Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
ent for a frame or plate, I believe it was,
with a hitchpin section all in one. You do
not want me to talk to you or t about
Jonas
Chickering's patent of 1843 $ n e oru y c a s t
frame which has been the foundation of
the overstrung system of to-day. You do
not want me to tell you about a lot of Amer-
ican inventions of that kind, because you
know, just as well as I do, and perhaps a
good deal better, that all those things which
were piled up in the astonishing development
of the piano manufacture in this country
from the beginning, and when the industry
was in its infancy, up to the present time,
lie to-day at the foundation of the build of
every decent piano in the world. American
ideas, American thought, American genius,
has brought the piano of the world to where
it stands to-day. I know that there are some
things that were not invented by Americans.
I could tell you, if you like, how an American
firm bought the invention of Rudolph Kla-
terer, the inventor of the hammer-covering
mechanism which is the basis of the method
used to-day. But old Klaterer was a grand
old man. I can imagine him in the old Ger-
man forest whittling things out of wood,
and learning tricks useful to him in trade.
But American capital, which you men rep-
resent, realize the value of that invention and
of every other that has been made that
was worth considering, and you have taken
hold of them; you have put them into your
an instrument which is to-day the exponent
of the most satisfying music, the most in-
tellectual and chaste music, as Mr. Von
Sternberg has properly told you, which is
offered for the consideration of artistic peo-
ple the world over. (Cries of "bravo" and
"good, good.")
Now, you do not want me to talk- to you
about piano manufacturers. You all know
of them. I do not. You will permit me,
therefore, in advancing toward the end of
my brief talk—for, as I told you before, these
gentlemen said everything that I wanted to
say—you will permit, therefore, to take it
upon myself to express to you, gentlemen,
from all the various parts of this country,
the gratification which a newspaper man,
and through him, perhaps, the profession
which he represents, feels in seeing business
men from all over the United States come
together for mutual benefit and mutual ad-
vancement. I take it that this shows some-
thing more than a mere business feeling.
That has been eloquently set forth by the
gentleman who spoke first. Nothing could
be added to what he said on that subject.
But I take it that there is something more
that brings men from all over the country.
There is something deeper and stronger
than that in the feeling which unites you
in an organization which works harmoni-
ously from the Atlantic to the Pacific and
from Canada to the Gulf.
Well has. the gentleman said to you to-
night that wherever the flag goes it opens
the gates of trade, and with it the markets
of the world are open to you. The flag is
going around the world, and trade will go
with it, and I am very glad to say to you
that wherever that trade goes there will go
in a good sound American lumber box, the
best pianos in the world to play the best
music in the world to all peoples of the
world. (Continued applause.)
n». ncELROY S ADDRESS.
William H. McElroy on "Music as a prac-
tical force."
Andrew Carnegie came home from Scot-
land a few years ago with this story. He
said: "There was a Scotch clergyman in
Glasgow who, when he felt well, would
preach a sermon an hour and fifteen minutes
long. One Sunday when he felt very well
he announced that he was going to preach
on the prophets, and after he had preached an
hour and three quarters, and his audience
thought he was done, he. said, "Now I have
got through with the major prophets. We
will now proceed to consider the minor proph-
ets. What place shall we' give to Malachi ? ?
Whereupon the worm turned. A man in the
front seat got up, banged his pew door and
walked down the aisle, and when he got to
the door and said, "You can give Mala-
chi my place!" (Laughter.)
I think when a rank outsider like myself
comes to such a dinner, he is sure to be em-
barrassed. I have been asked, not necessa-
rily for publication, since T have been here,
"What is your favorite make of piano?"
W T ell, the poet has said music hath charms to
soothe the savage breast, but let a man praise
a piano to a manufacturer who does not
WM. II. M'ET.ROY.
make that piano, and music cannot prevent
his breast from being savage. So I have to
reply to all these questions by being like the
Irishman who was asked if he thought one
man was a's good as another, and he said,
"Yes, I think one man is as good as another
and better." When confessing that I have
very little use for music, I have said to my
friend on the left, "I think one piano is as
good as another and better." This occasion
of an association of this kind brings to mind
several stories more or less connected with
music. I always fancy the criticism some-
body made of Von Bulow. This somebody
said that Von Bulow displayed himself in
playing the simplest music in the most dif-
ficult manner. (Laughter.)
