PRESTO
AN ADVENTUROUS
CUSTOMER QUEST
Veteran Traveler Recalls Calvin Lee, Old
Organ Man of the Ozarks, the Search
for Whom Happily Ended
Before It Began.
BUMPED INTO CUSTOMER
A Literal Instance Which Shows Every Day Is a
Lucky One if Events Happen Right and at
Proper Time.
Some of the piano travelers' customers are in-
herited, some are made by the cold, unemotional re-
cital of irrefutable facts about good instruments;
some are blarneyed into line in psychological mo-
ments, some are decoyed into interest in the piano
line by unconventional but honest methods, and one
I know was literally bumped into under unusual cir-
cumstances.
If you corner one of the real veterans of the road
you can start him on the reminiscent conversation by
a discreet lead. Most of them, even though their
heads are hoary and moustaches grizzled, live too
much in the present to become retrospective. They
keep pace so well with new conditions that they sug-
gest immortality.
But in a mollifying mood in a cozy hotel lobby in
Des Moines last week a suggestive remark led an old
boy to unreel about the various ways in which he had
built up his list of customers and what he said
brought back to my memory the day I bumped into
Calvin Lee, the old organ man of the Ozarks.
Recalls Calvin Lee.
Calvin Lee was a singing teacher with Camden,
Miller, Morgan and Laclede counties, Missouri, as
his field of operation. In a natural way he saw the
opportunities for organ sales and in time became an
important distributor. Even if it were commonplace
my first meeting with him would have been impor-
tant. He became my biggest customer for organs.
I had heard about him from a St. Louis shoe
traveler whose territory was identical with that of the
old organ man. He directed me to go to Lebanon
in Laclede county and there trust to luck in finding
him in any of the four counties. The directions were
vague, but I was young enough to be allured by the
adventurous feature in the circumstances.
Lesson in Contracts.
Lebanon was organ territory in those days. Today
it is in the reproducing piano class. Sleek piano
travelers who shave every day and preserve the
trouser crease as a duty to society know the Lebanon
of today; a city of well-dressed people, comfortable
homes, graded streets, canning industries, modern
stores, ice cream parlors, movie shows with pipe
organs, automobiles and other evidences of the pres-
ent year of grace. But Lebanon in 1883 was a burg
of another aspect.
The trip from St. Louis was uneventful. I recall
I had the same old rabbit's foot luck in a game of
draw in the smoker and gleefully remember how I
filled a pair of queeus, and—but that's another story.
When I hopped off the train at Lebanon, Medicine
Hat, or wherever the blizzards come from, was de-
livering a ripsnorter that has since that day pro-
vided a historic fact, for I—remember—well—saga
spinners of the Laclede Hotel. In that favored re-
gion of mild winters and glorious falls that day in
1883 is remembered as something anomalous and
irregular.
A Head-on Collision.
I dodged for the shelter of the station, which
loomed darkly but invitingly at the side of the track.
The door resisted my efforts to push it open. I
ducked my head to save my face from the pin-pointed
sleet and ran around the building to try the door on
the other side. It was then I bumped into another
frantic unfortunate humping in the opposite direction.
Bang! Swoosh! We were sloshing in a mix-up in
the sleety drift that covered the ground.
With shame I admit I launched a fusilade of warm
language which brought a counterfire of torrid words
that sizzled in the frigid atmosphere. But I believe
the recording angel made his fountain pen purposely
splutter to make the entries indistinct. There are
occasions when the free and unlimited coinage of cuss
words are justifiable. When I got to my feet my
irascibility had vanished. I found a happy coinci-
dence in the feelings of the bumpee when I explained
and apologized.
The Happy Denouement.
In the shelter of the station we laughed over our
experiences in the head-on collision. I gave him my
name and he told me his. The cussing antagonist of
a few minutes before was none other than Calvin L.
Lee, the man I had set out from St. Louis to find,
with four big Missouri counties as the hunting
ground. I had bumped into a good customer and a
friend even after the era of the organ had come to
an end in that section.
M. D. S
ii assured the dealer who takes advantage of
THE BALDWIN CO-OPERATION P U N
which offers every opportunity to represent
under the most favorable conditions a com-
plete line of high grade pianos, players and
reproducers.
