The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1908)

34 THE TALKING IVIACHINE WORLD. RECORDS OF KAISER'S TALKS. Dr. Scripture Denies Tliat Germany Has Recalled Phonograph Records of Ruler's Voice — Just What Wilhelm Said — Philosophized on Religion and Paid Tribute to Frederick the Great — Three Records Here. The dispatches from Berlin and Washington that the German Government is anxious to call in and destroy phonographic records of the voice of the Kaiser made hy Dr. E. W. Scripture, of 87 Madison avenue, did not cause much concern to Dr. Scripture this week. Dr. Scripture was for twelve years director of the psychological laboratory at Yale University, and he has heen a profound student of the problem of the analysis of vocal sounds. He took the records of the Kaiser's voice for future reference, caring more for the actual tones of the voice than for the sentiments expressed. "If there has been any effort on the part of the German Government to get back these records," he said, "I know nothing of it. I would be consulted in such case, I believe. The records are here and were given to us to keep, and they are safely filed away." Dr. Scripture said that be made five sets of records of the Kaiser's voice. No other records or reproductions of records exist. One of these is now preserved in the Smithsonian Institution, another in the Congressional Library, and a third in Yale University. The other two have been kept by the Kaiser. The first record was an original composition of philosophical and moral tone. It was spoken into the phonograph in German. A translation by Dr. Scripture printed in The Century Magazine is as follows: "Be brave in adversity. Do not strive for what is unattainable or worthless; be content with each day as it comes; look at the good side of everything; take pleasure in nature and accept your fellow-men as you find them. For a thousand bitter hours comfort yourself with a single happy one; in effort and deed always do your best, regardless of reward. He who can do this will be fortunate, free, and independent; the days of his life will always be happy ones. He who is distrustful does wrong to others and injures himself. It is our duty to consider every person good as long as he does not prove the contrary. "The world is so large, and we human beings so small, that everything cannot center in us alone. Even when something injures us or something hurts us, who can know but that it is necessary for the benefit of the whole creation? Everything in the world, whether good or otherwise, is the work of the great, wise will of the Almighty and All-knowing Creator, though we RECORD EXPERT WANTS POSITION Expert master record maker (cylinder) with 17 years' experience, is open for engagement. Can take full charge. Has up-to-date recording method. Thorough mechanic. Address Expert, care Chicago OflBce Talking Machine World, 156 Wabash Ave. POSITION WANTED BY REPAIR MAN Repair man, thoroughly experienced and resourceful, on all machines. At liberty Dec. 21. Address R. C, care Chicago Office Talking Machine World, 156 Wabash Ave. ^nBARGAirTSTENVELOPES For Sale. — Record envelopes eight-inch size, extra strong, %1 per thousand. Quantities as desired, cash. Address Record Envelopes, 314 Willoughby Building, Chicago. Experienced Outside Salesman, who made the mistake of his life, by getting into another line, wants to get back to the talking machine business. Will go to any part of the world. Address WICK, care Talking Machine World, 1 Madison Ave., New York, V. S. A. petty creatures may not be able to understand it. Everything in the world is exactly as it must be, and whatever it may be, the good is always the will of the Creator." The second cylinder took the record of the beginning of a speech delivered by the Kaiser at the unveiling of a monument to Frederick the Great. Part of Dr. Scripture's translation of this follows: "A hundred and fifty years ago Frederick the Second — already termed the Great by his contemporaries— had collected a large part of his army at Doeberitz, in order to exercise and steel them for the desperate struggles which his penetrating vision foresaw. The period of preparation seemed to him so important that he was not afraid to trust his troops to the guidance of his trained field marshals. Working incessantly, and forgetting no detail even in the midst of his large plans, the great soldier-king developed his regiments for the difficult problems of the Seven Years' War just breaking out, and formed between himself and his soldiers the personal ties that incited the latter to their utmost efforts, while he imparted his own spirit to his generals, and so laid the basis for the incomparable success that culminated in the victorious conquest of a world in arms conspiring against him. Never should we forget these achievements, never the names of the heroes of that glorious age." Dr. Scripture said furthermore, "that he had originally intended to take records of the voices of other rulers and had expected to make a record of the voice of the Pope along with them. He abandoned this plan, however, as he was so beset by talking machine manufacturers that he was unable' to confine himself absolutely to his scientific studies." WURLITZER