Presto

PRESTO
12
FORMER PIANO MAN
A MONEY-MAKER
Fortunes of B. F. Nysewander Take Him to
Texas Oil Fields and Thence to Eminence
as a Lawyer in Washington,
Now His Home.
A few years ago an attorney of Indianapolis
financed a piano industry in that city which was
known as the Weiler Piano Company. In time the
attorney-pianomaker removed to Chicago and his
instrument was promoted and sold from an office in
the Republic Building. The piano was known as
the "Nysewander," and it. had, for its leading fea-
ture, a metal back. The owner and promoter was
B. F. Nysewander, and the piano became quite popu-
lar with a good many dealers.
Moves to Texas.
Something like ten years ago, Mr. Nysewander
disposed of the piano business and left Chicago for
Texas, where he became interested in real estate.
But his special real estate activities remained as a
sealed book to his old friends in the piano business.
Recently Mr. Nysewander returned to Chicago, for
a short stay, and resided in one of the fashionable
South Side hotels.
There he was encountered by a representative of
Presto who, naturally, learned with interest the un-
willing story of the lawyer-piano man's financial
rise to the class commonly described as "multi-mil-
lionaires." But Mr. Nysewander, while reluctant to
tell his story, made no denial of his present financial
stability, though he will not admit that it takes a
dozen or more figures to indicate his fortune.
Meeting the Emergency.
And, as showing how men of the money-making
powers may sometimes play for a time with musical
instruments—we have very few millionaires actually
engaged in the piano business—it may be interesting
to refer to. the activities of B. F. Nysewander since
he gave up making and marketing his metal back
instruments.
As a lawyer, Mr. Nysewander was attracted to
Texas because it occurred to him that the property
owners of that expansive commonwealth might not
have made themselves as secure in their rights and
claims as ordinarily seems advisable. Texas has
passed through a stormy history, from the time the
Spaniards drove out the French, in 1690. And when
Texas revolted from the rule of Mexico, in 1836,
there was a fresh upheaval not calculated to stabi-
lize property holding. Then, as an independent re-
public, Texas moved along until 1845, when she
proposed to become a member of the family of our
Uncle Sam, and was taken into the fold.
Troubles of Texas.
Such a series of upheavals and changes suggested
to Mr. Nysewander that there might be serious
work for a lawyer-real estate-piano man down on
the borders of the Rio Grande. And so he went
there and got busy. The result was that, just about
the time the great war started, Mr. Nysewander was
summoned to Washington and given a desk in one
of the bureaus controlling lands. He worked out
the philanthropic problems which had interested
him and, in so doing, very properly accumulated a
considerable fortune which was not decreased any
by the fact that, incidentally, he had acquired Texas
oil property which was developed by his son, who
had also been in the metal-back piano industry in
Chicago.
When the special affairs of Texas had been
cleaned up and closed, Mr. Nysewander found that
his old-time profession of the law possessed for him
a renewed attraction and he, as the newspaper
stories go, "hung out his shingle" at the national
capital. In that, too, he has been remarkably suc-
cessful. He looks younger today that when he was
enjoying the delights of the piano business. He is
happy in his success and he has not forgotten the
friends who sustained him when he was involved in
the complications of making pianos and selling them
for four months' notes "with privilege of renewals,"
as usual. Within a few days he will return to
Washington, probably driving his fine car, free and
at peace with the world and himself, recalling, as he
skims along, the days when his time was absorbed
in watching renewal notes of his customers, writing
them pleasant requests for remittances on account,
and drawing checks for expenses at the factory.
Recalls First Success.
And Mr. Nysewander will go back of all that, to
the time when he was a humble, but aspiring, young
musician at Dayton, Ohio, panting for fame and
sending his Mss. to the John Church Co., in Cincin-
nati. And, oh joy!—what a suggestion for Clare
Briggs' cartoon—the day he received word that his
first song had been accepted, and "would soon ap-
pear"! That was a red-letter dav in the career of
the musician-piano-making-real estate-man-lawyer!
He says so himself. And his present-day wealth has
no such thrill for him as that—his first success in
real life!
And so we see again how piano men may also be
something else—even money-makers. How they
may possess versatility and perseverance to over-
come difficulties, and issue forth into the sunlight
of fortune, even after they have made only a partial
success in the piano industry.
A DAY IN THE OPEN
IN NORTH DAKOTA
Three Baldwin Men do Marvelous Day's Work but
Think Nothing of It.
Out in North Dakota, where spaces are big, sheep,
cattle and hogs are big and distances seem inter-
planetary, three Baldwin Piano Company men did a
big day's riding, selling and storm-defying one day
last week, and yet thought nothing unusual had hap-
pened to them. On the the day in question they
traveled 188 miles, made 11 stops and returned to
Fargo, their starting point, late at night in a thun-
der storm, with the rain beating against the win-
dows of their closed car.
The men were J. M. Wylie, general Baldwin sales-
man for North Dakota; C. F. Perzina, of the Bald-
win selling force, and George W. Lawrence, of the
Chicago office of the Baldwin house. In the picture
here Mr. Perzina is shown with his arms folded in
front of the machine, and Mr. Wylie is advancing
with a monkey wrench in his hand, intending to
tighten a nut. Mr. Lawrence was the photographer,
so he does not appear in the picture. It's too bad,
too, for Mr. Lawrence is also a good looking young
man.
