Music Trade Review

18
Music Trade Review
-- © MUSICAL
mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com
-- digitized
with support February
from namm.org
5th, 1881.
THE
CRITIC AND TRADE
REVIEW.
One of young Weber's latest attempts at shrewd advertising, which
THE OLD-TIME WEBER AND THE WEBER OF TO-DAY.
] E original Albert "Weber mnst be classed with his unjustifiable method in the Valleria matter, was
was, in his way, a won- in connection with the programme of the Emma Abbott English Opera Com-
derful man. Probably no one pany during their recent stay at Haverly's Fifth Avenue Theatre in this city.
in the piano trade ever had a This programme bore upon it the words, " Haines' Upright piano used in
keener eye to business, or was this theatre," and on one evening, so we are given to understand, young
quicker to seize upon and turn Weber surreptitiously secured the insertion of the following announcement
to his own advantage the small- in the programme immediately above Haines Bros'., " T h e Weber piano
est point. He was shrewd, is exclusively used by the Emma Abbott Opera Company."
active, persistent, aggressive,
Such work is unworthy of a business house that claims to occupy a high
enthusiastic, and was capable position, and we are sorry that young Albert Weber should be guilty of it.
of stretching the truth to an
extent that tried its elas-
ticity to the utmost. But
Albeit Weber, the founder of
the house that bears his name
to-day, was one of the friend-
liest men in the world. We
There is no change in the piano-makers' strike, except that four men in
do not believe that he ever
bore ill will toward any one. the employ of Weber have resumed work. They are to be expelled from
His "blow" was confined to their union.
his business—that is, to the
On March 15 it is proposed to have a grand parade of piano workmen in
selling of the Weber pianos. honor of the victory gained on March 15, 1880, when a demand was made
He regarded himself person- upon the piano manufacturers for an increase of 10 per cent., and
ally as a very ordinary and
" Look here, upon this picture,"
rather uninteresting person. acceded to.
It is stated by parties who are thoroughly well posted, that D. F. Beatty
But, above all, he had ability. He was smart in the true Yankee sense of has expended
the past three months $25,000 in advertising; a sum
the word. Whatever was to be done, he generally hit upon a very excellent which probably during
represents much more than the profit on his entire yearly
way of doing it; and if the way he chose proved in the end to be the wrong organ manufacture,
but must be a mere bagatelle to a man who runs the
way, he made it plain that he had worked the plan to the very best possi-
whole city of Washington, N. J., including the local bank.
ble advantage.
Messrs. Vose and Sons, piano manufacturers at 725 Washington street,
The house of Weber and
the young man by the name Boston, Mass., will remove early in the present month to their new quarters,
of Weber are both at present No. 535 Washington street.
in the hands of trustees, and
Mr. L. B Norton, of the New Haven Organ Co., hag made application*
we should be inclined to give
these trustees the credit for for a patent for a tremolo for reed organs. It is a very simple device, accom-
all the absurd and incompre- plishes its purpose perfectly, and can be made at a less cost than any tremolo
hensible acts performed this heretofore invented. A more extended notice of it will be given in a future
season by the house of Weber, number of this paper.
did we not know that the cool
For a back action double combination advertisement the Western paper
assumption and sheer per- is unapproachable. One of this kind is before us, entitled "Music Hath
versity of the very mediocre Charms," in which we are told that the Emerson pianos are used with high
young person by the name of appreciation throughout the world, and at the same time the opportunity is
Weber was the cause of all taken of stating that " Mr. Jos. Gramer uses St. Jacob's Oil in his family,"
that trouble. He is like a whether as an antidote to too much Emerson piano or not is left unstated.
child on the box seat of a
Mr. J. M. Pelton, of West Union Square, reports retail trade active and
four-horse coach, who does
very well while allowed to anticipates quite as favorable a businsss for the music trade for the present
amuse himself with the loose year as was experienced during that just passed.
ends of the reins, but who bids
An instrument called the "Pyrophone was recently exhibited at Baden-
fair to bring dire disaster upon Baden, Germany. The tones given out by this instrument, which somewhat
the passengers, horses, and resembles a pipe organ in construction, are caused by the action of gas
"Aud ou this."
coach, if he is allowed to flames on the air contained in the glass pipes.
snatch the reins from the
A meeting of the United States Trade-Mark Associatiou was held in this
coachman's hands. In a word, young Albert, even with his trustees and city on the 28th inst., at the rooms of the Stationers' Board of Trade in the
guardians, has shown himself utterly unfit to carry on the business upon the Bennett Building at Nassau and Fulton streets. Orestes Cleveland pre-
aggressive plan, which was inaugurated by his father.
