Music Trade Review
Issue: 1898 Vol. 26 N. 24 - Page 9
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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
most of us do—but I have not thought turns by instance you say—Providence I
that I learned anything. I find I learn say—into the making of piano-fortes ? It
more from such gentlemen as you and is because America is America and the
from conversation with you. I had the constitution is what it is. As long as you
privilege of having half an hour's conver- misgovern a country, as the kingdom of
sation with Mr. Miller before I came in. I Spain is now, and half the countries of the
learnt more about my country than by read- world are, so long you will not have any
ing the French Revue du Monde, or from Jonas Chickerings. You will not have
papers by Cicero, or from the New York nine States represented in a convention of
Herald. The daily newspapers give you musicians. I was talking with Mr. Miller
information on the one great subject. It the other day. I said, "Mr. Miller, the
teaches you what Sampson is doing at Santi- men who elevated their muskets over the
ago, but if you happen to want to know what ramparts at Bunker Hill, those men ele-
the State of California is doing in educa- vated the identical muskets that their
tion, what the State of Idaho is doing in great grandfathers used in the reign of
irrigation, what the State of Pennsylvania Queen Anne."
The men who fought at Bunker Hill
wore clothes which were made in looms
that their great, great, great, great grand-
fathers brought over from Plymouth or
Holland. Why was it that the manufac-
ture of woollens had not been improved in
a century and a half? Why is it? The
answer is given in the blood in the fibre of
the brain of every gentleman who sits
around me here, so that he has suggested
some novelty, or something or other,
which has enabled his firm to make the
very best piano (laughter and applause).
That came in with the Declaration of Inde-
pendence ;" it came to us with Ben Frank-
lin and Lord Shelburne, when they drafted
\ the treaty making America free.
In
Washington's time they sent John Jay
over to make a treaty with England. He
made the famous Jay commercial treaty.
FRED P. STIEFF.
The people on this side, Washington's
is doing in the social questions of the world,
cabinet, and the people on the other side
you do not find it in the newspapers; no,
did not know that one ounce of cotton was
you go to a dinner party and ask.
raised in the United States. Jay didn't
I believe that this country in the next
know it. When the row came up about
century, is going to be governed very
cotton, they said, "Cotton, cotton, we do
largely by its special congresses. We see
not raise cotton in America." The people
such a Congress going on at this time in
from Georgia said, "Yes,"and so Jay's
Denver, and it will necessarily have an
treaty had .to be altered. The way they
effect upon legislation. The physicians
came to raise cotton in Georgia was that a
of this country are now in session there
New England boy had been sent by his
and the result of that Congress will be the
father to Yale College. The father's funds
abatement of yellow fever. Congress will
gave out, and the young man left college,
obey the instructions of these physicians.
went to Georgia and became a tutor in
The same way with the Indian Congress.
Gen. Greene's family. He invented the
You gentlemen don't read it, but those
cotton gin. As it is necessary for the life
who do care about them read once a year
of my body that my blood should circulate,
five or six statements made by that Con-
so it is necessary that a young man
gress of what ought to be done, and four
born in Boston should go to San Fran-
months afterwards we read that Congress
cisco, and a young man born in San Fran-
has done that and the president of the
cisco should go to Boston. The great
United States has approved it. That is
trouble is we are becoming provincial, we
the system of Edward Bellamy. His
are no longer Massachusetts or Idaho men.
plan was that if a great engineering work
When I studied geography, they made us
was to be done in the United States, it
begin at the North Pole and work down.
should not be at first determined by the
I am better acquainted with the geography
Congress of the country, it should be de-
of Greenland as it is supposed to be, than
termined by a board of engineers ap-
I am with the geography of Massachusetts.
pointed by themselves of the country.
It said Massachusetts was distinguished
I have in my house the first piano that for her fisheries, her cotton manufactures
Jonas Chickering ever saw. I know the >and for the part she took in the revolution-
circumstances by which Jonas Chickering ary war. I want you gentlemen to go and
turned his attention from a skillful ma- see Bunker Hill, and Mr. Chairman, take
chinist in a cotton factory to piano inven- them to Lexington. Show them the spot
tor and manufacturer. Why is it that the where the American flag was first displayed
machinist in New Hampshire turned to and then let them understand Massachu-
making pianos ? Does a blacksmith in setts patriotism.
