Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
48
THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
September 20th, 1881.
ness so as to render themselves liable to legal re- he or she has paid for that very furniture which he
dress. Another notable disadvantage which charac or she no longer possesses. If there is anything
terizes the practical working of the installment plan more grotesquely, almost humorously unjust than
i •> the fact that not only are higher prices charged this, it has not yet been discovered. Yet such is the
for furniture thus sold, but the furniture itself is law in this great city of New York. And 6i courso
generally of an inferior quality. Of course this every furniture dealer in New York is in favor of the
statement is only general, not absolute. There are law as ifc now stands. In fact, it may be safe to num-
exceptions. Some furniture houses find their profit ber the men who sell furniture by installments as
in establishing a reputation for treating their install- among our most strenuously law-abiding citizens.
ment customers as fairly as they do their customers
In no case yet known has there ever been any
for cash, and there are not a few buyers of furniture money returned by the furniture dealer to the origi-
on installments who are fully able to protect them- nal buyer as arising from a surplus due him or her
selves in the matter of procuring good, 'substantial by law from the auction sale of furniture seized for
furniture. These latter v. ill not be deceived by mis- debt A prominent furniture dealer frankly assured
representations ; they do not buy in a hurry; they the writer of this article that in no instance has such
are not so anxious for accommodation as to take auction sale of furniture ever realized more than the
uncomplainingly anything that may be thrust upon amount due the dealer and the charges of the auc-
them by the accommodating parties. But the great tioneer. He stated that often the furniture did not
majority of buyers are compelled by their necessi- bring the full amount due on it. This may or may
ties to take just what they can get for their money and not be the truth, but he emphatically stated that the
their contract, and to these some furniture dealers furniture, though it sometimes might bring less than
do not hesitate to sell bad furniture at good prices. the amount of the debt, never brought more. An-
dealer dismissed this part of the
A third disadvantage to the buyer in the furniture other furniture
with the significant remark, "we never lose."
on the installment plan is that the first payment is subject
a glorious business that must bo for the traders
generally made very large in proportion to the whole What
in furniture by installments iu which the dealers
amount involved. Different dealers demand differ- never
lose !
ent percentages on the gross amount for the first
Most furniture dealers are in the habit of taking a
payment. Some ask only one fourth or twenty-five
per cent ; others require one-third or thirty-three chattel mortgage on the furniture they sell on install-
per cent, of the whole; and the same dealer often ments before they deliver the goods. This document
asks a different tariff of different customers. In passes the title from the dealer to the buyer, but it
other words, the dealers experiment with their cus- gives the dealer fully as much control, saving so far
tomers and charge them "what they will stand." as use of the goods is concerned, as if they were still
Of course in such an arrangement as this the poor go in his storo. and the moment a payment ia in default
to the wall, and those who cannot well afford to pay that moment, by virtue of the chattel mortgage, he
can seize all the goods specified tl.erein, absolutely,
JI large percentage at the first.
redress. It often happens that, not content
Perhaps not the least disadvantage pertaining to without
with seizing all his goods, the furniture dealer also
the system of installments is the one to which allu- seizes
all the furniture there may happen to be in the
sion has indirectly been made already—i. e., the house of
the unfortunate non-payee, whether origin-
vagueness and looseness and absence of all fixed and ally belonging
the dealer or not. A case of this
absolute rules regarding all transactions in install- kind occurred to
year in which a party who owed
ments. Not only is the furniture sold on install- $ti0 on furniture last
which she had already paid $290
PIANOS" BY INSTALLMENTS.
ments (while being inferior in quality) rated higher was stripped not for
r
only
of all the furniture represented
T^HE following remarks concerning the pur- in price than furniture sold for cash, but the precise
±_ chase of furniture on the installment plan percentage of higher charge and lower quality varies by this $290, but also of about $100 worth of furniture
apply with nearly equal force to the purchase of with every customer, and is like x in algebra—an which she had bought and paid for in full from an-
dealer. Not being disposed to be thus doubly
pianos on the same plan. It must, however, in all unknown quantity. Every transaction is a law to other
the woman went to law and recovered not
justice be said, that, in spite of the frauds in the itself, and no one person's experience can be taken fleeced,
her $100 worth of furniture, but damages for its
music trades, they are very few in comparison as a guide for another. The standards of the furni- only
removal. But comparatively low victims
with the frauds in the furniture trade, and people ture dealer, like the sand bars at Coney Island, are unlawful
the prudence, the patience or the pluck to obtain
purchasing musical instruments made by respon- constantly shifting, and the dealer himself is the a have
legal vindication of their rights, and are forced to
sible makers, from reputable dealers, in any part only one who can have the advantage o' a knowledge submit
to oppression. Of course usury vitiates a
of the United States, need not fear trickery of any of them. The buyer of the furniture is always at chattel mortgage,
but, as before remarkod, this usury
sort. Where there are a couple of hundred respon- the mercy of the seller. True, there are laws regu- is difficult to pn,ve.
