Music Trade Review

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THE
n
Swindled by Employees.
MONTGOMERY WARD & CO. LOSE HEAVILY BY A
CLEVER SCHEME.
[Special to The Review.]
Chicago, 111., April 12, 1898.
During the past six months Montgomery
Ward & Co. have been robbed of several
thousand dollars' worth of goods by a clever
conspiracy on the part of a number of em-
ployees of the firm. The plot was unearthed
during the past two weeks by the Mooney &
Boland detective agency, and four arrests
were made last night. The men lodged in
the county jail are : Lyman S. Ballinger,
clerk in the musical department; his brother,
John I. Ballinger; Albert Anderson, another
clerk, and A. C. Kent, an ex-employee of the
firm. The Ballinger brothers are well con-
nected. Their father is a member of the
stock yards firm of Brown, Ballinger & Co.
Confessions were secured from each of the
men.
One of the schemes worked by them was
to have the brother of the music clerk come
to the store with an empty violin case and
request the floor manager to allow him to
exchange the instrument. The manager
furnished him with a memorandum to his
brother in the music department. There an
exchange slip for $40 was issued and the
empty case tossed under the counter. Armed
with the check, goods would be purchased
from the various departments up to the $40
limit. At the cashier's desk the exchange
slip would be presented in payment, and,
having the " O. K." of the music clerk,
would be honored. This would give the
conspirators $40 worth of goods for an empty
violin case.
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A number of other schemes along ingenious
lines were successfully worked. The Ball-
inger brothers confessed to taking out about
$365 worth of goods in the past two months.
Most of the stolen articles were sold and
pawned. Several bartenders of notorious
Wabash Avenue resorts figure as the pur-
chasers of the booty.
W.
W. Kimball Co.
Forty years ago in a little room i o x n , in
the rear of a jewelry store in Chicago, W.
W. Kimball first commenced in the music
business. Not half a century has elapsed,
yet the Kimball piano received the highest
award at the world's fair, and is used and
indorsed by nearly every great musical artist
in the world. The Kimball piano, then,
from the highest standpoint of art, is the
true peer of any instrument now made. And
the Kimball business and the Kimball fac-
tories are the largest in the world. What
has brought about these great results ? The
Kimball Company have always been firm
advocates of advertising and have at the
same time believed that their advertising
must be backed by truth. These ideas are
so thoroughly instilled into the minds of
every one connected with the house that
wherever they have a representative Kimball
pianos are talked about continually through
the daily papers. A local illustration is the
opening of their branch house in this city a
year and a-half ago and to-day selling more
pianos and organs in Minneapolis and the
Northwest than all other music houses in the
city combined. The W. W. Kimball Com-
pany is an illustration of what careful, con-
scientious advertising will do.—Minneapolis
Times.
Strich & Zeidler "Specials."
During the Review's visit to the Strich &
Zeidler factory and warerooms on Wednes-
day, the brief business talk led to a discussion
on carvings and moldings, and before leaving
opportunity was taken to examine the work
of expert carvers now busy on special orders.
These carvers have produced and are now
producing some of the best specimens of
panel and truss work ever executed for the
piano trade. Several examples in relief
were seen. When completed and in place
they are sure to secure warm commenda-
tion from all competent judges of carving
and of good taste in piano construction.
Just as The Review was about to leave,
an elegant instrument—a Strich & Zeidler
style E, of 1898—was passed out of the
hands of the tuners for final examination and
test by the firm members before shipment to
a distant point. Like all the completed S.
& Z. products, it was good to look upon.
General business is reported as fairly ac-
tive, the call for Baby Grands and new style
H continuing.
Mr. Widenmann left on Monday for a
brief local tour.
The
" Beautiful Starr.'
This piano is a necessity in every home. It
makes music that soothes, cheers, elevates
and inspires. It is the acknowledged leading
instrument in Columbus to-day, says the
Ledger of that city. It has a world-renown-
ed reputation, being noted not only through-
out the United States for its superior tone
and beauty, but is exceedingly popular in
foreign countries.
Music on Your Own Terms
THE
GRAPHOPHQNE requires no skilled performer to play
it, and yet it will furnish any kind of music desired. It is vastly
superior to other so-called talking machines, because on the
GRAPHOPHONE one can easily make records of his own music, song
or story, to be instantly reproduced. Its performances are not
confined to the reproduction of specially prepared and stereotyped
subjects. It is fascinating and marvelous as an entertainer
Music dealers will find the GRAPHOPHONE a great attraction in their
stores, and more than that, a most profitable addition to their stock.
Liberal terms offered to dealers; can be learned on application. . .
Graphophones are Retailed at $10 and up*
Manufactured under the patents of Bell, Tainter, Edison and MacDonald.
quarters of the world for Talking Machines and Talking Machine Supplies.
Our establishment is manufacturing head-
Write for Catalogue M.
Columbia Phonograph Company,
NEW
YORK, U55, U57, U59 Broadway.
PARIS, 34 Boulevard des Italiens.
CHICAGO, 2H State Street.
ST.
LOUIS, 720-722 Olive Street.
Dem. m.
PHILADELPHIA, J032 Chestnut Street.
WASHINGTON, 919 Pennsylvania Avenue.
BALTIMORE, 110 East Baltimore Street.
BUFFALO, 3t3 Main Street.