Scan 21
Musical Courier 1892-08-03: Vol 25 Iss 649, 1892
79 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 22. 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.
1Tribute to Krell.
2Office of Dr. CHARLES E. DAVIS,
3EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark., July 18, 1892.
4The Krell Piano Company, Cincinnati, Ohio:
5GENTLEMEN—The piano arrived safely in prime condition yesterday and now stands in our parlor literally a "thing of beauty" and "without a flaw." The quality of the cover and all shows conscientious care and pains on your part, not common in transactions of this kind between strangers.
6I want to thank your Mr. Alex. Krell (whom I understand voiced this instrument) for the pains he has taken in pleasing us, and especially to congratulate your company in that you have produced an instrument which for musical capacity and power is truly wonderful.
7The problem I exacted as a physician was a hard one, that of reaching a quality in tone in a piano that should be soothing, restful and grateful to cultivated ears in weak nervous systems. I tried hard to solve it in Detroit, Chicago and Kansas City with little prospect of success till I accidentally came across one of your make in the latter city on the 25th ult.; previous to which time I had never heard of your piano.
8Your agent there, Mr. J. W. Jenkins, felt so sure he understood what I wanted, and that you could and would "fill the bill," that he was willing to risk sending the order under absolute guarantee of satisfaction. To say that you have done so in the "prophecy of future harmonies" beyond my expectations but feebly expresses it.
9Mrs. Davis is delighted with its style, finish and, above all, its capacity and quality of tone. She has been familiar with the best makes for years and had set her heart on a "Steinway;" but to-day, after giving the "Harp at Midnight," by Aubert, she turned around and said: "It is impossible to say too much for that instrument; no other I have ever heard brings the shimmering moonlight through the trees like that." The "echo attachment" is a revelation.
10If this is a sample of the quality of instruments you are turning out the "superior to any in the market" is far from "idle catalogue talk."
11The sad thought is that from lack of general cultivation of musical taste and the cupidity of trade interests so much time must elapse before you can be generally appreciated, and yet in these days of "general lightning" the facts come out sometimes in a hurry. At all events you are in prime shape to await the "decision of the future." Meantime this instrument is doing its work under favorable conditions.
12I shall remit Messrs. Jenkins' Sons to-day.
13Sincerely and gratefully yours,
14CHAS. E. DAVIS, M. D.
15Founder and Superintendent Eureka Springs Sanitarium.
17Jacob or Mathushek.
18SOME inquiries sent to this paper are puzzlers of the most complicated sort. Among them we reproduce the following:
19NAUGATUCK, Conn., July 15, 1892.
20Editors Musical Courier:
21I was requested to select a cheap or medium price piano for a party who wished to purchase one, and there is one thing that puzzled me to some extent, so I appeal to your valuable paper for an explanation.
22I have looked at two pianos; one the Mathushek & Son and the other the Jacob Brothers, and I find that the two pianos are just alike, except the names on the fall boards and on the iron plates. The cases, actions, tone and everything else are alike in every respect.
23Now, what I wish to know is whether they are both made by the same party. A few years ago I used a Mathushek & Son piano for a few months, and that was entirely different from the one I have lately examined both in tone and construction. Kindly give me the desired information, and oblige.
24Very truly yours,
25MISS ELLA C. POWERS.
26Mathushek & Son, of this city, is an incorporation, the bulk of the stock being owned by one or more of the firm of Jacob Brothers, who make a low grade piano, and who do not claim that it is anything else; they have made a great deal of money out of this piano, chiefly because as good business men they put forth no foolish claims, and this fact brought to them the very trade that was after such goods and that they were after.
27When they secured control and organized the Mathushek & Son concern it was self evident that they wanted to get into the field with a better and higher priced piano, and they apparently succeeded.
28We are unable to advise our inquirer, as we are not permitted to submit to her opinion, for the very reason that she demonstrates her want of confidence in it by appealing to us. If we could see the two pianos we could tell at once whether the Mathushek & Son is a stencil Jacob Brothers. Jacob Brothers do stencil, and if they are doing such business with their Mathushek pianos, why then good-bye to the Mathushek & Son piano and all the money invested by them in the concern, for dealers would never purchase the Mathushek & Son piano if it were supposed that it was a duplicate Jacob or a stencil Jacob.