sided. A committee was appointed to learn if any legislation is necessary
Two things, this winter, have brought upon him the ridicule of the for the protection of trade-marks of fore gn articles to be exhibited at the
entire piano trade. The first was the sending about the country of an World's Fair in 1883. W. A. Cole, of W. J. Wilcox & Co., James Tolcott,
alleged grand piano to be played upon by an utterly unknown pianist named Edward Clark, President of Singer Manufacturing Company, D wight Dur-
Sternberg, as a matter of advertising. The second was an imitation of his rea, President of the Glen Cove Starch Company, and Charles Renauld, of
father's old scheme in advertising that. Ms pianos had alone been used by the Renauld, Frantjois & Co., were appointed members of the committee. The
principal members of Mapleson's Italian Opera Company during their stay election of officers was postponed.
in this city. This scheme was utterly used up after its first trial by his
At the annual meeting of the New Haven Organ Co. on Jan. 17th, the
father, and none but a person of weak inventive powers would have used it
again after such a short lapse of time. But this was not all. He made following officers were elected: Board of Directors, Harry Prescott, Samuel
statements which, when brought to the test, he could not back up; for B. Johnson, Wm. W. Hyde; President, Harry Prescott; Secretary and
he stated that his instruments had alone been used by Mme. Vallena; Treasurer, Samuel B. Johnson; Superintendent, W. W. Hyde.
and immediately Messrs. Haines Bros., of this city, challenged him
Messrs. Hoggson & Pettis, manufacturers of organ knobs and stops, in New
to prove his claim, and, moreover, demonstrated that they possessed the Haven, Conn., report a very active demand for their goods, and say that their
documents which gave to their house the right to enjoy this distinction.
patent paper-faced organ knob is rapidly growing in favor with manufacturers.
Concerning the grand piano, and the pianist Sternberg, we may, for the
Messrs. Morse & Emerson, string makers of 328 Seventh avenue this city,
sake of variety, advance the opinions of others as well as our own. l h e fol-
have raised all their mortgages and commence the new year free and clear.
lowing is an extract from a paper published in Albany. N. Y.:
" It will be a joyful day when a concert is given without the notice upon
Mr. Charles Fisher, of the Monroe Organ Reed Co., of Worcester, Mass.,
the programme that such a piano is used, and when a piano can be seen is, we regret to hear, confined to his bed at the Lincoln House by a severe
upon the stage without the huge sign board of the manufacturer. Why Mr. attack of pneumonia. Mr. Fisher is one of the most popular members of
Weber should have Avished any human being to have thought that the instru- the trade and Ave sincerely hope that he may soon be about again.
ment used last night was of his make is hard to see. It was so deficient in
The Wilcox & White Organ Co., of Meriden, Conn., will build a new
singing tone, sweetness and brilliancy, that it is strange he did not even go so
factory in the spring to better enable them to meet the large and growing
far as to erase his name from the piano itself."
demand for their organs.
The next extract is from the Boston Journal of Jan. 14. It says:
" Constantin Sternberg, the Russian pianist, who has been brought to
The piano and organ trades of New York and Bridgeport were repre-
this country with an extravagant flourish of trumpets, made his first appear- sented in Boston on Fiiday of last week by Messrs. Joseph P. Hale and
ance before a Boston audience at Music Hall last evening. While he gave Henry Behning, of this city, and by Mr. J. T. Patterson, of the Bridgeport
evidence of good qualities as a musician there was nothing in his playing to Organ Company.
warrant the management in placing his name before that of such a consum-
At the Satter matinee in Boston, on Thursday of last week, a friend said
mate artist as Wilhelmj."
The Journal then gives a list of the selections performed by Mr. Stern- to one of the members of the Emerson Piano Co., during & fortissimo pas-
berg without a word of comment upon his manner of playing them. This was sage: " Don't you tremble for your piano?" " N o , " was the reply, " I
have such confidence in the strength of that grand, that I would let Satter
the unkindest cut of all.
We have frequently given Mr. Sternberg credit in the critical depart- jump on it if he liked."
ment of the MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW, for whatever artistic quali-
We have it on excellent authority that the demand for the H. F . Miller
ties he possesses. He has never made any reputation as a pianist in Europe, pianos is increasing in the south, the Washington agent having sold during
from which quarter of the globe he hailed. He was brought here as a purely the past year two pianos. Other cities are still to be heard from.
business speculation to be foisted by the parties interested upon some
There is a certain art and trade paper whose editorial articles ap2^ear
piano maker. Albert Weber, being young and inexperienced, was the only to be " written
and first printed in a New York daily. That's enterprise."—
one who took the bait, though the shallowness and ignorance of the parties Cincinnati Musical
People. Perfectly true, the editorials not only seem, but
who presented it, should alone have been sufficient to put the gudgeon on his are taken from daily
and the only thing necessary to render the
guard. Mr. Albert Weber's loss on Mr. Sternberg's concert tour this season above description full papers,
and
complete,
the name of the aforesaid alleged art
will amount to a neat sum, which not even the reduction of ten per cent. and trade paper. I t is known among is the
initiated here as the Art Jabberer.
from his workmen's wages can balance.
T
TRADE CHAT.