The talking machine world (July-Dec 1918)

December IS, 1918 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 27 WHO WAS PLAYING HOOKEY WHEN WAR WAS TEACHING? The Fellow Who Wasn't Paying Attention to the Lesson Has Been Wasting His Tuition Fee and Will Be Sorry When He Grows Up and Finds the Good Students 'Way Ahead Jed was sitting at his desk pondering deeply over the events of the night before and it was not a grand and glorious feeling. Some days previously he celebrated mildly on the strength of the false report of peace. Then when the real news came he grabbed the spare change out of the till, put the bars up against the shop door and proceeded to show just how sorry he was that Kaiser Bill had yelled "kamerad." As he sat there, a rather confused mental motion picture passed in front of his mind, the last scene of which showed him calling a big policeman "dearie" and battling hard to pass a night stick barrier in order to kiss the minion of the law fondly on the cheek. Jed had not even shifted his seat on the water wagon for a decade or more, and he had simply celebrated like he handled his talking machine business. The results from a general standpoint were successful. Hence the headache and that "never again" feeling. When the mental moving picture had ended, however, Jed didn't sit waiting to see the next feature, but started to take stock. The war was over, or practically so, business was in a comparatively short time going to return to a normal peacetime basis, and there he was with a depleted stock, but a surplus of good ideas. Now was the time to figure on the next move. Jed looked at his bank book, and it was in pretty good shape. He looked at his bills receivable and his list of outstanding instalment paper, and they both represented a negligible quantity, because he had been selling for cash and discounting his bills. Then he looked at his stock, and ye gods what vacancies. "Well," said Jed, "when I seem to be doing fine they sic the war on me. They cut down my stock, soak me with taxes, and boost my cost of living, but I'm still doing business at the same old stand. If I can stick to the ship and come out clean with a bankroll to boot, with all the cards stacked against me, what can't I do when I get a chance at an even break! Oh, boy. "I didn't know what selling was until the factories, through necessity, began to give me explanations instead of goods. When my, pop-" ular stuff got low I just naturally had to go out and sell what I had or stop eating, and I love to eat. Why, man, I learned more about my stock of goods in the last year than I knew after twelve years in the game. There were records I forgot I had that I dug up and praised so loudly I was almost tempted to keep them myself and refuse to sell them. I had to dig out records that hadn't seen the light of day in four years, and urge customers to buy them quick, because they were so popular that they couldn't be supplied fast enough. "I proved to people who came in to spend a hundred or a hundred and a quarter, and who ordinarily would have gone out with just the machine they came in to buy, that in matters musical they were awful pikers, and what they wanted to do was to tack on a hundred more and get the real machine that I had been saving for them. I boasted this artistic stuff until I got so I believed it myself. They tell us down in Greenwich Village when a shorthaired Jane writes a crazy poem that she got the 'urge.' Well, boy, I got the 'urge' to sell the goods that I had; to sell them for cash, because I needed the money, and talked my head off not only to keep the customer from going out of the store clean, but to sell him about twice as much as he came in to buy. "The old days of waiting for the victim to blow in after he had read the ads for a year or so, and then just take enough time off to wrap up all he insisted on buying, are gone, so far as little Jed is concerned. When I get some more goods at the rate I used to get them before the war I will raise more dust than a wagon train on the Painted Desert. I'm going to sell some of the stuff I got. After putting out the records I had on my shelves when the bad news broke, and making a living on them, you are going to see me clean up some real money when the limit is taken off. These dollar-down-and-a-dollar-a-week babies don't appeal to me at all any more. I'm not asking a fortune for the goods I sell. In fact, compared with the prices of many other musical