ANNISTON, ALA., BRANCH FOR
E. E. FORBES PIANO COMPANY
Well Known House to Open Store Where Business
Was Established Thirty-seven Years Ago.
Announcement that the E. E. Forbes & Sons
Piano Company, the big music house with stores in
Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery and other places,
is to open a branch house at 26 West Eleventh street,
Anniston, Ala., with a full line of pianos, organs and
talking machines, has created a great deal of inter-
est among the people of that city.
Mr. Forbes entered business in the latter place
about 37 years ago, finally closing out his Anniston
interests and moving to Birmingham.
The new branch of the Forbes chain will be under
the management of E. E. Forbes, Jr. L. E. Otis, of
Texas, will be sales manager for the Anniston house
and the player roll and phonograph department will
be under the management of Mrs. Otis.
NEW STRAUCH BROS. PLANT.
The big new factory of Strauch Bros., the distin-
guished piano action makers, is in full running order
and the activities there even exceed those with which
visitors to the old plant, on Tenth avenue, were fa-
miliar. It has been no small undertaking to uproot
the accumulated machinery, and other materials, of
two score years and more, and transplant them in
new quarters. But it has been done and the future
of Strauch Bros, promises to be even more prosper-
ous than the past. It is in itself a sufficient com-
mendation for any piano that it contains a Stniuch
action from the famed New York industry.
OAK PARK ON MAP.
E. C. Coon, the Oak Park, 111 , dealer in music
rolls, is putting that heretofore obscure town on the
commercial map. An order came in on Monday of
this week for rolls from San Antonio, Texas. Soon
.he expects dealers will be ordering from Australia
and perhaps Persia.
October 2, 1920.
PIANO MAN'S SON
BOOSTS MUSIC ADVANCE
Ranking Officer at Culver, Ind., Is Song
Leader and Is Advised by His Father
to "Dig in."
In a report made to the National Bureau for the
Advancement of Music of his music advancement
work at Culver Military Academy, Culver, Ind., and
Berry School, Mount Berry, Ga., Robert Lawrence,
.a member of the advisory staff of the bureau, pays a
high tribute to a son of A. B. Smith, of Akron, Ohio.
Mr. Lawrence's letter, dated at Mount Berry, fol-
lows:
"I am glad to report that my trip so far has been
a great success. The Culver work was 100 per cent
and its value was attested to by their wanting me to
return for a second week the 3rd of October and
again next July. The ranking cadet officer at Cul-
ver is the son of a music dealer at Akron, O. His
name is Smith and he, the father, has a string of
music houses in that section. The son is one of my
song leaders at Culver and a fine chap. He told me
that his father had written him to dig in hard, as he
wanted him to . start Community Music in Akron
when he returned. Now I thought it might be well
for you to write the father, telling him what is being
done in Little Rock and identify the work there with
the man who has been training his son at Culver.
"Berry School is truly a very wonderful place and
T shall have to wait my return to do it full justice.
The students are all poor and are from the mountain
districts of Georgia, Alabama, and other near-by
states. Such men and women you never saw, and
when you are looking into their faces you can't help
but feel that the future of America need never hang
in the balance with such citizens coming to the
front.
"I received two notes from Miss Borchard, "with
Mr. Hollenberg's letter enclosed. He has certainly
followed out our instructions to the letter and has
lined things up in a splendid way."
PROGRESS AND GROWTH
OF A ST. LOUIS HOUSE
Pleasant Incidents in the History of the Barthel &
Duesenberg Piano Company.
It is pleasant to note a repetition of history when
history repeats itself in an agreeable way. For in-
stance at the latest election of officers of the Barthel
& Duesenberg Piano Co., St. Louis, Mo., John D.
Barthel was made president; Hugo Hicks, vice-
president; Charles Duesenberg, treasurer and Hugo
Duesenberg, secretary. The order of election was
t-xactly the same in the first election in February,
1911.
But momentous things have happened in the com-'
pany in the interval between the two events. For
one thing the original name of the firm, the Con-
cordia Music House, has been changed to the pres-
ent form, the Barthel & Duesenberg Piano Co. The
first location of the company was at 1724 Olive
street, but within three years from the time of
opening the space there was found inadequate for
the requirements of its growth.
The second momentous event in the history of
the company was when the business was moved to
the downtown district and a store opened at 912-914
Pine street. This store has been further enlarged
by the acquisition of the store at number 910.
The progressive St. Louis company has concen-
trated its efforts on a few choice lines, the dependa-
bility of which it vouches for with every line of ad-
vertising. The leaders are the Packard piano and
the Packard Interpreter, a playerpiano which proves
a great sales success. Other pianos on display in
the warerooms are the Bond, Lyon & Healy and
Washburn.
CABLE CO.'S OIL PAINTINGS.
Turn to page 9 of Presto's issue of September 25
and study the beauty and appropriateness of that
picture. "Anticipating the long winter evenings"
—that's about what farsighted buyers are doing
now. A Presto representative was shown the orig-
inal oil painting from which the picture in Presto
is reproduced. And E. L. Hadley, advertising man-
ager, told him that the same artist who painted
this one is under engagement to paint more for
the company. It's an ad. that will sell pianos, be-
cause it focuses attention on the piano and the good
cheer that such an instrument brings to the home.
Dealers generally are us'ng more of The Cable
Company's aids than ever before, and the company
is putting out more artistic work throughout the
countrv than it has heretofore done.
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