Music Trade Review
Issue: 1899 Vol. 28 N. 16 - Page 23
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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
The " Rabbit Trust. 1
MORE FEASIBLE THAN MANY OF THE COMBI-
NATIONS THAT SEEM TO WIN SERIOUS
CONSIDERATION.
Some humorist has recently issued, in
the name of "Gull, Skinnem & Dooum,"
a prospectus describing the advantages
which will come to those who invest
money in the "American Rabbit Com-
pany. " The prospectus informs the public
that, as rabbits have eight young every
three months, the company will purchase
twenty of these animals to start with, and,
owning to their rapid multiplication, ex-
pects to have no less than 306,446,720
within three years. It is then gravely
argued that even if these rabbits are sold
for no more than fifty cents each, they will
be worth $153,223,360 and the profits of
the company will amount to fully $153,-
000,000, the remaining $223,360 being suf-
ficient to pay all expenses. It is therefore
proposed to issue $200,000,000 in bonds,
$150,000,000 in common stock and $150,-
000,000 in preferred stock, the profits of
the industry being ample to pay all inter-
est charges and dividends on these amounts.
Of course all this is a joke, but it is one
of those jokes that are capable of doing
more than merely provoking a laugh.
The "American Rabbit Company" would
certainly be almost as promising as some
of the trusts and combinations that are
actually being formed. It is no uncommon
thing for one of these new companies to is-
sue bonds and stock amounting in par value
to four, five or six times the total value of
the plants and business consolidated.
These companies are so saturated with
"water" that it is absurd to believe that
the persons who purchase stock will ever
receive dividends. Nine out of ten buy-
ers of stock realize this full well and have
no intention of making permanent in-
vestment. Each one argues that the mar-
ket price of the stock will rise and that
he will be shrewd enough or fortunate
enough to sell out to a profit before the
crash comes. The promoters and in cor-
porators themselves have no expectation
of ever earning dividends. They make
their profits upon the early sales of the
stock, and in the end when the mortgage
is foreclosed they may be able to effect a
reorganization and place the company
upon a basis where it will really pay.
Of course in a "gamble" like this some
one is bound to lose, and this fact being
well known beforehand, some of the new
trusts must be regarded as neither more
nor less than swindles. Just at present,
says the Troy Times, the public seems
anxious to be deceived, and no scheme is
too wild for crazy speculation to take up.
Even a rabbit-farming company, if it were
actually formed and the stock floated,
would probably prove attractive to hun-
dreds of persons anxious to be humbugged
or to humbug somebody else. The total
capitalization of the industrial companies
formed during the month of March is more
than a billion dollars, and it is safe to say
that the actual values of these companies
does not exceed a quarter of that sum. Is
there not a great menace to the country's
prosperity in this sort of thing? Sooner
or later there is bound to be a collapse, and
when one or two of the new trusts smash,
the effect upon the others and upon all
business interests will be most disastrous.
Some of the trust promoters are now sow-
ing the wind; unfortunately, the entire
country will be forced to participate in the
reaping.
Much Truth in This.
j\/[ ODERN pianism, under public cir-
* * *• cumstances, usually must accept a
condition false to musical art, and on its
face absurd. That pianism in many large
cities all over the world over and over
again, must do this when a player of great
vogue and of audacious advertising is in
question, is the opinion of E. I. Stevenson
the noted critic. The pianoforte and the
pianist are obliged to acomplish their duty
to a composer in one or another huge hall,
utterly antagonistic in its size to the fine
pianistic effects. He plays before an au-
dience the size and situation of which for-
bids any sense of intimacy and easy atten-
tion during the recital; and the player's
instrument is made a vehicle of superficial
and merely noisy effects, instead of those
that are musical.
The pianoforte, it is true, has been de-
veloped within about thirty years into an
instrument possessing a volume of tone
and an endurance of its mechanical action
that makes its notes triumphant, even
amid the most tumultuous orchestration of
a Liszt concerto. Its exquisite tempera-
ment makes its more delicate voice ''carry"
admirably. But the fact that we so must
hear the pianoforte or can hear it so de-
cidedly does not alter much the unpleasant
truth that really musical pianism as a
"school" of playing has not the number of
representatives which it should have. In
a reaction from sentimentalism and formal
work they have been slighted away and
Main Office and Warerooms :
are now undervalued. Players of this sort
27 Union Square. just now are apostles of a conservative,
rather classical pianism, one far from the
dryly academic. They can be heard in a
drawing-room with delight, and they do
not forget that the pianoforte must ever
be kept a good deal in its old character of
IN THE
a
drawing-room instrument, or it becomes
WORLD
inartistic. What is that? "You can not
MAKERS OF THE
so play the pianoforte in a great hall? "
WORLD FAMOUS
Then more is the pity! But why spoil a
style and vitiate a public taste by accept-
ing
a big hall and 3000 auditors as guides
GUITARS. MANDOLINS
to
doing
your artistic duty?
AND BANJOS ALSO
Mehlin
Pianos
Pmctory, 461 to 467 West 40th St.,
New York.
25
'A Leader
among
Leaders."
LARGEST
'ASHBURN
ANNUAL
PRODUCTION OVER
ipoooo
LOWER PRICED BRANDS
FOR THE TRADE AND EXPORT
UNION PARK
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
CHICAGO
t
MILLS AND OFFICE:
MANUFACTURER OF.
^ Sounding Boards, Bars, Guitar a d Mandolin
TODS and Sounding* Boa.rd Lumber.
DOLGEVILLE, N. Y.
BEHR BROS
29™ST.&II™AVE.
NEW YORK*
FACTORY:
137th St., near Lincoln Ave.,
NEW YORK.
OFFICE AND WAREROOMS:
1117 Chestnut Street,
PHILADELPHIA.
