September 1, 1929
THIRTY=FIVE YEARS AGO
(From The Presto Aug. 23, 1894.)
The first full-sized Wissner Concert Grand has
been completed.
Mr. H. C. Dickinson, treasurer of the Hamilton
Organ Co., this city, has been on a western trip in
the interest of his house.
Mr. Ed. W. Eysel, the veneer expert, who has been
doing business at 74 Lake street, Chicago, has given
up his office and entered the employ of C. L. Willey,
at Thirty-fifth street and River.
The Harmony Company is the name of a corpora-
tion engaged in the manufacture of guitars and man-
dolins in Chicago. The House of Dyer Bros., of
St. Paul, recently gave the Harmony Co. an order for
one thousand guitars for fall delivery.
SIGNS OF REVIVING TRADE.
The New York "Morning Journal," of the 19th,
published under the above caption expressions of
opinion from a number of leading men. Among them
was William Steinway, who wrote: "There is no
doubt that the settlement of the tariff question for
good or ill will be followed by an immediate boom in
business. Though the new tariff bill which has been
passed after hanging fire so long may not make much
appreciable change from the old tariff schedules, yet
the fact that the uncertainty is over will restore con-
fidence to the commercial world.
"In fact, there are indications of a change for the
better already. Not only have I received letters and
telegrams within the past few days stating that busi-
ness was looking brighter, from those with whom I
have business relations, but merchants in other lines
of business have told me that there are decided signs
of returning confidence in their respective lines.
"We have kept our men at work all through the
business depression, and have allowed our customers
long headway to enable them to keep going. They
are beginning to feel the relief from the strain now,
as every one was on tenterhooks to know how he
would be affected by the new tariff.
"I have been asked if the business depression was
not an artificial one. I might reply to that yes and
no in the same breath. There were no logical reasons
for it, looking at the matter superficially, but on the
other hand merchants and manufacturers were afraid
to speculate until the tariff question was settled.
"It was impossible for them to make contracts for
future deliveries until they knew how they would
stand with the new tariff. It might raise the duties
on some commodities and lower them on others, so
that any contracts based on the old tariff might prove
invalid under the new bill."
(From The Presto Aug. 30, 1894.)
Mr. W. H. Jewett, who in 1860 founded the busi-
ness that is at present controlled by the Jewett Piano
Co. at Leominster, Mass., is lying seriously ill at the
Bur bank Hospital, Fitchburg, Mass., and is not ex-
pected to recover.
J. C. Henderson, manager Schimmel & Nelson
Piano Co., has returned from a very successful busi-
ness trip through North Dakota and reports the best
wheat crop there since 1890 and says people in that
section of the Northwest are feeling good, to which
he can testify by the number of orders he took there.
The many friends of Mr. W. B. Price, the well-
known Kimball representative, and until recently man-
ager of their branch house in Washington, will be
pleased to learn that he will take up his residence in
Chicago and become the head of the pipe organ
department of the W. W. Kimball Co.
B. H. Janssen, Secretary of the Mathushek & Son
Piano Co., has returned to New York from his trip
to Washington, Pa., where he was prosecuting the
case against J. R. Sharp for embezzlement.
Mr. Fred T. Steinway sailed last week from South-
ampton for New York.
A very handsome Kranich & Bach piano will short-
ly be shipped to Yokohama, Japan, for a missionary
there, Rev. Mr. Snider.
Mr. C. J. Heppe, the veteran piano dealer of Phila-
delphia, is improving rapidly from his severe illness
and will be able to resume his duties in a few weeks.
Now that Ex-President Harrison has had his hair
cut and beard trimmed to a point, his resemblance to
our own Deacon Camp is more marked than ever.
We suspect that the Deacon's beauty was largely
responsible for the ex-president's action.
The greatest, perhaps, as well as the oldest, of the
English piano manufacturers is the house of Broad-
wood. And there is no more interesting place for
one interested in pianos to visit. John Broadwood,
the founder of this historic house, was a harpsichord
maker to the English Court at the time of the reign
of King George II. In the year of Haydn's birth,
1732, at the identical house now occupied as a ware-
room, 33 Great Pulteney street, Golden Square, the
business of John Broadwood & Sons was established.
