Scan 23
Musical Courier 1891-08-19: Vol 23 Iss 600, 1891
197 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 196. See the scan on archive.org.
1quently we think we have abundant reason to anticipate a glorious harvest and a prosperous fall trade.
2Yours truly, G. W. JACKSON.
4Editors Musical Courier:
5GENTLEMEN—In answer to your inquiry of the 1st inst. in regard to the fall trade will say we have had a splendid season as far as agriculture is concerned. Plenty of rain. Crops are better than they have been for years. But our city has been rather quiet during the summer months on account of the closing down of a certain syndicate of mines. But the fall trade, I must say, looks bright.
6Yours truly, ORTON BROTHERS.
8Editors Musical Courier:
9GENTLEMEN—In answer to your favor I think that business will be only fair for coming fall, on account of money being very close. Many have bought property on instalments and all they can do is to get money enough to pay these obligations. If wheat brings a good price the organ trade will be fair.
10Yours in haste, H. SINSHEIMER.
12Editors Musical Courier:
13GENTLEMEN—Replying to yours of 1st inst. we have every reason to expect a good trade this fall. From the reports sent in by our traveling men indications are that crops will be good and prices high, and that generally means that trade in articles of luxury, like pianos and organs, will be good.
14Yours truly, WINTER & HARKER.
16Editors Musical Courier:
17GENTLEMEN—Yours of 1st inst. just at hand. It is my impression that trade will be better, and I can already detect a steadier feeling and am quite certain that it is moving for better.
18Yours truly, GRANT VAUGHAN.
20Editors Musical Courier:
21GENTLEMEN—We are retiring from the piano and organ business, for the reason of the dullness in that line.
22We do not consider the outlook for a large trade in that line very flattering, as our action would indicate.
23Very respectfully yours, ALBERT HANSEN.
25Editors Musical Courier:
26GENTLEMEN—As contrasted with last year, we anticipate a great increase of trade this coming season. Crops this year are larger than ever and in this State are always certain. Many railroads having been completed, the products will find a ready market. This is sure to have the effect of increasing sales in our as well as other lines.
27Very truly, A. A. TAYLER & CO.
29Editors Musical Courier:
30GENTLEMEN—I believe we will have a good trade the coming winter. Yours, J. S. MANSFIELD.
32Editors Musical Courier:
33GENTLEMEN—Your favor of the 5th inst., making inquiry as to the prospects for trade in our section, is at hand. North Dakota is about to harvest the best and largest crops it has seen for several years. So far the bright prospect is unimpaired. Everybody is hopeful, and without doubt the music business will share in the general activity that is certain to result from this favorable state of affairs. We look for a large and profitable business this season.
34Respectfully yours, KOPS BROTHERS.
36Editors Musical Courier:
37GENTLEMEN—In answer to your inquiry regarding the prospect for fall trade in the music business we would say that the outlook in South Dakota never was better.
38The music business in this State has been rather slow for the last few years owing to failure of crops and hard times generally. But this year we have the largest crop ever harvested in Dakota, and look for a very large fall trade.
39Very truly yours, O. G. CALDWELL.
41Tables of Importance.
42(Compiled by The Musical Courier.)
44VALUE OF IMPORTS OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
46<table>
47 <tr>
48 <th></th>
49 <th>ORGANS.</th>
50 <th>PIANOS.</th>
51 <th>ALL OTHERS AND PARTS THEREOF.</th>
52 <th>TOTALS.</th>
53 </tr>
54 <tr>
55 <th></th>
56 <th>No.</th>
57 <th>Value.</th>
58 <th>No.</th>
59 <th>Value.</th>
60 <th>No.</th>
61 <th>Value.</th>
62 </tr>
63 <tr>
64 <td>Month ending June 30, 1890</td>
65 <td>886</td>
66 <td>$54,213</td>
67 <td>53</td>
68 <td>$16,992</td>
69 <td>$11,552</td>
70 <td>$82,757</td>
71 </tr>
72 <tr>
73 <td>Month ending June 30, 1891</td>
74 <td>712</td>
75 <td>45,458</td>
76 <td>57</td>
77 <td>18,104</td>
78 <td>11,699</td>
79 <td>75,261</td>
80 </tr>
81 <tr>
82 <td>Twelve months ending June 30, 1890</td>
83 <td>11,490</td>
84 <td>750,583</td>
85 <td>631</td>
86 <td>213,369</td>
87 <td>141,182</td>
88 <td>1,005,134</td>
89 </tr>
90 <tr>
91 <td>Twelve months ending June 30, 1891</td>
92 <td>14,408</td>
93 <td>954,507</td>
94 <td>689</td>
95 <td>214,309</td>
96 <td>157,573</td>
97 <td>1,326,389</td>
98 </tr>
99</table>
101–A new piano factory is to be erected by the Lester Piano Company at the corner of Twentieth and Clearfield streets. The building will be of frame and will be filled with new and costly machinery for the manufacture of pianos. Elevators, freight lifts and a full electric system will be placed in the building, which, when completed, will cost, including machinery and complete furnishing, $80,000. About 130 hands will be employed.—Philadelphia "Times."