instruments, all I request is a little bit of small change, and I'm going to get that small change all at once, or in mighty big lots. "The last year has been a liberal education to me — an education that has cost me money. I can see myself some months ago looking over my instalment paper and trying to kid myself into the belief that the landlord would take it for the rent. Then I had to learn how to collect on that paper. Now I'm going to collect at the start. It saves trouble. "Some of the guys in my territory will begin to ease up now. They are going to be so anxious to sell stuff that they will give the customer all the edge he wants. They are going to get back to the old system of letting the manufacturers advertise to bring the customers to the store, and then let the customers sell themselves. Meanwhile, I'm going to sell some stuff. I'm going to get money for it. Then I'm going to tuck away a little bankroll to buy out some of these birds when they hit the skids. I've graduated from one war and I don't want to go back to the same school." WEQMAN CO. INCORPORATED The Wegman Talking Machine Co., of Rochester, N. Y., has been incorporated for the purpose of engaging in a general talking machine business by Harry M. and Edward E. Wegman. The best thing for anyone to say who has nothing to say is to say nothing whatever and then stick to it. NEW MODEL "B" DUSTOFF Record Cleanser Beautifully made and finished. A Money and TradeMaker for every Talking Machine Dealer. Keep/" the t?ne bf the IfccordPure^CCeai^ ' ft >/ecGwit.y "to att cjwnerio^ Ijeconfy Tforouchltj removes \\q <D dust jrom \hn rooiW Now Ready for Immediate Delivery Write for Sample Name Your Jobber Jobbers and Distributors Now Handling "DUSTOFFS" Atlanta, Ga Elyea-Austell Co. Austin, Tex The Talking Machine Co. of Texas Baltimore, Md Cohen & Hughes E. F. Droop & Sons Co. Bangor, Me Andrews Music House Co. Birmingham, Ala Talking Machine Co. Boston, Mass Oliver Ditson Co. The Eastern Talking Machine Co. The M. Steinert & Sons Co. Brooklyn, New York . . . American Talking Machine Co. G. T. Williams Buffalo. New York W. D. & C. N. Andrews Burlington, Vt American Phonograph Co. Chicago, III Lyon & Healy Chicago Talking Machine Co. Cincinnati, 0 The Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. Cleveland, 0 The Collister & Sayle Co. The Eclipse Musical Co. Columbus, 0 The Perry B. Whitsit Co. Dallas, Tex Sanger Bros. Denver, Colo The Hext Music Co. The Knight-Campbell Music Co. Des Moines, la Mickel Bros. Co. Detroit, Mich Grinnell Bros. Elmira, New York Elraira Arms Co. El Paso, Tex W. G. Walz Co. Houston, Tex Thos. Goggan & Bro. Indianapolis, Ind Stewart Talking Machine Co. Jacksonville, Fla Florida Talking Machine Co. Kansas City, Mo. Lincoln, Nebr. . . . Little Rock, Ark. Memphis, Tenn. . J. W. Jenkins' Sons Music Co. Schmelzer Arms Co. Houck Piano Co. Houck Piano Co. Milwaukee, Wis Badger Talking Machine Co. Montreal, Canada Newark, N. J. ... New York, N. Y.. Omaha, Nebr. .Berliner Gramophone Co., Ltd. Price Talking Machine Co. Emanuel Blout C. Bruno & Son. Inc. I. Davega, Jr., Inc. Charles H. Ditson & Co. New York Talking Machine Co. Ormes. Inc. Silas E. Pearsall Co. . A. Hospe Co. Mickel Bros. Co. The New Model "B" Dustoff is made of a high velvet nap, which removes every particle of dust from the minute grooves of the record— mounted on finely finished labeled handle block. Packed one dozen in counter display cartons. WM. I. SCHWAB Manufacturer Minute Shine Products Providence, R. I., U. S. A. pv^'.'i Putnam-Page Co., Inc. Philadelphia. Pa Louis Buehn Co., Inc. C. J. Heppe Penn Phonograph Co.. Inc. The Talking Machine Co. . . _ H. A. Weymann & Son, Inc. Pittsburgh. Pa w. F. Frederick Piano Co. C. C. Mellor Co.. Ltd. Standard Talking Machine Co. Portland. Me Cressey & Allen, Inc Richmond, Va W. D. Moses & Co. Rochester, N. Y The Talking Machine Co. Salt Lake City. Utah... The John Elliott Clark Co. San Antonio. Tex Thos. Goggan & Bros. St. Louis, Mo Koerber-Brenner Music Co. St. Paul, Minn W. J. Dyer & Bro. Syracuse. N. Y W. D. Andrews Co. Toledo, 0 The Whitney & Currier Co. Washington, D. C Cohen & Hughes E. F. Droop & Sons Co. Bobt. C. Rogers Co. San Francisco, Cal Walter S. Gray Chicago, III The Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. Aeolian Co. Cincinnati, 0 Alms & Doepke Co. Decatur, III Bochman Bros. -Martin Co. Kansas City. Mo Phonograph Co. Richmond, Va Craft Star Phonograph Co. Boston, Mass C. & C. Sales Co.