Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1912 Vol. 55 N. 21

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE: MUSIC TRADE:
REVIEW
MUSIC IN THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE.
Accumula ion of Music and Musical Merchandise to Be Sold by the United States Govern-
ment in Washington, D. C, During the Week Beginning December 16—How Sheet
Music Reaches the Dead Letter Office and the Modus Operandi of This Important
Government Office Discussed by Waldon Fawcett, The Review's Special Writer.
Dealers in small musical instruments or in sheet
and folio music who are on the lookout for "joh
lots" at bargain prices will have an opportunity to
bid on musical merchandise of this kind at an odd
auction sale which the United States Government
will hold in Washington during the week begin-
ning December 10. This sale, which is conducted
by an expert auctioneer on behalf of the Post-
Office Department is an annual event and the
goods to be auctioned comprise a year's accumu-
which are sent through the mails in great numbers.
Of course, under the present postal regulations,
with their limit of four pounds in any individual
package, few musical instruments, except har-
monicas, etc., can be sent through the mails, but
among the unclaimed articles are many parts and
supplies such as violin strings, etc.
Not infrequently talking machine records and
player-piano rolls go astray in the mails, but by
reason of the labels, etc., which such articles bear
it is usually possi-
ble to trace the ori-
gin if not the in-
tended destination
of the shipments
and to return the
wanderers to the
shippers, for, be it
known the Dead
Letter Office makes
every effort to trace
the ownership and
make restoration of
every article found
loose in the mails.
That, indeed is the
special function of
this unique branch
of the Post Office
Department, and no
article is ever given
place in the yearly
Dead Letter Office Where Music Lost in the Mail Is Received.
sale until every ef-
lation of the articles remaining unclaimed in the fort has been exhausted to find the rightful owner.
U. S. Dead Letter Office.
Sheet and Folio Music Most Often Lost.
The Dead Letter Office, it need scarcely be ex-
The particular line of musical merchandise
plained, is Uncle Sam's morgue for the waifs and
derelicts of the mails—the letters and parcels that
remain undelivered from any cause. Widely varied
are the causes which bring articks of musical mer-
chandise to the Dead Letter Office and ultimately
to the block at the annual "bargain sale." In-
sufficient or illegible addresses on the parcels are
responsible for some of the strays. Or again the
person to whom the goods have been addressed
may have moved and failed to leave his new ad-
dresses. Or, most common of all cruses, the wrap-
pings, or at least the address label, may have been
torn off or lost in the mails, leaving no clue as to
the addressee.
Much
Musical
Merchandise
137
which above all others swells the volume of the
Dead Letter auction stock is sheet and folio music,
operatic scores and librettos. The primary ex-
planation of the preponderance of this class of
goods in the accumulation is found in the enormous
quantity of publications of this class that are al-
ways in transit in the mails in all parts of the
country. The business of selling music by mail
has expanded—both on the part of publishers and
regular mail-order houses—in full proportion or
perhaps even in excess of the growth of some
One
of the Famous Experts
Letter Office.
at the Dead
other activities in the trade and it is only natural
that the tremendous volume of sheet and folio
music passing to and fro in the mails should get
considerable percentage of loss.
Why Sheet Music Reaches Dead Letter Office.
In the case of the cheap sheet music, however,
there is another explanation and one that obtains
in thousands of individual cases in the course of
a year. This is the refusal of publishers or dealers
to send postage for the return of sheet music pub-
lished or sold by them and which, from one cause
or another has found its way to the Dead Letter
Office. When a piece of music or any other article
that has been found loose in the mails is received
at the D:ad Letter Office the first move on the
part of the officials in charge is to ascertain if pos-
sible for whom the article was intended. Failing
in this they seek the name and address of the ship-
per with a view to returning the stray article to its
place or origin and allowing the shipper to again
start it to its destination if he be able to ascer-
tain it.
With sheet and folio music it is usually a com-
paratively simple matter for the Dead Letter Office
Unclaimed.
Musical merchandise constitutes one of the main
items in the accumulation of unclaimed matter at
the Division of Dead Letters in the Post-Office
Department in Washington. It shares this dis-
tinction with books, jewelry and other commodities
Merchandise Boxed in Lots for Annual Sale.
Concentrate Your Energy In Buying Music!
Buy it all in one place and save
time, postage, express and money.
All music from all publishers
shipped.
Branches at New York, Chicago, Boston
and Toronto, where complete stocks are.
Send a postal to-day to Springfield and
get our MONTHLY BARGAIN LIST. This
list gives cut prices on music.
A. H . C O E T T I N G , Springfield, Mass.
Preparing a Box Containing Thousands of
Pieces of Music for Dead Letter Sale.
officials to ascertain the name of the firm that
mailed a package. The name of the publisher of
the music is, of course, to be found on the cover
whereas if the goods have come from the stock of
some retailer his label is likely to appear some-
where on the publication. With the name of the
shipper ascertained the Dead Letter Office pro-
ceeds to send notification that the goods will be
returned to said shipper if the latter will send to
Washington sufficient stamps to prepay the postage.
Why Lost Matter Is Not Sent Back.
It is just here that a surprising number of music
(Continued on page 138.)
