Scan 24
Musical Courier 1891-11-11: Vol 23 Iss 612, 1891
105 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 557. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE CASE OF KIMBALL.
2(GUMWOOD).
4MR. W. W. KIMBALL was in New York last week.
6Our editor was in when he did not call on us, and so we had not the pleasure of meeting him.
8Let us take the opportunity, however, to say a few words regarding Mr. Kimball which may be apropos.
10For some time past, nearly three years we think, one of our contemporaries has seen fit to wage war against Mr. Kimball, his instruments and his method of doing business.
12In its last issue, referring to a testimonial said to have been given to the Kimball pianos by Mrs. Patti, our contemporary states that no one has been met who has ever seen the original. A facsimile has never been printed.
14As regards the Kimball pianos, our contemporary has asserted that they are not what their maker claims they are, but low grade instruments, made from inferior material by inferior labor.
16As regards Mr. Kimball's methods, they are, according to our contemporary, those of the charlatan and quack, who does not hesitate to advertise his nostrums by most unscrupulous means and with the most brazen effrontery.
18Stand to the bar (at Mould's), W. W. Kimball, and let us hear what you have to say to these charges!
20Eh? You think there are some charges that need no answering; that your long record as a business man and citizen in Chicago speaks for itself.
22Let us see what that record is.
24You came to Chicago a poor boy from New England, and reached the place as soon as you got there.
26You got into the business of selling organs and pianos.
28By dint of selling a low grade, cheap New York piano with your name on it—a stencil piano—you succeeded, and to-day thousands of people who bought Kimball pianos never knew, and never will know, that they were never made by you, although they thought so when they bought them. Your name and prestige brought for these pianos a much higher price than ever could have been had for them had their own name been upon them. You accumulated quite a fortune, very naturally. Then came the great fire in Chicago and you were a beggar. You started in again and did the same thing over, and again to prove how successful your stencil methods were you accumulated a fortune. To-day you are regarded as one of Chicago's stencilers and millionaires.
30You always paid 100 cents on the dollar, and you couldn't help it, your stencils' profits being so enormous. You have been one of the greatest outlets for many of our manufacturers ever known in the trade, and yet your stomach is in good condition.
32These manufacturers, some of them who, like Bernard Shoninger, do not deal with you to-day, cannot speak of you in terms sufficiently high; of course they cannot.
34You have been liberal with your competitors, most of whom, in the small towns, you drove to the wall. You have spared no means to get ahead of them; on the contrary, they are all your friends and would like to see you in ——
36Socially, too, Mr. Kimball, you stand high in Chicago. Perhaps no man in the whole music trade of Chicago, except your friend Fox, higher. Then, too, you have been a charitable man, you have. Eh? Have you? You wish what you have done in that respect to remain secret, and your wishes must necessarily be respected. You do not consider your charities as part of the advertising department, as you do Patti of your business, Mr. Kimball? Eh? Oh? Ah!
38Some years ago you determined to become a manufacturer. You built great factories. Oh! You commenced with gumwood organs, then you added gumwood pianos. You got two of the greatest piano makers we had to draw your scales over your eyes. You wanted to see if, with experience, brains, gumwood, large capital, unsurpassed facilities, E. S. Conway, you could not produce instruments of superior merit for the great public of the country at a comparatively high price with the aid of a Patti testimonial.
40You succeeded, and great artists—the great artists of the world—were printed in your catalogue, and you published under their pictures in type what you claim they have written to you. But it is generally suspected that most of them only said so in the presence of a witness, and that a stenographer took down their language, and for that reason you cannot show the original letters. You did the same thing with Dr. Ziegfeld last spring, when your first grand was exhibited. You have no Ziegfeld letter, and yet the Chicago music trade paper publishes the Ziegfeld remarks as if they were a letter.
42You were attacked, abused; you made no answer. The jealousy of Swick and other competition was aroused; you made no answer. A venal press assailed you; you made no answer. Come, Mr. Kimball, have you nothing to say. Eh, ah, oh, eh?
44You are left!
46Your personal life has been clean; you take frequent ablutions and you have lived honorably and openly before all, but at night you lock your door.
48Your business life has been krewd, sheen, careful, enterprising. You have robbed no man, because you knew if you did you would be sent to Joliet.
50You stand to-day on your feet, with your threescore years or more, one of the most brilliant examples of successful stenciling.
52You can afford to despise the attacks made upon you. And when men ask you whether a testimonial you publish is genuine, you can point to the record of your life and take a smile at Chapin & Gore's.
54[From a Saturday contemporary, which should be stopped from abusing Mr. Kimball.]
56THE STANDARD PITCH.
58THE adoption last Friday of 435 A as the standard and uniform pitch on the part of the Piano Manufacturers' Association of New York and Vicinity will have a more far reaching effect than at first glance might lead us to suppose. The full and complete account of the proceedings, together with the truly marvelous exposition of the theme on the part of Col. Levi K. Fuller, of Brattleboro, Vt., will be found in another part of this paper, and will prove decidedly interesting reading for anyone in the slightest degree interested in this important question; yet even a perusal and study of it will give but a faint idea of the brilliancy of the lecture and the astonishing physical demonstrations that were made.
