Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1913-03-28
PURCHASING A PIANO
BY JENNIE coNNERY.

car. II you never went shopping for
piano you'd better get me to tell
you how 1t is done. Anyway, you
can't keep me from telling you.
First, you decide that you might
just as well quit hoping ever to have
enough money to buy a piano, and
then you take the bull by the horns
and say: oh, well, well go in debt
for 1t. That's the only way some
folks will ever have anything, and we
happen to be that kind of folks. So
here goes. We're sure always to be
in debt anyway, and one might as
well be hanged for sheep as a lamb
Then you ask a number of must.
clans what kind of a piano is best. If
you asked only one that would be all
right. But you ask several of them,
and that way lies madness. Each
tells you Of one piano that is right.
No other one is. Especially the one
recommended by the musician you
asked yesterday-that one is the last
word In superlative worthlessness.
so after you have asked all the
musicians you know you are where
you began, plus a slight buzzing be-
meath the hatband.
Then you decide that you'd better
pick out dealer, so you start on the
rounds.
You are received with open arms
at each place and each. dealer shows
you what is without doubt the best
piano made. You believe it yourself,
when he says it that way. Besides,
he shows you an inferior piano that
is just as good as the better one. Get
that, carefully! The inferior one is
just as good as the other, every bit
made by the same people.
But you'd be foolish to buy one oil
the cheaper ones. 1t is decidedly in.
ferior, though it has the same work
manship and material and guaranty
as the other. Don't waste your time
trying to understand how this can be-
but 1t must be. They all tell you that
No piano shop is complete without
some good pianos and some other
poorer ones that are equal to the best
only they are not.
You tell one dealer that you want q
player piano. He gets out a selection
the The Gander's Retreat From the
Barnyard,' or Moonlight on the Pump
or descriptive piece called Cats on
the Back Fence Just some little thing
like that. 1t is in box, and when ii
is unrolled you see something that
looks like a piece Of wrapping paper
that had been shot at with a muzzle
loading army musket used for Dusk.
shot. Yes, and every shot had struck.
THE salesman places this embroid.
cry pattern in the jigger in front,
where the cuckoo doors open, and
proceeds to wiggle his feet while he
| mysteriously manipulates some per.
fectly simple levers under his hand.
Then, with writings Of agony, as If his
whole soul were going into his job,
he works the thing through. You are
thrilled and you firmly believe that is
the best piano made.
The next day, or the same day II
! you stand the strain, you 90 to an.
other dealer and he does the same
thing. They all tell you the price is
nine hundred and fifty dollars. But
you are fortified with stories Of how
Smith got two hundred dollars OF
from the list price on his piano and
Jones had one practically given to
him to keep the other dealers from
selling him one. In fact, II one be-
lieyed all that ones friends have said
one would be led to think that piano
costs 80 little to make that 1t Is
cheaper to hire some one to haul them
away and burn them than to pay taxes
on them in the storeroom.
"One thing you will learn in each
place is that the best musician in the
city-always a different person, by the
way-has just bought piano Of that
particular make and recommends II
highly to everybody.
81 must not neglect to tell you that
the salesman finds, just as you are
starting to leave, q piano he had for
gotten. Just before he rings the bell
to send for the elevator that they use
to haul passengers on he thinks
with q clap Of his hand to his fore
head-of a piano that has just come
In. It has been used for about fifteen
minutes somewhere, and for that rea
son he will knock seven hundred dol
lars OF the price. Don't ever start
music store without a piano Of that
sort in stock. It would be a pool
store.
These are some Of the things you
find out when you go shopping for
piano. do not 90 into the buying part
for that part is never quite clear to
the purchaser. He remembers many
things up almost to the moment Of
purchase, and then he goes into