29Our readers should not fail to remember that the Mathushek & Sons piano owned by Jacob Brothers is not the piano of the Mathushek Piano Company, of New Haven. The Mathushek Piano Company, of New Haven, make a piano entirely different from the New York Mathushek.
31Another Religious Stencil.
32FROM some time our stencil department has devoted space to the humbug Epworth stencil fraud. The following letter from an Indianapolis firm gives some clue to the manner of operating the fraud:
33Would you oblige us by writing us by return mail as to whether the Epworth piano, sold by the Williams Organ Company, Centerville, Ia., is manufactured by them or whether it is a stencil? They advertise as having no representatives, except preachers. We conclude that it is something like the Beatty and other frauds.
34If there is anything deserving of condemnation it is the strong and effective support given to stencil frauds such as the Beatty, Epworth, University, Swoger et al. on the part of ministers of the gospel. Chaplain McCabe, one of the most prominent of the militant Methodist divines, had an Epworth stencil fraud organ in this city; had it used here in a chapel and when we called upon him at his office in the building of the Methodist Book Concern he had no time to aid us in exposing this fraud. In fact, if we are not mistaken, the Epworth stencil gang advertise him as one of their references, and if he is one of their references he certainly places himself in the uncomfortable position of a suspect, who is supposed to make commissions on these stencil instruments.
35The Epworth piano is a stencil fraud. It is worth nothing from a musical point of view. Persons who purchase Epworth pianos under the impression that there exists an Epworth piano factory are swindled.
37Frati & Co.,
38Berlin, Germany.
39THE firm of Frati & Co., at 73 Schönhauser Allee, Berlin, Germany, are known throughout Europe as manufacturers of mechanical musical instruments of various orders and subdivisions. They manufacture, for instance, pneumatic upright pianos operated by cranks and useful for public resorts generally; those pianos have the usual keyboard and can be played just like the ordinary instrument.
40They also make an upright purely mechanical and without keyboard.
41Their orchestrions are played by crank or by motor and their large sizes are among the best known of their kind in Europe, the firm having supplied many of the largest public resorts with these orchestrions. These orchestrions contain all the latest musical effects and the repertory of the large sizes is inexhaustible.
42A smaller instrument is called concertino and is adapted for small halls or rooms. Their quintet orchestrions are specially made for music of a higher order, to be played in reception rooms, parlors, &c. In addition they also make trumpet organs, harmoniflutes, harmonipans, the latter being portable, as are also the claritons, cornettinos and melotons.
43The firm seeks introductions in the American market, and as the field for the sale of these instruments, is growing constantly active dealers should arrange for territorial representation.
45An Honest Briton.
46IF ever it should be the good fortune of Mr. Algernon S. Rose to visit America he will be assured a warm welcome at the office of THE MUSICAL COURIER, if only for the reason that he thus declares himself in an interview which we abbreviate from the "P. O. and M. T. Journal," of London, England:
47"What I told you on my return from Australia last year was so distorted and embellished by some of the Australian and American papers that it is with the utmost diffidence I venture to say anything concerning my trade experiences since my departure from England.
48"As you nevertheless desire me to say something I should like to deprecate, to the best of my ability, the so-called stenciled pianos, which are simply rampant all over Australia.
49"I glory in the fact that I am a Briton, and I extend the hand of friendship to British piano makers, because wherever I have been I have found that for sound workmanship and honest materials you cannot beat the majority of the better class Britshers.
50"But what I do abominate is the individual who shoots from behind a hedge and is afraid to sign with his own name the piano he has made because he knows it will fall to pieces in a few years, and when I hear well meaning storekeepers advocate instruments by 'Beethoven,' 'Liszt,' 'Kapsburg' or 'Pictor,' I add, just by way of soliloquy, the expressive name of 'Walker.'
51"In Wellington, New Zealand, there is a firm of piano sellers who will invite a good customer into their back office at the conclusion of a sale, open a drawer and invite him to choose, from no less than five fictitious labels, the name he would prefer his purchases to bear.
52"This manufacturing of anonymous pianos by cheap Teutonic makers cannot but be regarded with disfavor by those who have the welfare of the piano industry at heart, and I believe the importation of 'stenciled' pianos is being prohibited in the United States.
53"As far as I am personally concerned, if I see a piano bearing a fantastic name, I immediately classify it among the 'shoddy,' and I cannot but think that workmen who labor for anonymous firms must lose all interest in their work, if they ever feel any, for, as a rule, the anonymous piano comes from the 'sweater.'
