This little book has already proven itself a valuable resource. In it I found a photo (reproduced in the book Gibson Guitars: 100 Years of an American Icon) of the famous Gibson smokestack with a huge crack in it, after it was struck by lightning. And I've found some tidbits of product information that were useful in documenting various models of the period. But I've never taken the time to sit down and browse through this book without any pressing purpose.

The very first page -- the front cover, actually, of the January 1918 issue -- is intriguing. In contrast to the hand-drawn, eye-catching artwork that adorns the covers of many an issue of The Sounding Board Salesman, the cover "art" for this issue is an order form. The caption is "The Prize-Winning Order in Division 'C.'"

Obviously, this little magazine is focused in on the Gibson salesman, and Gibson has been running a sales contest. This single order came from Miss Mary Butt Griffith of the Griffith School of Music in Atlanta, and it totaled a whopping $1286.07. The Griffith school was one of the larger mandolin schools, and coincidentally, a photo of the school group appeared in Catalog K of 1918 (the catalog is touted in a later issue of the Sounding Board Salesman).

The order itself is telling: 12 A mandolins, 12 A-1 mandolins, 2 F-2 mandolins, 1 F-4 mandolin, an L-1 guitar and a Style 0 guitar, plus cases --29 pieces in all. According to some historians (myself included), the tenor banjo was on the rise and the mandolin on the way out by 1918, but someone apparently forgot to tell the Griffith school.

Actually, the mandolin world was indeed aware of the tenor banjo threat, as indicated by a page near the end of the issue. "The Corpse Still Lives" cries the headline. It's an appeal by William Place Jr., a prominent mandolinist and secretary-treasurer of the American Guild of Banjoists, Mandolinists and Guitarists, who wrote "Remember how much talk there was a year ago about the Guild dying of slow consumption? Notice nothing has been said about it lately? Everyone who went to the 1917 Convention agreed that the committee gave them the time of their lives." What was Place appealing for? "Pay your 1918 dues today." (The February issue would offer a preview of the program for the upcoming convention, but alas, even another fine Guild convention would not be enough to save the mandolin from the onslaught of the tenor banjo.)

A few other points of interest from the cover...

• The order form, dated Dec. 6, 1917, lists Gibson's address as 521-523 Harrison Court. Gibson celebrated its move into a new factory at 225 Parsons St. with a grand party on July 10, 1917, so Gibson or Griffith had a six-month supply of old order blanks on hand.



• The company is touted as the manufacturer of "The Gibson" mandolins, mandolins and harp guitars. "Guitar" was part of the official company name, so maybe the omission is not so important.



• This issue is Vol. 7, No. 3. A look ahead reveals that a volume consists of 4 issues, so there are 30 issues prior to this. If it was a monthly from the beginning, then it started in July 1915.

The table of contents shows a full 10 pages devoted to the sales contest and an article called "There Is No Lawless Particle." The article was written by Eugene T. Thompson, associate sales manager and, if the article itself is any indication, still an apprentice to the great L.A. Williams when it comes to writing stirring sales copy. (Williams, was the original sales manager who wrote all the flowery sales copy in early catalogs.) Thompson starts with a discussion of the law of attraction between atoms. Then, with no more segue than "But hold!" he moves to the image of a boat skimming the water, then to the same boat overloaded with 30 people after a champagne dinner. The entire party drowns. Then it's on to the question of reaching financial goals and whether the Gibson tearcher-agent has "taken pains" to interest his students in the mandola and mandocello. This goes on for another three pages or so.

Ironically, this lengthy discussion on the laws of nature falls short of filling up a page, so the extra space was filled in by a report of natural lawlessness -- unprecedented weather conditions in Michigan have forced delays in shipping instruments.

I've always had a hard time staying focused on one item in these archive columns, but I should have no trouble staying with the Sounding Board Salesman for another month -- thanks to magazine's admonition about setting goals and going after them: "If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him."