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THE MUSIC TRADE
W
E have come to the end of another year and have its achieve-
ments behind us. What have we done? Speaking for
the trade in general, it may be said that we have done much. The
fact is that almost everybody in the player business, certainly every-
body whose methods are worth consideration, has been learning a
great deal this year. Wherever we go we hear the same story. Peo-
ple have been learning, for one thing, that public taste is better than
most of us have been willing to admit, and it is becoming increas-
ingly clear that the right way to gain the confidence of the public
is to respect public intelligence, tell the truth and avoid the tempta-
tion towards exaggeration and coloring of the facts. Another thing
that is being learned, and that has been largely learned during the
past year, is that it pays to know your business. Salesmen, dealers,
manufacturers, tuners, or any other persons engaged in the player
trade, alike require a reasonable amount of technical knowledge;
and this fact is becoming more and more understood, although there
is yet room for an immense amount of improvement in this direction.
NOTHER very encouraging fact is that dealers as a class are
A
beginning to appreciate much irore clearly the great advan-
tages of the recital as a method of exploitation. Even yet the stand-
ard of general playing is by no means high, and altogether too little
attention is paid to the musical side of the work. But little by little
it is beginning to be seen that the recital is not alone a legitimate but
actually the most practical of all methods of general exploitation. It
is pleasing to record that the trade generally appears to be coming
to understand the absolute necessity for a more thorough presenta-
tion of the player proposition to the public and for a more general
and systematic campaign of education. To these ends the player
recital is peculiarly well adapted, and the trade is getting to see this.
The stand which this paper has always taken on this topic has been
criticized in the past for being too advanced or even too academic,
and it is therefore with a feeling of satisfaction that one records the
general acceptance by the better element in the trade of the princi-
ple for which the Player Section has so long contended..
UT this is not all. There are other things yet for which we
should be thankful and congratulate ourselves. One of these,
for which the trade should feel happy, is that the musical world is
gradually but very surely waking up to the possibilities of the player.
Criticism is becoming more judicious, wiser, less exaggerated.
Muscians are beginning to consider the significance of the player-
piano with interest, and although their basic knowledge and the
general state of their information is by no means wide at present, it
is an encouraging sign that there should be any improvement at all.
Everything points to a better feeling generally among the members
of the musical world. For this mercy let us be duly thankful.
B
REVIEW
all, the great dragon, Recession of Business, which has
A FTER
been so much described, and the appearance of wliich has
been so feverishly reported in one place and another, has turned out
to be a rather harmless beast. Being merely a writer and a student
of things as they are, we had always supposed that Behemoth would
turn out not to be very awful, if only one went up close enough to
get a good look at him. And when we say this we are not optimistic;
we are happy, which is a very different thing. An optimist is a sad
man who pretends to a wild gayety because he is afraid to express
his sadness. An optimist is insincere, because he pretends to a hap-
piness he has not. He cheers people up. The sort of man who
says that perhaps the sinking ship will stop sinking is an optimist,
because he is a liar and knows it, but pretends in the forlorn hope
that his illusion may destroy other illusions. A pessimist is always
a happy man because his predictions always come true—for him.
That is the reason for his happiness. Anyone is happy whose guesses
turn out right. But we are neither an unhappy optimist nor a happy
pessimist. We are simply an ordinary happy person who cares
nothing for illusions of Panic or specters of Fear. When we all
realize that the only crime is Fear, and that Fear is the cause of all
the unhappiness, all the misery, all the wrong in the world, then
we are on the road to realize that Fear, the negation of Good, may
be destroyed. And when it is destroyed, the Panic, the Hard Times
and the Hard Luck disappear along with it.
W
HEN a man talks about things concerning which he has
strong opinions he hardly ever fails to make a most elabo-
rate show of impartiality. When a man is not only certain that he
is right, but is so passionately certain that the holding of an opposed
opinion is positively treacherous in his eyes, then, and then espe-
cially, he loves to conceal his convictions under the cloak of an in-
human humility, a less than human subordination to the methods of
pure reason. In short, when we are quite certain that there is nothing
left for consideration, we invariably say, "All things considered."
The caption to this editorial department suggests like inconsistencies,
since it is almost always used to set forth opinions concerning w r hich
the editor (at least) entertains no doubts as to the accuracy. Yet it
would be obviously absurd for us to apologize, for the simple reason
that when we say "all things considered" we mean that we have
considered them and have made up our mind. And that is all there
is to it. We trust this explanation will clear any little difficulties
that may have affected the intellectual enjoyment of our readers.
M
ERRY CHRISTMAS has passed and gone, but the New
Year is ahead. To all and sundry, the editor conveys his
very sincere greetings and leaves with the whole body of his readers
his best thought for happiness, prosperity and peace.
cheer of this period is seasoned with
G OOD
the success of the past year and flavored
by the outlook of 1914.
The David H. Schmidt Co. and its clients are happy; prosperity
touched here and there, while the coming year's outlook is very
bright.
Resolutions next Thursday will be in order,
and a "Schmidt Resolve" is a good one.
DAVID
H. SCHMIDT
CO., Poughkeepsie,
Western representatives: Widney & Widney,
5 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, 111.
N.
Y.