Music Trade Review

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• THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
From the Editor's Note Book
of a half dozen institutions, they do not
reckon upon the effect which half a dozen
M E R C I A L INSTITUTIONS DO NOT GO ON FOREVER
AN ILLUSTRATION—TRADE IN BUF-
deaths would make with plans at present
FALO— THE COLBY PIANO CO. WILL CONTINUE—NEW
OFFICERS—PROSPECTS
well defined. We must all reckon with
BRIGHT FOR THE BUSINESS—AFFAIRS OF THE SHAW PIANO CO.
FRANK
the grim Reaper and we are in entire ig-
MF.CKEL WILL DIRECT
THE RETAIL TRADE IN CLEVELAND
HUSTLING
norance
of just when the sickle will cut us
HENRY DREHER—THE CITY BY THE STRAITS—THE AFTERMATH OF
THE BIG FIRE
ACTIVITY AT ANN ARBOR
SAGINAW AS A
off. Life is a mighty uncertain quantity,
GROWING MUSICO-INDUSTRIAL POINT
THE ERD PIANO CO.
and oftentimes the curtain is rung down
v
—-GERMAINS MOVE CHASE BROS. BUSY NEW STYLES
without the slightest warning.
A. B. CHASE CO. AND NEW YORK
PRESTO'S
An illustration. Last week I was in
WEAK DEFENSE
INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM.
Detroit. I was standing on the platform
of an electric car speeding down one of the
HE further I proceed westward is true the manner of marketing the pro- wide avenues of that city. Ahead I no-
the more strongly the fact be- duct has changed and is constantly under- ticed a vehicle in which were seated two
comes emphasized that coma- going a transition of methods; but the fact men. As we came opposite them I noticed
tose conditions are every- is the number of piano manufacturers is they were engaged in a jocular conversa-
where being overwhelmed by steadily increasing, that too notwithstand- tion. There was a look of content upon
the steady on-rushing tide of ing the unprecedented dullness of the their features, and no thought of impend-
business activity. All the barriers of in- past three years. Manufacturers have ing danger lurked there. Suddenly the
difference are being swept away, and there sprung up East and West, and what is horse took fright and swept on by us for a
is plenty of energy which is sweeping the more, in most cases they have acquired a block or so at a terrific pace. Our car
rushing tide along. McKinley is getting certain trade and there is every reason to passed them and then the horse with a wild
nearer to his show these mid-October days. believe that theavenuesof distribution will dash just missed the platform on which I
was standing, and with a frightful crash
A condition worthy of special mention be constantly widening for them.
What is more, no matter how perfect hurled the light vehicle upon a truck load-
in the piano trade is the unusual activity
noticeable among manufacturers of higher may be the system of the six great houses ed with hardware. Just before the whole
grade instruments. We have all heard the to-day no one can tell how radical the came down in chaotic mass I caught a
statement openly made that the higher changes may be during the next few years, glimpse of the white, despairing faces of
priced instruments, save a few of the more changes wherein the entire policy of the those men. Before we could reach the
notable makes, were doomed; that the concerns may be overthrown. You may wreck one had crawled out but the other
cheap piano had obtained such ahold that talk about your six great houses but did lay white and still, while from a deep cut
it would almost entirely supplant its you ever stop to think what disaster to in his head flowed a tide which crimsoned
higher priced relative. Recent develop- their plans may be wrought by six the earth about. Tenderly we lifted him
ments explode that fallacious assertion, deaths? This talk that great concerns go and carried him to the sidewalk. When
as the manufacturers of high grade in- on forever may catch the galleries but it the ambulance surgeon arrived he took one
struments are busy while some of the does not appeal to the sober sense of man, look, felt his pulse, then examined his
manufacturers of the very cheap pianos neither is the statement borne out by his- heart. " Poor fellow," he said as he shook
his head sorrowfully, " I can render him
are in a peculiar position, brought about tory, particularly piano history.
no
assistance; he is dead. "
as a direct result of the close com-
In all of the varied walks of life, there
petition of the past few years. It is are men who loom up giants as compared
And yet ten minutes before, full of
well known that they have sold on close with the great mass. There are men who strength and hope, that man had apparent-
margins, very thinly pared at that, and have carved their way to the very front in ly a long lease of life. He did not reckon
with the increased cost of the different civil, in military, in political, and in in- upon death. And it comes to us all.
materials which enter into the construction dustrial life. They won plaudits from the
This morning George M. Pullman, the
of the instruments they find it imperative multitude, but have they left successors? great car builder and financier, passed sud-
that they should raise the selling price of
Things are so ordained in this world that denly away. He was apparently in excel-
their instruments. To this advance the there is a limit placed upon the expansive lent health when he retired the night
dealer naturally demurs, claimfng that for powers of man. In the busy whirl of life before. As soon as was known that the head
the slight difference which exists between there are wrought many wondrous results, of the Pullman interests was dead there was
the cost of a cheap and a medium grade in- but it is seldom indeed that our great cap- an immediate slump in Pullman stocks.
strument he would unquestionably prefer tains of industry leave behind successors He was the creator, the brains, the Czar of
the medium-grade piano, more especially who carry on their own plans to further the great corporation, and his death will
so when the name has a commercial as well conquest. Aside from the possession of have an effect upon the future of the com-
as a selling value in his territory, and has intellectual and physical gifts there may pany. W. W. Kimball was an intimate
stood the test of years.
At the
be internal complications, clashing of friend of George M. Pullman.
time
of
my
call
to-day
he
had
gone
down
Another statement which has gained money interests, differences of opinion
to
call
at
his
late
residence.
more or less prominence, and has also many which cause a separation of forces rather
No matter how fondly cherished plans a
advocates—that within a surprisingly short than an amalgamation. While there may
period of time the piano manufacturing in- be much oil of industry in the personnel of man may have for the perpetuation of his
dustry will have resolved itself into the such concerns, there may also be the water life's work, death changes it all, and a new
regime is ushered in at his demise.
hands of half a dozen manufacturers who of indifference, and they mixeth not.
Charles A. Dana, the last of America's
No, when the alarmists talk about the
will virtually control the entire output.
I am not a believer in that doctrine. It concentration of our industry in the hands great journalists, is hardly cold in death
BRIGHTENING TRADE CONDITIONS—THE HIGH GRADE PIANO IS IN EVIDENCE
OF
C E N T R A L I Z A T I O N IN
THE
PIANO
TRADE—WE
MUST RECKON W I T H
DEATH
THE FALLACY
AND
COM-