sible makers of pianos and organs, whose names lating the installment system, but these laws seem
are known all over the Union; there aro not a to have been made chiefly in the interest of the
A chattel mortgage, to be valid, requiros to be re-
dozen manufacturers of ftirnitnro whose fame is furniture dealers. Their object seems to be to pro- corded, and a case occurred some time ago in which
tect principally precisely that class which needs the a would-be grasping furniture dealer, who tried to
equally wide-spread.
least protection.
take every advantage of his customers, found him-
As already stated, the law protects the buyer of self tripped up by the fact being discovered that he
During the past few months the system, as it is
called, of buying furniture on the installment plan furniture from becoming the victim of excessive had forgotten to record this particular chattel mort-
has been the cause of some extraordinary revelations usury if the buyer can prove it; but the law does not gage. But this is a very rare case indeed. Some
in the police courts. This tystjin meets with more insist upon the main point involved—!, e., the buyer dealers do not demand a chattel mortgage, but simply
favor in New York than in aijy other city in America. becoming entitled to something at all hazards and consider their goods (nominally sold on installments)
This fact in itself alone is an argument in favor of under all circumstances to represent the money he as leased to the party buying them, the goods re-
the system, for it proves conclusively that the " in- or she has already paid. This, after all, is the prime maining in the furniture dealer s name until the last
stallment plan " or system supplies a demand—a evil in the furnituie by installments plan. Afier be- dollar of the last installment is paid. Then, and then
is title passed from the seller to the buyer.
demand felt chiefly by the worthy and industrious ing charged an exorbitant price f>v the furniture, o>ily,
This method is regarded by the dealers adopting it
poor and by the economical middle classes, whos '• after receiving inferior articles, and after paying a as
simpler than the chattel mortgage plan and equal-
comforts require a certain amount of material, al- large proportion of the value of all the furniture be-
as efficacious. This leasing plan occassionly trips
though their pecuniary status demands a limited ex- fore receiving any of it, the buyer is still at the ly
when some dealer tries to over-reach his custo-
penditure in the line of " cash down " and in whose mercy of the dealer, and if he or she happens unfor- up
to be remiss or dilatory in regard to any of mer " too " outrageously, or when the customer hap-
payments the important element of time enters tunately
the many subsequent payments, then all the buyer pens to be exceptionally smart. Thus an instance has
largely.
already paid is forfeited and altogether lost; been known in which, after a bitterly contested trial,
In a recent case that came off before a civil court has
for all practical purposes might as well have not the Court decided that as selling by installments was
in this city in which a woman, who had paid $70 on been
paid at all. for it represents absolutely no fur- regarded by the dealer as only leasing his goods, so
furniture sold to her for $100, lad all of the furni-
whatever. In case of non-payment, say of paying by installments should only be regarded as
ture taken from her on account of default in pay- niture
installment, all the payments made on paying rent for said goods. Accordingly it was de-
ment of the last S30, the furniture dealer was com- one-seventh
trie other six are wiped out, cancelled, obliterated cided that the money already paid by the buyer to
pelled on his oath to confess that the real value of The dealer comes to the house, seizes all " h i s " the dealer should be credited to her as rental paid,
all the furniture sold the woman by him did not ex- furniture, confiscates it, and takes ii, back into his and where this money paid was in excess of a fair
ceed $70, and that he would have parted with the own possession once more - t h e furniture is probably rental for the goods the surplus should bo returned
entire furniture for that sum in cash ! 'Ihis revela- a little worse for the wear and tear, but the dealer Is to the buyer or lessen. The dealer on this decision,
tion, it is to be justly feared, affords a far truer basis certainly richer by the amount of money he has re- therefore, while he received back all his furnltiiro,
of estimate for the amount of percentage of profit ceived for t'ie furniture which he has always owned was likewise compelled to refund a large proportion
charged on furniture sold on installments than does and has now again in his possession, This looks of the money already received by him. But it cannot
the vague and somewhat contradictory statements very much like absurdly gross injustice, but such is be to.) strongly stated that legal redress can only be
of the ''respectable" furniture dealer. It may be the working of the law. Following the te -finical obtained in exceptional cases, and that tho broad
safely calculated that at least twice as much is de- wording of the law, the dealer is not allowed to take fact remains that the law itself is in ninety-nine in-
manded for articles of furniture sold on install- the furniture directly back to his own warehouse. stances out of a hundred iu favor of the dealer, not
ments as is charged for precisely the same articles He is to sell it at auction for what it will fetch for the buyer, in these transactions.