Highest Standard of Excellence.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
The " Rabbit Trust. 1
MORE FEASIBLE THAN MANY OF THE COMBI-
NATIONS THAT SEEM TO WIN SERIOUS
CONSIDERATION.
Some humorist has recently issued, in
the name of "Gull, Skinnem & Dooum,"
a prospectus describing the advantages
which will come to those who invest
money in the "American Rabbit Com-
pany. " The prospectus informs the public
that, as rabbits have eight young every
three months, the company will purchase
twenty of these animals to start with, and,
owning to their rapid multiplication, ex-
pects to have no less than 306,446,720
within three years. It is then gravely
argued that even if these rabbits are sold
for no more than fifty cents each, they will
be worth $153,223,360 and the profits of
the company will amount to fully $153,-
000,000, the remaining $223,360 being suf-
ficient to pay all expenses. It is therefore
proposed to issue $200,000,000 in bonds,
$150,000,000 in common stock and $150,-
000,000 in preferred stock, the profits of
the industry being ample to pay all inter-
est charges and dividends on these amounts.
Of course all this is a joke, but it is one
of those jokes that are capable of doing
more than merely provoking a laugh.
The "American Rabbit Company" would
certainly be almost as promising as some
of the trusts and combinations that are
actually being formed. It is no uncommon
thing for one of these new companies to is-
sue bonds and stock amounting in par value
to four, five or six times the total value of
the plants and business consolidated.
These companies are so saturated with
"water" that it is absurd to believe that
the persons who purchase stock will ever
receive dividends. Nine out of ten buy-
ers of stock realize this full well and have
no intention of making permanent in-
vestment. Each one argues that the mar-
ket price of the stock will rise and that
he will be shrewd enough or fortunate
enough to sell out to a profit before the
crash comes. The promoters and in cor-
porators themselves have no expectation
of ever earning dividends. They make
their profits upon the early sales of the
stock, and in the end when the mortgage
is foreclosed they may be able to effect a
reorganization and place the company
upon a basis where it will really pay.
Of course in a "gamble" like this some
one is bound to lose, and this fact being
well known beforehand, some of the new
trusts must be regarded as neither more
nor less than swindles. Just at present,
says the Troy Times, the public seems
anxious to be deceived, and no scheme is
too wild for crazy speculation to take up.
Even a rabbit-farming company, if it were
actually formed and the stock floated,
would probably prove attractive to hun-
dreds of persons anxious to be humbugged
or to humbug somebody else. The total
capitalization of the industrial companies
formed during the month of March is more
than a billion dollars, and it is safe to say
that the actual values of these companies
does not exceed a quarter of that sum. Is
there not a great menace to the country's
prosperity in this sort of thing? Sooner
or later there is bound to be a collapse, and
when one or two of the new trusts smash,
the effect upon the others and upon all
business interests will be most disastrous.
Some of the trust promoters are now sow-
ing the wind; unfortunately, the entire
country will be forced to participate in the
reaping.
Much Truth in This.
j\/[ ODERN pianism, under public cir-
* * *• cumstances, usually must accept a
condition false to musical art, and on its
face absurd. That pianism in many large
cities all over the world over and over
again, must do this when a player of great
vogue and of audacious advertising is in
question, is the opinion of E. I. Stevenson
the noted critic. The pianoforte and the
pianist are obliged to acomplish their duty
to a composer in one or another huge hall,
utterly antagonistic in its size to the fine
pianistic effects. He plays before an au-
dience the size and situation of which for-
bids any sense of intimacy and easy atten-
tion during the recital; and the player's
instrument is made a vehicle of superficial
and merely noisy effects, instead of those
that are musical.
The pianoforte, it is true, has been de-
veloped within about thirty years into an
instrument possessing a volume of tone
and an endurance of its mechanical action
that makes its notes triumphant, even
amid the most tumultuous orchestration of
a Liszt concerto. Its exquisite tempera-
ment makes its more delicate voice ''carry"
admirably. But the fact that we so must
hear the pianoforte or can hear it so de-
cidedly does not alter much the unpleasant
truth that really musical pianism as a
"school" of playing has not the number of
representatives which it should have. In
a reaction from sentimentalism and formal
work they have been slighted away and
Main Office and Warerooms :
are now undervalued. Players of this sort
27 Union Square. just now are apostles of a conservative,
rather classical pianism, one far from the
dryly academic. They can be heard in a
drawing-room with delight, and they do
not forget that the pianoforte must ever
be kept a good deal in its old character of
IN THE
a
drawing-room instrument, or it becomes
WORLD
inartistic. What is that? "You can not
MAKERS OF THE
so play the pianoforte in a great hall? "
WORLD FAMOUS
Then more is the pity! But why spoil a
style and vitiate a public taste by accept-
ing
a big hall and 3000 auditors as guides
GUITARS. MANDOLINS
to
doing
your artistic duty?
AND BANJOS ALSO
Mehlin
Pianos
Pmctory, 461 to 467 West 40th St.,
New York.
25
'A Leader
among
Leaders."
LARGEST
'ASHBURN
ANNUAL
PRODUCTION OVER
ipoooo
LOWER PRICED BRANDS
FOR THE TRADE AND EXPORT
UNION PARK
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
CHICAGO
t
MILLS AND OFFICE:
MANUFACTURER OF.
^ Sounding Boards, Bars, Guitar a d Mandolin
TODS and Sounding* Boa.rd Lumber.
DOLGEVILLE, N. Y.
BEHR BROS
29™ST.&II™AVE.
NEW YORK*
FACTORY:
137th St., near Lincoln Ave.,
NEW YORK.
OFFICE AND WAREROOMS:
1117 Chestnut Street,
PHILADELPHIA.
Highest Standard of Excellence.
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