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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
Ferdinand Mayer
WILL TAKE A TRIP TO EUROPE, WHERE HE
WILL
TARRY SEVERAL
MONTHS
HE HAS
MANY PLANS UNDER CONSIDERATION, BUT
WILL NOT DECIDE DEFINITELY AS TO
HIS BUSINESS ALLIANCE
RETURN
UNTIL HIS
HIGH COMPLIMENT PAID
HIM BY CHICKERING & SONS.
O
F late there has been much specula-
tion rife as to the probable business
future of Mr. Ferdinand Mayer, who for
many years has been manager of the New
York warerooms of Chickering & Sons, at
the expiration of his existing contract with
them. There have been many predictions,
all of which have shot wide of the mark.
For a term of years Mr. Mayer has rilled
with ability an important position which
he still maintains. Pie has devoted himself
assiduously to the interests of the firm with
which he is engaged, and as he is an inde-
fatigable worker, he feels that the most im-
portant move he can make after the expir-
ation of his present agreement, will be to
take an entire respite from business for a
term of months, and he has therefore ar-
ranged a most enjoyable program.
He will sail, accompanied by his family,
on the steamer "Kaiser Wilhelm," March
7th, for Italy. His first stopping place will
be Naples. After touring Italy at a con-
venient pace, he will journey to Paris and
thence across to London, where he will re-
main for a while. He will then visit Ger-
many, where he will meet by special invi-
tation many prominent musical people with
whom he is en rapport. His principal
tarrying places in Germany will be Frank-
fort, Wiesbaden and Munich. Of course,
such a music lover as Mr. Mayer could not
well be absent from Beyreuth during the
season, and after attending the music fes-
tival there he will also visit Sondershausen,
where several months ago his mother died
at an advanced age. His presence there
will be necessary in order to facilitate the
final arrangements of matters pertaining to
her estate.
The program which Mr. Mayer has
mapped out will carry him well into
August, on the 25th of which month he
will sail for the United States on the
steamer " Havel " from Bremen. In a
recent conversation with Mr. Mayer, we
asked:
"Then you have not definitely decided
as to your business future after March?"
He replied: "No. I have had a number
of offers, but the field is so large that I
have decided not to consider matters defi-
nitely, but take an entire relaxation from
business, during which time I shall con-
sider carefully and properly all matters of
a business import which I now have under
consideration. Undoubtedly I shall have
something of a definite nature to say im-
mediately upon my return from Europe."
Mr.
many
cerns.
by a
terest
Mayer has been the recipient of
flattering offers from business con-
A proposition has been made him
New York man to take an active in-
in a business institution on terms
which Mr. Mayer says " I consider in the
light of a very high compliment." He has
also been approached by a corporation re-
cently formed, and owning a musical patent
which Mr. Mayer considers of great com-
mercial value, to take an active part in
their business and to show the particular
workings of the patent in European com-
mercial centers, Berlin, Paris and London.
In addition to this, several other propo-
sitions have been made, all of which Mr.
Mayer takes under consideration, as stated
abov.e. During his entire official career
with Chickering & Sons, the relations have
been most pleasant and cordial between the
members of that corporation and Mr.
Mayer.
It is plainly evident that they
thoroughly appreciate Mr. Mayer's artistic
qualifications from the following communi-
cation, which we have received from them
under date of Jan 3d:
" I n view of the fact that you have an-
nounced that Mr. Theo. Pfafflin enters our
employ in the New York warerooms after
the expiration of Mr. Mayer's contract, we
desire to state that this was brought about
through our desire to associate with us at
headquarters Mr. Mayer's high musical
judgment, and to have him take charge of
our retail warerooms in Boston. We have
offered Mr. Mayer this position, and he
now has the matter under consideration."
The above communication itself will show
the proposition made to Mr. Mayer by
Chickering & Sons, which he will, with
other proposals, give careful consideration.
There is one thing certain, a man of Mr.
Mayer's ability has a wide range in which
to select a business future.
Krakauer Bros.
SOLD MORE PIANOS IN 1895 THAN ANY YEAR
SINCE THEY ENTERED BUSINESS.
**HTHIS has been the best year we hav e
^
had since entering on the manu-
facture of pianos," said Maurice Krakauer,
of Krakauer Bros., to a REVIEW man last
Tuesday.
"That is, we have sold more
pianos than ever before, but as our books
have not been balanced for the year, we
cannot give definite figures.
"The year 1895 completed our twenty-
fifth year in business, and as soon as our
books are closed up we are going to give
our employees some sort of a jollification
to celebrate the event.
"We are quite sanguine about the out-
look for the coming year—but, of covirse,
we cannot say at such an early date what
the outcome will be."
The Norris & Hyde Piano.
• T H E Norris & Hyde transposing key-
|^
board piano is undoubtedly one of the
great successes of the day. The character
of the firms who have secured the agency
for this instrument, and the volume of trade
which is reported from the Norris & Hyde
factory in Boston, demonstrates the fore-
going. The Norris & Hyde transposing
keyboard is, to use the hackneyed expres-
sion, "a long-felt want," and singers and
musicians in general hail its appearance
with pleasure, as it enables them to raise
or lower the key of a song or piece of
music without a moment's delay.
The
Norris & Hyde firm have a big thing in
their transposing keyboard, and they are
destined to add some big houses to their
list of agents during the present year.
Mr. Steinway
SAYS THE RAPID TRANSIT ROAD WILL STILL BE
BUILT FOR $ 5 5 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 .
M
R. PARSONS, the chief engineer of
the Rapid Transit Commission, was
charged on Monday with having made a
serious error in his calculations as to the
cost of the proposed road. The hearing
was before the Supreme Court Special Com-
missioner, and George Zabriskie, counsel
for the opponents of the road, brought out
the fact that Mr. Parsons had miscalculated
the distance from Fourteenth to Thirty
fourth street on the east side up Fourth
avenue.
It made a difference of nearly
$1,000,000 in the estimate for construction.
He was asked if that error ran all through
the calculations, and Mr. Parsons withdrew
his table to consider it.
I asked Rapid Transit Commissioner
William Steinway last evening how this
supposed error would affect the work of the
Commission.
"Even supposing it be true," replied Mr.
Steinway, "it is a mere nothing. Mr. Par-
sons is one of the most accurate and able
men of the many first-class American en-
gineers I have met. We can build that
road for $55,000,000. We have had several
responses from foreign as well as from
native builders who are willing to take the
contract at that figure. We do not propose
to expend any more money than what has
been allotted.
"I do not think Mr. Parsons has made
any error in the whole distance on Fourth
avenue, and there are no physical difficul-
ties in the way—it is all rock."
Reinhard Kochmann Seriously III.
W
E regret to say that Reinhard Koch-
mann, who recently retired as road
representative for llardman, Peck & Co.,
has been lying seriously ill for the past two
weeks at his home in Mt. Vernon, N. Y.—
so ill that his doctor would not allow friends
to see him. Mr. Kochmann has always
been noted for his strong physique and
general good health, and that alone will
pull him through. His doctor claims that
this illness has been in his system for soire
time, and has probably been brought about
through over work. Mr. Kochmann has a
host of friends in the trade, who will sin-
cerely wish for his restoration to health.
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"THE
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