A. J. NICKLIN,
BOSTON OFFICE:
CHICAGO OFFICE:
BBMBMT L. WAITT, 69 Snmmer St.
PHILADELPHIA:
R. W. KAUVFMAM,
B. P. VAN HARLINQBN, Room 806,156 Wabash Aye.
Telephone, Central 414.
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL:
ST. LOUIS:
ADOLF EDSTBN.
CHAS. N. VAN BURIN.
SAN FRANCISCO: S. H. GRAY, 88 First Btreet.
CINCINNATI, O.:
JACOB W. WAI/THBS.
BALTIMORE, MD.: A. ROBERT FRENCH.
LONDON. ENGLAND: 69 Baslnghall St., B. C. W. LIONBL STURDT, Manager.
Published Every Saturday at 1 Madison Avenue, New York
A good many piano merchants put forth some alluring cut rate
announcements which are well calculated to give the public the
idea that great bargains are in store for them.
Bargain time seems to take a mighty strong foothold after the
holidays, for it is impossible to pick up a paper in these times with-
out seeing announcements made of almost any kind of merchandise
which carry with them cut rates which are surprising in some in-
stances.
There is no doubt that shrewd merchants take advantage of
this season to work off a lot of stock which is unsalable in the guise
of bargains, but in the piano business there is no stock which is
vastly depreciated.
This trade is entirely different from many of the other lines of
merchandising.
While case designs may change there are no losses inflicted
thereby upon retail merchants.
Therefore, there is no shrinkage in goods going out of date.
No matter how much a dealer may emphasize this fact to draw
trade, yet he knows in his own heart that he is not losing any
money on discontinued styles of stock which has been for some time
on his wareroom floors.
T
HE cost of living interests everyone and business men while
discussing the possibilities of trade in special industries do
SUBSCRIPTION. (Including postage). United States and Mexico, |2.00 per year;
not hesitate to say that the increased cost of living must necessarily
Canada. $3.50: all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $2.00 per Inch, single column, per Insertion. On quarterly or
cut into the sales of articles of luxury, including pianos, talking
yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. AdTertislng Pages, $60.00; opposite
rending matter, $76.00.
machines, etc.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
These specialties are not absolutely necessary to existence—
Lyman Bill.
An Important feature of this publication is a complete sec-
^Ls>s**tls*l11
they
may be conducive to happiness, but they hardly compare with
t i o n devoted to the interests of music publishers and dealers.
bread and clothes so far as purchases arc considered by the average
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
individual.
Brand Prim
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal. Charleston Exposition, 1902
Diploma. Pan-American Exposition, 1901
Qold U edal.... St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Now, when are we going to stop climbing the Alps of high
Gold Medal
Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905.
prices?
LONG DISTANCE TELE PHONES-NUMBERS 4677 and 4678 GRAMERCY
That's what many a man is asking himself all over this land, and
Connecting all Departments.
.ill
over
the world for that matter, for it is a mistaken idea to be-
Cable a d d r e s s : **Elbill, N e w York."
lieve that the advanced cost of living is confined wholly to America.
NEW YORK, JANUARY 15, 1910
If you have traveled in Germany during the past year you
will realize that prices there have advanced at hotels and restaurants
and general living expenses quite as much as they have in this
country.
EDITORIAL
There is no telling where this is going to end.
In this connection it might be well to note that the present cost
of
living
is actually less in this country than in many others.
N nearly all retail establishments throughout the country Jan-
At
any
rate, the cost is less for students from other countries
uary is looked upon as a dull month from a sales point of view.
living
among
us. That is the conclusion reached by the National
Merchants have worked the sales end to the limit and the people
Association
at
Paris, and just published in our daily consular re-
have purchased as liberally as their requirements and funds per-
ports,
the
point
of inquiry being, in the language of the report, to
mitted, and so a lull naturally follows.
show
"the
cost
of
living in the several countries for a young man
There is usually plenty of activity inside the store and work
acquiring
the
language
while studying abroad."
enough for all hands when the annual inventory is taken in January.
In New York the cost of boarding per month, lunch and wash-
Stores must be whipped into shape and other preparations made
ing not included, is given as from $30.88 to $38.60, making an aver-
in order that the stock taking may be disposed of in the quickest
age of a little less than $35. This sum is exceeded in about half the
time possible.
world cities cited. London cuts under it with a total of $29.20;
Of course, the real reason for the sales dropping off is that the
Madrid with from $24.15 to $28.75; Rome with $28.95; Florence
weeks preceding Christmas brought with them the busiest times in
with the extremely low total of $15.44, and Montevideo with from
trade for the whole year, and it follows as a natural sequence that
$29.15 to $31.08. But boarding costs $35.70 a month in Berlin,
peace and quiet should follow after days of business turmoil.
