Presto

May 2, 1925.
PRESTO
rotunda and the corridors of the Drake will be
sprinkled with them and the convention hall will
reverberate with their oratory. Without good lis-
teners in the rotunda conversations will deteriorate
into monologues. A convention may have a good at-
tendance but a business session is successful in equal
ratio to the number and enthusiasm of the auditors.
Success of Events Like That at Drake Hotel, Many piano men travel long distances to conventions
every year with sentiments, thoughts and opinions of
Chicago, Next Month, Depend Consider-
which they hope to unburthen themselves. Some
ably on the Number and Sympathy of
have vexatious things as well as joys to impart to
their fellows in the trade. But when the listeners are
the Auditors.
few it is disappointing. It sometimes happens that
distractions elsewhere make the attendance at impor-
tant meetings scant and speakers naturally feel no
satisfaction in delivering clever and interesting ad-
dresses.
Gift of Polite Silence While Somebody Delivers
Great Little Listeners.
the Dull or Lengthy Bromide
Of course the men of the trade press may be de-
Is Rare.
pended upon as ready and eager listeners. They are
Good talkers are available for every event of the always receptive for an earful, a fact which accounts
big trade convention practically beginning Sunday, for their widespread popularity. They have a neu-
June 7, at the Drake Hotel, Chicago. The conven- trodynic faculty of selectivity and can get Timbuctoo
tion doors will not open officially until Monday, and farther away when advertising money talks. The
June 8, but many interesting talks, some of them trade press men are great little listeners and for
monologues and some pleasant conversation, will polite attention take the masterpieces of the pastry
take place on Sunday at the headquarters hotel. The artists every time.
good talkers at the business and social events of the
The Yarn Spinners' Need.
week will add to the joys of course, so will the talk-
ers in the assemblages at factory and wholesale
The piano travelers coming to a convention with a
offices, at conferences in exhibit rooms at the Drake head full of anecdotal memory gems find the good
and elsewhere, at musterings in committee rooms, listeners prime necessities. They need individuals
in love-feasts, encounters, collisions 'and clashes in and groups to charitably recognize mildewed yarns
the lobbies and rotundas; in trysts in tea-rooms and as the latest in jocularity. Of course it is usually
rendezvous in the barber shops, but the most popu- easy to respond with a natural laugh because nobody
lar people at the convention at the Drake Hotel, can tell an archaic yarn so well and give it the 1925
Chicago, next month, will be the good listeners.
spice like a piano roadman. They require good lis-
teners and nobody expects them to listen themselves.
Enlisting Good Listeners.
Visitors to the conventions are assured of good
Secretary Matt Kennedy and the efficient chairmen talkers, but how about the good listeners. Who will
of various committees are busy enrolling, enlisting, laugh at the funny ones, whoop at the stories of
inducing and commandeering willing or unwilling triumph, and emit a sympathetic grunt at the recital
orators, but outside of the general announcement and of the grouches. What is needed at a convention is
invitation to the convention, no round-up of willing, plenty of sympathetic silence, not talkative sympathy.
polite and eager auditors has been attempted. But
Listening Right.
perhaps Mr. Kennedy believes that the virtue of lis-
tening, while the party of the second part talks, is
But there is a method in proper listening. It is
one natural to the piano man and the men of the horrible to think what distressing things may be done
music trades generally. If so, the assumption is by indiscreet siience. There is simply polite listening,
taken without sufficient grounds. The avocation of which is an encouragement to the speaker; the silent,
piano buying and selling is not conducive to the vir- pained listening to the bore telling a long-winded
tues of listening and it may be said that the piano story without a point and the plain aural frost. The
man who is a good listener is incapacitated from power of the listener is awesome. There are many
talking by tonsilitis or some derangement of the ways of expressing disapproval by silence.
vocal cords.
The management of the convention cannot pick
Proving the Rule.
and choose the listeners at the Drake. There will be
The proving of the rule is in the exception—the disagreeable listeners there but you cannot blame
installment collector, who often becomes eloquent in Matt Kennedy for their presence. And of course
refusing to listen. Listening is considered a form of there will be cheerful listeners and tactful listeners
recreation by the piano house collectors and at the who will listen with the proper emotional mask.