%%t JBaUrtm'n fJtano Company
Incorporate
tovmrtuLM
omi
Energy of Music Merchants in Freely Advertising
Brings Satisfactory Results.
The Pittsburgh, Pa., music trade generally is sat-
isfied with the amount of Christmas piano sales ac-
complished. The sales for the week before Christ-
mas were very cheering in their number and in the
character of the instruments chosen. As much as
$6,000,000 in Christmas Savings Fund checks were
distributed by the city banks, and a considerable
amount of that money was invested in first piano
payments by thrifty ones.
Of course the music dealers employed the adver-
tising means provided by the newspapers and show
windows in music houses were more suggestive of the
buying purpose than usual. The Sunday newspapers
all through December were used to good purpose
by the music houses, in creating and fostering the
desire to own a piano or player.
A great many small grands were sold in Pitts-
burgh for Christmas gifts. This pleasant fact was
the result of the grand propaganda which was such
a prominent feature of pre-Christmas advertising.
F. D. Hastings is the proprietor of The Music Box
recently opened at 150 Asylum street, Hartford,
Conn.
Restrictions in Imports of Pianos to Be Removed,
Is Stated.
The U. S. Trade Commissioner in London has fur-
nished an interesting report to the Commerce Depart-
ment about conditions governing the British market.
The report says that American manufacturers and
exporters of pianos need have no hesitancy in enter-
ing the British market since the British government
has no intention of attempting to restrict imports of
such articles.
At the present time imports into England of pianos,
although somewhat lower than during the pre-war
years 1909-13, are holding up better than are imports
of other classes of commodities. The average monthly
value of piano imports during the present year was
£41,395, as compared with £46,856 in 1922, and a
pre-war average of £48,250, according to figures
gleaned from official sources in England. In 1919
the average monthly imports of pianos were valued
at £1,986, being low due to the fact that Germany
was not open to trade.
In dealing with the question of luxury restriction,
the British Government has found it very difficult to
draw the line between luxuries and essential goods.
Pianos are considered an element in education and
are necessaries. Further, many of the commodities
that are imported are also articles of export and the
freight and insurance from the imports help to pay
the cost of exporting British goods.
The railroads of the United States during the first
ten months this year handled the greatest freight
traffic in their history, according to reports of the
Bureau of Railway Economics. The traffic for that
period amounted to 386,027,840,000 net ton miles, an
increase of 2 2/5 per cent over the corresponding
period in 1920, which marked the previous high rec-
ord and which amounted to 377,025,000,000 miles.
Compared with the first -ten months last year the
total for the same period in 1923 was an increase of
84,495,485,000, or 28 per cent.
The Beppe, Marcellus and Edouard Jfules Plaoo
manufactured by the
HEPPE PIANO COMPANY , «
are the only pianos In the world with
Three Sounding Boards.
Patented In the United States, Great Britain,
Prance, Germany and Canada.
Liberal arrangements to responsible agents only.
Main Office, 1117 Chestnut St.
PHILADELPHIA. PA.
I
= tester 1
Grand Piano
| One of the old, reli-
= able m a k e s . For
terms and territory
1 write.
[
Lester Piano Co.
1
1306 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia
^4HB
i
i
—— m > m
~ri 7^p
MRS. C. C. MULLEN CONVALESCENT.
SUCCESS
muuo
PITTSBURGH DEALERS ENJOY
GOOD CHRISTMAS TRADE
U. S. TRADE COMMISSION
SENDS GOOD REPORT
YEAR'S FREIGHT TRAFFIC.
Ciackraati Factories of The Baldwin Piano Company
December 29, 1923.
BAN FlANCMCO
Mrs. C. C. Mullen, secretary and treasurer of the
Henricks Piano Co., Pittsburgh, Pa., who recently
underwent an operation for appendicitis, is on the
high road to recovery. The Piano Merchants' Asso-
ciation of Pittsburgh, with which organization the
Henricks Piano Co. is affiliated, sent a bouquet of
flowers to Mrs. Mullen while she was a patient at the
Presbyterian Hospital, together with a card express-
ing the hope for her speedy return to her accus-
tomed post.
Widener's Cushman Music Store, Hartford, Conn.,
celebrated its sevetnh anniversary recently by con-
ducting a special sale, which was highly successful
When in doubt refer to
PRESTO BUYERS GUIDE
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