Scan 30
Musical Courier 1896-07-01: Vol 33 Iss 852, 1896
103 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 31. See the scan on archive.org.
1CHICAGO OFFICE THE MUSICAL COURIER.
2226 Wabash Avenue, June 27, 1896.
4CREDIT constitutes a large part of the capital of the world, but there should be just as sound a basis for credit as is necessary for a sound currency. There was never a better opportunity for retrenchment in this respect than now, in lieu of four, eight, twelve and sixteen months, with perhaps a tacit understanding that even this time might be extended by renewals. Business might be made safer by limiting the time to not to exceed six months, with a full understanding that when notes are due they must be paid. Such a course might possibly reduce, temporarily at least, the volume of business, but only for a short time, as dealers would adapt themselves to the changed conditions and induce their customers to buy on longer payments.
6The temptation for the dealer to make sales on long time and small payments is greatly increased by the easy terms allowed by the manufacturer, and it is almost impossible to believe that pianos could ever be disposed of on the terms which have been reported to us as actual transactions.
8Imagine a dealer placing a piano in the possession of a customer and waiting for the first payment for six or eight months. Is there another business that would submit to such terms? Pianos may be luxuries, but they are necessities as well for those who want them.
10It is an old saying that every cloud has a silver lining, and it may be that the present condition of the trade may be the means of improving its methods. Should this be the case the business depression will not be an unmixed evil.
12Another C. C. O. Co.
14The Chicago Cottage Organ Company has incorporated the Chicago Cabinet Organ Company with a small capital and three members of its own company as incorporators. This was done simply to forestall another concern, which was preparing to do business under the same title.
16It will only be necessary for the new concern to adopt another title. Mr. Cable had no intention of interfering with it only so far as to prevent business complications, which it is easy to see might arise from the similarity of the name.
18That New Organ Concern.
20Mr. Joseph Dobbs, who is one of the incorporators of the new American Cabinet Organ Company, was in the office this week and informs us that the capital stock of the company has been fixed at $15,000. The names of the incorporators are Mr. H. Gaber, who is a capable and ingenious organ maker; Mr. Joseph Dobbs and Mr. Thomas D. Stewart. They have secured temporary quarters on Blue Island avenue, near Sixteenth street, but expect to secure more favorable quarters very quickly.
22Increasing the Insurance.
24The proposed increase in the insurance premium caused by an ordinance recently passed in this city is thus commented on by Mr. W. W. Kimball:
26"I should not like to speak conclusively without a fuller knowledge of the subject than I now have, but I think the step is unwise. The people cannot stand a heavier burden than they now have. Still, I should like to know the condition of the companies. It may be they are forced to take the step. If they are, it is their misfortune. In any event it seems to be the misfortune of the property owners, for I do not see that they will have any recourse in the matter. In general terms I do not see why the companies should demand a 5 per cent. increase when they are taxed but 2, if that is the reason for the move. If the added 5 per cent. finds its explanation in the ordinance lately passed by the city council it would seem that a 2 per cent. tax or addition would be sufficient to recoup the companies for the part they have to do in affording protection to the property of the city."
28One of the largest manufacturing concerns in this city is now carrying all its own risks, which, with the proper facilities for extinguishing fires and extra watchfulness, seems to be not only the proper check to extortion on the part of insurance companies but a measure of real economy. Just think of the enormous amount of property destroyed by fire each year, all of which might be saved by proper precaution.
30Mr. Steger is one of the wise ones in this respect. He has taken every means to prevent fires in his factories, and although carrying insurance the rate is much reduced.
32Echo of the Everett-Bent Suit.
34The keys of a piano, responding to the touch of a master hand, sent volumes of music galloping through the lower end of the Monadnock Building at noon to-day. Such harmonious sounds in the big building were quickly noted by the occupants of three or four floors, and there was a general movement to find the musician. He was found in the person of L. M. French in Judge Showalter's court room.
36The music was a portion of Judge Bond's exhibit before the court in the argument on the alleged infringement of a patent piano device of the Everett Piano Company enabling a player to imitate the music of a harp, guitar, mandolin or banjo, and Musician French gave an imitation of all the instruments, winding up with a negro song to a banjo as accompaniment.
38Judge Showalter is a Kentuckian, and when the rollicking negro song and the twang of a banjo rang out in the court room he kept time with his pencil, and never frowned when the audience gave the player a round of applause, and he even permitted an encore.
40The above is from the Journal of last evening, and is merely a reminder that the Everett-Bent suit is not done for yet and it may not be for a couple of years, and will not be settled in any event until next October.
42Sold Out and Gone Home.
44There is no longer a piano store at 165 Wabash avenue. Mr. Rintelman and Mr. Reimann are both out of the business, and Mr. Hulett, representing Mr. Jacob Doll, has in one way and another closed out the entire stock, which consisted of 56 pianos, and leaves for the East at once. As a sequel Mr. I. N. Reed (no relative of the original Reeds) will have a stock of Doll pianos (whatever name they may go under) at 327 Wabash avenue. Mr. Reed also carries bicycles and mantles. Some people may be smart enough to run three different lines of business at once, but as a rule one is about enough; and the piano business ought to keep a small army busy just now to make a success of it.
