MUSICAL
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1881
Established
1884
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
10 Cents a Copy
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1928
$2 The Year
OVER THE INDIANA HIGHWAYS
What Presto=Times Man Saw and Who He Encountered in Music Goods Factories and Stores
in Another Pleasant Motor Trip Through a Great Industrial Section
There are two excellent routes for motorists driv-
ing out of Chicago to enter into the Hoosier State—
for the man in quest of the busy scenes of musical
manufacturing industries. After clearing the smoky
environs of South Chicago with its great rolling mills,
the first magnet to draw my machine in a southeast-
erly direction was the Straube plant at Hammond, a
great establishment which was found to be operating
at practically full blast.
From Hammond the motorist had a choice of sev-
eral routes. Two leading ones are the Ade-Way,
which hugs the Illinois-Indiana line southward; the
other the Dixie Highway, taken by most drivers now-
adays, with a detour of some fifteen miles, bringing
me back to the Dixie line once more. This route
takes us past the Steger factories at Steger, 111., where
a considerable number of the products of that estab-
lishment are being shipped daily.
At Crawfordsville.
And now I struck out for Indianapolis, with Craw-
fordsville as an objective as a way-station on this
itinerary. This old city, which figured rich in his-
tory in the days of Little Turtle, Black Hawk, Pon-
tiac, Father LaClede, and was founded shortly after
the first settlement in the state at Vincennes, became
a world-shrine at the death some years ago of Gen.
Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur. But today, al-
though there are many reminders of Ben Hur around
the city—Ben Hur buildings, Ben Hur garages, Ben
Hur restaurants, etc.—the old residence and grounds
are in a state of neglect, and some of the citizens are
bemoaning the place as a "neglected shrine."
A reminder of General Wallace is his library and
monument standing at Crawfordsville. The statue
near the library is by Lorado Taft, the Chicago sculp-
tor, and it stands on the site of the Ben Hur beech
under which he did most of the writing of Ben Hur
and The Fair God.
However, Crawfordsville has one very enterprising
retail piano house in the Claypool-Lacey Company,
which attracts trade from far and near.
A Designer of Fine Advertising.
Crawfordsville is also the home of C. E. Banta,
head of the Banta-French Advertising Service, which
has a choice clientele of patrons in several important
cities of Indiana and beyond the confines of that
state. Mr. Banta's wife is a member of the French
family of Jesse French & Sons Piano Company
fame, and Mr. Banta is a young man of talented ver-
satility in designing as well as composing effective and
attractive advertising. A notable piece of his orig-
ination is a parchment design headed "Music" which
he brought out last spring, and Edgar French had it
framed for hanging on the wall. Today it hangs in
many an artist's studio in New York city and else-
where and is appreciated as a decoration and for its
sentiment.
On to Indianapolis I drove over Indiana's prover-
bially good roads. The state is coming more to the
front every year with extensions of its concrete high-
ways, and the gravel roads are also kept up to stand-
ard requirements in all parts of the state.
The Hub of Indiana.
This large inland city is truly interesting, for it
shows the remarkable development of an American
city which has grown up without making a great
noise about itself on the way. It is not jealous of its
neighbor, Cincinnati, for its merchants and manufac-
turers believe there is trade enough for both. Every
new visit to Indianapolis reveals many things about
its manufacturing importance that may not have been
observed before.
Our visit to Indianapolis revealed some interesting
facts about the city that is called the Cross Roads
of America. The title in itself is very good, and was
furnished by none other than the fertile brain of Wil-
liam Herschell, feature writer of the Indianapolis
News, and one of the contributors of a story in the
interests of National Music Week that attracted na-
tionwide attention. I was always interested in the
optimistic letters from the local correspondent of
Presto-Times and have found to my satisfaction that
there is every reason for being optimistic.
All Pianos Sold Here.
One of the things that interested me most was, of
course, the music houses, and it is needless to say
that every one of them is A credit to the music indus-
try. Practically every high grade piano manufactured
in the country can be purchased in Indianapolis: The
Kohler Industries, Steinway & Sons, the complete
line of the American Piano Company, Mason & Ham-
lin, Knabe, Chickering & Sons and all the others
controlled by that corporation. The Starr piano and
other makes made at the great factories at Richmond,
Ind., the Baldwin, Ellington, Hamilton and others
manufactured at the Baldwin factories. The Jesse
French & Sons line made at New Castle, Ind. The
Kimball line of instruments made at Chicago, the
Conover, Cable and Kingsbury of The Cable Com-
pany; the M. Schulz Co. line, the Packard, the Ever-
ett, the Sohmer, the Gulbransen, Bush & Gerts, Set-
tergren, the Schumann and Wurlitzer and, no doubt,
others overlooked in this hurried enumeration, but
not intentionally.
Looking Backward a Few Years.
One thing that caused me to turn back a few pages
in the book of time was the photographs I saw of
men who at one time were prominent in the piano
industry. At the Baldwin store I saw the original
trio, D. H. Baldwin, Lucien Wulsin and George W.
