“I THINK,"
said Mr. Myron A. Decker, the head of the well-known house
of Decker & Son,
piano manufacturers of New York City, "that more persistent
and malicious efforts
are made to persecute me than, any man in the
trade I know
of."
It was while a
reporter of the MUSICAL PIANO AND TRADE BEVIEW was
sitting in Mr. Decker's
office, just before the examination of the "Baby"
Grand spoken of in
our last issue, that the above remark was made.
“Here, as you
know," continued Mr. Decker, " I have been manufacturing
pianos for about
twenty-five years, and yet some of my rivals would like
to take from me the
right to use my own name, and if possible to run me out
of the
business. I know very well that I make a thoroughly good piano, a
great deal better
piano than many others make, and I suppose
it is the quality
of my
goods that hurts them."
" Yes,"
replied the reporter, " you certainly do make an excellent piano.
But if your enemies
trouble you, why don't you fight ? Your piano is good
enough, but there is
one thing that should be combined with it."
"And that
is," said Mr. Decker.
"Aggressiveness,"
replied the reporter. "If, as you say, parties are
trying to walk all over
you, you should strike out straight from the
shoulder."
Mr. Decker smiled at
this point as if he had his share of aggressiveness,
and was prepared to
make use of it at the right time.
“The feeling
extends," he continued, "even to agents and dealers,
rivals of my
agents and dealers, all over the country; it has grown so that it
is difficult to keep
track of it, and it has become so common that I should
have my hands about
full to attend to it. I think it will be a good idea to
take some one person,
and make an example of him that will frighten the
others. Some of my
manufacturing rivals having started the ' fraud ' cry,
it has been taken
up by dealers, who find it very convenient, I suppose,
when my pianos come
in competition with those they handle, to take up the
howl of ' bogus,
bogus!' "
“Here is one way in
which the thing is worked," and Mr. Decker handed
the reporter a slip
cut from the Montreal Herald and Daily Commercial
Gazette,
dated Saturday, June 18th, 1881, which read as follows:
“PERSONAL.—We have
had the pleasure of a visit from Mr. Myron A. Decker, of the well-known firm of
Decker & Son, piano manufacturers, New
York. Mr. Decker
visits our city in the interests of his
business, and, we
understand, has
established his agency at the extensive house of the N. Y.
Piano Company, 226
and 228 St. James Street. Mr. Decker is one of the
oldest and most
respectable piano manufacturers in America, having worked
at the bench with the
celebrated Albert Weber over thirty years ago. His
instruments have the
endorsement of the leading musicians of the country,
and are as handsome
in style as they are sweet and beautiful in tone."
When the reporter had
read the above, Mr. Decker said, " It is strange,
is it not, that after
my arrival in Montreal to place an agency there, this
little paragraph
should turn up, and in the same issue of the paper that the
above appeared in ? “and
Mr. Decker handed the reporter another slip of
paper on which he
read:
BEWARE of
bogus "Decker" Pianos. DECKER BROS., of
Union Square,
New York, are alone
entitled to the trademark, "THE DECKER," and
De-
Zouche & Co. are
the sole agents.
“Curious coincidence
that, isn't it? Possibly some of them will say, if
the cap fits me I may
wear it. But that's nonsense, I know what the thing
amounts to, and I
don't hesitate to put the matter before you."
“Now here is another
phase of the question: let me read you a part of
a letter which is
similar to thousands I receive. It is from John A. Gilbert,
my agent in
Crawfordsville, Ind. He writes me to send him one of my best
uprights for
exhibition at some fair in the West, and says:
‘I want to take the
rag from my competitors who claim that the piano
you make is bogus,
and a base imitation of the genuine. Their denunciations
are loud and deep.
They say that you are counterfeiters, and make a third-class
instrument. Told all
this to the party to whom I sold my initial
Decker & Son
piano; called it a cheap, snide thing. They have one Weber,
Emerson and
Kimball."
“Now what would you
do to such fellows as those he speaks of," asked
Mr. Decker.
“Do," repeated
the reporter, " Why the first thing I should
do would
be to get my
batteries perfectly in order before opening fire on them."
