Presto

11
October 30, 1920.
LETTERS OF UNUSUAL INTEREST
FROM PRESTO CONTRIBUTORS
WAREROOM WARBLES
(A New One Every Week.)
By The Presto Poick.
The Very Best Reading Possible for Trade Members, on Subjects Replete
with Interest in Every Branch of the Business.
JUMPS HARD ON "JAZZ"
Music Loving Citizen Indorses T. Rogers Lyons'
Estimate of the Prevailing Terror.
A contributor to the Chicago Tribune recently
drew a picture of "Jazz" and told what it is doing
to the musical sensibilities of dwellers in Uncle
Sam's domain. Following is what the music-loving
citizen had to say on the subject. It will interest
sheet music publishers and sellers:
"There is no more exquisite torture, no more
nerve racking experience than that of a music lover
forced to listen to the abomination called Jazz.
"The acquaintance to whom I made this remark
dissented vigorously and invited me to come with
him to a popular dance hall where, he assured me, I
should hear some 'real classy jazz music'
"My visit was profitable to me, and cured me,
for the time being, of a habit of boasting of our
high civilization and culture.
"Jazz exists and is popular because it speaks to
primitive minds in a language they understand. The
females I beheld writhing in weird contortions and
gyrations to the barbaric percussions of wood and
brass are but a short step removed from their sis-
ters in the jungles, their paint smeared faces and
the suggestive motions of their half covered bodies
are frankly designed to attract and capture the
male, and their minds are as bells out of tune jang-
ling discordantly in time with the jazz orchestra.
"Jazz is to music what the dime novel is to lit-
erature, the dollar daub to painting and the woman
of the streets to our ideal of womanhood; it is as
dangerous as the uncensored movie show, the ci-
garette or the vicious pool room, and our youth
should be protected against it.
"If jazz is music, Mendelssohn, Brahms and De-
bussy should have been crucified.
"J. W. JORGENSEN."
TUNING NOTICE IN PIANOS
Aurora, 111., Oct. 18, 1920.
Editor Presto: I have often thought the piano
manufacturers ought to get together on a uniform
set of instructions, to be placed inside the case, in
sight of any one, when the front is removed, in re-
gard to the care of the instrument, especially in
regard to having it tuned at regular intervals, and
also in regard to its mechanical care. There are
a great many people buying pianos who have no
ear for pitch, and don't know when their pianos are
out of tune, when little children are taking lessons.
Right from the beginning they are getting improper
ear-training, which is one of the most important
parts of a musical education.
I also find that teachers are very negligent in not
telling parents of the condition of their pianos. I
have even found cases when teachers were going
to the pupil's homes, to give lessons, when the
pianos were so frightfully out of tune-it was almost
impossible to tell one note from another; yet the
teacher said the piano "was not bad."
There is certainly a lot of room for education
along this line, with piano teachers as well as par-
ents, and also piano salesmen.
Another case I had recently, when the people had
had a cheap piano for three years, which had not
been tuned from the time it left the factory. When
I called at this home, at the request of a neighbor
where I had been working, the lady told me they
had a new piano and it did not need any tuning.
I asked her how long she had had it, and was told
a little over three years. When I told her the
necessity of tuning a couple of times the first year,
and at least once a year thereafter, she said, "It's
guaranteed for ten years," thinking it did not re-
quire tuning in that time.
Salesmen are to blame, in a great many instances,
for this condition, as they often tell their custo-
mers their pianos are so well made that they don't
need any attention for several years.
With a set of good, common sense suggestions
in regard to the necessity of tuning and proper me-
chanical care, in all pianos, where they could be
seen by the purchaser, and where they could not be
removed, it would help people to give their pianos
better care and their children, who are taking les-
sons, would get better ear-training. I think if
enough pressure was brought to bear on the man-
ufacturers, especially of the better class, something
of this kind could easily be arranged to the benefit
of all concerned.
Sincerely yours,
H. E. TURNER.
CASE OF VANDALISM
11
Ada, Okla., Oct. 25, 1920.
Editor Presto: I am sending you a sample part
of a "mandolin attachment" I took out of a piano
yesterday.
You can imagine what those rivets were doing
to the hammers!
This was made and installed by an "expert" in
the employ of a leading music house in this section.
Do you wonder that all my literature reads "Not
With Any Piano House"?
Note the size tack he used—some mechanic, eh?
This is a fair sample of the work of the average
music house tuner.
Yours for Better Piano work,
R. C. BISHOP.
POOR OLD POP.
[The "Pop" songs of sentiment have given way
to Rag and Jazz.—Newspaper Item.]
When Pop was young such songs were sung
As filled the world with joy,
And every tongue impassioned clung
To strains that ne'er could cloy;
"Sweet Nelly Gray" soon passed away,
And "Daisy Deane" arrived,
When "Silver Threads" won hearts and heads,
And long its charm survived.
Time passed along and changing song
Grew skittish 'till at last
What once was wrong entranced the throng
That danced in waltz-time past;
Then tom-tom blared and all declared
That rag-time made the hits—
The old world stared but soon was snared.
In syncopated fits.
And then came thrums of baying drums
With wooden clang between—
A sound that numbs heads, feet and thumbs,
And sweeps the senses clean.
So poor Pop dies 'mid strident cries
That stifle melody,
And Jazz defies all dreams that rise
Of what he used to be.
NO MORE LIFTING
W H
1S A T W O O D
ONE MAN CAN LOAD OR UNLOAD
A PIANO IN 15 SECONDS
BANNER SALESMAN'S BOOST
Master Musician
BOHEMIAN 132 ROLL
(For 65-note Rewind Electric
Pianos)
1. Kvitko. Valcik.
2. Na Pankraci na malem
vrsicku. Valcik.
3. Kralovna Vitezxtvi. Po-
chod.
4. Cerveny Satacek.
5. Roztomila. Polka.
6. Siva Holubicka. Valcik.
7. Na Vyskocilce. Polka.
8. Zpiva Zivot. Valcik.
9. Zlata Praha. Polka.
10. Ye»ely Zivot. Valcik.
A November Release!
Place your orders now to insure
prompt delivery.
CLARK ORCHESTRA ROLL CO.
De Kalb, Illinois
Warsaw, N. C, Oct. 22, 1920.
Editor Presto: Please send me Sept. 11 and
Sept. 25 issues of your paper. I am anxious to have
the two numbers referred to because of the mention
in them of a rather good business that I enjoyed
during the month of September. Please let me
state in connection with same that while I put
forth unusual efforts during the month in question
I did not consider the results as extra good, and I
mean to surpass that month's work when things
are favorable.
My wholesale work prevents me from devoting
entire time to my retail business, else I should have
long since broken the record I seem to have made.
The letter from me that Mr. Bowen submitted was
correctly quoted by you, and when I wrote him it
was intended merely to congratulate him on his
Loader. We are competitors in a retail way and
he does not sell the line I represent in a wholesale
way, the same being the Baldwin pianos.
In reply to several letters throughout the country
asking "how I did it," 1 migh^ say that my suc-
cess was due mainly to the fact that I represent
what I consider to be the best company in exist-
ence, The Baldwin Piano Company of Cincinnati.
Aside from their splendid line, and their persistent
advertising, they accord to each salesman that most
important help of all, personal interest, ever keep-
ing it before their organization that we should con-
sider ourselves pretty much as a large family. Hence
our slogan, "Once Baldwin, always Baldwin."
Yours trulv.
A. M. LANSFORD.
One Atwood Loader—One Ford Car and
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the dealers using them.
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bill of lading. Attach this ad to your order
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ATWOOD PIANO LOADER CO.
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA
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