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Musical Courier 1892-02-17: Vol 24 Iss 626, 1892
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1DURAND DECAMPS.
3Collapse of the Durand Organ and Piano Company, of Portland, Ore.
5THE Portland "Oregonian" of February 7 publishes the following:
7Thursday Ezra Durand, president of the Durand Organ and Piano Company, was about town as usual, but did not come home at night. Friday noon a letter came to the office from him, mailed at Oregon City, and stating that he was trying to raise some money in the country around there to help out, and would be back in a day or two. Friday afternoon and night D. J. Durand looked for his brother, but yesterday he gave up.
9"I do not expect him now," he said, with a dejected glance at the flaring letter heads of the firm. "If he should come back it would only be to stand trial in the Criminal Court and be sent to Salem."
11"It was about 10 years ago," said D. J. Durand, the brother who is left behind, "that Ezra came here from St. Joseph, Mo., where he was in the same business. On the way here he married his wife in California. I came here four years ago for my health. I was sick, and thought a change of climate would benefit me. But I was here a year and a half before I went to work with my brother. I had only $100 worth of stock, merely enough for me to be secretary. This position I held. It was simply clerical, and I had no knowledge of the management of the business except the routine in the store. My brother conducted the outside business, kept the bank account privately, and took the money as fast as it came in. There was no record kept here of his operations or the notes he was taking. The store business paid. It has earned since April a net profit of $2,000."
13"What became of the money?"
15"My brother became ambitious. He bonded large tracts of land, lying idle and unproductive, obligating himself. I judged from what remarks he let drop, to pay $50,000, probably $30,000 a month. The move to these quarters was a mistake. He did not realize at first that his expenses had been trebled. To meet these and his payments on land he began borrowing money of brokers. Then he had to borrow more to pay with. Along toward the last he was borrowing money one day to pay what he had borrowed the day before. The profits all went to brokers, and at last he became desperate. Creditors began to compare notes and pushed him. He has been paying as high as $100 a day interest to brokers."
17"What about these rumors that your brother had unsavory records behind him?"
19"There is no truth in them. He was never arrested or under the shadow of the law. He never served time, and was never before involved in questionable transactions. If he was out of debt my brother would be the best man in the city to-day."
21Judge Hurley was telegraphing all over the country yesterday to find traces of Durand, but without avail. Local detectives are on the scent to arrest him on a charge of forgery preferred by a man named Marion Johnson.
23No further particulars have reached New York concerning the failure. The Chicago Cottage Organ Company was mentioned as a heavy loser, but THE MUSICAL COURIER's Chicago correspondent corrects that impression in his letter of this week.
25The Century Piano Company were mentioned in an exchange as being involved for some $4,000, while in reality their account with the Durand Organ and Piano Company at the time of the trouble was but $350, an amount which they are likely to recover. The whole failure is not worthy of the extensive notice that has been given it, so far as piano and organ houses are concerned.
27No Standing; Bad Reputation.
29A STRAIGHTFORWARD question is deserving of an equally straightforward reply, even if the subject is crooked. Here are both:
31Editors Musical Courier:
32Will you kindly inform me as to the reputation, standing and responsibility of the Beatty or Beatie firm selling pianos and organs, and much oblige
33J. H. MANN.
35Daniel F. Beatty, of the town of Washington, State of New Jersey, advertises Beatty pianos and Beatty organs. He is not a manufacturer, but a stenciler. He buys his pianos and he buys his organs and he puts his name on them and he advertises them as if made by him in the religious papers of this country, and he sells them to the confiding public that believes the things seen in these papers. These papers very frequently give Beatty free reading notices provided and furnished by Beatty. In these Beatty and his fraud stencil trash are praised sky high.
37He has no standing; has a stencil reputation and, has no responsibilities.
39About Organ Bellows.
41THE use of electric motors for supplying wind to church organs has become very extensive of late, the latest example being that of the organ in St. Francis Xavier's Church, East Sixteenth street, this city, and thereby hangs a tale.
43There was a man once, as Mr. Kipling would say, who was certainly a man of ideas, but who was liable to slight mistakes in the execution of the same. In this case he arranged an indicator from the tank which supplied water for operating the water motor that blows the bellows at the key desk of the organ, so that when the tank was full or empty the organist would have due notice thereof. The only fault of this arrangement was that the float in the tank which operated this indicator was not confined to one spot, but was allowed to drift wherever it wished and this defect proved serious, inasmuch as it finally drifted into the escape pipe. The next time water was pumped into the tank the indicator of course showed no increase, and after what seemed to be a reasonable amount of time the operator resolved to investigate. He was more surprised than delighted to find a very fair imitation of Niagara proceeding from the tank down through the ceiling and into the organ.