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
138
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
MUSIC IN THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE.
interested spectators. However purchases of large
lots, such as the sheet music, are usually made
through brokers, although some dealers come on
ter sale is clean, fresh stock it is not of the most
from New York and other cities for the sale each
recent date,—that is the latest "hits." This is ex- year. After the Parcels Post is in operation, with
plained by the fact that no music is put up at auc- its eleven pound limit and not only the number but
tion promptly after its receipts at the postal grave- probably the value of the musical derelicts is pre-
yard. On the contrary, it is 'held a full year in the sumably increased it is likely that the annual sale
hope that some person will claim it, and conse- will become of even greater importance to dealers
quently when it finally goes under the hammer it in search of job lots. And just here it may be
is likely that at least a year and a half and more noted that the possibility of musical merchandise
likely two or three years have elapsed since the finding its way to the market through so unconven-
date of publication.
tional a medium as the Dead Letter Sale,—an out-
How the Sale of Unclaimed Music Is Conducted. let that would scarcely be anticipated much less
As has been explained the musical merchandise guarded against in the most carefully planned sales
sold by the Dead Letter Office is not, unless it be program—emphasizes the value of sweeping and
especially valuable,—such as a costly flute,—offered iron-clad restrictions against price cutting, such as
to bidders as individual articles. Instead the goods have been thrown around talking machine records
are '"lumped." The sheet and folio music is put and certain of the new, patented types of player-
up in 'huge dry goods boxes, each of which con- piano rolls.
tains at least some hundreds and probably several
Need of Greater Care in Packing.
thousand pieces of music. Moreover it is most
But the one thing above all others which the
distinctly a case of buying a pig in a poke to pur- Dead Letter Sale should emphasize to the music
chase one of these "lots," inasmuch as no bidder trades is the need of greater care in packing and
has an opportunity to examine or even see the addressing musical merchandise for transmission
music on sale either in advance or at the time of
by mail. Of the more than 50,000 stray packages
the auction. Then valuable articles, such as dia- that come to the Dead Letter Office every year not
monds, which are included in the Dead Letter Sale more than about 6,000, on an average, are either
are displayed for the information of intending bid- sent to the proper destination or returned to the
ders, but there is such a quantity of goods to be sender and this small proportion indicates most
sold and so limited a time in which to sell it that conclusively the prevalence of carelessness in wrap-
no inspection is permitted in the case of the low- ping and packing or neglect to place a return ad-
price articles, such as published music. The great dress card on the exterior.
wooden boxes, nailed tightly shut, are merely
It goes without saying that there are a number
marked "Popular Music," "Sacred Songs," "Band
of kinds of musical merchandise that require care-
and Orchestra Music," or some other general char-
ful packing as a safeguard against damage in tran-
acterization and the buyer takes his chances as to
sit and even those which do not, should be wrapped
the quality if not as to the quantity of hfs pur-
securely. A mistaken idea of economy (proven by
chases.
th^ Dead Letter Office record) indulged in by
Uncertainty Adds Interest to Sale.
many publishers and dealers in sheet music is that
It is the presence of this element of extreme un- of employing too thin and flimsy paper for wrap-
certainty that makes the annual Dead Letter Sale ping , rolled music. The edges of the latter are
a highly amusing spectacle and the auction rooms sharp and under stress of the rough handling in-
are invariably crowded throughout the week with evitable in fast mail service it requires but a short
time for the rolled sheets of music to cut through
the fragile wrapper and after that it is more good
luck than good management if the whole wrapper
is not speedily loosened and separated from its
erstwhile contents.
Many progressive music
dealers who do more or less business by mail are
making good use of printed or embossed labels
which may b.? handily affixed direct to the goods
and also to the outside of the wrappers, thus pro-
viding a double means of identification.
{Continued front page VS7.)
handlers seem to balk. They do not send the
stamps demanded and consequently they do not
receive their music back. In some cases this
failure is ascribed to oversight or procrastination.
Or again it may be a case of "too much trouble,"
—a game not worthy of the candle. There is no
doubt, however, that in a large number of cases
this abandonment of the cheap music that goes to
the Dead Letter Office is in accord with a care-
fully considered business policy. It will cost the
publisher at least two cents and probably more (to
say nothing of time, stationery, etc.) to recover
each piece or derelict music and many a publisher
seems to regard such procedure as merely throw-
ing good money after bad and makes no effert to
get back 'his goods.
In this connection it must also be borne in mind
that the only object in the recovery of such music
is to put it back in stock. There is practically
no chance for the shipper of the music to ascertain
(if he be doing a large business) for whom any
particular strayed shipment was originally intended
—if that could have been done the Dead Letter
Office would have done it and never bothered the
shipper at all. The mailer of the music has noth-
ing to do but await a letter of complaint from the
patron who has failed to receive the goods ordered
and then send a second package. It is not even
practicable to ask the Dead Letter Office to for-
ward the goods in its hands. With this situation
many business houses marketing quantities of low-
price music make no effort to get goods back from
the Dead Letter Office.
Such being tli£ circumstances it is easy to under-
stand that most of the music that finds its way
into the Dead Letter auction catalogue is new
rather than second-hand. However, there is a fair
proportion of the latter,—lost in transit between
private persons,—and no effort is made to separate
the two classes. It should be added, too, that
whereas most of the sheet music in the Dead Let-
SCHULZ
SINCERITY
You find it all through the product of
this company
3 Great Pianos
With 3 sounding boards
in each (Patented) have the
greatest talking points in
the trade.
M. SCHULZ CO.
RArTORiPQ j Erie, Curtis, Ohio and Carpenter Streets
r A u i u m s : ^ g n d M o r g a n a n d Superior Streets
Office and Wareroom, 711 Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, 111.
N. W. Sales Department, 901-903 First Ave., South, Minneapolis, Minn.
South Atlantic Sales Department, Room 730 Candler Bldg., Atlanta, Ga.
SMITH & BARNES and STROHBEft
HIGH GRADE PIANOS,
SMITH, BARNES ft STROHBER CO.,
l « 7 t Clybaara « * • • • •
CIICAQO, S. S. A.
C« KURTZMANR
We fix " o n e p r i c e " —
wholesale and retail.
The Heppe Piano Co.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
126-536 Niagara St.. Buffalo. H. Y,

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