Music Trade Review

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THE.
MUSIC TRADE
to contribute to the re-establishment of confidence, we shall reduce
to a minimum the period of disturbance and be able at a much
earlier day to welcome the restoration of normal conditions."
F
OR some weeks past we have been presenting a number of
communications from leading dealers in various sections
bearing directly on.trade conditions. There has been throughout
most of these communications a feeling of confidence in the busi-
ness future which is most gratifying. It is that spirit of confidence
which ultimately will win over the weak-hearted pessimists. If
everyone is cheerful and optimistic it will do much toward dispell-
ing doubt as to the business future. It is well to preach confidence
all the time and this country needs at the present moment plenty
of men who believe in its future, who refuse to view the country
through indigo hued glasses and who are willing to devote a little
time to making other men cast off their doubts which do much to
shackle the onward movement. There never was a time when
sounder reasons could be advanced why confidence should remain
in the forefront than at the present time, for the nation is blessed
with good harvests and high prices for all its products. We need
to show unwavering faith in ourselves, our country and our destiny.
All of us can help in spreading the spirit of confidence and it is
pleasing to note that many are doing good in that way.
GREAT many business men lost their heads at the first blast
of the panic, and we know of quite a few who made through
fear some false moves which they have since regretted. It is the
business men—the leaders of industry 'who have to be the strong
forces in placing the country back where it should be. If they get
weakhearted the men further down the ladder will catch the in-
fection and they will jump off. Then it will be time to whistle
down brakes.
Of course, trade has suffered. Dealers in all lines have been
cleaning up stock instead of reordering. Business organizations
have been remodelled so to speak and there has been a lot of dead
wood cut out. That's excellent. Some men have accomplished
much in that line. We have in mind one or two large •institutions
the heads of which have not hesitated to say to us that they have
profited by this slump because they have gone more deeply, more
minutely into their affairs than ever before and they have found
that they were carrying a number of branch houses which did not
pay. They found, too, that a lot of stock in some places did not
sell, but by moving this around they have been able to work it off
at other points.
Then, too, it is certain that credits in the future will be scanned
more closely than they have been in the past few years. Men who
are not worthy of credit will find it impossible to get merchandise
on the same generous terms which they have heretofore. It may
be said that credits in the music trade industry have undergone a
great change from the conditions which existed a few years ago
when it was possible for a clever man to obtain a piano stock worth
thousands of dollars when he could not obtain a suit of clothes on
credit in his home town.
A
It is certain that credits in all lines will be scrutinized more
closely than ever before, (ieneral conditions will be opposed to
laxity in business matters, and the sounder the business lines, the
sounder the business institutions, and the better able they will be
to withstand any kind of shock.
T
HERE is an item appearing in another portion of this paper
from our correspondent in Yokohama, Japan. It deals with
the substitution plan which is now current in that country. Ac-
cording to our report, it is a waste of expense fighting a counterfeit
label in the courts, as well as a duplication of names adopted by
foreign firms. Already pianos are being exported with the names
of standard makers, and the writer says, the business of course is
small at present, and little attention is being given to it, but he adds
significantly: "When too late the export trade of America will
learn that the Japanese are great workers and live for a great
future."
As far as the courts are concerned, foreigners do not stand the
slightest show, because, according to Japanese law, any person can
infringe a trade-mark and when brought into court if he says he did
not know it was an infringement the case is thrown out with costs
on the plaintiff.
REVIEW
IN LIGHTER VEIN
1906 still stands as a record breaker in the music trade industry.
Sometimes it's a question whether the man outgrows the job, or the
job outgrows the man.
A campaign of education instead of vituperation should be the slogan
for the knockers during 1908.
*
Don't close the windows; let in the trade sunshine. It will do you
good and drive away the blues.
Of course the Christmas trade is slumped, but that's no reason why
we shouldn't burn a yule log or two.
A man who tries to drown his troubles in the flowing bowl usually
finds that they are equipped with life preservers.
How many men there are who believe that they could have won dis-
tinguished success in some other vocation than their present one.
A pleasant smile alone will not bring back good times. Smiling is
excellent, but reinforce the smile with hustle and a grim determination
to win the battle.
"I will give you my answer in a month, Pat."
Pat—"That's right, me darlint, tek plinty of time to think about it.
But tell me one thing—will it be yes or no?"
"So you ran across dat millionaire when you was goin' down de road?"
said Meandering Mike.
"Yes," answered Plodding Pete.
"Any conversation?"
"No. We jes' exchanged thoughts. I was wishin' I had his money an'
he was wishin' he had my appetite."
TO GREET THE TRADE.—Guide—You will be the second person,
my lord, who will have climbed to the top of this mountain.
My Lord—Yes; and who was the first?
"A postcard seller, who has now got a shop on the summit."—Bon
Vivant.
BEYOND CONTROL.—Although the old gentleman with a red face
and choleric temper had opened the car window five times with much
vigor he had found it closed every time he waked from his doze.
He felt perfectly sure that the person to blame was the man behind
him, who gave vent to a stifled groan each time the window was opened.
At last the choleric gentleman turned in his seat.
"Sir," he said indignantly, "you are evidently one of those persons
who cannot bear fresh air; but may I ask you who controls this window,
the person beside it or the one behind it?"
"If you could stay awake a few minutes," responded his neighbor,
"you'd soon discover that nobody can control that window, sir—not even
the brakeman or the conductor."
ONE CASE OF STRINGENCY.—"I have six weeks left to buy Christ-
mas presents."
"Yes."
"And nothing else."—Cleveland Plain Dealer.
NOT REASSURING.—A farmer, on a frosty autumn afternoon, went
out into his turnip field and began to gather turnips. The early sun sank
in the West, and as the bluish dusk came on the farmer perceived at the
other end of the field two men, who, laying down a bag, began to dig
with frantic haste.
The farmer watched the pair in some perplexity. What could they
be doing? And he was just putting his hand to his cheek to shout and
ask them their business when one of them rose up and yelled loudly and
reassuringly:
"Don't let us disturb you we are only prigging a few ourselves."
REAL BOHEMIANISM.—Elihu Vedder, the painter, lives in Rome,
where he has a beautiful apartment, and in Capri, where his white villa
looks down on the sea.
"Elihu Vedder," said a New York illustrator the other day, "is as
bohemian as ever. Fame has not spoiled him. 1 visited him last year,
and his bohemian ways were delightful.
"You know they tell a story of a visit that he once paid to Alma-
Tadema, in London, in that glittering house which Mrs. A.-T.'s money,
made in grateful, comforting cocoa, bought.
"The morning after his arrival, very early, before even the servants
were up, Vedder began a thunderous knocking on his host's sandalwood
door.
"Alma-Tadema turned in his gold bed, threw back the lace coverlet,
sat up.
"'Who's there? What is it?' he cried in a startled voice.
" 'I say, Tadema,' shouted Vedder, 'where do you keep the scissors
that you trim your cuflfs with?'"