St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-17
GOTTEN UP BY FIRM OF MUSIC
DEALERS IN THIS
CITY
A sCURvY TRICK TO DECEIVE.
MAKING A "CAT,s-PAW,, OF THE
-4UsICAL COURIER OF MANY
YEARS AGO.
TO INJURE THE KIMBALL PIANO.
Some "Courier1 Fences of Their Own
to Mend, and They Are Dated
Whose Ok Is Gored1

I want to call the attention of the
public here to one Of the scurvies
tricks that has ever been played upor
man, and coming. as 1t does, from G
music house in this city which has
heretofore held a fair share Of the pub.
lie confidence, 1t will be the greater
surprise, and by all honest and fair.
minded people must be condemned as
little short Of forgery.
1t will be remembered that on the
18th day of last month 1, as general
agent Of the Kimball company, piano
manufacturers, Chicago, announced a
great surplus stock sale Of Kimball
pianos at 140 and 142 East Sixth street
this city, making full column an.
nouncement explaining in detail
in the daily papers, our reasons
for said sacrifice sale, describing each
make and style of piano in stock, and
| quoted prices we would take for each
one SO described, and terms on which
they could be had. These descrip-
tons. quotations and prices were on
our own make of piano Ghe Kimball)
and other cheaper brands handled by
our wholesale house, Chicago. We
made no mention of any prices on ouI
competitors Instruments, nor made
any reference to them, no more than if
they were not in existence, avoiding
anything that might offend any COM
petitor (unless our own low prices
could Offend.
In my advertisements during the
week following the announcement, no
word or reference to any other music
L.,
nor can be found in them. And up to
this day no reader of this paper or any
other, has seen in print one line or
word from me derogatory to the credit
Of the grade or class of any piano han
died by any other dealer in this city.
But from the day of the starting of
our sale here a local dealer in this city
began in his display space in bold
type to vilify by insinuations and slurs
the Kimball piano, and other instru-
ments offered by US in this sale. The
public was constantly being warned
against the Chicago odds and ends
dumped into st. Paul for cheap sale"
Low grade shoddy goods" "snide
pianos at high prices" guarantee no
good" and many other unbusiness-
| like and uncalled-for insinuations cal
culated and intended to injure both
the reputation of the Kimball piano and
its maker, and thereby injure the sale.
| Not until this sort Of work had been
! INDUCED in for several days did
| take any notice of it, or reply, and
then only q reminder that I should
| sell another hundred pianos here for
1 their insolence, and warning them to
attend to their own business, and let
| others do the same. But they kept 1t
up. They seemed desperate, hesitated
at nothing, nor stopped at anything.
On the second or third day of our sale,
I was informed that this house had
| gotten out and was circulating hand
bill or circular, derogatory to the credit
| and character Of the KimbaH piano.
and purporting to be from the Musical
Courier New York, but bearing nc
date.
| Later, one Of these handbillS was
handed to me by a customer, and soon
| nearly every customer that came In
had one-some half dozen; and
now here propose to publish this mis-
cradle circular in full, and l want ev-
erybody in this city to read it, that
they may know the undetermined tricks
resorted to, by competitor who cant
honestly compete. Here 1t is!
| KimbaII.
From the New York Musical Courier
There are number of letters before
us in reference to Kimball pianos. AL
of these inquiries, some Of which will
be answered in detail next week, tenG
in one direction, and we therefore car
cover the various replies by merely
stating that any attempt to dispose o1
Kimball pianos with the plea that they
are high grade is an imposition upor
the public, for Kimball pianos are low
grade.
"They sell at various cheap prices
and it depends upon the standing Of 6
Kimball agent whether he pays $140 o.
$3.50 for them If he is a. poor devil who
has everything consigned to him, he
must naturally pay the Kimball com.
pany the latter price. If he buys fol
cash he can get them for less thar
$14O.
| "a recent letter published by the Chi.
cago Indicator the Kimball paper
purporting to have been signed by DR.
pianos, is a forgery; DR.. Ziegfeld gave
no such letter.
"a letter is said to have been giveT
by Patti, also praising the Kimbal
piano. The original letter is not sup
posed to exist; it has not been shown
"Kimball pianos are like thousands o.
other low grade pianos in character
and quality, but to call them higl
grade is an outrage upon the trade, ant
| Tor the chicago 1nulCdtOI W oeilOIii
nate the Kimbal1 grand as the mon
arch of grand pianos is disgrace t.
| Journalism"
| Now the above misstatementS in tn
| form of a neat handful, handed by
member or salesman Of a supposed re
| sponSible concern, to an unSuspectin,
| customer who enters there, would natu
| rally cause him or her to hesitate be
| fore buying a Kimball, and thereby in
| jure the manufacturer, and the repu
tation of the instrument, without which
tricEery, this self-styled "home dealer
posing on a pedestal filled with vanity
could not hope to compete. The trick
! of this scurrilous circular lies in con
| cealing the date of the Musical CouT
ier,'' in which it was supposed to hav
been contained. Had the recipient O
| such dodger read in the headlines
| ("From New York Musical Courier
December 1897. showing that it wa
seven years ago, when we first begal
to build pianos, and long before tn
present New Scale Kimball plan,
was thought Of, it would have fallel
fat to the ground, and the intelligen
recipient Of same would have turned
! away in disgust from the man VIII,
would thus attempt to hoodwink hin
by maligning the present. with wha
was, or might have been in the far dis
tant past.
The Courier" had pick at the Kim
ball Company, and began picking a
the Kimball piano about the first yea
after we began building it, and KEEP
it UP till the end of the worlds fair
Some say 1t was through mercenar.
motives, and others say it was to com
pei the Kimball Company to recogniz,
the Courier as welding an influenc,
1 mightier than the sword and worthy