54"In the eyes of a workman, the name which a piano nowadays bears is not identified so much with the proprietor of the factory as with the clan to which the workman himself belongs, and many a time when present at certain houses have I seen people belonging to my firm go up to the piano in the room, stroke it, and look at it with a glance of admiration, as much as to say 'A part of that Broadwood was my work.' The same thing, I opine, happens in regard to the pianos of Hopkinson, Collard, Kirkman, Justin Browne, Brinsmead, Eavesaff, Challen; in fact, every make of piano which has the advantage of containing work that the actual workpeople may be proud of.
55"I can understand a pair of shoes being exported anonymously and stamped only with the seller's name, but there is no particular science in making a pair of shoes. On the other hand, when you come to a piano, upon which the works of the greatest classical masters are to be played, I do regard that as a work of art; and if it is not—well, it ought to be.
56"To turn out pianos according to one set pattern at 20s. or 80s. an octave, like so much merchandise, is to me downright desecration of an art industry.
57"Let piano makers, be they big or little, affix their names to their productions, and I believe employees will take more pride in their work and that it will consequently improve in quality."
59CHICAGO.
60Latest from Our Chicago Representative.
61CHICAGO OFFICE MUSICAL COURIER.
62226 WABASH AVENUE.
63CHICAGO, July 30, 1892.
64FOR one week up to yesterday, like the rest of the country, this city has passed through a siege of such unbearably warm weather that, as a matter of course, business in the line of such things as pianos has been comparatively quiet. Nothing else could be expected, for those who were not obliged to expose themselves used good judgment in staying quietly at home. The dailies just teemed with cases of sunstroke.
65E. E. Hubbard, a collector in the employ of the Chickering-Chase Brothers Company, 219-221 Wabash avenue, has been missing since last Saturday and his employers are at a loss to explain his absence. He was regular in his habits and his accounts are correct in every particular. His wife is now absent in the East visiting relatives, and has not been apprised of her husband's disappearance. The morgue and hospitals have been searched, but no trace of the missing man can be found.
66Up to this morning nothing has been heard relative to the young man in question, though diligent efforts have been used to discover his whereabouts. He may have been one of the unknown victims of the heat; there were at least 300 persons affected in this way, though of course not that many who were unknown.
67Mr. Aug. L. Schaar, the new manager of the Siegal, Cooper & Co.'s music branch, goes East next week on business connected with the department.
68The following resolution was passed at a special meeting of the board of directors of the Story & Clark Organ Company, July 25, 1892:
69Resolved, That the valued and efficient services of M. E. Strack, retiring secretary, and Phil. A. Starck, retiring general traveling salesman, both of whom have been connected with the company and corporation almost since its inception, are hereby duly recognized and thoroughly appreciated, and that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to each of said persons.
70(Signed) CHAS. C. RUSSELL, Secretary.
71As is now well known the Starck & Strack Piano Company is now a bona fide manufacturing concern and has already shipped some finished instruments.
72The resolutions as above are a gratifying tribute from the Story & Clark Organ Company to two worthy young men who are determined to make a success of their new business and who have turned out instruments in a very short space of time after determining upon their production.
73Incorporated — Jacquin Book and Music Company, Peoria; capital stock, $40,000; incorporators, N. J. Jacquin, Dominique Jacquin and Frank J. Wood.
74The above is among the published list of issued licenses to incorporate new companies.
75Mr. Charles W. Newman and Mr. Gust. R. Newman are out on an extended fishing excursion. The business of Messrs. Newman Brothers is reported to be excellent.
76Mr. E. V. Church is so far recovered as to be able to go to Geneva Lake, and would have been at the store only for the excessive heat. He goes East soon for the benefit of the sea air.
77The famous Lyon & Healy bulk window has undergone another metamorphosis. The public look for this now about as much as they do for the advent of Barnum's circus. It's a harp exhibit this time; the harps are arranged on circular platforms which constantly turn; each platform contains a harp, and is surrounded with incandescent electric lamps. The great curiosity consists in how the electric lights are kept burning while going round unceasingly, but it is easily understood when one is told of the modus operandi; two circular disks complete the chain of electricity. Lyon & Healy's harp is receiving its merited recognition, which is that it is the best harp by long odds now made in the whole world.
78While speaking of show windows, there is another elegant one in this city and it is beautifully decorated. The Chickering-Chase Brothers Company have one which now
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