Presto
Issue: 1923 1929 - Page 9
PRESTO
July 14, 1923
THINGS SAID OR SUGGESTED
What has become of the family singing-cir-
cles? What about the "songs after sunset"?
Perhaps it is "Come, Sadie, the car is ready!"
That is.a call of the wild that takes the sing-
ers away from the piano. It is not good for
the piano business, of course. But especially
in the summer season the car won't wait very
long. It must be filled, and burning up the
road is its pastime. Still the call for pianos is
larger than it was before the car began to
toot. The home without a piano is not much
of a home, and the local dealers who know
what pianos are for, and sell them on that
basis, are still making money.
=£
•
*
Which reminds one that the preachers
throughout the country are in the habit of
talking about music and song in a way to help
the piano business. In Chicago last Sunday
one of the most eloquent of them chose for
his discourse "The Happy God," and told about
the "song God loved to sing." The speaker is
Rev. Ralph Marshall Davis, of the Hyde Park
Presbyterian—one of the most eloquent at
this time. He deplored the drawing-away of
the family from the piano after the day's cares
are done. Wouldn't it be well for the music
improvement association, or some such or-
ganization, to have an understanding with the
ministers, and enlist them in the music-love
campaign, just as the "Music Week" propa-
ganda is being fostered—or wouldn't it?
If you can't send out your mail matter in
presentable form, don't send out your mail
matter. A shabbily written letter is a poor
advertisement. It isn't worth the cost of the
postage stamp. It will, in many cases, carry
the very reverse of the impression you want
your letters to convey. You can't have all of
your correspondence in artistic style. But you
can have it clean and transcribed in legible
manner, whether by pen or typewriter. In
business the type-machine is better than the
Waterbury, because it is sure to be easily read.
But if your typewriter is poor—get a new one.
Any way have your letters look well, and also,
if possible, read well.
* * *
It may have been poor salesmanship. Was
it? You be the judge. A young man went
out soliciting for the sale of a fine piano. He
adopted a plan of finding out where a pros-
pect might possibly be and tackling it—old?
Yes, one of the oldest. But this young man
especially tried to find the owners of poor
pianos—the kind that never cost much and
were never worth what they cost. He talked
his artistic piano. Then, in reply to the con-
ventional question about what he would allow
for the old piano, he answered: "I'll take it
and allow you $50 for it, with the understand-
ing that I'll not take it to the store but will
put it to the ax as soon as I get it. It has no
value, and what I allow is nothing in the
worth of the piano I will sell you. You
shouldn't have this old box in your parlor, and
this suggestion of mine is worth more to you
than your piano." Sometimes he closed the
sale, and sometimes—he was asked to leave
the house!
* * *
A well known piano man was told that he
was mortally ill. He worried and went away
and, after months, he came back. He felt
pretty well but he had been told not to do any
work. One day he happened to go to the fac-
tory and was shown a new case design. It
pleased him with the exception of one small
feature. He thought he could make it right,
and thoughtlessly went about it. He made the
changes with his own hand, working for
nearly a week upon some ideas of his own.
When he had it done he called his associates
to see it. They applauded. It was fine! The
piano man continued to "putter" around the
factory until one day he was asked how he
was feeling. "Well, by all the goslings!" he
exclaimed, "I was sick, wasn't I ? I'd quite
forgotten it!" Today he is as well as he ever
was in his life, and that's better probably than
you are! Is it the mind over matter? Any-
way, the mind didn't work for the assumed
sickness. The doctors did that, and when the
piano man was away from the M.D.'s he got
well. Moral—anything you like.
* * *
It seems a pity to correct "history" when in
doing it pretty fiction is turned into almost
tragic recital of sordid fact. The. New York
Times last Sunday printed a lengthy editorial
on Stephen C. Foster in which the gifted song-
writer was painted as an "industrious student
of music" and one who "was never a man of
loose life." It might be better to let that go
into history but it. is not in accordance with
the records of many who knew the composer
of "Old Folks at Home" intimately. George
Cooper, gifted composer-poet, has told how
Foster died as the result of a fall down the
steps of the saloon in which he was employed.
Like so many men of genius, Foster was dis-
solute and easily preyed upon because of his
habits. Further, the Times says that "Christy
paid Foster $500 for the right to sing his 'Old
Folks at Home.'"
* * *
The late "Frank Howard," also in his day a
great song writer, knew Foster well. He
wrote that "after an unsuccessful tour among
the publishers Foster offered the song ('Old
Folks') to Christy, from whom he received a
paltry sum accompanied by the stipulation
that Christy should be allowed to claim the
authorship." Of course the world knows that
Christy did "claim the authorship," and that
several of Foster's best songs appeared as the
compositions of the negro minstrel.
* * *
Another old-time song-writer pays the pen-
alty of undisciplined genius. T. C. Harbaugh
has been carted from his home in the little
town of Casstown, Ohio, to the nearest poor-
house. Nearly forty years ago Harbaugh was
writing songs for John Church & Co., of Cin-
cinnati. He also wrote short stories and
poems. He was prolific but improvident. Be-
fore they put him into the county palace of the
poverty-stricken, they sold his pitiful belong-
ings at public auction. The sum to tell of the
song "hits," the stories and the princely roy-
alties netted the author just $1,000.