Bulgaria turn to making pianos ? Is
there a country in this world where a man
The Chairman: I next take great pleas-
13
ure in introducing one, whose subject has
been inadvertently left off the program,
but, who will, I hope, continue the story
he was telling us last night.
Mr. H. C. Krehbiel: I do believe that
a critic can be a good fellow. And not
that we think of you as manufacturers,
and we as the artists. I am willing to
forget all that. I believe you are all art-
ists, every one of you.
Dr. Hale has said hard things about
the newspaper men, but I believe that he
is one of us and we hope he will live
twenty years more at least. To-night
through good luck I am privileged to
stand here in my own private^capacity and
say what I please. You, gentlemen, are
not unlike Pan and his fair Diana. You
think you are pursuing commercial ends
yet you are carrying sweetness and light
and pleasantness to all parts of the world.
We are in war time. There has been
nothing in the meeting that we have had
here, nothing more sonorous than your
patriotic songs. Why ? Because we are
in war times. Who is the god of war ?
Not the old god of war, but the god of
retributive justice, whom we meet in the
first book—it is Phoebus Apollo. What
does he do? With that resplendent bow
of his he sends away into the camp of the
enemy, what is the first piano, the bow.
We have another beautiful old Greek
legend how in this same battle he listened
to the music and twanging of that old bow
string. You are all descendants of Apollo
in the fact that you are producing his
instrument improved. I want to say to
you also that you are doing much good for
music in America. I think your industry
here is about seventy-five years old. The
musical art began in America about 1810.
From 1810 to 1815 there were about six
thousand families in Boston, and fifty
piano-fortes. I have seen an advertise-
ment of an old Cincinnati paper of 1818 in
which a Professor of Music promised in
fifteen lessons to teach eighteen tunes on
GEO. P. BENT.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
most of us do—but I have not thought turns by instance you say—Providence I
that I learned anything. I find I learn say—into the making of piano-fortes ? It
more from such gentlemen as you and is because America is America and the
from conversation with you. I had the constitution is what it is. As long as you
privilege of having half an hour's conver- misgovern a country, as the kingdom of
sation with Mr. Miller before I came in. I Spain is now, and half the countries of the
learnt more about my country than by read- world are, so long you will not have any
ing the French Revue du Monde, or from Jonas Chickerings. You will not have
papers by Cicero, or from the New York nine States represented in a convention of
Herald. The daily newspapers give you musicians. I was talking with Mr. Miller
information on the one great subject. It the other day. I said, "Mr. Miller, the
teaches you what Sampson is doing at Santi- men who elevated their muskets over the
ago, but if you happen to want to know what ramparts at Bunker Hill, those men ele-
the State of California is doing in educa- vated the identical muskets that their
tion, what the State of Idaho is doing in great grandfathers used in the reign of
irrigation, what the State of Pennsylvania Queen Anne."
The men who fought at Bunker Hill
wore clothes which were made in looms
that their great, great, great, great grand-
fathers brought over from Plymouth or
Holland. Why was it that the manufac-
ture of woollens had not been improved in
a century and a half? Why is it? The
answer is given in the blood in the fibre of
the brain of every gentleman who sits
around me here, so that he has suggested
some novelty, or something or other,
which has enabled his firm to make the
very best piano (laughter and applause).
That came in with the Declaration of Inde-
pendence ;" it came to us with Ben Frank-
lin and Lord Shelburne, when they drafted
\ the treaty making America free.
In
Washington's time they sent John Jay
over to make a treaty with England. He
made the famous Jay commercial treaty.
FRED P. STIEFF.
