Presto

PRESTO
Presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. D A N I E L L and F R A N K D. ABBOTT
ened. For music is supposed to possess even
the pardoning power, and the piano, in its
material value, may afford restitution to the
victim of the unusual peculation. It seems
.somewhat different from the customary stor-
ies of embezzlement and theft, for riotous
living and the midnight cabaret. But there
is, nevertheless, punishment for crime, even
if music and the piano are innocent by-
standers.
Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), " P R E S T O , " Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4.
Payable in advance. No extra charge in United States
possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Rates for advertising on
application.
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if
ct general interest to the music trade will be paid for
at space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen
in the smaller cities are the best occasional corre-
spondents, and their assistance is invited.
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
ter should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the
same day. Advertising copy should be in hand before
Tuesday, five p. m., to insure preferred position. Full
page display copy should be in hand by Monday noon
preceding publication day. Want advs. for current
week, to insure classification, must not be later than
Wednesday noon.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1924.
AN UNUSUAL CRIME
A young pair yearned for a piano. Millions
of other young couples have, and still do, have
the same yearning. For music-love is as in-
stinctive as any of the lower passions. It
feeds the spirit and the mind, just as beef-
steak and potatoes feed the physical bodv.
But in this case the young man, by a really
high desire, was led to an act of dishonor and
became a thief.
The interest here is that it was the first
case on record in which the yearning for a
piano alone was so great as to cause a hus-
band and father to steal to pay for the musi-
cal equipment of his child. And the incident
—told elsewhere—shows how indispensable
the piano may be to people who live above the
level of the four-footed animals.
The young mail clerk, toiling for inadequate
wages, may not deserve extenuation. Never-
theless, he set up an excuse in which there is
something better than is usual in crime of any
kind. He wanted a piano for his home, and
for the education of his child. If ever there
is excuse for wrong-doing the motive here
seems to present it.
But, even if Uncle Sam has a worshipful
love of music, he cannot recognize in justifi-
cation theft even in the yearning of a music-
hungry soul for a piano. And the piano itself
is not a thing that invites crime or encourages
it. There is no need of crime, of any kind,
to stimulate the urge for pianos. And this
case of the postal clerk who stole for the pur-
pose of buying one, is so rare as to present a
Avholly unheard-of situation.
Thousands of pianos have been obtained by
dishonest means. No doubt many of them
have been bought with stolen money. But the
purpose has been sordid. The case of the pos-
tal clerk is pitiful. It suggests tragedy of a
higher kind, and a pathetic yearning on the
part of the young father, in which there is
something so much better than usually
prompts crime as to cause one to almost wish
that the stern rigor of the law might be soft-
WHAT YOU EXPECT
A recent speaker told a story to illustrate
the influence of anticipation, or force of ex-
pectation. He told of a salesman who, having;
won commendation for the large volume of
his business, said that the secret of his suc-
cess was in the fact that he always expected
to sell, and as a consequence, he did sell.
And there is something in that, notwith-
standing the statement of another salesman
who said he hadn't sold as much as he had
expected to, and really "didn't expect to." If
a man starts out looking for business with
doubt about his getting any, the probability is
that he will get just what he expects to get
—nothing. And if he goes about it filled with
the certainty of success, he will do all that
he expects to do and probably more than that.
There is more in this idea than most people
are ready to believe. If any piano salesman
doubts it, let him put the idea to a test. Try
it in earnest. Get it into your mind that this
is the day in which you are going to close a
sale. Expect that sale just as certainly as if
you had the cash and nothing more to do than
count it and hand back the receipt.
At times Presto has been charged with al-
most unreasonable optimism. We have said
that things were looking brighter, and the
change has not come instantly. But we have
not spoken without consideration of existing
facts. And we do not recall-a time when
our advice to the trade has been other than
helpful. More than this, it is unquestionably
true that too much sunshine is better than
all-cloudy weather. The piano dealer, or
salesman, who is sunk into the idea that be-
cause of conditions it is waste of time and
effort to go after trade, is defeated at the
start. He couldn't close any sales even if he
found the prospects waiting for him. He
would pour out his pessimism, and his pros-
pects would conclude that to buy now would
be to defy providence and to invite disaster.