NEW BALTIMORE MANAGER.
Leon C. Steele has been appointed manager of the
J. H. Williams Warerooms. Baltimore, Md. He was
formerly engaged in business for himself in Norfolk,
Va., and previous to that was manager of the Nor-
folk branch of the Charles M. Stiefif, Inc.
MRS. POOLE DIES.
Mrs. Fannie L. Poole, widow of the late William
H. Poole, founder of the Poole Piano Co., Boston,
and mother of Ava W. Poole, president of the com-
pany, died recently at her home, 384 Common street,
Belmont, Mass.
WING to current exaggerations and misrepre-
sentations, which have created a false impression
in the public mind, and in the interest of good
business, the following manufacturers of and
dealers in band instruments wish to announce:
1—That they will not give away their product to prominent
musicians or others;
2—That they will not loan instruments for the purpose of hav-
ing them used by prominent musicians;
3—That they will not pay salaries to or in other manner
subsidize musicians to induce them to use their instruments;
4—That all sales to retail buyers, including professional musi-
cians, will be made at established retail prices and on the
regular terms of the respective manufacturers;
5—That they will not accept second-hand instruments in ex-
change for new, except at the standard exchange values;
(This refers to a uniform exchange schedule now being: compiled,
copy of which will he mailed to all dealers in flic near future.)
6—That each manufacturer will urge his dealers and other
representatives to be guided by these principles, and will
regard any violations with disfavor.
C. BRl'XO & SOX, Inc.
BUEfJELEISEN & JACOB-SON
BUESCHER B A M ) INSTRUMENT CO.
C. (i. CONN. 1-td.
E. A. COUTURIER B A M )
INSTRUMENT CO.
Cl NDY-BETTONEY CO.
VV. .1. DYER & BKO.
CARI. FISCHER
WIIXIAM FRANK CO.
FRED GRETSCH MFG. CO.
GRINNEI.I. BROTHERS
FRANK HOI/TON & CO.
J. W. JENKINS' SONS MUSIC CO.
LEEDY MANUFACTURING CO.
M'DWKi & Ll'DWHJ
I. YON & HEAI,Y, Inc.
MARTIN BAND INSTRUMENT CO.
TAN-AMERICAN BAND
INSTRUMENT & CASE CO.
HARRY PEDI.ER CO.. Inc.
II. & A. NELMER, Inc.
THE VEGA CO.
II. N. WHITE CO.
RUDOLPH WUKMTZER CO.
J. W. YORK & SONS
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
July 14, 1923
THINGS SAID OR SUGGESTED
What has become of the family singing-cir-
cles? What about the "songs after sunset"?
Perhaps it is "Come, Sadie, the car is ready!"
That is.a call of the wild that takes the sing-
ers away from the piano. It is not good for
the piano business, of course. But especially
in the summer season the car won't wait very
long. It must be filled, and burning up the
road is its pastime. Still the call for pianos is
larger than it was before the car began to
toot. The home without a piano is not much
of a home, and the local dealers who know
what pianos are for, and sell them on that
basis, are still making money.
=£
•
*
Which reminds one that the preachers
throughout the country are in the habit of
talking about music and song in a way to help
the piano business. In Chicago last Sunday
one of the most eloquent of them chose for
his discourse "The Happy God," and told about
the "song God loved to sing." The speaker is
Rev. Ralph Marshall Davis, of the Hyde Park
Presbyterian—one of the most eloquent at
this time. He deplored the drawing-away of
the family from the piano after the day's cares
are done. Wouldn't it be well for the music
improvement association, or some such or-
ganization, to have an understanding with the
ministers, and enlist them in the music-love
campaign, just as the "Music Week" propa-
ganda is being fostered—or wouldn't it?
If you can't send out your mail matter in
presentable form, don't send out your mail
matter. A shabbily written letter is a poor
advertisement. It isn't worth the cost of the
postage stamp. It will, in many cases, carry
the very reverse of the impression you want
your letters to convey. You can't have all of
your correspondence in artistic style. But you
can have it clean and transcribed in legible
manner, whether by pen or typewriter. In
business the type-machine is better than the
Waterbury, because it is sure to be easily read.
But if your typewriter is poor—get a new one.
Any way have your letters look well, and also,
if possible, read well.
* * *
It may have been poor salesmanship. Was
it? You be the judge. A young man went
out soliciting for the sale of a fine piano. He
adopted a plan of finding out where a pros-
pect might possibly be and tackling it—old?
Yes, one of the oldest. But this young man
especially tried to find the owners of poor
pianos—the kind that never cost much and
were never worth what they cost. He talked
his artistic piano. Then, in reply to the con-
ventional question about what he would allow
for the old piano, he answered: "I'll take it
and allow you $50 for it, with the understand-
ing that I'll not take it to the store but will
put it to the ax as soon as I get it. It has no
value, and what I allow is nothing in the
worth of the piano I will sell you. You
shouldn't have this old box in your parlor, and
this suggestion of mine is worth more to you
than your piano." Sometimes he closed the
sale, and sometimes—he was asked to leave
the house!
