Presto

PRESTO
January 12, 1924.
CHRISTMAN
"The First Touch Tells
9 9
WOMAN DEALER'S
STRANGE CLAIM
Now Successful Operator of Legitimate Retail
Business Tells Piano Traveler She Is
Original of House Sale Widow of
Gyp Notoriety.
ROADMAN TELLS STORY
The Christman
Electrically Operated
Reproducing
Grands and Uprights
Meet the Most Exacting Require-
ments of the Most Critical. To be
Satisfactory the Reproducing Piano
must be the best representation of the
Piano Maker's Skill.
The Christman is recognized as the
very highest type of the most ad-
vanced development of the Reproduc-
ing Piano. It has no superior and it
is representative of the
Entire Christman Line "2
CHRISTMAN
Studio Grand
Only 5 Feet Long
It was the CHRISTMAN GRAND that
first demonstrated the truth that size has
nothing to do with the depth and resonance
of a Grand Piano's tone.
Built with a careful eye to the exacting
requirements of the space at the command
of city dwellers and owners of small houses,
the CHRISTMAN GRAND combines every
essential that wins for the grand piano first
consideration in the mind of the artist.
Every day you are
without the CHRISTMAN
agency you overlook
a good source of profit.
"The First Touch Tells"
Reg. U S. Pat. Off.
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St.
New York
Traveler Says Interesting Experiences of His Cus-
tomer in Gyp Field Were Comparatively Short
and Now Much Regretted.
A piano traveler whose visits to Presto office are
always pleasant interludes in the work periods
dropped in this week and related a few trade inci-
dents of a newsy kind. One concerned a call on a
customer in a lively little mid-west city whose busi-
ness in pianos he appreciates and whose friendship
he is proud of. This dealer is a bright woman who
has built up a fine business by her own endeavors.
An interesting thing the traveler told about his cus-
tomer is that she always jokingly claims to be the
original of the "house sale widow," one of the "gyp"
order of traders perpetually roasted in convention
speech and trade journal editorial.
The traveler admits that her claim is undeniable.
But instead of being something to evoke sarcastic re-
flections, her particular experiences, he thinks, are
worthy of admiration and praise. Her house sale
widow days were necessitous ones and comparatively
short. This ex-house sale widow is today a hearty,
free, frank and square-cut fighting, taxpaying, dis-
count-saving piano woman who does not need any
ethical shriving on the mourner's bench of commerce.
How she reached the status of a really and truly
store-sale piano woman epitomizes her character.
Victim of Circumstances.
When a woman succeeds in business and saves
money she is entitled to a little more credit than
other thrifty persons, for it is usually hard for the
widow to be thrifty. If she is left without income
there is often a young family to provide for which
makes it difficult to earn money on a footing with
others not so hampered. If insurance funds come to
her by legacy she is often in a position that invites
worry. There are inheritance laws that grab a big
slice of the needed funds and perhaps, worse than all,
the conscientious, blundering advisers who may help
her to invest her little capital so securely she will
never see it again. That was the experience of the
admirable friend of the piano traveler—the capable
woman dealer.
Her Story.
This woman's husband was a doctor with a big
practice and a comparatively small income. It is
not an uncommon combination with the country town
doctor. When he died he left his widow only fairly
well off. She knew little about his affairs and her
knowledge of business and finance was confessedly
small. Consequently when an uncle whose long -uit
was free advice advised her to invest her money in
hardwood lumbering in San Domingo she did so.
The uncle with the gas tank full of advice was an
upright man and honestly believed in the great possi-
bilities of the scheme. He had put a wad of his own
money into it and swallowed every word in the pros-
pectuses. After a year had gone by without a cent
of the expected large profits materializing, the widow
began to worry. The story is as old as credulity.
There never were any profits. Her dividends from
the hardwood scheme were hard knocks.
The Determining Incident.
Following the loss of the money came her decision
to sell her home and its belongings and repair to the
big vity to find work. Then occurred the incident
that she says turned her into a piano woman. She
advertised her piano for sale. It was a good instru-
ment and the possibility of getting it at a bargain
she considered should result in many applicants. But
the mob of people who flocked to her house within an
hour^-efter the appearance of the paper amazed her.
It was in a day of decorous piano selling before the
first sacrificial snickersee slashed piano prices. That
hour witnessed the advent of the "house-sale widow."
She sold the piano at a good price, but instead of
selling the rest of her household belongings she
packed them up and shipped them to the big city.
But she had her job picked out before she set out
there. She was the original "house-sale widow"' all
right.
She is still a widow but her piano sales are accom-
plished in an ethical way in a modern store that is
the last word in equipment. It is in the town in
which her husband practiced and died. One year in
the city gave her a surfeit. But when she returned
to the old home town she confesses she carried a
heavy conscience as well as a hefty wallet. In her
frank way now she alludes to the house sale people
as the hyenas of the piano business. In ironic humor
she sometimes points to herself as only half reformed,
inasmuch as she has not yet made a mourner's bench
confession of her house sale offenses at a trade
convention.
SELECTS WESER BROS. PIANO
FOR PROGRAM BROADCASTING
Federation of Churches Chooses New York Instru-
ment for Its Sunday Afternoon Programs.
The Federation of Churches, New York, in arrang-.
ing for the broadcasting of their Sunday afternoon
program have selected a Weser Bros, piano.
This compliment to the Weser Bros, piano is one of
importance to dealers who sell that instrument. It
shows that the severe test often put upon pianos used
in public for public purposes is regarded as not too
much for the instrument selected. And the public
everywhere will have no reason to regret that the
Federation of Churches has selected the Weser Bros,
piano.
A NEW CHICAGO INDUSTRY.
George B. Wiswell, secretary of the W r est Music
Company, is one of the stockholders in the Wiswell
Music company, which has just been incorporated at
Springfield with $30,000 capital stock. It will manu-
facture and deal in musical instruments at 10534 See-
ley avenue, Chicago. Mr. Wiswell has subscribed
and paid in $5,000 of the stock, his brother, L. C. Wis-
well of Chicago, subscribing and paying in $10,000.
The third stockbroker is H. B. Hopkins, who sub-
scribed for $1,000 in stock.
NEW JANSSEN INCORPORATION.
The Janssen Piano Co., Bronx, Xew York has
been formed by consolidation of Janssen Piano Co.
and Janssen Retail Stores, with capitalization of
$290,000; B. H. and W. E. Janssen, J. T. Whalen are
the incorporators. Attorney, F. N. Gordon, 256
Broadway, New York.
HIDDEN NAMES OF PROMINENT PIANOS
No. 1.
(See article on page 3)
The way is long and hard and rough
That leads to fame, they say,
And few who e'er achieve enough
To bask in fame's bright ray;
No man can win the toilsome heights
Whose heart is not aflame
With lofty vision, and who fights
To hold his pride of name.
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