August 25, 1928
PRESTO-TIMES
PIANOS WITH A
RECORD FOR TRAVEL
Adventures of an M. Schulz Co. Piano One
of Damp Traveling on a Mississippi
Houseboat to Eventually Find
a Home on Shore.
JESSE FRENCH TRAVELS
Instrument from the New Castle, Ind., Industry
Goes Hither and Yon for Years—Conover
Out for Record.
An M. Schulz Co. piano is strangely housed at
Bell's Landing on the Mississippi River, about ten
miles south of Tenbrook, where an old freight car
serves for a habitation. I; is the home of Jasper
Rutledge, fisherman and philosopher, and its walls of
stout oak, braced firmly with bolts, are proof against
the most frisky windstorm.
The old freight car was one of those erratic wan-
derers of the rails, cars that get lost and evade the
tracer. In time it reached one of those "pawpaw"
roads set down through a lumber section to the river
by a Tennessee trunk line. It was standing on the
stub end of this road when it was knocked off the
rails by an accident. There was no use of putting
it back on the rails, as two wheels and the forward
truck were broken. So it was abandoned. In time
there was no further use for the spur lumber line
to the river, and the rails were taken up. This left
the old freight car many miles from, any railroad,
and it was then that the old fisherman took posses-
sion of it, and converted it into a house.
Rutledge Lucky Again.
But that is not all of the story. Inside of the
house, and the proudest possession of Jasper Rut-
ledge, is the M. Schulz Co. piano, which is itself
something of a traveler. The piano's history is as
clear as that of the house it occupies, and it's story
is one of flood and disaster and long eventful travel.
The instrument was originally sold to Richard
Kirby, of Warsaw, Mo., by a salesman for J. O'lney,
the St. Joseph, Mo., dealer. Mr. Kirby was a station
agent for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and his
snug cottage was prettily situated close to the pic-
turesque banks of the Osage River. Too closely, in
fact, as Mr. Kirby realized too late.
In February, 1899, a sudden and unlooked for
thaw broke up the ice in the frozen river. The flow
was augmented by the melting snows and unusual
rains, and in a few hours the still, frozen surface
disappeared and in its place was a rushing flood that
rapidly continued to rise and carry all obstructions
before it.
Saves the Piano
The station agent woke to find his cottage sur-
rounded by the rushing waters, and his first effort
was to save his family. That he did with the aid of
a skiff. Then he turned his attention to the rescue
of his household possessions. A houseboat was
requisitioned for the service, moored close up to the
cottage, and the transfer of the furniture and piano
quickly made. That done, the houseboat was moored
in a place of apparent safety.
But the station agent did not sufficiently reckon
with the river's possibilities to cut up didoes, which
it did, and when the railroad man arose the second
morning of the flood, his glance from the hotel win-
dow showed him no houseboat loaded with his house-
hold goods. That temporary storage place was bob-
bing merrily on the bosom of the yellow flood some-
where, miles down the river, headed for the Gulf of
Mexico via the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
See What's Here.
Thus it happened one day that Jasper Rutledge,
fisherman at Bell's Landing on the Mississippi, on
the watchout for floating things, acquired an unsea-
worthy houseboat by the simple process of fastening
a rope to her almost submerged nose. The contents,
including one damp but fairly well-conditioned M.
Schulz Co. piano, also became his by the river
man's right of acquisition. But it is good to know
that the piano is in the appreciative hands of Miss
Bella Rutledge, granddaughter of old Jasper, who is
a school teacher in the local seat of learning.
Jesse French Piano Travels.
Frank Parkmire, an electrical engineer at present
living in Chicago, has a Jesse French & Sons piano
which is no mean traveler. The instrument made by
the Jesse French & Sons Piano Co., New Castle,
Ind., was bought while Mr. Parkmire resided in
Indianapolis. From there his work took him to Fort
Worth, Tex., and he moved his piano with him.
His next move was to Philadelphia with the piano
still among his possessions. Next it went south to
Atlanta, Ga.; back again to Philadelphia for a three
months' stay; west to Denver, south to Knoxville,
Tenn., further south to New Orleans, a jump from
there to St. Paul, Minn., and last to Chicago, where
it is now to be heard and seen at 1429 Morse avenue,
nothing the worse for its peripatetic existence for
many years.
Traveling Conover
But an instrument which bids fair to beat all oth-
ers as a distance coverer is a Conover piano, made
by The Cable Co., Chicago, owned by an employe
of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. This man
makes his home with his wife in a specially fitted car,
which contains certain delicate instruments for lo-
cating weak places in the rails on which the car may
be traveling.