45The result of this has been that the water motor has been expelled in disgrace, and an electric motor ordered from the Edison Electric Illuminating Company. This motor will drive a new independent bellows, which will be connected with the present bellows, and the wind supply regulated automatically to meet the varying demand. This arrangement will insure absolute steadiness in the supply of wind, and it is expected will be a decided improvement on the old plan, as it will do away with the somewhat roundabout operation of using a steam engine to pump water, and then using the water to operate a motor, to say nothing of the danger of such accidents as the one described. The new bellows will be of very large dimensions, have three feeders, and be made in the strongest manner. Messrs. George Jardine & Son, the organ builders, are now constructing it at their factory. Messrs. Jardine have used a similar arrangement with great success in the organs in St. George's Church, New York, and in the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
47Organ Dedication.
49THE new "Jackson pipe organ" for the German Lutheran Church was formally dedicated last Sunday, three services being held, and to say that the congregation and Professor Kline, the musical director, are more than pleased would be putting it mildly, as the magnificent instrument more than met their expectations. Below will be found the specification of the organ, which is valued at $2,000. And no greater compliment could have been paid the State agents, Lange & Minton, than the fact that the trustees gave them a check in full the very day the organ was completed. The music Sunday reflected great credit upon Professor Kline, the director, he being assisted at the organ by Mr. Cotsworth and Miss Lydia Kline. An original quartet, composed by Professor Kline, was heard then for the first time and was greatly admired. The organ, which was encased in a light and dark oak case beautifully decorated in light blue and gold, contains the following specification:
51SPECIFICATION OF JACKSON PIPE ORGAN
52At German Lutheran Church.
53No. 1, 16 feet, bourdon………………………………………49 pipes
54No. 2, 8 feet, open diapason………………………………….61 pipes
55No. 3, 8 feet, melodia and bass……………………………….61 pipes
56No. 4, 8 feet, dulciana groved………………………………..49 pipes
57No. 5, 4 feet, harmonique flute……………………………….61 pipes
58No. 6, 4 feet, principal metal…………………………………61 pipes
59No. 7, 7 feet, twelfth metal……………………………………61 pipes
60No. 8, 2 feet, piccolo…………………………………………..61 pipes
61No. 9, 8 feet, clarionet reed…………………………………..49 pipes
63SWELL ORGAN.
64No. 10, 8 feet, violin diapason, 12 stopped…………………61 pipes
65No. 11, 8 feet, salicional, groved…………………………..40 pipes
66No. 12, 8 feet, Liebelich Gedacht…………………………….61 pipes
67No. 13, 4 feet, fluta di amore………………………………..61 pipes
68No. 14, 4 feet, violin…………………………………………..61 pipes
69No. 15, 8 feet, oboe, reed bassoon…………………………..61 pipes
71PEDAL ORGAN.
72No. 16, 16 feet, grand open diapason………………………..27 pipes
73No. 17, bourdon……………………………………………….27 pipes
75MECHANICAL REGISTERS.
76No. 18…………………………………………..Great to swell
77No. 19…………………………………………..Great to pedal
78No. 20…………………………………………..Swell to great
79No. 21…………………………………………..Tremolo to swell
80No. 22…………………………………………..Pedal check
81No. 23…………………………………………..Bellows signal
83COMBINATION PEDALS
84No. 1…………………………………………..Great organ forte
85No. 2…………………………………………..Great organ piano
86No. 3…………………………………………..Reversible pedal
87No. 4…………………………………………..Balance swell
89—Burlington (Ia.) "Hawkeye." January 13, 1892.
91An Interesting Tuner.
93MR. RUDOLPH KOFF is a gentleman who seems to be equipped with an imagination which entitles him to succeed Baron Munchausen in the realm of story telling.
95Mr. Koff is gifted with eminent ability in the line of fiction, and if he should turn his attention in that direction it would not be long before he would stand at the head of fairy story tellers.
97Within the last two days he has delivered himself of a very creditable production which at once marks him as one of the first geniuses of the age in the world of fiction.
99This effort was first published in the columns of the Macon "Telegraph," and as the same was not copyrighted it was copied with an extravagant use of glaring headlines and double leads.
101But it established Mr. Koff's reputation. No one could have read that story without bowing at the shrine of the genius who produced it.