I always liked the story that Bill Nye was
credited with. Somebody asked him about
Wagner's music, and Bill said, "Yes, I'under-
stand it is better than it sounds."
JOHN C. FREUND S SPEECH.
Mr. Pond then called upon John C. Freund
who said: I am very much like one of the
speakers, Mr. Henderson, who said he came
here with a speech or two> I also came pre-
pared for a speech which I have riot for-
gotten, but, gentlemen, you will see these
speeches in the trade papers and you will not
understand any single one if you read it in
the trade papers. If you read those speeches
in the trade papers they will not have any-
thing like the eloquence, and they will not
have the natural touch which comes from the
unstudied word when it is spoken from the
heart.
I heard a gentleman here with much elo-
quence discourse of the South, and that re-
minded me, too, of a story that I believe the
great editor, Grady, of the Atlanta Consti-
tution, once told, and I trust in telling it that
I will not appear to reflect upon the South
as it is to-day, but as it was at the time he
spoke of it. Grady had come from a
funeral. He felt very sorrowful, from the
fact that it was a wet and cheerless day.
You can imagine how he felt as he shook the
rain from his shoulders. He said, "I feel
very, very unhappy." "Why?" "I have
buried a dear friend; but what makes me still
more unhappy is to think that the stone which
stood at. his head came from Vermont, al-
though the finest marble quarry was within
half a mile of this place." (Laughter.) "It
grieves me to think that amid these beautiful
pine forests, the wood that made his coffin
came from Maine. It grieves me to think
that with all our industries here that the
tie that was around his neck came from Chi-
cago, and with the fine boots that we make,
his boots came from Boston, and although
this is a cotton country his clothes came from
Vermont or Boston and all the South pro-
vided for this funeral was the frozen marrow
in the bones of the corpse and the hole in
the ground." If that condition of the South
depicted by Mr. Grady was in any way
something more than a clever skit it is due
to what? To work. We have heard men
who are far more accustomed to speak than
I am. My business is to write. They have
discoursed about navies and commerce and
expansion. We have heard much eloquence
on the subject of American grit and Ameri-
can valor. But, gentlemen, believe me, as a
man born on the other side and who has been
happy and proud to make his home here, the
great reason why this country is progressing
as it is is that here more than anywhere else
in the world his labor is honored. And it is
because men's work is here more respected
that the capacity of men brings you a profit
where in other countries, labor being almost
dishonorable, especially among the higher
classes just so much capacity is lost.
That brings me to the toast that I was
asked to speak about,the trade press; by some
regarded as a parasite, by others as an incon-
venience. After all, gentlemen, though in its
infancy, it represents what—men's work,
men's endeavor, and while it may appear to
many men who take up the daily papers that
the trade paper is a very insignificant affair
beside it, but I have had advantages at
several universities and am proud to say that
I am to-day the editor of a trade paper. The
trade papers have had much to contend with.
They have not been understood. Their fu-
ture rests with themselves. They must emu;
late your ability, and if I may speak for my
confreres, I would express this hope, that as
you have made American pianos the standard
of the world, as you have made American or-
gans the standard of the world, as you have
made all American musical instruments the
standard of the world, you will do your best
to aid us in making your trade press also the
standard of the world.
I am proud to be able to say that I can de-
vote my later years, and I trust my riper ex-
perience, to your service, gentlemen, and so
return to you in part some of the unmeas-
ured kindness and courtesy which you have
shown me for thirty years.
HR. PARSONS SPEECH.
Charles H. Parsons: Gentlemen, I have
sworn an oath, and I put it on record in Chi-
cago last year, that I would never inflict a
speech on a company at this hour of the night
but a man who would let the opportunity go
of firing off a speech at such a company as
this would be more than human, and I am
not.
I want to say just a word, and I shall agree
that I shall not be long, on the impressions
that I have received in the last few days from
this great convention, from this meeting of
dealers and from the formation of this new
Association, of which I am proud to say I am
one of the latter members. I am proud to