103HAYSEED IN THE WINDY CITY.
105An Interesting Letter from Harvey Hayseed, Being a Veracious Chronicling of His Adventures in the Godly City of Chicago, and What Bebef Him Going to and Coming from the Queen of the West.
107QUIMBORO, N. Y., August 17, 1891.
109Dear Musical Courier:
111WHAT a week it has been, to be sure! Somehow or other I seem destined for weird adventures, and among that large and intelligent mass of mankind known as the piano trade.
113Ah, me! I sometimes feel that I was intended for other, even greater, things than being a thriving piano dealer in the upper part of New York State.
115(Say, why don't you run up some time? I can show you as pretty a stretch of hard cider country as you'll find in the State anywhere.)
117The eternal dickering with close fisted country people about the price of an instrument and the continual jarring with your supply house is enough to keep a man's skin loose all the year round.
119So you can well imagine when my uncle died at Englebrook, Ill., and I was one of three heirs, you can well imagine I say again (two times), that I looked forward to the holiday I was about to enjoy as one of the events of a not very exciting lifetime.
121Don't think me ribald or unseemly in my jests, for I hadn't seen my uncle (my mother's brother) for years, and as I didn't attend the funeral and only had to look after my interests while in Chicago, I naturally felt elated.
123After making my final preparations and having promised my wife to be as good as I could, I left Quimboro by the morning express last Sunday for New York and sang "Comrades" all the way down in the smoker with a perfect stranger and a silver pocket flask. I reached New York Sunday night very hot and tired (you remember the fearful hot spell?) and went at once to bed at the Hotel Monico, not even waiting to bid Louis John good night.
125At 8:30 Monday morning I was at the Grand Central Depot, so as to secure a berth on the "Limited" the boss of all flyers to the West. I got my place and having a few moments to spare I rummaged around for some reading matter to beguile the weariness of the trip. (If I keep on I will become a literary person. I got the word "beguile" from our preacher in Quimboro. He frequently spoke in his sermons of the "beguilement of the wine cup" and always looked at me.)
127After poking amongst a lot of cheap and nasty French novels (I never could abide them), I was about to retire to the train in deep disgust, when the newsman, who evidently knew by the cut of my jib what I was after, invited me to examine a lot of old books and magazines he had in the rear of his stand.
129I did so, and bought Scott's "Lady of the Lake," "The History of the Piano Trade," by an ex-trader, and "Scenes in a Sewer, by one who has sewn," and was about to go, when my eye lighted, as doth the weary house fly, on a magazine furnished forth with a peculiarly gaudy cover. one of two readings
130I did so, and bought Scott's "Lady of the Lake," "The History of the Piano Trade," by an ex-trader, and "Scenes in a Sewer, by one who has seen," and was about to go, when my eye lighted, as doth the weary house fly, on a magazine furnished forth with a peculiarly gaudy cover. one of two readings
132It was called "The Dark Blue," and was dated London, March, 1871, and contained the first instalment of a serial called "Lost, a Romance," by the Rt. Rev. Jonah C. Fiend, Archbishop of Whitechapel, Oxon. B. A., author of "By the Roadside," "A Complete Bartender's Guide," and other tales.
134I bought this rare volume immediately, particularly as it contained a thrilling picture on the first page of an old bespectacled man (Fiend, disguised as a gentleman) and at his knees a fair sylph and the following dialogue printed below:
136"Lost, lost, lost, the Chicago Cabbage ad. Who will now pay the printer?"
138"Don't cry or worry, good papa," the sylph is supposed to be saying. "I will even scrub floors for you."
140I was charged 10 cents for the volume and I gladly paid it, for I knew of the colonel's literary aspirations and I wanted to gauge them in this story. Well, I went on my car, a beauty for comfort, and after fixing my traps I went at once to the parlor smoker, which is nothing else but a luxurious palace on wheels. Seating myself comfortably and waiting until we had passed through Dr. Depew's tunnel and were well on to Fordham, I opened my volume and proceeded to read.
142The introductory chapter was called "Apologia Mea," which I suppose means an apology to the reader for the slush that follows, and another outlandish word, "In Tribulatione." Now, I am no scholar; my father, God rest his soul, having given me a plain everyday schooling with plenty of the three R's, but I would wager that those two Latin words mean "In hot water." True for you, Jonah, in hot water in 1871 and in hot water in 1891.