$40.60 in Vienna, $38.60 to $52.11 in St. Petersburg, $36.67 in
The cessation of trade naturally affords a splendid time to take
Moscow, $52.11 in Odessa, $42.50, including washing, in Mexico
inventory.
City, and $57.90, not including washing, in Argentina. Thus it
In such lines as pianos and musical instruments it does not take
costs the student a little more to live in Berlin than in New York,
long to conclude stock taking as compared with great dry-goods
a good deal more in Vienna, and 50 per cent, more in St. Petersburg
emporiums, but every dealer realizes that he faces business stagna-
and Odessa, while in Argentina it costs him nearly two hundred
tion after the holidays, and that some radical move must be made
dollars more a year.
to win trade and that right quick.
These figures will cause some surprise.
The remedy for this seems to suggest itself off hand in the
In general they seem to show that the older a city the less it
shape of special bargains or some kind of alluring offers to interest
costs to keep alive there.
the somewhat subdued buying spirit on the part of the people.
Now, either rents in New York are not so steep in comparison
r
with
other world capitals as many had supposed or else the board-
-1 ^HERE are a good many people who wait for just such bargain
ing-house
mistress of Gotham is deserving of special laurels for her
J. announcements.
superior
ability
in systematizing her business in catering to the
They have been trained that way and the average person knows
wants
of
her
customers.
enough about merchandising and the operation of any kind of a
As a matter of fact this country is hit no heavier in the cost
store, whether general or special, to realize that after weeks of
expense
than many others, but when will the pendulum swing
excessive shopping and trading the dealer's stock should be depleted,
backward
?
and that in order to clean up there is always some offers made which
That's
a question which interests many thousands of people.
carry with them large exceptional values.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
I

Page 5 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
TH
MUSIC TRADE
W
E still hold life very cheaply in this country and the railroads
kill and maim a small army annually.
In the factories, too, men oftentimes, through personal care-
lessness and indifference, are killed or injured.
In this connection Safety, the modest publication of the Museum
of Safety and Sanitation, says "the deaths and maimings last year
were at the rate of 1,370 daily, or a total of five hundred thousand
people," and that one-half of these were preventable.
To send a poor man to court borders on mockery, for, as Presi-
dent Taft has pointed out, the elaborate system of appeals deprives
the man of modest means of all hope of obtaining justice. When
successful, the injured persons receive scarcely $500 on an average,
and those who have had experience with cases based on contingent
fees need not be told that the net result to the sufferer is about $200.
The community loss from preventable accidents is prodigious,
insurance authorities placing it for 1908 at $125,000,000, exclusive
of the great sums spent in courts. Passing the contention that if
the method of compensation were systematized the loss would not
be any greater to employers than it is now, the present practice i is
crude and not designed to lessen the number of accidents.
The employer takes out a policy in the liability company, and
so long as its requirements are met he feels he has done his full
duty. The company is not particularly concerned about decreasing
accidents below a certain point; if there were none, its occupation
would be gone. Its business is to keep down the payments for
benefits.
If workmen, employers and the people knew that they would
be taxed for accidents, all would be alert to prevent them. We
would soon see repeated in this country what is the practice in
Germany—inventive genius offered inducements to apply itself to
the safeguarding of life and limb. Under existing conditions they
are held so cheap in the industrial world that it is a reproach to our
civilization. As Safety implies, if any of what we call the de-
cadent races were to allow the inhabitants of a city the size of Balti-
more to be killed or injured each year, the nations of Christendom
would interfere in the name of humanity and even peace advocates
would declare the war sanctified.
P
ENSION insurance is now becoming recognized by great cor-
porations in this country.
As remarked by The Review, we have one man who for many
years has been an active force in this trade who was the first to
establish and adopt methods of profit-sharing and insurance which
have since been incorporated into the official acts of a number of
leading corporations.
Alfred Dolge, who was himself a close student of social eco-
nomics, devised a scheme whereby his employes would share in his
profits.
He also had a system of pensioning aged employes.
So far as we know, no one in this country up to that time had
originated such a plan.
Therefore, Dolge stands as the creator of that system in this
country.
Representatives of the German Government wrote to him con-
cerning it, and to-day the German pension system is recognized as
one of the most beneficent systems of the German Empire.
Corporation after corporation in this country have adopted these
plans to their own special requirements and last week the New
York Central Railroad added eight hundred old employes to its
pension list.
