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THE
MUSIC TRADE
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SP1LLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Staff:
B. BRITTAIN WILSON.
CARLETON CHACE,
A. J. NICKLIN,
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Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
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Lyman Bill.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
lating and repairing of pianos and plaver-pianos are
dealt with, will be found in another section of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning which
wjll be cheerfully given upon request.
Player-Piano and
Technical Departments.
REVIEW
honest salesman and the dealer who fattens on his dishonesty would
stand little chance if brought before the bar of justice and their
traffic in prospects proven.
The salesmen and dealers of the dishonest type, however, arc
mighty careful to keep as much in the shadow of secrecy as pos-
sible, and sufficient proof for legal purposes is difficult, if not im-
possible, to obtain.
Immunity from any form of general prosecution or punish-
ment has led the dishonest salesman and dealer to become bolder,
with the result that only a week or so ago there came a report of a
Western manufacturing house which has been approaching piano
salesmen covering sections of Illinois with a proposition to ship a
piano into the salesman's territory at a point remote from his head-
quarters with a view to having him sell it to one of his live prospects
and clean up all the profit on the instrument for himself.
Figures as to the number of pianos sold in this way are, natu-
rally, not available and it is expected that the activities of piano men
in the territory mentioned will probably put a stop to the project
for a time at least. The effrontery of the proposition, however,
should bring every piano merchant to a realization of the existence
of a condition which, if allowed to expand, will serve to undermine
his sales to what may prove a ruinous extent.
It has been urged, and very properly, that the National Asso-
ciation of Piano Merchants take official cognizance of the existence
of the fraudulent salesman and through co-operation between its
members drive him from the trade for all time.
7
' HE general demand for some sort of musical instrument in the
American home is well illustrated by the recent experience
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
of
the
representatives of the Rotary Club of Philadelphia, who made
Grand Prix
Paris Exposition, 1900 Silver Medal- • .Charleston Exposition, 1908
Diploma
Pan-American Exposition, 1901 Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
a
tour
of the poorer districts of that city for the purpose of search-
Gold Medal. -Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
ing
out
and assisting worthy families to pass the winter without
l O W a DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NTTMBEBS 5982—5983 MADISON BQ.
Connecting- all Departments
unnecessary
suffering.
Cable addreas: "Elbill, New York."
In the home of a sexton of a negro church which consisted of
NEW YORK, F E B R U A R Y
14, 1914
two rooms wherein a fairly large family slept, ate and otherwise
existed, the furniture was scarce and dilapidated, but the position
of honor was held by a player-piano.
In another one-room home, almost devoid of furnishings, where
EDITORIAL
a woman lived alone the committee also found a player-piano, and
upon making inquiries was informed that the woman and her
" I N H E R E has been much said and written recently regarding a
friends could get pleasure and comfort out of the player-piano that
i-
type of piano salesman who, ostensibly, works regularly for
they could not get out of mere furniture.
one certain concern for a stated salary or drawing account and
Although the cases cited are to be taken as extreme, the fact
commission and surreptitiously transfers his best prospects to a
remains that with even a small proportion of the extre nely poor
rival house for a fat commission. The existence of such salesmen
sacrificing general appearances and personal comfort for the sake
is not a myth, for on various occasions and for a number of years
of their love for music, there is still hope for the future. That
past there have come reports from New York, Philadelphia,
more homes in similar circumstances are not supplied with player-
Chicago and smaller cities and towns of the work of such men
pianos when they really need comfortable furnishings is due prob-
and the generally fruitless efforts to drive them out of the trade.
ably to the fact that many dealers would hesitate about accepting
The matter was deemed of such importance to piano merchants
such risks in an instalment transaction rather than the unwilling-
throughout the country that E. Paul Hamilton, manager of the ness of the heads of the homes to assume a contract of several hun-
piano department of Frederick Loeser & Co., Brooklyn, N. Y., dred dollars on a weak shoestring.
read a paper on the "Fraudulent Piano Salesman'' at the annual
The salesman in a city soon learns that he cannot judge the
convention of the National Association of Piano Merchants held
purchasing powers of a prospect by the neighborhood in which he
in Cleveland, last year, and only recently the Philadelphia repre-
lives or by the poorness of the home. Only the other day a sales-
sentative of The Review reported the discovery of an organized
man for a New York house told of traveling through the slums of
traffic in prospects among a group of salesmen in that city.
the lower East Side to call on one of the prospects on his list and
The very fact that the dishonest salesmen exist, even in small
discovering the address to represent a ramshackle old wooden build-
number, should spur the piano merchants to a point where they
ing that had seen its best days a half century or more ago.
will co-operate to stamp out the trouble and not only bring to time
After debating whether it was worth while to waste any more
the salesmen themselves, but also the worse offenders, the com- time on the prospect that on the surface seemed hopeless, the sales-
peting dealers who make a practice of purchasing prospects from,
man finally climbe/l up two flights of rickety stairs and came upon a
or allowing large commissions on stolen sales to salesmen of rival
little three-room apartment that was decorated lavishly, but in poor
houses.
taste. The result of the call was the sale of a player-grand.
The prospect list is one of the chief assets of any piano mer-
lienjamin S. Wise, in his palmy days as a piano dealer in the
chant and in cases brought before the courts the ruling has gen-
Harlem section of New York, made a capital of the slogan, "What
erally been that the prospect list was the property of the concern
is home without a piano?" and the demand for pianos a few years
possessing it and not the property of the salesman to take with him
later proved that there were many, both in comfortable and humble
when he makes a change in employers, no matter what part the
circumstances, who held his view. Recent developments tend to
salesman may have had in the compilation of such a list.
*
indicate that the slogan should be revised to read, "What is home
Decisions have been handed down in cases where the sales-
without a player-piano?" The purchase of an ordinary piano by
man was to all intents and purposes honest and aboveboard in his
a family of limited means entailed almost endless expense for music
dealings and had mistaken ideas as to the ownership of the pros-
lessons for first one and then the other of the children. At a
slightly higher expense the player offers both the piano and the
pect list after relations between himself and his house were severed,
ability to play to every member of the family.
and with that point in view it may be readily imagined that the dis-