Scan 35
Musical Courier 1891-10-14: Vol 23 Iss 608, 1891
67 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 444. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1NO.
3WE print verbatim et literatim the following postal card application recently received:
5SWICK & KELSO,
6Cor. Lincoln Ave. & E. 128th St.
7NEW YORK.
8PIANO MANUFACTURERS.
10GENTLEMEN,
11Aug. 26th 1891
12what is the best you can do for me on Advertising in your paper. Space like Geo. Bothner has. let me Know lowest price, and I will give the same my careful consideration.
13Yours Truly
14Mrs H. A. SWICK
15Sole owner.
17Mrs. Swick is now, it appears, the sole owner of Swick & Kelso. At the risk of appearing deficient in gallantry we must say "No" to this evidently charming member of the feminine sex. No, Mrs. Swick, sole owner, we cannot quote any lowest prices for a space like Geo. Bothner has. We have no time or inclination to measure Geo. Bothner's space, and if we did Geo. Bothner would probably kick, and we would not blame him.
19Mrs. Swick, we cannot accommodate you. "You can find ample space, just the kind you would probably delight in, with our contemporaries of the music trade press. They'll sell you their space cheap, if you pay in advance.
21Pianos are Numerous.
22A Musical Genius in Every Other House.
24THERE is probably no truth in the report that the great number of suicides that have recently been committed in Prussia was in any way due to music or the prevalence of musical instruments.
26The Germans are the most musical people in the world; but they will not submit to the tortures which the unmusical performer invariably inflicts. For example, in some parts of Germany it is unlawful to perform on a piano near an open window. The Germans recognize the fact that music is a great art, and that everybody and his sister cannot become musicians any more than they can become poets. Musicians, like poets, are born, not made.
28We, in this country, take a very different view of the matter. It is quantity rather than quality that we are after. Instead of turning our eyes upward toward the goddess of music, we insist that the goddess come down from her high pedestal and mingle with the democratic masses. It seems to be our ambition to popularize music and make it as universal as tennis or football.
30And New Haven is not at all behind the age in this respect. The city directory contains the names of 120 music teachers, and there are a good many other music teachers whose names do not appear in the directory's list. They are more numerous than the doctors, lawyers or insurance agents, and there is a large and constantly increasing demand for their services. Indeed, there is danger that the supply of teachers will not be adequate to the demand.
32Five years ago only those who had risen above the fierce struggle and had reached solid ground indulged in the luxury of a piano. But nowadays everybody who is anybody has a piano. It has become an inexpensive article of furniture. Families that must be content with three or four rooms on the second or third floor of a tenement house have a piano in their "best room." It may be that the mother as well as the father must hurry out every morning and labor all day to aid in supporting the family, and that the children are taken from school and thrust into a shop as soon as they are able to earn a dollar, but for all that they must have a piano.
34Ten out of every 15 shop girls whom one meets hurrying to work every morning are amateur performers. Their hard, pinched faces, narrow shoulders, contracted chests, and thin, little limbs plainly indicate that all their lives they have been at war with poverty. Poverty bent over their cradles, mingled with the pastimes of their childhood, walked with them in their youth and will stalk over their graves.
36And who would deny them the comfort that music affords? Surely they are entitled to any bit of sunshine that it brings into their hopeless, barren lives. But music give no pleasure to unmusical people. And no one will pretend that musical people are as numerous as pianos.
38People buy pianos in these days not because they love music, but because it is fashionable. It is fashion's edict. And where is there a more merciless autocrat than Dame Fashion? Why don't we rebel against this autocrat? Local music dealers say that 75 per cent. of the pianos sold nowadays are sold to poor families and sold on the instalment plan. A few years ago nobody thought of buying a piano until he was ready to pay for it. Now everybody buys the instrument on the instalment plan.
40It is not uncommon to see useful household articles, such as stoves, tables, sewing machines, carpets, &c., taken back by the dealers because of non-payment. But you could count on your fingers the number of pianos that have been thus seized for the same reason. The payments on the piano will be made regularly, no matter how sharply economical the family may be in other matters.
42And the singular thing about this is that in 90 out of every 100 houses in which the pianos are there are no books. There may be a few richly bound, heavily gilded volumes on the centre table, but there are no books in the house that any member of the family ever expects to read.
44Any child can be taught to love books. Comparatively few indeed are there who ever learn to love music. The love of music is not acquired. He who possesses it possessed it at birth; and such a one will be a musician, no matter what difficulties beset his path. The others are spending good money and valuable time learning to become mere mechanical performers.—New Haven "Union."
46FOR SALE—A fine old violin for sale; price, $300. Beautiful workmanship and superb and even tone quality. Address, B. L. G., care this office.
48TONE REGULATOR and Regulator—First-class man, with best of references, capable of taking charge of branch of factory, wishes a situation. Address Piano Maker, care of MUSICAL COURIER, 25 East Fourteenth street, New York.
50WANTED—A good piano tuner for both store and outside work. Address D. H. Baldwin & Co., Columbus, Ohio.
52FOR SALE—Mason & Hamlin organ, two manuals and pedals (27), 12 stops, six sets reeds (two sets for each keyboard), black walnut case. The organ is in very good order. Price, $140. H. Hauser, New Haven, Conn.
54WANTED—A thoroughly first-class piano tuner and repairer, also action and tone regulator, desires a situation in a wareroom of factory; city or country. First-class references from the leading firms of New York city. Address "Tuner," 238 Wyckoff street, Brooklyn, N. Y.
56WANTED—A business manufacturing an article that has been thoroughly advertised in the music trade and that represents a handsome profit to every dealer handling it needs a manager. One who is thoroughly acquainted with the music, particularly the piano and organ, trade, and who plays the piano, can secure management provided he can purchase a small amount of stock in order to interest himself. Address "Organum," care MUSICAL COURIER.
58PIANO MANUFACTURERS
59Who use SPRUCE SOUNDIN; BOARD LUMBER can be supplied with any quantity at all times and be sure of a FIRST-CLASS article by addressing the undersigned. Also Dimension Lumber prepared for VIO- LINS GUITARS and other MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
60WM. H. WATERS Little Falls, N. Y.
62MALCOLM LOVE PIANOS.
63A High Grade Piano, equal to any!
64MANUFACTURED BY
65WATERLOO ORGAN CO., Waterloo, N. Y.
66We invite correspondence from Dealers in localities where we are not represented.
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