Drake Hotel during the convention days you may
CHARLES BAUMEISTER DIES.
identify them by their listening attitude while emulat-
ing the lowly clam in inaudibility. The gift of lis-
Charles Baumeister, founder of the Baumeister
tening is not one the efficient piano installment col- Piano Co., New York, died recently in New York at
lector tries to develop. Of course he can suppress his the age of 82. He was born in Frankfort, Germany,
emotions for a little bit while the slowpay gives a and came to this country many years ago. He was a
tearful resume of the hard-luck yarn, technically skilled piano maker whose abilities were well known
known as "the bull." The collector listens hard but to the older generation of piano manufacturers. He
is quick in the comeback of reproof, censure, up- is survived by two daughters, Miss Hattie Bau-
braiding, admonishing and the common forms of the meister and Mrs. F. T. Sheeder.
bawling-out. As good listening types of the trade the
collectors should be encouraged to be amongst those
A piano store was opened recently at 310 Busseron
present at the Drake.
street, Yincennes, Ind., recently by Williams &
The music trade is full of good talkers. The Kirscli.
GOOD LISTENERS
A CONVENTION NEED
THE ADMIRABLE QUALITY
INTEREST GROWS IN
NATIONAL MUSIC WEEK
Country-Wide Interest in Annual Observance
An Assurance of Great Success of Music
Encouragement Movement.
Indications are that the present observance of Na-
tional Music Week will far eclipse that of last May
in which there was 452 community-wide celebrations
besides 328 partial observances that were recorded
with the committee. On April 24, the number of
cities which had notified the committee that they
would participate in National Music Week was 455.
Inasmuch as the committee has been in correspond-
ence with at least a fourth more places during last
year, it is expected that the total number of Music
Weeks—whether community-wide or partial—will
pass the 1,000 mark this May.
New York City will hold a Music Week, May
3-9, the dates set for National Music Week through-
out the country. The New York events of the last
three years have been in charge of the New York
Music Week Association, Isabel Lowden, director.
The participation of the New York public in the
coming celebration was urged by Mayor John F.
Hylan in a Music Week proclamation to the effect
that Music Week would open with exercises in the
churches, schools and theaters on Sunday, May 3,
while in the afternoon of that day the people would
be asked to join in a community sing in Central Park.
In Boston, a feature of the Music Week will be a
band and orchestra conclave inclusive of all the New
England states. This »is to be a part of Boston's
Civic Music Festival under the auspices of the New
England Festival Association, Mrs. William Arms
Fisher, president. It is to be held at the Boston
Arena on May 9. Boys' and girls' bands and orches-
tras, school, college, Scout, civic, and all non-pro-
fessional groups have been invited to participate.
Those of years of training as well as groups which
have been together for a few months are eligible.
Each is to be scheduled in its class and given recog-
nition, but not required to compete.
Sponsorship of Chicago's Music Week is in the
hands of the Chicago Federation of Women's Organ-
izations with its music chairman, Mrs. Ora Lightner
Frost, in active charge. An honorary committee of
leaders in the musical and civic fields gives aid to the
project. Through the co-operation of the Federation
of Churches, "America the Beautiful" will be sung in
these churches to usher in the Music Week.
On the following day the Federation of Women's
Organizations is to give a Music Week breakfast.
Another feature will be an essay contest on "What
Music Means to Our City." A noon program at
Kimball Hall is being turned over to the Friends of
the Aged, who will gather in the inmates of institu-
tions and bring them to the concert. The women's
clubs are also arranging programs for the various
institutions, including the jails.
H. I. SEARLES ON ROAD.
H. I. Searles, sales director of the Nordlund Grand
Piano Co., 400-412 West Erie street, Chicago, reports
unusual activity among dealers in Indiana and Ohio,
which states he is touring and introducing the popu-
lar Nordlund instruments.
The A. B. Smith Piano Co., Akron, O., has opened
a branch at 20 OPark avenue, Barberton, Ohio.
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