103And it was a right pretty story, rounded up with fitting climaxes and references to prison horrors that smacked of Victor Hugo.
105One of the catchy things about Mr. Koff's production is his dealing with modern events. He tells the story of the Chilian war from his experience at Valparaiso with a power that holds the reader spellbound.
107He spent part of Thursday in Macon and told his story to the mayor, and a reporter overheard it.
109The story was like this; Nearly three years ago he was a piano tuner for Phillips & Crew, in Atlanta, and had been for eight years. When his bank account reached $2,000 he decided to visit his mother in Russia. He secured a passport from Mr. Blaine, and embarked for St. Petersburg. He had not been in the Russian capital 15 minutes before he was arrested for not having asked the Czar's permission to become an American citizen. His passport was torn up; he was court martialled, and was sentenced to eight years in the Russian service.
111He was carried to a fortress at Arrons, his money taken from him, and he was bound with convicts' chains. He showed the scars on his legs worn by the chains.
113He was transferred from the fortress to the navy, and was put on the flagship Sebastopol, and after a long cruise this good ship harbored at Valparaiso. In the harbor were men-of-war of all nations, among them the American ship Baltimore, whose crew came very near causing the late war. Koff was an eye witness to the difficulty.
115After leaving Valparaiso the propeller of the Sebastopol was broken near Savannah. This ship, he says, was at Savannah last Sunday, and as Koff was the only man aboard who could speak English he was sent ashore to confer with a pilot. Then he escaped! He exchanged his Russian garb for a plain American suit and started on his walk to Atlanta. He spent Wednesday night in the police station at Macon, and Thursday morning told this fairy story to Mayor Price. The mayor gave him a pass to Atlanta, and the city officials, moved by his story, chipped in and made up a nice sum for him.
117Thursday afternoon Mr. Koff reached Atlanta.
119Jumbo Hunter's alms giving establishment was the first place he sought.
121He was from New Orleans, he told the city warden, and wanted help to get back to that city. He did not want railroad passes—he could ride without a pass—only wanted money sufficient to buy a lunch now and then on the journey.
123But Jumbo wasn't moved, and didn't respond to Mr. Koff's appeal.
125Nothing daunted, this gentleman hied himself to Governor Northen's office and told a story.
127He wanted to get to New Orleans, and wanted the Governor to help him. He had $800 on board a ship at Savannah, and wanted the Governor to send officers down and get it.
129But the Governor was not melted, and Mr. Koff went away disappointed.
131Where he will go, what he will do next, remain to be seen.
133Mr. Toy, of the Phillips & Crew Company, says he knows nothing of Koff, and if he was ever employed there, nobody about the establishment knows it.—Atlanta "Constitution."
135An Elegant Piano.
137MILLER & THOMPSON, the well-known music dealers, of 218 Woodward avenue, have just received a splendid Shaw piano which they have had specially manufactured for a customer in this city. It is constructed of fancy French walnut of the very finest kind. The manufacturers, the Shaw Piano Company, Erie, Pa., say it is the very finest sample of this superb wood they have ever worked up. The front of the case has a double fall board. The front panels are saw pierced and elegantly engraved and underlaid with gold color satin. The ends are heavily paneled and carved. There is also a hand carved molding of very elaborate design running along the front and around both ends of the instrument, which adds greatly to its beauty. The under panels are designed to harmonize with those of the upper part. The trusses, &c., are all hand carved and the case is finished throughout in the highest style of art.
139We have had an opportunity of inspecting this really superb instrument and can say that, without a doubt, it is one of the handsomest pianos we have ever seen. Messrs. Miller & Thompson regret that owing to its being immediately needed by the purchaser it can only remain at their store to-day, and they invite anyone interested in musical instruments to call and examine this genuine triumph of the piano manufacturer.—Detroit "Sun."
141Important.
143THE revised appendix to Lyon & Healy's catalogue of musical merchandise has just been issued, dated February, 1892.
145"This list of prices supplants the one attached to catalogue (for 1891, 1892). Dealers will please take out the old appendix and destroy it. Prices differing from previous edition are designated by an asterisk. Many of them show marked reductions."
147Messrs. Lyon & Healy also ask special attention to "The Marquette" guitar, every component part being made in their own factory, and the instrument being guaranteed in every respect. They offer to send samples for examination and to pay all expenses of return if any fault can be found with the instrument.
149They also offer tuning forks of the newly adopted standard, A 435.
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