Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE
8
columns of the daily papers at reduced rates and it is a fact supported
by unimpeachable evidence that people have visited the piano rooms
of this department store as early as nine o'clock and have found
every instrument advertised marked "sold."
It is true that the regular trade would learn much from the
regular business method adopted by department stores in the conduct
of their varied enterprises, but it is to be regretted that any depart-
ment store should have adopted a system which has been condemned
by the regular members of the trade from Maine to California.
REVFW
Cditor and Proprietor.
EDWARD LYMAN DILL,
T
J. B. SP1LLANE. Manatftntf Editor.
EXECVTIVE STAFF:
THOS.
CAMPBELL-COPELAND,
W M . B. W H I T » ,
GEO. B. KELLER,
W. L. WILLIAMS,
GEO. W. QUERIPEL.
CHICAGO OFFICE:
ERNEST L. WAITT, 255 Washington St.
R. W. KAUFFMAN.
EMILIX FRANCIS BAUER,
A. J. NICKLIN,
BOSTON OPPICB:
PHILADELPHIA OFFICE:
E. P. VAN HARLINGEN, 36 La Salle St.
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL:
E. C. TORREY.
ST. L0UI3 OFFICE :
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Publisktd Every Saturday at I Madison Avenue, New York.
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States, Mexico and Canada, $2.00 per
year; all other countries, $4.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS. $2,00 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. Advertising Pages, $60.00; opposite
reading matter, $76.00.
REMITTANCES, in other than currency form, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill.
DEPARTMENT
On the first Saturday of each month The Review contains in its
"Artists' Department" all the current musical news. This is effected
without in any way trespassing on the size or service of the trade
section of the paper. It has a special circulation, and therefore au?
ments materially the value of The Review to advertisers.
uJwirV»V-T../» •
MANUFACTURERS
The directory of piano manufacturing firms and corporations
found o n
another page will be of great value, as a reference for
dealers and others.
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE-NVMBER 1745 GRAMERCY.
»
•
•
AXY small dealers have complained bitterly of the steady
growth of the larger stores upon their territory. It is but
natural for the smaller man to complain of the success of the greater,
and he does not understand the reason why the progressive man suc-
ceeds. He complains of the crushing power of combinations, instead
of trying to better his own condition. Complaints will not remove
the encroachments of the larger store, and it would pay the smaller
dealer to do something to counteract this growing influence. It
cannot be done through complaining. The smaller man should con-
duct his business more carefully; keep pianos that sell, and be sure
and sell them in their right grade. He should maintain as high a
standard as possible in the store service. There is no question as to
his ability to lose trade under the old conditions. It will slip away
from him until he has nothing left.
—
NEW YORK, FEB. 11. 1905.
F
OR many years a certain class of dealers have indulged in a
form of misleading advertising, in order to get people into
their establishments.
One of the common practices has been the advertising of well
known pianos at ridiculously low rates, and when people who were
attracted by the advertisements came around seeking for the bar-
gains, they were informed that the pianos named had just been sold
and the sale tags appeared upon the instruments offered at slaughter
prices in the advertisements.
There were two motives in this kind of advertising—one in
which the advertiser was influenced by a desire to so mould public
opinion regarding the pianos advertised, that they would have a low
estimate of the real value of the instruments offered. The other to
draw people in to sell them the "just as good" pianos.
O
F course, the pianos so advertised, were not included in the
regular line handled by the dealer who pursued a misleading
policy in this form of publicity. The pianos mentioned were, per-
haps, carried by his chief competitors as leaders, and he endeavored
to reduce their standing in the public mind by this form of mali-
cious and unfair advertising.
That is possibly the main reason for indulging in what is collo-
quially termed the "stool pigeon game," but there is still another
reason, and that is to get people into the store so that arguments may
be presented to them why they should purchase some other pianos,
simply using the w r ell known instrument as a means of alluring them
to the dealers' establishment.
Happily this form of advertising has fallen into disrepute, and
in rare instances only is followed by the piano man in the regular
trade nowadays. It is now and then sporadic cases come to our
attention.
R
H E R E was a time when the regular dealer feared materially
the encroachment of the department store upon what he had
been led to believe was his exclusive domain. But if the department
stores are to adopt methods which have been denounced by the
dealers on account of their unfairness we shall undoubtedly find much
to criticise in the department store management of the future.
CHAS. N. V A N BUREN.
SAN FRANCISCO OPFICB: ALFRED METZGKR, 425-427 Front St.
THE ARTISTS*
REVIEW
ECENTLY, however, it was asserted that a well known depart-
ment store has been indulging in this same form of advertis-
ing which has been denounced by reputable dealers everywhere.
This particular establishment has announced in its piano offerings a
line of instruments bearing a name which stands high in the piano
world. These instruments have been offered in the advertising
D
EALERS frequently overlook the advantage of having an
attractive wareroom. The interior arrangement of a piano
establishment should not be ignored simply Ix'cause it is impossible
to ieature largely with pianos.
Too many piano merchants are unmindful of the importance of
a cheerful interior, and a customer's attention frequently is drawn to
a store which has an attractive window, and the interior effect of
which is bright and cheerful. A good attractive store interior is
indicative of healthy business control.
USINESS optimism pays, of course it does. A man must have
confidence in his own business in order to achieve success. The
fellow who says the piano business has gone all to pieces, and has no
future, usually will find that he ends up away down the line, where
he belongs, by the way.
Optimism wins in everything, and Senator Depew recently
struck the keynote of this in announcing his recent political victory.
He said: "Optimism wins; there is nothing like the realization of a
man's hopes. When a man is confident, his hopes will be realized."
B
T
HAT is not political talk, it is application, which is as broad as
life and as deep. Optimism is t\\c spirit of achievement. It is
the sun that warms and stimulates faltering hope—the north star of
purpose that holds to his path the bold adventurer in science. It is
life's spring magic which makes existence more than a mere tragic
drudge.
God bless the optimist! Flowers spring up where his feet have
trod the famished sands, and music and sunshine attend him on his
way.
For what cynic has the popular heart beat with loving warmth?
We don't love a man because he pricks us with a needle point or a
stiletto, or gives us poison in spiced doses, or who prisons us in a
room from which the sunlight is excluded.
The attitude of the cynic is always the superior, "smart" one, and
with pitiable self-sufficiency he congratulates himself that he is above
the rest of foolish mankind. He is often times clever in a shallow
way, but at best is an unfertile, barren thing—a reptile that stings it-
self to death with its own venom.
OST immature men are cynics because they have not yet ac-
quired wisdom. They soon outgrow it, as they do other
small vices, if they have the right sort of stuff in their make-up.
An aged cynic is his own punishment. Rut whether young or
old the world goes hopefully along without his aid, and his attitude
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