Since that day five generations have toiled in the
development of the house, each adding to the renown
P R E S T 0-T I M E S
of the piano and increasing the cash balance in the
Bank of England. And it is a thought full of sugges-
tion, and calculated to stir the least imaginative, to
consider that in the century and a half of the Broad-
wood career the piano itself has had but one home,
remaining, in all the rush of time and transition, un-
mindful of the changes that were rushing past the
door. Today the visitor enters the narrow unaristo-
cratic thoroughfare, and on observing the sign of
Broadwood, it strikes the eye almost with the shock
of a surprise. But once within the building, the noble
dimensions of the warerooms make amends, and the
fascination of antiquity, and the charm which at-
taches to the great departed, woos the visitor to
remain and permits him to leave only with regret that
he may not still linger. Mr. Abbott was so fortunate
as to have for a guide through the Broadwood estab-
lishment that sterling gentleman entertainer, Mr.
Algernon S. Rose, who related many anecdotes con-
cerning notable people who once gathered there. It
was in the old Broadwood wareroom that Haydn
wrote a portion of one of his compositions. Speci-
mens of his penmanship may still be seen there. Chopin
gave his last public reception there. And Mr. Rose
told how his father assisted the great poet of the piano
on that occasion. Chopin had wasted away with the
malady which sapped his life. He came to fulfill his
part in what proved to be his last concert, but he was
so weak that he could not mount the steps to the
platform upon which the piano stood. Mr. Rose gently
seized the arm of the invalid artist and leading him to
the instrument supported him there during the per-
formance. Handel and Beethoven, too, were personal
friends of the early Broadwoods. It is something,
then, to stand in the room where the immortals have
met and to recall the scenes which have there been
enacted by the greatest musical souls that have in-
spired the world. (Extract from London Letter to
Presto.)
(From The Presto Sept. 6, 1894.
Mr. Gilbert Smith, one of the W. W. Kimball Co.'s
hustlers, is meeting with gratifying success on his
present trip.
Says "Freund's Weekly," "Word comes to us that
the Starr Piano Co. of Richmond, Ind., is as busy
as they can hope to be—which means that they have
all they can attend to in their factory. The new styles
of the Starr are reputed to be very handsome, and
the scales particularly fine and true."
The Schiller Piano Co. are having an excellent
trade these days. Last Saturday they received orders,
we are told, for fifteen pianos. A mighty good starter
for autumn business, we should say.
The John Church Company have contracted with
the famous pianist and composer, Xaver Scharwenka,
an option on all his compositions for the next five
years, with the privilege of renewing for ten years.
BAY CREDITORS' MEETING.
In a report to the creditors Harry A. Parkin re-
ferree in bankruptcy of the H. C. Bay Company an-
nounces that a meeting of the creditors of the said
company will be held at his Suite 620, at 137 South
LaSalle street, Chicago, on September 10, at 11:00
o'clock forenoon to consider and pass upon the trus-
tee's fourth report; and to offer for sale to the high-
est and best bidder certain personal and real property,
described above, and in the event that no sufficient
bids are received for all of the personal and real pro-
perty described above, said trustee asks that he be au-
thorized to sell all of said mentioned assets at public
auction, or private sale, at the highest and best price
obtainable therefor, without further notice; and to
consider the matter of the declaration of a second
dividend to creditors whose claims are proven and al-
lowed herein; at which time you may appear if you
see fit.
OHIO DEALER IN WALTHAMS.
W. P. Hare, general representative of the Wal-
tham Piano Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
whose headquarters are at 525 Cleveland Avenue,
Canton, Ohio, was in Chicago several days this past
week. Mr. Hare informs us that his work with the
Waltham Piano Company has resulted in better busi-
ness than he has had for two or three years past. He
has established a chain of something like fifteen Wal-
tham stores in Ohio and is planning for several new
openings. Mr. Hare, by the way, is on the look-out
for one or two more energetic men for immediate oc-
cupation.
W. P. Hare tells Presto-Times that his player-piano
business is practically as good today as it was in the
hey-day of player-pianos. He says that 65 per cent
of the business in his territory, perhaps, is in player-
pianos. His secret of successful handling of player-
pianos he avers is due to the efforts of properly-
instructed salesmen and to their passing on to the
customers information that makes them fully posted
on player-pianos and how to operate them, so that
the instruments remain sold and continue to give
pleasure.
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There's many a slip between the cup and the hip
while the snooper is abroad.
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