Armstrong. Of these three great men an interesting
chapter could be written. Mr. Armstrong is still
among the living, but the other two have gone to their
reward. I recalled the humble beginning of the Bald-
win factory in West Fifth street at Cincinnati, Ohio,
the first Ellington pianos made at Poplar and Bay-
miller streets in Cincinnati, and today the great fac-
tories opposite the entrance to Eden Park in that city.
At the Starr Piano Company I saw an old picture
of Ben Starr, one of the finest men I ever met. The
sight of this brought to my memory Henry Gennett,
a typical Southern gentleman and a wonderful man.
At the Wilking Music Store I noticed a picture of
Jesse French, one of the last to pass on. Mr. French
was an incessant smoker who always enjoyed a good
cigar. With his picture was that of his two sons,
Jesse, Jr., and H. Edgar French, who are conducting
the factories at New Castle, Ind. Much could be said
of the men I have mentioned and their lives, but
permit me to use the phrase so often used, that all
great industries are nothing more than the lengthened
shadow of some great man.
I recall, too, some prominent men now in the in-
dustry who hailed from this city and among them is
none other than Herman Spain, at one time connected
with the Starr Piano Company, now with the Amer-
ican Piano Company; Joseph Joiner, at one time one
of the music merchants \\\ Indianapolis, also with the
American Piano Company; both men are serving in
official capacity.
Key-Recovering Industry.
Another part of the industry represented in Indian-
apolis is that of key-recovering—two institutions,
Frield Miller and E. A. Bouslog, Inc. I called at
both these establishments and was surprised to find
them humming with activity. Mr. Bouslog is a man
of an inventive mind and has invented some interest-
ing pieces of machinery now being used for re-cov-
ering piano keys. Mr. Miller, an old school piano
builder who thoroughly understands piano construc-
tion, was engaged in shortening a set of piano keys
and had another finished which he proudly exhibited.
The work was excellent and worthy of much praise.
These two institutions are the largest establishments
of their kind in the country, and work from all sec-
tions of the states is sent to Indianapolis. Mr. Bous-
log recalled one of his sets that came from Mexico,
and several boxes of work showed cities in practically
every direction of the United States. Mr. Miller took
great pains to explain the sterling points of his latest
invention, a small contrivance that removes bushing
from keys without injuring the wood, by the use of
live steam. Five keys are placed on the small valves
from which live steam escapes, and in a second the
bushing is removed without injury to the wood. Both
these institutions report business satisfactory.
Hoosier Hospitality Everywhere.
Hoosier hospitality prevails in all music houses,
and merchants are very optimistic about business in
the near future. They should be. Indiana's wealth
totals $10,000,000,000. Indianapolis is the paragon of
of the state capitals in the United States. It is the
second largest of all the state capitals, being exceeded
in size only by Boston. It is the world's largest city
not on navigable water, and is one of the largest
industrial and commercial centers in the United
States, and has better connections with and shipping
facilities to all points in the country than any other
city.
A Great Drum Works.
Indianapolis is the home of one of if not the largest
drum factory in the United States, the Leedy Manu-
facturing Company. In addition to its steam railway
facilities, it is the greatest electric railway center in
the world, so they say, with two hundred and sixty-
five cities and towns that have hourly electric service
with Indianapolis. With all these numerous advan-
tages afforded here, Indianapolis music merchants
have every reason to be optimistic.
Living within the confines of Indiana a few days
one cannot but reflect on the wonderful development
the state has shown in musical instrument manufac-
turing and inventions, as well as in many other lines.
A state rich in agriculture and authors; in climate
and railroads; in Hoosiers and hospitality; in aviators
and apiarists; in homebodies and genuises of high
degree; in Democrats and Republicans, with only a
small sprinkling of wobblies; in coal mines and tim-
ber; in hogs and corn; in having the greatest auto
racing track in the world at Indianapolis and the
famous horse track at Robey; in scenery at the sand
dunes and in Brown County; in the state being so
centrally located that one must cross it in going
almost anywhere.
Indiana is noted for the quality of its musical in-
struments, as well as for the quantity produced and
marketed. This state recently boasted of having the
largest individual piano manufacturing plant producing
grands. Today six Indiana cities are producing
pianos—Hammond, LaPorte, Fort Wayne, Bluffton,
Richmond, New Castle. Here are at least six going
factories, to say nothing of several that have dropped
out in the recent past.
In the musical merchandise lines the state is also
great. Indianapolis figures in this part of production,
while at Elkhart, that little city is on the map as the
center of band instrument production for the whole
world.
NAK TOBA.
(More Indiana highways next week.)
H. L. DRAPER'S ISLAND CABIN.
H. L. Draper, vice-president and treasurer of The
Cable Company, Chicago, has returned from his
annual outing at his cabin on Grand Island in the
southern part of Lake Superior—an island that is the
property of an iron company of Cleveland, Ohio.
This cabin, originally built of logs, but now sided
on the outside and plastered on the inside, was erected
in 1833 and is therefore 95 years old, but still in an
excellent state of preservation. The island main-
tains a township form, of government, having in
addition to the island only a small strip on the main-
land, and the township has some 14 or 15 voters.
The vacations of Mr. and Mrs. Draper at this cabin
in the wilds are ideal outings.
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