46Mr. Bent Away.
48Mr. Geo. P. Bent, wife and daughter, are on their way to Europe on pleasure bent. Some business will be looked after also, and although not intending to be away more than two months Mr. Bent means to visit all the principal places, and three local expositions.
50A Failure.
52The news came here on Tuesday last, too late to even telegraph, that the stock of goods of Mr. Adolph Meyer, of Omaha, Neb., was in the sheriff's hands. The claims reported are for $8,500 on a chattel mortgage, and $1,615 on a real estate mortgage. What the amount of the assets and liabilities are has not been ascertained, but the assets are supposed to be small.
54Story & Clark.
56By actual facts and figures the piano business of this concern has steadily increased each month since it began the manufacture of the now celebrated piano which bears its name. This being the case during the depression suggests the inquiry as to what may be the outcome when the expected good times arrive.
58Bought a New Factory Building.
60The Burdett Piano Company, of Erie, Pa., announces the purchase of a brick factory for the sum of $30,000. The plant is 40×110, four stories, and has a gas well and all the necessary machinery. Mr. John R. Brown, the president and manager, informs us that the premises are paid for.
62Not All Dead Yet.
64The people who are gullible, and those willing to gull them.
66It now transpires that one J. T. Hiler has been working the good people of Maquoketa, Ia., for small sums of money, representing himself as "connected with Lyon & Healy, and from all accounts he has been doing the same thing in other parts of the West for two years at least. His principal plan was to sell sheet music, collect the money, and promise that it would be sent by Lyon & Healy. It is a small fraud on each individual, but he is said to have disposed of quite a quantity, and to have aggregated quite an amount of money.
68Personals.
70Mr. Gustav Ad. Anderson, of the Anderson & Newton Piano Company, of Van Wert, Ohio, was a visitor to Chicago this week on a buying expedition. He reports progress and says the company will have finished pianos in August. Their official opening will occur September 9.
72Mr. N. M. Crosby, representing the Bradbury piano and the other interests of Mr. F. G. Smith, was in the city, and is still in the West.
74Mr. John A. Norris, representing the Mason & Hamlin Company, of Boston, was here, and left for a Western tour, to include Kansas City and Denver. He will return next week to Chicago.
76Mr. Carl Hoffman passed through here on his way home from the East. He visited both New York and Boston. His Leavenworth store is closed, Kansas City being now his headquarters.
78Mr. Warren Collins, of Collins & Armstrong, of Fort Worth, Tex., was in Chicago this week. He says the newly incorporated Southern Piano and Organ Company, of Fort Worth, is doing a good business in a purely wholesale way in Texas and the Indian Territory. The concern represents the Conover piano, the Chicago Cottage organ, and some other lines which he did not mention. The members of the incorporation are all experienced music men.
80Prof. D. E. Gardner, of Platteville, Wis., was one of our visitors. Professor Gardner is very successful with the line of pianos and organs he handles, mostly the Chicago Cottage Organ Company's instruments.
82A Violin Machine.
84THERE is a violin maker in this city who has an altogether new theory in regard to this instrument, and one so new that it is totally at variance with the general impression. It is that there is no accident or luck in the superior tone of a violin, but that they can be made of a given tone one after the other with perfect assurance. It has been asserted that a good honest violin maker may turn out fifty specimens of his best work, and yet only a few of these prove to be first-class instruments. The history of famous masters in the art would seem to bear out this assertion.
86H. W. Oakes, who has been making violins in this city for eighteen months, and elsewhere for nearly twice as many years, brushes all this away like a mouldy cobweb, and says he can insure a first-class instrument every time, and that there is no secret about it.
88"The trouble about all the makers is that they do all their work by rule of thumb and by the eye. I make mine by mathematical rules. Once having attained a certain perfection I can duplicate that result with mathematical accuracy."
90"And the tone?"
92"The tone follows as a matter of course. It must. Now, there used to be secrets in the art, of course. It was long before anyone could turn out an instrument that could compete with the old Cremonas. First, they thought the secret of the latter's superiority lay in the varnish, and many years were spent in attempts to find out that secret. They found it out at last, or rather, that it was no secret. They discovered that the cabinet makers of Cremona used the same varnish as Stradivari used. Then they thought the secret must be in the wood, and for some time they pinned their confidence to that. They took extraordinary pains to get just such resonance and tone, and even took the wood from a fine violin and put it with other wood, but with all their efforts they made as many failures as successes.
94"Now, Stradivari used the same material for the whole of the 800 violins he made, and yet the good violins were the accident. Only fifty of all he made turned out to be good instruments, and yet you call him a master."
96"Are there any violins comparable with these fifty?"
98"Certainly. Within the last fifty years just as good violins have been made as have ever been made."
100"But age has something to do with tone?"
102"Undoubtedly, provided the violin is played on. It might lie a century, and if not used would not improve at all. Violins are like everything else in the world; they have their birth, their growth, maturity, and decline. I would say that at about 75 a violin would be at its best. I know that after 100 years they begin to lose their power,
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.