Presto

August 15, 1929
PRESTO-TIMES
ISSUED THE FIRST AND
FIFTEENTH IN EACH
MONTH
F R A N K D. ABBOTT
- - - - - - - -
(C. A. DANIELL—1904-1927.)
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.
Publishers
417 So. Dearborn St.
Chicago, 111.
The American Music Trade Journal
Editor
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mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at
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news of importance can have attention after !) a. m. of
Thursday. If they concern the interests of manufactur-
ers or dealers such items will appear the issue following.
CHICAGO, AUGUST 15, 1929
THE LATE OTTO SCHULZ
In these days of taking- note of records, the late Otto Schulz
left a record of kindness, of helpfulness and of constructive perform-
ance rarely equalled in one life. According to the Rev. Dr. Crile,
who preached his funeral sermon, Otto Schulz lives on in the good
works he started. That part of him which his friends loved, and
which loved them in return, is not dead, but is living on and progress-
ing in a wider sphere.
Otto Schulz was born in Chicago August 15, 1870, his father being
Mathias Schulz and his mother Mrs. Marie Louise Horlbeck Schulz.
Otto attended Chicago public schools, Morgan Park Military Academy
and the Chicago Lyceum, a school for lectures.
He was president of the M. Schulz Company, the Werner Piano
Company, the Brinkerhofr Piano Company, a director in the American
Varnish Company and a director in the Security Bank of Chicago.
He had been president of the National Piano Manufacturers' Associ-
ation, of the Chicago Piano & Organ Association and the Chicago
Piano Manufacturers' Association.
He was a member of the Chicago Athletic Association, the Lake
Shore Athletic Association, the Evanston Golf Club, the City Club of
Chicago, the Chicago Press Club, the Cook County Real Estate Board
and the Chicago Plan Commission.
Mr. Schulz was a Mason and a Shriner, a director of the old
West Side Commercial Association, a member of the church council
and a deacon of the Wicker Park Lutheran Church. Surviving him
are his wife, Emma Jung Schulz; a daughter, Mrs. O. 1). Torrison ;
Otto Schulz, Jr., Carl, George and William Schulz, and Mrs. F. P.
Bassett.
TIME FOR SPECIAL SALES
Where are most of the emergency men this summer—the special
piano salesmen who conducted sales of a few weeks' duration in the
larger and smaller towns throughout the country? The exigencies
of trade justify special sales this summer, the conditions affording
adequate grounds for this method of disposal of pianos. The sales-
man extraordinary, although confined to a definite field of action,
exercises his peculiar bent in a precise and explicit way in arousing-
interest in pianos in the section in which he is working and, better
than that, he awakens the local dealer to the opportunities that he
has been missing. Successful men of this type have an individual
PHONOGRAPHS IN CHILE
There is an active market for phonographs in Chile,
according to Vice Consul C. L. McLain, Concepcion,
who writes the Commerce Reports:
"The phonograph is one of the most popular Ameri-
can commodities marketed in Chile. There has been
a fair volume of sales in recent years, and now the
introduction of the model having the new sound
box, reproduction, and amplifying features has created
a greater demand for phonographs. A few years ago
there was only one dealer in the Concepcion district
selling phonographs exclusively. Now there are three
such companies, and twelve others handling them in
conjunction with other lines. Another example of
this growing demand is seen in the quarterly imports
of phonographs through the port of Talcahuano. In
the March quarter, 1928, there were 12 phonographs
imported from the United States; in the June quar-
ter, 29; and in the September quarter, 43. German
phonographs offer the principal competition in this
quality. They devote themselves to certain methods, and while they
seem to be working out of the regular course, they avoid sophistical
or over-technical talks about piano construction that are likely to
bring on arguments and spoil chances of sales.
A STEPPINQ=STONE YEAR
This date in the piano business is just a chronological position
between the was and the will-be of piano years. The similitude be-
tween the period gone and the period coming would help this year's
trade if the past and the future could be brought into juxtaposition
now. Singularly enthusiastic piano years have gone; singularly en-
thusiastic piano years are coming. The reactionary is the fellow
who sits on the fence believing- that it is his bounden duty to doubt;
if a good time is coming, he has no intention of inculcating it. He
sneers at the means taken to overcome difficulties, to obtain co-oper-
ation. It is hard to make such a chap believe that when a man does
his best, he will find that he does verv well.
ARE ANTIQUES WORTH WHILE?
It is reasonable to suppose that one who is celebrated as an
antiquary will buy some very old piano and boast that its delicate
gracefulness is unrivalled, and he may go so far as to say that its
tone improves from year to year. But what tuner will agree with
him? What modern manufacturer of the finer and better pianos will
sustain his contention? We all get fooled in time, but the modern
man looks upon the antiquarian as one who gets fooled all the time.
While this is hardly true, an old piano requiring constant repairing
may prove a dainty but expensive dish of luxury.
THE POWER OF WRONG THINKING
A few months ago a Presto-Times representative met a piano
merchant who compared the piano business at that time to an ele-
phant hanging over the edge of a high cliff with his tail tied to a
daisy. It was easy to see where that pessimist was heading—that
dealer's business went into a receiver's hands last"week. His imag-
ination worked; it wrought his financial ruin. Such a man is better
out of the business. His involuntary quitting was the removal of a
stumbling block.
market, 21 phonographs being imported through the
port of Talcahuano during the first nine months
of 1928."
H. N. SWAIM, INDIANAPOLIS AGENT.
Incorporation papers have been tiled in Indiana for
the Davis Stores, Inc. (Delaware corporation); ob-
jects, manufacture, assemble, develop, improve and
generally deal in and with musical instruments of all
kinds; capital stock represented in Indiana, two
shares. Indiana agent and office, H. Nathan Swaim,
Indianapolis.
SHIP LARGE BENCH ORDERS.
WASTE DUE TO WRONG THINKING.
Waste is due to wrong types of thinking by all
who cause it, management and labor and capital
alike, according to C. E. Knoeppel of Cleveland,
Ohio. By wrong types, he means thinking that is
careless, pessimistic, dishonest, unhealthy, untrained,
misdirected and generally negative. He says he feels
that in true waste elimination through man-power de-
velopment, attention must be given to the fact that
because thinking is the basis of everything that we
are or do or say, it is that quality in man which must
be studied and then properly considered.
REED ORGANS IN ENGLAND.
In the United States the reed organ for homes and
Quantity shipments of Perfection benches to deal- churches has almost disappeared, but in England and
ers in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan are going strong. other foreign lands abroad this form of musical instru-
A reporter for Presto-Times learned this fact when ment is still going strong. On the desk of the writer
F. S. Smith, president of the Perfection Bench Co., of this paragraph is an advertisement from London
responded to the question, "How's business?" put to Times of R. F. Stevens, Ltd., announcing twenty
him by fellow members of the Piano Club of Chicago different models in portables and larger ones up to
church organs.
at a recent noonday meeting.
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