Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
From a Traveler's Note Book.
A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION
OF THE SILVER QUESTION
CONFIDENCE, NOT CURRENCY, CON-
a good combination, and with the splendid
line of instruments which they carry are
becoming more and more prominent fac^
tors in the Cincinnati trade.
TRACTED—-HEDENBERG & SISSSON, SMITH & WEISENBORN, FRANK H. ERD's SUCCESS.
HE silver question was never
brought to my notice in such
a practical way as when I was
down in Mexico. It struck
me rather novel at first to sit
down and eat a meal for
which a regular charge of fifty cents was
made, to toss out an American silver dollar
in payment for my dinner, to receive back
as change, instead of fifty cents, a Mexican
dollar containing about seven grains more
silver and less alloy than the one which I
had tendered. In other words one of our
silver dollars is worth in Mexico two Mex-
ican silver dollars.
This talk about easy money, plenty of it
in circulation and all that, causes one to
believe that these wild Populists seem
rather to cherish the belief that all the Gov-
ernment has to do is to turn the wheel and
grind out the dollars and every one can
come and help themselves provided they
bring with them anything from a pint
measure to a bushel basket.
* *
* is the name of a re-
Hedenberg & Sisson
cently incorporated company in Brooklyn,
of which Mr. C. G. Hedenberg is resident
manager.
Mr. Hedenberg has made a
success of the retail music business since
Why is this? one naturally asks.
Simply because gold is the standard of the
United States. For one of our silver dol-
lars, one can procure a gold dollar if re-
quired; while in Mexico, the standard is
silver, and if they wish to purchase gold
dollars with Mexican silver dollars, they
must pay the difference in exchange values.
Gold is the standard of all civilized coun-
tries, and does not change its value when
it reaches the frontier of any nation. Sil-
ver is a fluctuating standard, and what the
silver men desire to do to-day is to forte a
depreciated
metal upon this country
through government mediumship.
The cry of sixteen to one is a fallacy.
Because silver has depreciated steadily all
over the world, while gold has maintained
a fixed standard, is it any reason why the
silver men should attempt to force by leg-
islative fiat silver to double its value any
more than the copper men have a right to
complain of the depreciation of copper and
that copper should be used more largely as
a money medium ?
A Kansas farmer has just as much right
to complain of his corn depreciating in val-
ue, and surely just as much legal right to
ask the Government to force the people to
pay twice the market value of the corn as
the silver men have a right to force this
country to endorse silver to twice its value.
. Make it thirty to one, that is the correct
ratio.
This howl about a contracted currency I
think is rot pure and simple. There is
four times the money in circulation that
there was during war times and the popula-
tion has little more than doubled. I ask
any of my readers who are silverites if they
can name any instance wherein a domestic
contract of any magnitude whatsoever has
been cancelled on account of gold not being
tendered in the purchase. I do not, of
course, mean to include in this, deals which
have occurred in times of panic, but in or-
dinary times of business prosperity.
his entrance therein some years ago. His
business is located at 1230 Bedford Avenue,
where he has built up a very substantial
trade in pianos, organs and musical instru-
ments. The company also publish music.
Has any contract ever fallen through be-
cause the payment was not made in gold?
Or take it the other way.
Can they cite an
instance wherein a contract would have
been made had the payment been tendered
in silver?
Smith & Weisenborn, Cincinnati, control
a steadily expanding trade. Mr. Weisen-
born is a hard worker and attends to the
wareroom trade, while his partner, Mr.
Smith, devotes most of his time to follow-
ing up outside sales. Together they form
C. C. HEDENBERG.
Speaking of pianos, have you seen that
piano which bears the shortest name of any
on the market? I refer to the Erd, made
in Saginaw, Mich. The Erd piano may
be short on name, but it is long on quali-
ties, excellent qualities at that.
The builder of this instrument, Frank
H. Erd, is a musician; has been from boy-
hood up. Being handy with the knife and
chisel, it was a practice with him in early
days to make violins and other musical in-
struments. There is one of these which
was made by F. Erd in earlier years which
is now located in Detroit, and its owner
would not part with it for a considerable
sum; he prizes it highly. All this shows
that Mr. Erd has musical taste.
He
became a dealer in Saginaw, and was suc-
cessful; satisfactorily so. His business
grew, enlarged, until he was selling all over
Northern Michigan.
He was not satisfied with remaining a
dealer all his life.
He wished to manu-
facture, and incorporate in the instruments
some of his original ideas. This he did, and
the Erd piano, from the very start, has been
successful.
Mr. Erd has not manufac-
tured them in such large quantities, but he
has found a ready market for all he has had,
and the Erd piano continues to grow in
popularity in Michigan and other States.
The Erd, it should be understood, is a
high grade piano. Since the hard times
have come on, Mr. Erd, like other manu-
facturers, saw the necessityof another grade,
so his ideas in this connection were incor-
porated in the "Rose" piano, an instrument
of comparatively recent inception. The
"Rose" has been a good running mate for
the Erd. They pair well together, and
dealers have found that the "Rose" has
made a splendid second for the Erd.
Satisfied with his piano results, Mr. Erd
paid his attention toward the manufacture
of harps. The Erd harp is being made by
competent experts under Mr. Erd's per-
sonal supervision, Mr. Erd is a musician
—he is a business man, and a genius at
that.
*
E. H. WEISENBORN.
The history of music shows that as a rule
composers barely earned enough to pay for
their daily bread, while the singers who in-
terpreted their works reveled in wealth.
Even Wagner received only $800 for the
score of "Tristan and Isolde," which it
took him several years to write, while Jean
de Reszke gets twice that amount each
time he sings in it. It is, therefore, seem-
ingly paradoxical that a composer should
provide for singers, as Verdi has done in
Milan. He lately visited that city and de-
posited $80,000 toward building an asylum
for aged and invalid stage artists. It is to
be located near the Porta Magenta. "The
singers," says Verdi, "helped me to win
my fortune; to them, therefore, in the first
place, I wish to dedicate it."