Music Trade Review

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THE
7VYUSIO TRKDE
REVIEW
great enterprises to-day do not care to conduct a kindergarten
appalling manner as to cause alarm in the minds of his cohorts that
business in connection therewith.
his last defeat has affected him to such a degree that he is doomed
The piano business is broadening; its avenues of distribution
to an absolute mental collapse.
It would indeed be a sad ending
are becoming wider; therefore of necessity there must be a demand
to even a disreputable career, for the dethronement of the mind
for more men and brighter men—men full of optimism and hope.
is pitiable indeed.
Modern business is swift and selling pianos to-day is no easy task.
A
T R I P through the South furnishes conclusive evidence that
It is not like the old days when that veteran salesman, Tom Metz,
•**
the members of the Southern trade are enjoying unusual
who was many years with the elder Weber, used to tell about when
prosperity.
ladies drove up to the Weber warerooms in their carriages and
Norfolk, Atlanta, Savannah, and other points in the South and
after inspecting pianos select one and without hardly a chance for
compare it with two or three years ago, it is at once plain that
an argument, Metz would gracefully wave them down to the desk
the South is making tremendous progress.
where they would deposit a check.
that section are not complaining of hard times.
HPHOSE days of easy sales have gone.
•*
It is harder work to
make sales but there are more pianos sold, hence a greater
If we take retail trade in such towns as Richmond,
Piano merchants in
On the contrary,
they tell us that business with them is in every way satisfactory
both in point of sales and collections.
demand for men, and the employee who understands and does the
F ^ E T A I L trade conditions have materially improved during the
work without eternally asking questions is in direct line for pro-
1
motion. That is where the benefit of the one-price system comes in,
has been helpful to business interests generally and piano mer-
because there is nothing more annoying to a proprietor of an es-
chants have benefited thereby.
tablishment than to have a piano salesman running back to him
the country continues good, and it is not optimism to the point of
continually with a number of queries regarding selling prices of
delusion, for there is a ring of soundness which indicates that busi-
pianos.
ness is being done upon a correct basis.
A modern business does not admit of debate or explanations
in the matter of store managing and no man becomes won over
by salesmen who are continually coming to him with annoying
questions saying:
this?
"I can get so much for the piano, shall I take
Our terms are not pleasing to Mrs. So-and-So; can I cut
out the interest clause?" and a gross of other unimportant ques-
tions which a good salesman should use his own intelligence in
deciding.
The favorable weather which has prevailed
General business in all sections of
The entire situation at
the present time is most encouraging and satisfactory and every-
thing now indicates a good trade.
A NUMBER of dealers who own stock in piano manufacturing
**•
institutions are advertising themselves as manufacturers,
and urging the public to "buy from the manufacturers and save
money."
Now, are dealers in any sense manufacturers simply because
they own some stock in a manufacturing enterprise?
IV /I ODERN business is argus-eyed; it watches men keenly,
1
past ten days.
* *• weighs their usefulness and judges by results. Time taken
in talk is time taken from work.
Surely if
a man owns a block of New York Central stock he does not ad-
vertise himself as a railroad man.
If a man is fortunate enough
Modern business uses a stop
to possess a little Standard Oil property he does not consider him-
Cortelyou, who now holds a
self engaged in the oil business, neither does a man who is inter-
cabinet position, did not bother McKinley by asking a lot of out-of-
ested in some good mining property in Colorado count himself a
place questions.
miner.
watch in the close race for success.
He performed his duty, and he pleased Roose-
velt, the succeeding President.
He asked few questions, said little,
and went ahead and to-day he is promoted to a Cabinet position,
and yet there are those who say that stenography does not offer
possibilities for the exercising of great intellect.
life who are decrying their professions.
The influence of these
men is not helpful, and our final suggestion to our young friend
is to make his work count, produce results and promotion will come
in good time.
cause he owns a little stock in a corporation?
A FAIR equivalent for every dollar invested in our columns has
been our slogan for years, and the steadily growing business
of The Review testifies in a most eloquent way to the position which
it occupies in this industry.
We have frequently referred to communications from adver-
tisers in which they specified direct returns which they have re-
ceived from advertising in these columns.
T X 7"HILE there may be some disagreement as to whether or not
' ^
dealer term himself a legitimate piano manufacturer simply be-
**
There are always a lot of people who never make successes in
And following the same line of argument, how could a
pianos actually improve with use, there is an absolute
Here is one under date
of April 4th from the Self-Lifting Piano Truck Co., Findlay, O.,
who say:
"We received an inquiry last week from Brisbane,
unanimity of opinion in regard to the improvement of the black-
Queensland, Australia, saying that they saw an advertisement of
mailer under use, that is, when, that use is of a legal character.
our piano truck in The Music Trade Review.
The improvement of the disruptor under legal usage is so
marked and so pronounced that it naturally has caused consider-
We did not dream
of being introduced to piano dealers on the other side of the globe
when we gave you the want ad."
We have not, however, much faith in the perma-
The Maestro Co. manufacturers of piano players, Elbridge,
nency or sincerity of a forced repentance, yet it is wonderful to
N. Y., who advertise only in The Review, state that they have
note the magical result of a single touch of the law.
received such benefits from this publication that they are com-
able comment.
It has
transformed an insolent defamer into a paretic egotist, whose prin-
pelled to greatly enlarge their plant, in order to take care of the
cipal offense now seems to be a murderous attack upon the Eng-
direct orders which they have received through The Review adver-
lish language, which he has succeeded in emasculating in such an
tising.