on a cash basis. Of course this estimate must be cash. Out of this sum he is to deduct the amount
So far, indeed, do some persons presume on the law
taken, like all others on this subject, cum ijrano Palis due him on the furniture and the expense* of this
the dealer, and the customer being general-
In its usual lame, imperfect way the law of the sale, and he is to return the cash balance over and favoring
ly
ignorant of the law or unable to avail himself or
land, or of the State of New York, endeavors to pro- above this to the nuyer of the furniture. But this herself
of it, that in some instances parties have been
vide against this evil. It is .specified that if extor- stipulation is mere verbiage; it is only adding insult known to
furniture in quantities on install-
tion can be proved in the price charged for furniture to injury, for the furnituie dealer is, of course, pro- ment-and obtain
then forthwith to resell this furniture to
purchased on installments—if, for example, the videu with some interested and pliant tool of an auc- other parties
on installments again at an advance,
purchaser can, in a suit at law, demonstrate con- tioneer, who takes the furniture and does with it pre-
making the party who ultimately pa,s for the
clusively that he or she has been charged for art idea cisely what the dealer wants to be done with it, and thus
furniture pay a double, or rather, a triple percentage
of furniture sold on installments twice or three times precisely what the buyer would not want to be done of profit, or extortion. Just as, on the other hand,
the price asked for the same articles on a cash basis with it. He advertises it for tale at some out of the instances have been known in which the parties buy-
—then the compact between seller and purchaser be- way place, at some inconvenient time; the sale is hur- ing furniture or. installments have sold this furniture,
comes void on the ground of usury. But this is a ried through, the dealer or hi-representative buys in as being "out and out" their own, to third parties,
legal remedy that is seldom or never practically the furniture at just enough to cover what is still due who have paid in good faith for the entire furniture
availed of. The parties buying furniture on install- him on it and a douceur to the convenient auctioneer; in cash, and have found too late that the party of
ments seldom have ruuch time to spare to take the and the transaction is over. The letter of the law has whom they purchased it had no right to sell it, hav-
trouble to price goods outside of the parties they are been complied with, the dealer has repaid himself ing not yet paid on it any but the first, or at the most,
directly dealing with or the articles they want. They for his furniture, and the only person left out in the the second installment, leaving the victims in this
are too busy, too timid or too poor to resort to law; cold is the unfortunate buyer, who has no furniture transaction to arrange about the balance still due
and the furniture dealer.-* rarely commit themselves left and who is poorer by just the amount of money with the original dealer.
on this or any other point connected with their busi-
compositions, the effect will be superb. There are
two of Steinway's "pony " grands, which will attract
equally as much attention. They are small repro-
ductions of the Stein way concert grand in size, but
in tone they are as rich and pure as the larger ones.
They arc in ebony cases, with carved legs of Eastlake
design, and are exquisitely ornamental as well as use-
ful. These two are valued together at $2,100 or $1,050
each, and represent in small space the perfection and
beauty of the great concert grands. There are a num-
ber of upright grands of all makes, in which the ef-
fect of the grand square is obtained in cabiaetspace,
and in which ornamental carvings and designs are
handsomely displayed. A great attraction is two
beautiful pony grand uprights, manufactured by
Steinway tt S0113. These contain really regular grand
works in an upright case. They have full steel plates
the same as the regular grands, with full bent rim in
the backs, and haw almost the same power and qual-
ity as the parlor grands. The value represented in
the salon of the Baldwins is $25,000. This is a stroke
of enterprise and public spirit that deserves re< ogni-
tion and will obtain reward.
"Three evenings of each week Profs. Zoeller and
Freso will give piano re-itals in the salon, at which
fino programmes will be rendered, the selections
ranging from popular to classic music. Prof. Frese
who has been in Now York, has written that he will
arrive in Louisville on the 15th for the season, and
the recitals will be features of great interest during
the Exposition. Mr. Johnston is also arranging for
an evening or afternoon ballad concert every week,
in which popular vocalists will appear in the songs
of the best composers. Such ballad writers as Sulli-
van, Gabriel, Schubert, Mendelssohn and others will
be represented in the programmes, and the musical
people will be especially invited. These ballad con-
certs will be made society events.
"The Baldwin salon was completely arranged last
evening when the lights w ore turned up, and its elabo-
rate beauty attracted general admiration."