1914-10-03tt

As the Thanksgiving holiday in October, 1914, approached, it would have been hard for many Hamiltonians to feel thankful. The war news from Western Europe, no matter how heavily censored, was grim indeed.

The Hamilton firm, Mason & Risch Limited, sold pianos, player-pianos and gramophones. For the company’s advertisement to appear before  the Thanksgiving weekend, the copy urged Hamiltonians to indeed be thankful and have music play an important part in their Thanksgiving day activities.

The copy for the advertisement follows (I will try to reproduce the varied size and boldness used) :

          What Do You Plan to Do on

         Thanksgiving Day

to mark it as a day different from all other days of the strenuous year ? For it SHOULD be different, don’t you think so?

We all have much to be thankful for, even though it may be but for the greater strength that has come from struggling with temporary adversity. HOW shall we express our thanks?

Centuries of discovery and progress have not revealed any medium for the expression of emotion as fine as Music, the NATURAL medium. They have, however, brought us dangerously close to materialism which would substitute trivialities and the commonplace for the moving majesty of music.

          LET US REMAIN NATURAL

When we lose our inborn love for Music, we shall have no need to give thanks, nor any inclination to do so.

After availing yourself out-of-doors of the opportunities Thanksgiving Day may bring – and, incidentally, whetting your appetite for the family feast – GATHER THE FAMILY AROUND THE PIANO OR VICTROLA, play a little finer music than you have ever played before, sing some of the good old songs, and if this does not bring you all closer together in spirit and harmony and undertaking, we know very little of human nature!

                   IF YOU HAVE NO PIANO,OR VICTROLA,

    COME AND CONSULT US.

        Small monthly payments will soon make you the owner of the instrument you select.

The Mason & Risch organization maintains the character given to it by its founders as “Makers of High-Grade Pianos ONLY.” From the earliest beginnings, the most exacting people bought Mason & Risch Pianosfor that reason.

THEY DO SO YET! They know that a Mason & Risch piano is an ingenious combination of all elements which have given the instrument of our make the reputation of being “The Best Piano Built.”

The same scientific manufacture that has given the Mason and Risch Piano its world-wide reputation is developed in the highest degree in the Mason & Risch Player-Piano, an instrument which has won the enthusiastic support of eminent musicians and musical authorities on all sides.

Both instruments possess so many excellent features that you cannot afford to disregard them when you contemplate the purchase of a Piano or Player-Piano to give lifetime satisfaction.

MASON & RISCH LIMITED

117 KING STREET EAST                        PHONE 614

(from the Hamilton Spectator. October 3, 1914)

That was the large Mason & Risch advertisement for that day, but there was another, smaller one. That one advertisd a gramophone record that was popular :

Still Selling !

That Tipperary Song.

Hurry up and buy your copy before they’re all sold out. And Don’t forget to hear the record of this famous song by the Imperial Male Quartet.

Free Demonstration daily at

Mason & Risch

Piano Store.

     117 KING STREET EAST