The car, in which the piano is an enduring source
of joy, is constantly on the move either on the
trunk lines or divisions of the great system. It w y ould
be interesting to figure out the number of miles cov-
ered each year, thus getting a record for the piano
as the greatest musical traveler.
SLINGERLAND DRUM CATALOG.
The Slingerland Banjo & Drum Co., Chicago, has
issued its new forty-nine page illustrated drum cata-
log, which lists a comprehensive line of professional
and universal snare and bass drums, as well as street
drums, including the Fancher Model street drums,
equipped with the patented tone flange. The latter
part of the book contains a complete line of drum-
mers' supplies and accessories. The company plso
manufactures its own heads at a branch located near
the main entrance of the Chicago Union Stockyards.
THE IOWA BAND CONTEST.
The Annual Iowa State Band Contest will be held
in Waterloo, from October 1 to 6, in connection with
the Dairy Cattle Congress and the National Belgium
Horse Show. Arrangements have been made for the
appearance- of forty bands, which will be divided into
three principal classes: municipal bands, fraternal
bands and high school bands, which will range in size
from forty to eighty pieces.
BOWEN LOADER SERVICE
One-Man Loader and Carrier, Made by Bowen
Piano Loader Co., Winston-Salem, N. C,
Assures Sales and Safe Deliveries.
This is the day of quick action in the music busi-
ness. The dealer who is equipped to fulfill the re-
quirements for prompt action has an advantage over
his inactive competitors. A prime necessity for
prompt and effective procedure in effecting sales and
making prompt deliveries is the Bowen One-Man
Loader and Carrier made by the Bowen Piano Loader
Co., Winston-Salem, N. C.
The Bowen Fiiano Loader is now considered a
necessity to prompt sales and quick delivery by pro-
gressive music dealers. Many dealers who consid-
ered the buying of the first Loader somewhat of an
experiment, soon were encouraged by the improved
sales to add a second. One western dealer who had
depended for sales on the visits of people to his
store, established a new policy when he realized that
this is a day when the piano dealer must go after
business.
"Going out with the piano on the Bowen Loader,
ready to demonstrate, gives an element of adventure
to piano selling that encourages the active young
fellows to undertake the job. The number of sales
made possible by the Loader makes them stick to
it," said a successful dealer. He is only one of the
hundreds of music merchants who recognize the
Bowen Loader as a great aid to sales.
The problem of roads over which to deliver the sold
piano does not exist for the music dealer who is
equipped with a Bowen Piano Loader. On good roads
or poor roads the Bowen Piano Loader makes piano
delivery better for the piano dealer. On the good
roads the Loader assures faster time on trips; on the
poor one the device is a necessity in safeguarding the
piano's tonal and constructive qualities which influ-
enced the customer to buy. On a road of any kind
the Loader is a boon to the ambitious salesman anx-
ious to demonstrate a piano to a large number of
prospects in the course of a day.
LOGAN STORE CHANGES NAME.
Case's Music Parlors, Logan, Ohio, has changed the
name to Hammond's Music Store. Nearly twenty
years ago Joe Case established the business known
as Case's Music Parlors; later L. F. Hammond be-
came a partner of Mr. Case. Since about 1920 Mr.
Hammond has owned and operated the entire busi-
ness and was actively engaged in the business until
January 1, 1927, when he was appointed deputy sher-
iff. Since then Mrs. Hammond has been managing
the affairs of the business.
LYON & HEALY HARPS MUCH USED.
In Presto-Times of July 28, page 12, appeared a
statement that "the most famous harp in the world,
used in nine per cent of the leading symphony orches-
tras, is produced locally by Lyon & Healy." The
nine per cent should have read "ninety'' and this paper
gladly makes the correction by adding the "ty."
MEXICO RADIO SALES SMALL.
A dispatch was sent out from Washington, D. C,
August 15, saying that with the exception of Mexico
City and the federal districts, sales of radio apparatus
are relatively small in Mexico, according to Walter E.
Aylor, assistant trade commissioner, in a report to the
Department of Commerce.
BOWEN PIANO LOADER HELPS SALESMEN
Outside Salesmen must be equipped so as to "show the goods." The season for country piano selling is approaching. Help your sales-
men by furnishing them with the New Bowen Piano Loader, which serves as a wareroom far from the store. It is the only safe
delivery system for dealers, either in city or country. It costs little. Write for particulars.
BOWEN PIANO LOADER CO.,
Winston-Salem, N. C.
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