That attitude never pays.
Expect to do things and you will do them.
Have no confidence in either your business or
yourself, and you won't accomplish anything.
The man who thinks he can't won't, and the
piano salesman who finds it hard to do busi-
ness at this time is the one who trips himself
up by putting between his legs the notion that
trade is "dead," or that because of politics or
some other perennial bugbear, results can
not justify the effort, and so misses the joys
of trying because he lacks the pluck to put up
a good fight.
Mr. George P. Bent's book will be ready in
a few days. Get your work well done for
you'll "take a day off" to read it when it
comes. Our word for it, Mr. Bent's book will
prove a great one.
* * *
How many times have you been told of the
marked resemblance between the Democratic
presidential candidate and a popular piano
October 11, 1924.
traveler. No? Then notice the portrait of
Mr. Harry T. Sipe on another page this week.
Did they put "carved legs" under square
pianos as early as 1864? The question comes
from a looker-in at the fine Lyon & Healy
corner window trimmed in celebration of the
(:0th anniversary of the big Chicago music
house. The carved legs are under the four
corners of the "first Steinway, made in 1853."
And the tabourette piano stool is years too
modern also.
* * *
A course of lectures to small storekeepers is
to be given in New York City. The idea is to
tell the little fellows of trade how to conduct
their shops so as to compete successfully with
the department stores. Aren't you glad you're
in a business that isn't afraid of the big
fellows?
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
From the Files of Presto
October 11, 1894.
Mr. A. G. Cone is again back to his desk from
Colorado, looking as rugged and healthy as a big
Colorado sun flower.
A dispatch from Washington on the 8th says the
hub die of the World's Fair medal is completed
Other dies will be made from it and then the stamp-
ing will begin probably about November 1st. Twenty-
four thousand medals will be struck off. The direc-
tor of the mint expects to complete the last medal
some time in February next.
Unless present plans are changed there will soon
he one less "Chickering" in the field. The manu-
facturers of the S. G. Chickering piano have con-
cluded to discontinue, and are gradually disposing of
the stock now on hand with that end in view.
At the factory of Geo. P. Bent may be seen a new
device which promises to be an important addition
to attachments for pianos. Mr. Bent has labeled it
the "Orchestral Attachment" and the variety of effects
produced, show that the name has been well applied.
Jt is not so very long ago that seven and one-half
octave pianos succeeded those of smaller compass.
But long before that time progressive minds had been
at work upon an instrument of wider compass. In
Windsor, Canada, there is an old piano with eight
octaves. It was made in Detroit by the old-time
dealer and pianomaker, Adam Grouse.
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
From Presto, October 13, 1904.
The war of the piano player patents has not yet
fairly begun. When it gets fully started the engage-
ment promises to be as fierce as anything that has
ever ruffled the history of this trade.
In 1879 one of the trade papers announced that
"upright pianos are growing in demand and it seems
that they will in time compete with the squares for
popular favor." The prediction was certainly accu-
rate; and that was less than twenty-five years ago.
The first large shipment of A. L. White organs was
made early this week. It was a full carload of the
various styles and it went to Memphis, Tenn. This
large shipment speaks plainly of the energy of the
A. L. White Manufacturing Co., and no less of the
success already accomplished.
The launching of the Straube Piano Co.'s new fac-
tory at Hammond, Ind.—really transplanting it from
Downer's Grove, 111., to the lloosier State—was
the subject of a formal inspection of the new build-
ing by a party invited by James F. Broderick, presi-
dent of the company, last Tuesday afternoon. •
George G. Foster, at the head of the Foster-Arm-
strong Company, of Rochester, w 7 as in New York
last week and attended the automobile races on Long 7
Island Saturday. Mr. Foster came down to New
York for the purpose of consulting Henry Ives Cobb,
the architect who planned the new Foster-Armstrong
factories now in course of erection in Rochester.
Work is progressing rapidly with the new Mel-
ville Clark factory at DeKalb, 111. The engine house
is being pushed up this week. The window frames
are being set and as soon as the lumber arrives a
large force of carpenters and masons will be put on
and the best use possible made of this fine weather.
It looks as though the bui'ding would be under roof
in a month.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/