Now, this shows plainly how the whole industrial world is
recognizing its obligations to the workmen.
All of these plans are steadily developing and by and by there
will be no suffering brought about through old age.
The pension systems \vill take care of all that.
A
S the reports come steadily in it is easy to be seen that more
pianos were manufactured last year than many had figured.
The number will exceed over a quarter of a million, as stated
in The Review of last week, and it may be that when our reports
are all in that the record will show a very material advance from
these figures. •
At least it is certain that IQOQ was a good piano year from the
vantage ground of output and indications point to a big record for
the New Year.
Certainly it will be safe to say that all records will be broken,
REVIEW
5
IN LIGHTER VEIN
AS IT HAPPENED.
Maud Muller, on a summer's day,
Put up a bluff at raking hay;
But on the highroad kept an eye
In case a judge came riding by,
And, sure enough, a judge did pass
At forty miles an hour, alas!
It gives to romance quite a jar,
The modern honk-honk touring car.
Jt's absurd to talk about there being any shaking of the plum tree in
City Hall these days. Why, someone has even carried off the tree.
"You can't get something for nothing."
"Oh, 1 don't know," replied the boy. "How about the toothache?"
Host—what, leaving already? And must you take your wife with
you, too?
Mr. Parvenoo (trying to be genteel and polite)—Ah, yes, I am truly
grieved to say I must.
LITERARY CATASTROPHE.—"Hear about Perkins? Pretty tough."
"No. What?"
"The poor fellow dropped into the vernacular, bumped against a hard
word, and split his infinitive."
THE LATEST IN HOME RULE.—"Own up, now. Who's the head
of your family?"
"My wife used to be," admitted Mr! Enpeek. "But since my daughters
are grown we have a commission form of government."
NOT GUILTY.—It was 4 a. in., and Bilkins crept softly Into the house
and removed his shoes, but as he tip-toed up the stairs one of the treads
gave a loud creak.
"Is that you, John?" demanded Mrs. Bilkins from above.
"No, my love," replied Bilkins. "It's the stairs."
A charming, well-preserved widow had been courted and won by a
physician. She had children. The wedding day was approaching, and it
was time the children should know they were to have a new father. Call-
ing one of them to her she said: "Georgie, I am going to do something
before long that 1 would like to talk about with you." "What is it, ma?"
asked the boy. "I am intending to marry Doctor Jones in a few days,
and
" "Bully for you, ma! Does Doctor Jones know it?"
FISHING IN PALESTINE.—One of Private John Allen's favorite
stories is about a Georgia bishop.
One of the members of the bishop's church met the reverend gentle-
man one Sunday afternoon and was horrified to find the bishop carrying a
shotgun.
"My dear bishop," he protested, "I am shocked to find you out shoot-
ing on Sunday. The Apostles did not go shooting on Sunday."
"No," replied the bishop, "they did not. The shooting was very bad
in Palestine, and they went fishing instead."
THE VULNERABLE POINT.—Mrs. Holt could be depended upon at
almost any time to say the wrong thing with the best intentions in the
world. "Nobody minds what poor dear Fanny Holt says," her friends
told each other when repeating her remarks. "We know she means all
right."
"Isn't it queer how differently things affect people?" one of Mrs.
Holt's neighbors said to her the day after a "beach picnic." "We both
got tired to death, you and I, but you say you've had just a little bit. of
indigestion, while I have this fearful blind headache."
"Why, that's perfectly natural," said Mrs. Holt, cheerily. "Of course,
when people are tired out, it goes straight to the weakest part of them;
mine Is my stomach, and everybody knows yours is your head, poor dear!"
Imagination in some people is exceedingly s-trong. One day recently
a local physician was talking to a friend about the power of it. "Will,"
said the doctor, "you have about the strongest imagination I ever knew
of." "My imagination isn't very strong," replied the other. "Yes, it is;
some day I'll prove it to you," said the physician. A week later the two
men were walking downtown together, when the doctor handed his friend
a cigar. "It's mighty strong. Will," he said; "so strong, in fact, that the
same brand frequently makes me sick; but it's all I have." The other
smiled. "It won't make me sick," he said. He lighted the cigar. Just
as they were about to part the doctor said: "Will, you're looking pale
around the 'gills'—what's wrong?" "Frankly," said the other, "that cigar
has made me slightly ill; I never smoked as strong a weed." It was the
doctor's turn to smile. "That's one of the mildest cigars made," he said.
"I was just trying to show you how strong your imagination is." The
doctor's friend got over his illness at once. "Well," he said, "you've
done it."

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