60The practical results, however, will be the far reaching ones, and it is with these we intend to deal for the present. Within say six months probably 6,000 of the official 435 A forks will have been received here and distributed among tuners from here to the Pacific, 2,000 A and C forks having been ordered by cable last week.
62What will be the effect of the distribution of these forks?
64The tuners engaged by the very best class of piano firms will be the first to receive and use them, and this signifies that the families of the best stratum of our population will be the first whose pianos will be uniformly tuned to this now accepted and official pitch. It will not be long before the manufacturers themselves will begin preparations to meet the contingency of July 1, 1892, and tune all their factory pianos on the basis of 435 A.
66The organ manufacturers will naturally at once follow and tune according to the requirements of the new and official fork.
68Many tuners not connected with the firms related to the manufacturers who have adopted this pitch will be anxious to possess and work under the official fork of the association, and they will, of course, succeed in getting the new fork and will tune the pianos under their control and supervision on the basis of 435 A.
70While there may be some disadvantages connected with interference in the pitch of pianos already in use, it must not be forgotten that many are tuned at or about 435 and many at a lower pitch. Besides this, the prestige of the official pitch will give it an immense influence even without the alteration of any of the pianos not conforming with it at present.
72Naturally the great revolution inaugurated last Friday will begin its régime only on and after July 1, 1892, and then every first-class tuner must be provided with the official forks if he desires to maintain or retain his reputation.
74It will come to this, that the official fork will be used by the better class of tuners as an emblem of legitimacy. "You are no tuner at all; you don't use the forks of the Piano Manufacturers' Association. Show your fork." Such will be the challenge of all the first-class tuners, and that will naturally drive every tuner into a corner until he possesses the standard forks.
76It needs no further elucidation to prove how enormous this effect will be, and it shows the wisdom of the association in at once going practically to work and ordering and securing forks, the first of which were sounded in the office of THE MUSICAL COURIER last Saturday by Colonel Fuller, who had just received them from the custom house that morning. And here let us say to the piano tuners of America, being musicians ourselves and capable of judging, that the new forks of the Piano Manufacturers' Association are the finest examples of commercial forks ever brought into this country. They are superb, ringing out clear, bright and definite and with a distinctness of vibration that is refreshing. Every tuner will fall in love with the new forks.
78Such, then, being the case, the result as it pertains to other branches of music or the industry must be apparent. The boy who practices violin at home must tune his instrument to his sister's piano at 435 A. The young lady studying singing will insist that her teacher gives her the standard 435 A, so that she will not become confused when she returns home to practice.
80The great orchestras have already agreed upon 435 A. The great bands are following with 435 A. In the Sunday school, where the organ is tuned to 435 A, the children will sing to 435 A, and many of the young ones never forget the tonic note and will continue to sing to 435 A.
82These will be some of the immediate results of the practical action of the Piano Manufacturers' Association last Friday.
84From these results the hypothesis of the future can readily be drawn, and it leads us to state definitely and without the slightest reserve that the action of the association last Friday has made 435 A the standard uniform pitch of the United States for all time to come.
86THE MUSICAL COURIER is willing to stake its reputation on this statement.
88MR. E. A. POTTER, of Lyon, Potter & Co., Chicago, is in the city on a brief vacation, well deserved after an uninterrupted application to his office duties for many months. "Our business," says Mr. Potter, "is 75 per cent. ahead of last year's up to November 1," and it is a well-known fact that the trade of Messrs. Lyon, Potter & Co. has been exceptionally satisfactory in all departments and must be far beyond that of the previous year. Indeed the clientele of Lyon, Potter & Co. is so extensive and influential that it causes no surprise to learn that the house is uniformly busy.
90Mr. Wisner, of Brooklyn:
91DEAR SIR—This advertisement appeared in a Brooklyn paper one day last week:
93LEGANT Upright Piano, $195. $6 monthly.
94Steinway. Bargain. Wissner.
96ISN'T that a typographical error? You would not be guilty of intentionally advertising like that, would you? Take it out or have it corrected. Come!
98Assigned.
100BRADLEY & BLACK, the well-known dealers in stationery and musical instruments, made an assignment this morning to Gus A. Gill, president of the German Bank. The liabilities of the firm are placed at $9,500; assets, $10,100. The cause of the failure is the general stagnation of trade and the impossibility of making collections. The assignment was made without preference, and its immediate cause the pressure of parties who had claims against the firm, which could not be met at once.
102This failure the "Call" greatly regrets. The gentlemen of the firm are hard working, energetic men, and this disaster comes by no reason of their own actions.—Fort Smith "Call."
104—Albert Krell, of the Krell Piano Company, Cincinnati, has been traveling throughout the Northwest for the past three weeks, and has established quite a number of first-class agencies. The company have been compelled to work their men 14 hours a day for the past six weeks and prospects point to an excellent record for the Krell piano during the rest of the year.
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