PR£STO
PRESTO
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C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
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SATURDAY,
OCTOBER
30, 1920.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE NEWS OF THE
TRADE—ALL KINDS OF NEWS EXCEPT PERSONAL SLANDER
AND STORIES OF PETTY MISDEEDS BY INDIVIDUALS. PRESTO
WILL PRINT THE NAMES OF CORRESPONDENTS WHO SEND IN
"GOOD STUFF" OR ARE ON THE REGULAR STAFF. DON'T SEND
ANY PRETTY SKETCHES, LITERARY ARTICLES OR "PEN-PIC-
TURES." JUST PLAIN NEWS ABOUT THE TRADE—NOT ABOUT
CONCERTS OR AMATEUR MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENTS, BUT
ABOUT THE MEN WHO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND
THOSE WHO SELL THEM. REPORTS OF NEW STORES AND
THE MEN WHO MAKE RECORDS AS SALESMEN ARE GOOD. OF-
TEN THE PIANO SALESMEN ARE THE BEST CORRESPONDENTS
BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE TO READ AND HAVE
THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FINDING OUT WHAT IS "DOING" IN
THE TRADE IN THEIR VICINITY. SEND IN THE N E W S -
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—E&PECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
There is one subject which, more than most others, will bear
repeated discussion. It affects every man in business, whether he
happens to be the head of the house, a top-notcher of a salesman or
the genius who dusts the counters and keeps the front door-knob
bright. The subject is courtesy. It is one of such deep interest that,
if neglected in practice as in the average day's programme, no very
small proportion of failures may be traced back to its utter neglect.
We believe that twenty per cent of the piano sales lost by the average
otherwise well-equipped piano house are due to the lack of courtesy
somewhere along the line.
The other day a man of decent appearance, but very mild in
manner, entered a large piano store in a great city. The salesman
in charge happened to be at the moment engaged in an animated dis-
cussion of the comparative values of some automobiles a visiting
salesman in that line was trying to describe, with catalogue in hand.
The piano manager signalled to his assistant, pointing with his thumb
to the mild-mannered caller just inside the door. The assistant
moved leisurely toward the stranger and, when within firing distance,
said: "Well, what do you want?"
The stranger's mild eyes opened wide and he evidently resented
the manner of the challenge. And this is precisely what he said in
reply: "I did want to buy a piano I was looking at here yesterday,
but I have just decided I'd better look around first." And he left
before the crackle-brained salesman could sufficiently gather his
wits to interpose an apology. This incident is not imaginary. The
writer happened to be an eye and ear witness to it.
And what of it? From a purely business point of view, perhaps
the house lost only a single sale. The manager probably learned
something about automobiles . and his assistant couldn't have had
wit enough to realize that drawing his salary for such work is worse
than theft. So that is one illustration of our statement that lack
of courtesy means loss of trade and the endangering of local prestige
October 30, 1920.
which no piano house, however strong financially, can be content
to withstand.
Another case, as reported by a representative of this paper. A
gentleman of capacity, intellectually, if not capitalistically, had occa-
sion to call at the upstairs offices of one of the really great music
houses in a very great city. He wanted merely a little information
which was to be used to the benefit of the great music house. He
had waited patiently for a considerable time when he caught the eye
of a young woman comfortably ensconced at a desk a few feet from
the office railing. The caller made bold to motion to the heiress in
a way to indicate that he was really there and waiting. Whereupon
the young lady spoke to an older suffragette, drawing attention to
the male biped at the outer gate. And then what? The keeper of
the office dignity raised her right hand, palm out, and gave the sign
of outraged silence, intimating that no violation of her utter seclusion
was permissible. She must not be disturbed, not at all! And the
caller finally appealed to an office boy, who piloted him to some source
of information higher up in authority but not so lofty in frigid self-
importance.
It sometimes seems that- the big business houses that devote
time and money to purposes of the bodily and mental means of rec-
reation of employees, might as well pay attention also to this matter
of courtesy or the code of manners. The man of affairs who has, by
years of carefully applied enterprise and energy, built up a large busi-
ness, is placed at a disadvantage by uncouth, uncivil and careless
employees. It can not do very much for a force of workers, either
in factory or office, to discourse sweet music, by orchestra, piano or
voice, to a lot of people who do not understand that one of the first
requisites of success is the dispensation of a cheerful order of courtesy.
We do not agree, as Tolstoy said to Gorky, that "where you
want to have slaves, there you should have as much music as pos-
sible." On the contrary, our custom and our convictions are to
commend music, and more music, always. But we do believe, with
Bovee, that "The small courtesies sweeten life," and that Lord Lytton
was right when he said that "Courtesy is a duty public servants owe
to the humblest members of the public." And if there is any place
in the world where courtesy should be expected, it is in the establish-
ment devoted to the things which, in their very nature, suggest re-
finement—in the place where pianos and other musical things are
displayed and sold.
The piano merchant who discovers that his business is endan-
gered by the incivility of employees lacking in courtesy should re-
move the disturbing element regardless of what place in the organi-
zation the uncouth member sustains. His abilities may be great, but
seldom so great as to justify his possibilities of evil.
And every piano salesman, or office worker, whose intuitive
faculties are so dull as to render possible the discourtesy of a blatant
and metallic "What do you want?" should be promptly informed as
to what it is that the house doesn't want.
MANDOLIN "ATTACHMENTS"
A practical piano tuner has something to say on another page
this week about the butchery of some of the so-called "mandolin
attachments." It is perhaps natural that a good many people want
something that jingles in connection with their rag-time perform-
ances, but in supplying that particular demand the dealers and their
tuners owe something to the manufacturers and the individual own-
ers of the pianos. And many of the mandolin "attachments" are so
crude in construction, and so utterly harmful to the instrument, as
to call for something more than a mild protest.
The tuner whose letter appears this week has sent to this paper
a sample of the mandolin "attachment" which aroused his righteous
anger. It is about as bungling a piece of vandalism as has ever come
to notice since the old time device of the tuner who gouged holes in
hammer-heads for the insertion of hard rubber tubing, to bring back
the elasticity of the felts and recreate a "beautiful tone." No doubt
there are more such mandolin "attachments" being nailed upon the
hammer rails of good pianos. Perhaps as this is written more than
one resourceful but reckless piano tuner is ruining fine uprights with
the salf-made outrageously awkward noise makers, the application of
which may leave the piano irrevocably ruined.
Is there nothing in this that calls for a warning? Is the owner
of a valuable piano entitled to any protection from the vandal who
in search of an extra fee, ruthlessly nails a piece of coarse oil-cloth,
into which have been inserted a series of large brass discs—stationers'
pins—and calls his destructive appliance a "mandolin attachment"?
The average piano owner has little idea of the delicate parts of his
instrument. He wants something and he doesn't stop to study the
means by which he is supplied with it. He hears the jangle of the
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