144History repeats itself.
146Then I read the very first sentence and was at once disgusted. "I sit and think."
148The idea. What right has the author to sit and think?
150He had better sit and write, which he evidently didn't do because he couldn't. He finishes his prologue by saying: "As I write I feel a heavy grasp on my shoulder."
152How like Jonah C.! Ever in fear of the sheriff, even twenty years ago. But it turned out to be the "temper success," who tempted him by telling him to write a popular novel, and be rich and successful.
154But no, my ideal as to mind and real as to feet, Jonah, refused to do such a sordid thing, and then proceeded to pen a sickening blood and thunder story full of Gush and Gump (I don't know what "Gump" is, but it goes anyhow) and since then, strangely enough, has never succeeded in anything he has undertaken since.
156Of course, I except failures, for as a failure he is one of the most successful—in fact, beats Nat Goodwin's failure as a housebreaker all hollow.
158I was disgusted and was about to chuck the book out of the window when a hand was laid on my arm and a purring voice that I so detested mewed: "What are you reading, Harvey?"
160Oh, Lord!
162I turned about, and damn my eyes (excuse profanity) if there didn't stand old Jared Diggs, of Piltown, New York, smiling like a Cheshire puss, or, as you say in the city, "grinning like a Chessy cat." It was too, too much, and I blurted out: "Say, Jared Diggs, if you will kindly inform me of any quarter of this globe that I can go without your leathery old snout turning up I will deem it a great favor."
164"Harvey, God made my nose the shape it is. Besides, neighbor, let us—" Here he lifted a flask to my lips, and what could I say?
166I accepted the situation and the flask and said nothing. I just took a big pull, and, do you know, my bad humor instantly vanished, and I invited the aged viper of Piltown to take a seat beside me, and I pitched the "Dark Blue" into the Hudson which swiftly rolled by. (Or did we roll swiftly by the Hudson? Not being able to settle the matter in my own mind I took another snifter from the flask and settled down for a talk.)
168Diggs assured me that it was quite by accident that he happened on the same train as I did; that he had made up his mind at the last moment to go out to try to fix up the fight he had had with the Wimball people and to try, if possible, to recover the agency which he had lost on account of the disgraceful musical soirée he had given, wherein Clam Bake Harry and Billy Slurredeggs had figured so prominently.
170Furthermore, he had read in the "Quimboro Daily Bladder" that I was already in Chicago after a windfall from a dead uncle's estate, and he expected to meet me on the train. "It was a great surprise, indeed it was, and pleasure too, and wouldn't I have another drink?"
172I took another, all the time despising myself for weakness and admiring my thirst and Diggs' beautiful mendacity; and so the time went until we reached Buffalo, where we stretched our legs a bit and supped.
174Nothing of importance occurred on the trip except that Diggs, having a headache, took a bath and fell asleep in the bath tub, and the hot water turning on by accident, he couldn't turn it off, and yelped like a scalded poodle before the porter rescued him. I slept soundly, thanks to the easy motion of the cars, and dreamed was a Wimball grand in a bath tub and somebody was playing upon me with a hose to keep my gum wood cool, and the tune my old wires sounded was: "There's a reduction of the tariff, mamma, and it makes me awfully sick." Then I was awakened by the porter, ate my breakfast alone, and at 9 o'clock precisely reached Chicago, thanks to the excellent arrangement of the New York Central, which is ever on time.
176(If I keep on much longer in this strain it will sound like a Jonah C. Fiend puff for a free pass on a Greenwich avenue boattail car.) Before I left the depot old Diggs caught me and said:
178"What hotel, Harvey?"
180I gave him an evasive answer.
182"The Palmer House," said I.
184"Nonsense," said he, "come with me to the Richelieu."
186"Whew!" said I, "your blood's too rich for me or else your pockets must be full."
188"Neither," quoth Diggs. So seeing he was in earnest I went with him to the Richelieu and was afterward glad I did so. Over a milk shake Diggs tried to make me say what I thought of the Chickering matter and Gil, but I was too sharp to commit myself; besides, I half fancied that the Gildemeester piano would be a good instrument to fight the Wimball with in Quimboro, and for that matter in Piltown too, although I hadn't the slightest notion of how Gil was going to apportion the territory.
190(To be continued.)
192FOR SPRUCE SOUNDING BOARD LUMBER
193ADDRESS
194IRVING SNELL, Little Falls, N. Y.,
195Manufacturerer of first quality quartered spruce for pianos, and also dimension lumber for violins and other instruments.
196MILLS AT HARRISVILLE, N. Y.
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