PRESTOJanuary 8, 1920.

NOTED INTERVIEWSIN PIANO INDUSTRY

ently unwilling to do so. Instead he takes themthrough the factory and shows them a successionof object lessons in efficiency.

Wisdom of Col. Conway.The most interviewed piano man in Chicago was

Col. E. S. Conway because he was both well-in-formed and always willing to talk with the inter-viewers. That was why in my perplexity I turnedto the colonel to learn more about the fine distinc-tions between the various styles of efficiency. Herealized my plight and pleasantly pointed out thetruths and the heresies of efficiency. Not resting witha clear statement of salient facts that made clearermy conception of the real and illusory efficiencyhe illustrated the interview with one of his appro-priate stories.

Pointing the Moral.During one of his winter sojourns in Pass Chris-

tian, Miss., he encountered a professional hermitwho was the star attraction near one of the tourists'resorts. That hermit was a model of hermit effi-ciency and it paid him well. His cave was the ex-treme in primitive housekeeping. His beard waslong and weedy and the hoary locks of his benevo-lent head flew free in the Mississippi zephyrs. Alength of grapevine about his waist kept the but-tonless garment made of sacking close to his dirt-coated hide. Visitors from the hotel flocked toobserve him broil catfish over the embers or brewa mess of herbs in a stone pot set therein and theysympathetically dropped coins when he told themthe story of romantic events that sent him her-miting. But loudest of all was their admirationof the primeval menage.

But one fateful day along came a gabby youngman who mocked the ancient. It would, he said, begood philosophy to blend a little modern effi-ciency with the primitive contraptions. For in-stance a feed wire of the electric light companypassed a few rods away and he suggested tappingit and giving the hermit's cave modern lighting inplace of the picturesque pine torch the tourists con-sidered so much in keeping with the general primi-tive scheme. The hermit too, said the tempter,could can the tripod and the stone pot and couldcook his catfish and herbs au casserole in a tastyway and all at a cost of about one week's dona-tions from the admiring tourists. The efficiencyexpert was a sick talker and the hermit fell forthe scheme.

"That, as you surmise," said Col. Conway, "washis undoing. That hermit exhibited most efficiencywhen dirtiest and most uncomfortable. The in-stallation of the electric service marked the termi-nation of the tourist admiration and the end of thehermit business as a paying proposition."

Finding the First One.I interviewed my first piano man long years be-

fore I became associated with my brothers of theAmerican piano trade press or my half brothers oftalking machine journalism. I had been assigned bythe London Daily Graphic to make some sketchesin court during the trial of a famous will case inthe Four Courts in Dublin. The case was one inwhich a Collard & Collard grand piano prominentlyfigured.

When a rich and eccentric old lady died the dis-appearance of a will alleged to exist resulted in agrand legal rough and tumble fight among her rela-tives for her belongings valued at two hundredthousand pounds, equal to about a million dollarsin the undepreciated value of the British unit inthose days. A beneficent court functionary tookcharge of things of course and the legal processesproceeded. But a new direction was in time givento events by the dramatic introduction of the miss-ing will found in the piano by James Frewen, whohad bought the instrument at a sale of the old lady'seffects:

Dressed the Part.Mr. Frewen's appearance on the witness stand

was my first sight of a bright piano man. He wasa tall, slim man, faultlessly dressed, silk-hatted,grey-spatted and dress-coated to the queen's taste,or rather to the Prince of Wales' taste, that princelypersonage being the dandy's model in those days.He wore a drooping straw-colored mustache whichgave him a gloomy look that belied his real joyouscharacter. He represented the Collard & Collardpiano in Dublin and, as I gathered, was famedas a successful retail salesman. In later years Iheard a good deal about Mr. Frewen from that cos-mopolitan piano traveler, Gustav Bolze, who hadknown Frewen as a piano manufacturers' agent inSouth America, where his resourcefulness andenergy resulted in success.

The star witness in the will case described him-self as English and spoke with an accent betoken-ing that fact. But during his testimony little oddi-ties of phrasing and unconscious tricks of accentua-tion sounded like a reversion to lingual type tomy Irish ear. The traces of brogue were accounted

LETTER TO C. M. TREMAINEFROM CONTEST WINNER

An Ambitious Fourteen-Year-Old Girl, Los An-geles, Sends Thanks for the Clarinet.

Following is copy of a letter received by DirectorC. M. Tremaine from the winner of the prize of-fered by the Bureau for Advancement of Music inthe Music Memory Contest just held with greatsuccess in Los Angeles, Calif. Many newspapercomments on the subject of the contest also ap-peared in the Los Angeles papers.

Los Angeles, Calif., Dec. 25, 1919.Dear Mr. Tremaine: I thank you very much for

the clarinet you gave to the contest and which Iwon. The contest was held December the eleventhand it surely was a great success. I was notified afew days after the contest to receive my prize. Ihad no idea that I would get such a wonderful prize.I did work very hard during the seven weeks ofstudy. I don't regret it as it has been a wonderfuleducation. The children who didn't win any prizehave learned a great deal towards music in thiscontest.

I am fourteen years of age and in the eighthgrade. I expect to graduate this February. I amthen going to high school and take the music course.My highest ambition is to be a music teacher ororchestra conductor. Thanking you again for thewonderful gift.

Your friend,ANNA WHITEFIELD.

Among the first prizes were a $100 music scholar-ship donated by a philanthropic local woman, fourVictrolas and a $25 instrument, the money forwhich was given by the National Bureau to Pro-mote Music Appreciation in the United States.

Other prizes are two violins, a flute, clarinet,drum, cornet, guitar, numbers of phonograph rec-ords and music rolls and 40 books on music.

The local music trade gave $900 toward the work,which Miss Stone predicts will be done on a three-times more extensive scale next year.

