Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Admiral Dewey. He has been honored in papers, for there has been a radical advance
countless thousands of ways, and has had in the prices of paper, as every publisher
everything on earth named after him, from knows that it costs him more to-day to
shoe strings up to pianos. His face has produce a paper than it did three months
decorated patent medicine and other ads.
ago, if we take the present market price for
No matter where we look, or where we all which enters into the composition of a
turn in the pages of the daily papers or in publication.
the advertising columns of the great maga-
Dealers in turn will have to ask more for
zines, the familiar face of Dewey confronts their instruments, for they may as well
us. And, candidly, we sometimes think make up their minds once for all that they
that we are overdoing this Dewey business will be compelled to pay more than merely
a trifle. Surfeit is always the cause of a five dollar note, for it cannot stop there.
violent indigestion. However, be that as There must be a substantial increase all
it may, the people have concluded to wel- along the line.
come Dewey in close-of-the-century style.
All metals, woods and veneers have ad-
Marching thousands will pass through a vanced. One item alone which seems a
reproduction of the famous arch of Titus, trivial one, yet when we come to analyze
and to reach it they will pass through a it, it is an important item in a year's busi-
canyon of human faces walled by the ness. It is the lumber which enters into
American colors in fanciful display.
the piano box for shipment. Piano boxes
No such reception has ever been ac- to-day cost from seventy to ninety cents
corded to a modern hero as Dewey, the more per box than a year ago, based upon
plain American sailor, will receive after his the cost of the common lumber of which
arrival, which will be announced by the they are constructed.
booming cannon in nearly every state in
the Union. Countless thousands of peo-
Owing to the Dewey festivities The
Review appears this week on Thursday
ple will flock to New York to witness the
instead of its usual publication day—
Dewey celebration, which will be perhaps
Saturday.
one of the most memorable in the annals
of America. All of the railroads have an-
IF A PIANO TRUST?
nounced reduced fares from distant points,
and without doubt, New York will be I F a piano trust ever became an estab-
lished fact, there would be capital enlist-
crowded—filled to the brim and running
ed immediately in a competitive enterprise,
over.
To people who enjoy the music, the for there is always enough idle capital in
marching, the toasting and the excitement, this country to insure competition. Then
it will be a glorious feast, for the painters, again, if it were inherently weak by reck-
sculptors and decorators have all united in less over-capitalization it would have to
producing that which will lend charm to succumb in a hurry. The Standard Oil, by
the occasion. The arch at Twenty-third securing special privileges from railroads,
street is a magnificent testimonial to their and other almost dishonest railway discrim-
skill and patriotism. The whole scheme inations, has succeeded in a way which no
by day will be a glorious symphony, and other trust has.
The sugar trust tried to follow the ex-
the nights will be tinged with carmine.
ample
of the Standard Oil, but has signally
New York will give herself up to a sea-
son of festivities which have probably failed. One batch of rival plants after
never been equalled since the days when another has been bought in at high prices,
Hendrik Hudson held his first pow-wow only to be followed by the erection of still
other refineries which remain to compete
with the early citizens of Manhattan.
Well, all honor to Dewey and his gallant on a cash basis, or like their predecessors,
fighters. They have added new lustre to be secured at the expense of a further in-
flation of the trust capital. Production
American fame.
and distribution on a large scale is the un-
deniable tendency of the times, but what a
GROWING PRICES.
'"P HE RE are a number of manufacturers corporation, or combination, or trust, as
who have thus far refrained from we commonly term it, may do for common
raising prices for their instruments until benefit and what it does do are oftentimes
they determine, as they state, whether the at variance.
have always endeavored to develop, as far
as it lay within our power, an increased
distribution of The Review. To this end
we have offered premiums from time to
time, including the technical work, "The
Piano," which has obtained a widespread
distribution; also a number of excellent
literary works, which we have handled
successfully. The latest offer, however,
as one decidedly opportune at this time," is
the Dewey watch, full particulars of which
are given on page 17.
Perhaps no premium has been more
popular than this, and those who have
sent in their new subscriptions have ex-
pressed themselves in terms of delight and
praise concerning the premium which we
offer. We do not know where, for a simi-
lar amount invested, as much pleasure and
profit can be derived as from the invest-
ment referred to.
We may say of The Review, without be-
ing liable to the charge of egotism, that it
is a publication upon which the members
of the trade have learned to look with con-
fidence, as to the reliability and truthful-
ness of its utterances. It can be made a
weekly companion during the year together
with a handsome premium for a modest
sum.
advanced prices have come to stay, or
whether they are due purely to a temporary
fluctuation of the market.
In our opinion they may as well conclude
that high prices have come to stay and
govern their prices accordingly, for the ad-
vance has reached almost everything, and is
still going up. It affects even the news-
Q T R I K E S have not ceased, and there
will be more to follow. One occurred
in New York this week at the Kroeger fac-
tory, and was settled quicker almost than
it takes time to record it.
A DEWEY OFFER.
A TRADE publication is necessarily
limited in circulation. Its areas of
distribution are circumscribed largely by
its own industrial environments. There
are, however, legitimate ways in which
circulation may be augmented, and we
PIANO ADVERTISING.
DIANO advertising is improving. An
examination of the papers throughout
the land in which the local trade advertise
will disclose this. There is more attention
and care given to the display and arrange-
ment of the matter.
Piano merchants are beginning to real-
ize that advertising is a serious investment
to begin with, and should be looked in-
to as carefully as the buying of goods
for the warerooms. The merchant will
not buy ordinary articles without knowing
something about them, and in buying ad-
vertising space it should be used in an ef-
fective manner. Display work should be
plain, terse, directly to the point and at-
tractive in its setting beyond anything
else. Nine men out of ten refuse to read
any display ad that does not in some way
attract and catch the eye, either with a cut,
with the price, or with a decided setting.
The great trouble lies in overcrowding
advertising, in making the effort to cover
everything instead of one good thing a't a
time. Simplicity and price carry all be-
fore them in advertising.
Dewey has arrived! If you want a sou-
venir of the event, read page 17.
„