Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1905-05-06

then it was cut down to three days,
then two, and now we have only one.
What a grand one it is though! The
sunshine seems merrier on this glad
day, and the joy in every heart in
creased.
New York.-It is often lightly said
nowadays that the piano is becoming
a back number; that piano is no
longer considered an essential item
of equipment in homes making any
pretence to refinement; that fewer
children are taking piano lessons than
there were few years ago; that the
great piano players are fast coming
to have monopoly in piano playing
because there is less tolerance for
mere piano walloping and humping
than there was few years ago, and
that the increasing number of de-
vices for producing something akin
TO music from the piano by means of
strips of perforated paper have taken
the heart out of amateur and modio-
ere players, with the result that the
sale of pianos has materially fallen
off.
]. B. Spillae, managing editor Of the
Music Trade Review, In an interview
said: 1T is utter nonsense without
grain Of truth to hang it on. So far
from the sales of pianos diminishing
they never before have been SO large
as within the last three or four years.
The greatest demand came from the
Northwest and the Middle West, al
though the sale of pianos on the Pa
eific Coast in the last two or three
years has broken all records.
There is another thing to be said
of the remarkable boom in the piano
trade within the past three or four
years, and that Is that quality of pi-
amos sold has been, as general rule,
exceedingly good. The farmers have
not been buying for their wives and
daughters the cheap grade of instru-
ments, which go to pieces after year
or two's use. They have been buy
ing pianos of the better makes /
should say that as a rule they had
been paying on an average about $3.50
a piano When you get much below
that figure you are getting into the
grade of cheap pianos; when you get
above it you are getting into the class
that may be called expensive.
Il do not mean, of course, the very
expensive-the so-called art pianos.
There are a few firms which make a
speciality of these art pianos. The
prices paid for them are sometimes
fabulous. They are hand-painted by
artists of the first order of talent, and
sometimes two or three years may be
spent in working out the subject OF
the paintings and putting them on the
polished tops and sides of the instru-
ment, to say nothing of the great
amount of time and skill that are ex-
pended ON the beautiful wood carving
that is put upon them
There has developed great ten
dency among Americans of great
wealth to have pianos which are indi.
vidual and unlike any others and that
are In themselves art masterpieces
The cost of these pianos ranges al
the way from $4,000 and $4,000 to SIS
O000 and $4,000. The most expensive
piano, believe, that was ever made
10 ny III III tilib COQhlLy COoi
between 1900 and $4,000.
There has been in the last three
| of four years an unprecedented de
! mand for these high priced pianos, es
| pecially out on the Pacific Coast
| which Is still another refutation Of
| the statement that the demand fol-
| pianos is decreasing among people Of
| wealth and refinement. The actua
fact is that never before in the his
| story Of the trade has there been Sc
rapid an increase of sales among this
very class, as we'll as among the mod
erately well to do.
'As to the statement that the me
chanical devices for playing the plan,
have lowered the standing of the in
strument and decreased the demand
for it, that is, on its face, ridiculous
There are a number of such devices OF
the market and they have particular
ly stimulated the sale of pianos, al
of q logical necessity they must. Hun
dreds Of people buy pianos just be
cause Of the mechanical devices TO
playing them-people who would ne
yer think of buying a piano but TO
the existence of those devices, be
cause they had nobody in their fam
lilies who was able to play.
"As for the alleged decrease In thu
number of young people who are