Mr. Tremaine has also received a very enthusiasticletter from Paul E. Beck, state supervisor of musicin Pennsylvania. Mr. Beck has been co-operatingwith the Bureau for over a year on a plan for es-tablishing the music memory contests on a city-widescale in Pennsylvania.

Presto Staff Writers Tell of Their Recollec-tions of Personal Talks with Prominent

Manufacturers of Past and PresentWho Have Made History in the

World of Music.HOW COL. E. S. CONWAY POINTED OUT

VITAL DIFFERENCES IN VARIETIESOF EFFICIENCY.

By J. Fergus O'Ryan of Presto Staff.The interview as commonly understood was in-

vented to give the personal touch to popular dis-cussions. By means of it the magnetic personagesof the world extend their influence. The interviewis the common medium for administering the wordcure in political and economic ailments. Peopleare not influenced by facts as much as by someprominent person's version, of the facts. That iswhy the piano trade papers brighten their pageswith interviews when confronted with problems,thus saving their readers from asphyxiation of theunderstanding consequent on swallowing the repor-torial gases.

The expression of opinion in the first personsingular may be called new and admitedly is ofAmerican invention, but Jhe interview in variedforms is as old as written language. Many inter-esting interviews are woven in the narrative of theBible. Interviews interpret the news in the dailypapers for us. And the grandest interviewers wehave in our midst are the admen of the piano in-dustry.

They Make 'Em Talk.When a bright young man in the advertising de-

partment of the Vose & Sons Piano Companywrites one of the characteristic crisp Vose phrasesabout the Vose grand he really interviews the in-strument; says what it might say itself could itswitch from its own harmonious mode of expres-sion to Bostonese. Day in and day out, D. Luxton,who being a good salesman is per se a good adman,disseminates Vose piano interviews while on hisfrequent trips. And the most ingenuous of theinterviewees is Baby Gulbransen, the prodigy Th.B. Thompson started out to talk playerpiano to awhole continent.

Charles E. Byrne says for the Steger and Arte-mis pianos and players what the excellent productsof the Steger industries would modestly voice ifthey became endowed with the gift of humanspeech. Clever interviews of the Autopiano havemade it the greatest sea-going playerpiano knownto the trade. The Tonk piano has intervieweditself in half a dozen Oriental tongues and the R.S. Howard piano has talked in Spanish to millionsof people in Cuba and Central and South America.Every month the American and foreign piano tradelistens to the forceful interview of the StandardPneumatic Action Co. printed in a bright magazine,although A. W. Johnston, the vice-president, be-lieves the action itself speaks louder than words.And so it goes.

Jolts Bring Wisdom.The first thing the trade paper interviewer learns

is that there is no perfection except in his owncopy. As he grows older, however, he weakensin that belief. Sometimes his brother interviewerswith the slings and arrows of outrageous commentwill mockingly point out easily discernible weak-nesses in his stuff. But the trade paper interviewer isnot alone in seeing the necessity for more effi-ciency in the other fellow. The meaning of theword efficiency is apparently clear, but it is a poorefficiency expert who cannot supply a preamble anda whole flock of reservations and interpretationsto the other experts' efficiency codes.

Groping for Light.It was my bewilderment over efficiency following

a session at one of the piano trade conventions thatset me out to learn its meaning by means of theenlightening interview. It was then I found theimportant difference between plain and fancy effi-ciency; that the most proficient men in efficiencywere the least inclined to discuss it or make it thetheme of the vocal essay.

When men of admitted efficiency like CharlesStanley, superintendent of the P. A. Starck PianoCo., for instance, find something loose in opera-tions of some of his factory force, he does not loseany words in adjusting it. He shows the thought-less ones the careful way to perform the operation.E. S. Rauworth, president of the Apollo Piano Co.,could spellbind a gathering of piano men with anefficiency talk any time if he wanted to. But evento the piano trade paper interviewer he is consist-

A. L. EBBELS RECOVERS HEALTH.Friends in the trade of A. L. Ebbels—and there

are few who have more of them—will be glad toknow that gentleman has regained his accustomedhealth. Mr. Ebbels has been suffering with illhealth for several months past, and until this time hehas not been able to attend to business. No doubtmany of the customers of the American Piano Sup-ply Co., of New York, have been' conscious of thisfact. Mr. Ebbels wishes also to express his appre-ciation of the evidences of good will which havecome to him from friends during the period of hisillness Men of Mr. Ebbels kind are never tooplentiful in any line of business, and they can be illyspared at any time.

PIANO MEN TO DINE.The Chicago Piano & Organ Association will give

its annual dinner on Thursday evening, January 15at the LaSalle Hotel. The event will be informal.

for when later he told me his father and motherhailed from the ould sod.

Mr. Frewen's testimony was an excellent bit ofwhat you might call "press agent stuff." It wasmost important and as it turned out, decisive, butthe bewigged judges and learned councilors wereseemingly unaware of the well-disguised fact thathis evidence in the main was a magnificent spiel forthe Collard & Collard piano. Interwoven in his re-cital of the discovery of the will in a ledge beneaththe bed of the piano were incidental bits of pianodescription meant to impress the hearers with themerits of the instrument in question.

Always on the Job."How many pianos do you think your ingenious

testimony has sold?" I asked him later."It was just the pleasant spreading of the seed.

Tomorrow will see the first bit of cultivation," hereplied, opening a notebook. "Here I've got thenames and addresses of all the legal luminaries whohad the pleasure of listening to me in court. Be-lieve me, my boy, I shall make god use of thedramatic incident I provided. The good piano sales-man is never off duty. In fact he can make hisso-called recreation moments profitable. Why Ionce sold a fine grand to a surgeon while he wassetting my broken leg."

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