The people on this side, Washington's
is doing in the social questions of the world,
cabinet, and the people on the other side
you do not find it in the newspapers; no,
did not know that one ounce of cotton was
you go to a dinner party and ask.
raised in the United States. Jay didn't
I believe that this country in the next
know it. When the row came up about
century, is going to be governed very
cotton, they said, "Cotton, cotton, we do
largely by its special congresses. We see
not raise cotton in America." The people
such a Congress going on at this time in
from Georgia said, "Yes,"and so Jay's
Denver, and it will necessarily have an
treaty had .to be altered. The way they
effect upon legislation. The physicians
came to raise cotton in Georgia was that a
of this country are now in session there
New England boy had been sent by his
and the result of that Congress will be the
father to Yale College. The father's funds
abatement of yellow fever. Congress will
gave out, and the young man left college,
obey the instructions of these physicians.
went to Georgia and became a tutor in
The same way with the Indian Congress.
Gen. Greene's family. He invented the
You gentlemen don't read it, but those
cotton gin. As it is necessary for the life
who do care about them read once a year
of my body that my blood should circulate,
five or six statements made by that Con-
so it is necessary that a young man
gress of what ought to be done, and four
born in Boston should go to San Fran-
months afterwards we read that Congress
cisco, and a young man born in San Fran-
has done that and the president of the
cisco should go to Boston. The great
United States has approved it. That is
trouble is we are becoming provincial, we
the system of Edward Bellamy. His
are no longer Massachusetts or Idaho men.
plan was that if a great engineering work
When I studied geography, they made us
was to be done in the United States, it
begin at the North Pole and work down.
should not be at first determined by the
I am better acquainted with the geography
Congress of the country, it should be de-
of Greenland as it is supposed to be, than
termined by a board of engineers ap-
I am with the geography of Massachusetts.
pointed by themselves of the country.
It said Massachusetts was distinguished
I have in my house the first piano that for her fisheries, her cotton manufactures
Jonas Chickering ever saw. I know the >and for the part she took in the revolution-
circumstances by which Jonas Chickering ary war. I want you gentlemen to go and
turned his attention from a skillful ma- see Bunker Hill, and Mr. Chairman, take
chinist in a cotton factory to piano inven- them to Lexington. Show them the spot
tor and manufacturer. Why is it that the where the American flag was first displayed
machinist in New Hampshire turned to and then let them understand Massachu-
making pianos ? Does a blacksmith in setts patriotism.
Bulgaria turn to making pianos ? Is
there a country in this world where a man
The Chairman: I next take great pleas-
13
ure in introducing one, whose subject has
been inadvertently left off the program,
but, who will, I hope, continue the story
he was telling us last night.
Mr. H. C. Krehbiel: I do believe that
a critic can be a good fellow. And not
that we think of you as manufacturers,
and we as the artists. I am willing to
forget all that. I believe you are all art-
ists, every one of you.
Dr. Hale has said hard things about
the newspaper men, but I believe that he
is one of us and we hope he will live
twenty years more at least. To-night
through good luck I am privileged to
stand here in my own private^capacity and
say what I please. You, gentlemen, are
not unlike Pan and his fair Diana. You
think you are pursuing commercial ends
yet you are carrying sweetness and light
and pleasantness to all parts of the world.
We are in war time. There has been
nothing in the meeting that we have had
here, nothing more sonorous than your
patriotic songs. Why ? Because we are
in war times. Who is the god of war ?
Not the old god of war, but the god of
retributive justice, whom we meet in the
first book—it is Phoebus Apollo. What
does he do? With that resplendent bow
of his he sends away into the camp of the
enemy, what is the first piano, the bow.
We have another beautiful old Greek
legend how in this same battle he listened
to the music and twanging of that old bow
string. You are all descendants of Apollo
in the fact that you are producing his
instrument improved. I want to say to
you also that you are doing much good for
music in America. I think your industry
here is about seventy-five years old. The
musical art began in America about 1810.
From 1810 to 1815 there were about six
thousand families in Boston, and fifty
piano-fortes. I have seen an advertise-
ment of an old Cincinnati paper of 1818 in
which a Professor of Music promised in
fifteen lessons to teach eighteen tunes on
GEO. P. BENT.
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