* * *
A well known piano man was told that he
was mortally ill. He worried and went away
and, after months, he came back. He felt
pretty well but he had been told not to do any
work. One day he happened to go to the fac-
tory and was shown a new case design. It
pleased him with the exception of one small
feature. He thought he could make it right,
and thoughtlessly went about it. He made the
changes with his own hand, working for
nearly a week upon some ideas of his own.
When he had it done he called his associates
to see it. They applauded. It was fine! The
piano man continued to "putter" around the
factory until one day he was asked how he
was feeling. "Well, by all the goslings!" he
exclaimed, "I was sick, wasn't I ? I'd quite
forgotten it!" Today he is as well as he ever
was in his life, and that's better probably than
you are! Is it the mind over matter? Any-
way, the mind didn't work for the assumed
sickness. The doctors did that, and when the
piano man was away from the M.D.'s he got
well. Moral—anything you like.
* * *
It seems a pity to correct "history" when in
doing it pretty fiction is turned into almost
tragic recital of sordid fact. The. New York
Times last Sunday printed a lengthy editorial
on Stephen C. Foster in which the gifted song-
writer was painted as an "industrious student
of music" and one who "was never a man of
loose life." It might be better to let that go
into history but it. is not in accordance with
the records of many who knew the composer
of "Old Folks at Home" intimately. George
Cooper, gifted composer-poet, has told how
Foster died as the result of a fall down the
steps of the saloon in which he was employed.
Like so many men of genius, Foster was dis-
solute and easily preyed upon because of his
habits. Further, the Times says that "Christy
paid Foster $500 for the right to sing his 'Old
Folks at Home.'"
* * *
The late "Frank Howard," also in his day a
great song writer, knew Foster well. He
wrote that "after an unsuccessful tour among
the publishers Foster offered the song ('Old
Folks') to Christy, from whom he received a
paltry sum accompanied by the stipulation
that Christy should be allowed to claim the
authorship." Of course the world knows that
Christy did "claim the authorship," and that
several of Foster's best songs appeared as the
compositions of the negro minstrel.
* * *
Another old-time song-writer pays the pen-
alty of undisciplined genius. T. C. Harbaugh
has been carted from his home in the little
town of Casstown, Ohio, to the nearest poor-
house. Nearly forty years ago Harbaugh was
writing songs for John Church & Co., of Cin-
cinnati. He also wrote short stories and
poems. He was prolific but improvident. Be-
fore they put him into the county palace of the
poverty-stricken, they sold his pitiful belong-
ings at public auction. The sum to tell of the
song "hits," the stories and the princely roy-
alties netted the author just $1,000.
NEW BALTIMORE MANAGER.
Leon C. Steele has been appointed manager of the
J. H. Williams Warerooms. Baltimore, Md. He was
formerly engaged in business for himself in Norfolk,
Va., and previous to that was manager of the Nor-
folk branch of the Charles M. Stiefif, Inc.
MRS. POOLE DIES.
Mrs. Fannie L. Poole, widow of the late William
H. Poole, founder of the Poole Piano Co., Boston,
and mother of Ava W. Poole, president of the com-
pany, died recently at her home, 384 Common street,
Belmont, Mass.
WING to current exaggerations and misrepre-
sentations, which have created a false impression
in the public mind, and in the interest of good
business, the following manufacturers of and
dealers in band instruments wish to announce:
1—That they will not give away their product to prominent
musicians or others;
2—That they will not loan instruments for the purpose of hav-
ing them used by prominent musicians;
3—That they will not pay salaries to or in other manner
subsidize musicians to induce them to use their instruments;
4—That all sales to retail buyers, including professional musi-
cians, will be made at established retail prices and on the
regular terms of the respective manufacturers;
5—That they will not accept second-hand instruments in ex-
change for new, except at the standard exchange values;
(This refers to a uniform exchange schedule now being: compiled,
copy of which will he mailed to all dealers in flic near future.)
6—That each manufacturer will urge his dealers and other
representatives to be guided by these principles, and will
regard any violations with disfavor.
C. BRl'XO & SOX, Inc.
BUEfJELEISEN & JACOB-SON
BUESCHER B A M ) INSTRUMENT CO.
C. (i. CONN. 1-td.
E. A. COUTURIER B A M )
INSTRUMENT CO.
Cl NDY-BETTONEY CO.
VV. .1. DYER & BKO.
CARI. FISCHER
WIIXIAM FRANK CO.
FRED GRETSCH MFG. CO.
GRINNEI.I. BROTHERS
FRANK HOI/TON & CO.
J. W. JENKINS' SONS MUSIC CO.
LEEDY MANUFACTURING CO.
M'DWKi & Ll'DWHJ
I. YON & HEAI,Y, Inc.
MARTIN BAND INSTRUMENT CO.
TAN-AMERICAN BAND
INSTRUMENT & CASE CO.
HARRY PEDI.ER CO.. Inc.
II. & A. NELMER, Inc.
THE VEGA CO.
II. N. WHITE CO.
RUDOLPH WUKMTZER CO.
J. W. YORK & SONS
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).