CO. EXTEND LEASE Of Their Chicago Quarters — Will Occupy the Upper Floors as Soon as Tenants Vacate — This Will Relieve the Congestion Felt for Some Time. (Special to The Talking Machine World.) Chicago, 111,, Dec, 9, 1908. The Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. have made a new arrangement with Frederick Fischer by which its 20-year lease of the property at 266-268 Wabash avenue has been extended for a term of 80 years, making it a 100-year lease. The original lease covered the period from May 1, 1906. to April 30, 1926. and included the entire five-story building on the premises, fronting 51 feet with a depth of 172 feet. It called for a rental of $1,000 a month, the lessee to pay all taxes in addition. Under the terms of the extension, the lessee is to pay a net annual rental of $13,000 from the first day of November last in monthly installments of $1,083. and is also required to rent within fifteen years from May 1, 1906, at its own expense a new building to cost not less than $150,000, The annual rent of $13,000 is 4 per cent, on $325,000, or the rate of about $6,350 a front foot. The Board of Review value the property at $306,675, $30,000 being for the building and $276,675 for the ground. As will be noticed the company is not obliged by the lease to have a new building constructed until 1921, and in all probability this will not be done for a number of years. While, of course, they will carry their own pianos here as well as in Cincinnati, as soon as the factory at Tonowanda, N. Y., can turn them out in sufficient quantites, this will not be for several months. It can be stated positively that no definite decision has been reached as to the matter of establishing a general piano department here, although this is a future possibility. In the meantime the business of the Chicago house along the present lines has increased to such an extent as to make increased space absolutely necessary. This will be done when the leases of the tenants now occupying the third and fourth floors of the building expire, which will be on May 1, The company will then convert these floors to their own use, as well as the first and second floors now occupied. This will serve to relieve the con gestion on the second floor, where the company's automatic instruments and wholesale small goods department are both crowded for room, and will also enable them to move the wholesale talking machine department, now at 338 Wabash avenue, back to their own building. It is needless to say that to Manager E. H. Uhl is due. in large measure, the rapid advancement of the company's interest in Chicago and the West. PROGRESS MADE IN A CENTURY. Why It Is a Privilege to be Living in This Age Set Forth Very I Hum inati vely by John K. Le Baron in a Recent Issue of The Evening World, It is a great privilege to be alive to-day: The twentieth century offers more to the poor man than the eighteenth offered to the rich. From the days of Adam to the days of Washington was a slow journey. From the days of Washington to the present has been an era of magic. The age of miracles is not past. It was a journey of many centuries from the savage in his dugout to the launching of Fulton's first steamlKiat, the Clermont. The Clermont to-day would be a joke. But it set the pace for the marvellous speed progress of the century. The Lusitania traces its ancestry to the Clermont, and even beyond, to the little Burlington steamboat of John Pitch. The United States had had seven Presidents before any one ever rode in a railway coach. It was during the administration of Andrew Jackson that The Best Friend, the first Americanbuilt locomotive to see actual service, made its memorable run in South Carolina. With that event speed became the watchword of progress. The year 1844 saw the birth of the telegraph. That invention gave wings to thought. For untold ages the worM had known no means of communication faster than the horse. The birth of the nineteenth century was coeval with the beginning of the age of invention. In the scale of possibilities an hour came to mean more than days had meant. Did the magic of India ever rival that achievement? Twelve years after the railroad came the telegraph. The miracle of Morse made the railway seem slow. It brought distant cities within a minute of one another. Was ever such another miracle performed by man. The railway and the telegraph wrought commercial revolution. Methods were changed. The civilized world experienced a great awakening. Thirty-three years after the telegraph came the telephone. Wonders were multiplying. As an inventive marvel the phonograph rivals the more practical inventions of that century of Cooper, a Morse, a Gray, a Bell and an Edison. All Americans but one. It is a great privilege to live in the twentieth century. Could men have foreseen events it would have been a disappointment to have lived in the slowgoing eras. We hardly appreciate how much a day has to offer in this age. The nineteenth century left a marvellous footprint on the sands of time. C. C. HAWES THE PUKCHASER. C. C. Hawes has purchased the talkin<; machine department of the Staples Piano & Music Co., Portland, Me, There must be earnestness and sincerity in all you do and say in making a sale.