The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-06-21

sleeping car. the irate passenger. the
baby. and everything but the baggage
coach ahead" That was luckily left to
the Imagination. and the feelings Of the
audiences were not wrenched to the last
possible limit.
But h stock OF domestic sympathy
which the variety theater audiences pos
sess seems to have been drained by the
demand made on IL by this ballad. for
the domestic song took a drop In public
favor and II has not yet fully recovered
Its place. A mixture OF the nlial and
the sexual seemed to prosper for sew
eral years. n the latest notable exam
pie was the all-devourtng My Neither
Was a Lady," which was particularly
poignant when delivered with the stere-
opticon trimmings. 1t bore a family re-
semblance to After the Ball." which
confused a brother and a lover and
dared to rhyme the two words with no
apparent conjunction. The 'kinchen
lay" that the Ar;fui Dodger used to re-
gard with such Contempt had its begin
ming and end in Two Little Girls in
Blue" Then, in the words of the gal
iery. I Bowery soured on kids" and
the baby songs dropped out permanent
ly. The prevailing coon sons has within
the past two years occupied the field to
the exclusion CT any but dark-colored
emotions of an ematory or bellicose
character.
The coon songs. the 'rag-time" bal
lads. are possible to a larger public than
the sentimental ballads ever appealed to.
The good negro melody penetrates to
any circle. There nave not been many
classics equal to II Want You. Ma
Honey The New Bully and above
all "A Hot Time in the Old Town To-
Night and "All Coons Look Alike to
Me-" With their strongly marked
rhythm, the time that il commonly as
ISOLATED with negro melodies in the pop
ular mind and their occasionally quaint
ly fanciful verse, these coon songs seized
the public. taste and seem fairly certain
to hold 1t for some time to come. The
melodies have been. as a rule, good
enough to make 1t clear why the songs
are appreciated, and the native COM
posers of this kind of music have done
themselves much greater credit than
they do customarily in the composition
Of the ordinary sentimental ballads. Ev-
cry SOM that Is whistled or suns ex-
tensively Is certain to be closely imitat-
ed. There is a striking instance Of this
to be noticed in New York to-day. A
comedian in a music hall is singing a
negro ballad which wen in Its name Is
paraphrased from al English song
brought to this country several years
ago by a London burlesque company.
Not only The music, but the words, seem
SO slightly altered that the W are fire.
quently confused. Yet the second is said
to possess a composer" and he is not
at all the same person who Is held to
be responsible for the original n The
writer's have undoubtedly been put to
straits to satisfy the demand for coon
songs. and some of them now have airs
and rhythms that are by no means
characteristic.
One of the things that has surprised
persons who observe the methods
adopted TO get some appearance OF nov
city is that nobody has ever hough OF
utilizing the fund of genuine old negro
songs which, with a little change from
the conductor OF a variety theater or
chestra. could be made as available as
absolute novelties and would be much
mere enjoyable than the fagrant imita-
tions that are offered.
The orchestra in one of the combina-
ton theaters played the other night a
collection of songs that were as com.
monplace and uninteresting as they wei
could be. Two men who were sitting In
the audience knew perfectly well thai
they were not popular songs, and by
no means the best that were to be heard
But they did not know why the song:
were played in preference to the better
ones. Many of the orchestral conduc
tors in the theaters receive a compensa-
ton for playing certain songs, just al
the publishing firms pay certain singer:
TO give their songs in the variety the
aters. When the conductor If an or.
chestra leads his musicians through Z
stretch of commonplace songs il is SAT,
to assume hat he has some good reasc.
for doing il. Something more than hi:
taste is likely to be at fault in such q
case, and the proba bilities are that h,
prefers the extra compensation tina
comes from the effort to populariz,
songs to the pleasure of entertaining tn,
audiences that come to the theater. o.
he may really believe that the music II
about as diverting as wha the publ
would ordinarily get. Frequently tn,
well-known vaudeville singers will opel
their turns" with songs that are abso
lutely commonplace and the audience
will wonder why they selected them
The reason in their case is much tn
same as in the conductors. They see n,
harm in helping out a poor song wheI
they receive, as they do I'm some cases
as much as $50 a week for singing IL
They know that they can follow II NJ
with one or two good songs and MAX
themselves once more solid witt the.
audiences, and there is the additions
money to their credi Few of the sing
ers would consent to imperil their repu
tations by singing poor songs always
because the publishers wanted them &c
Even the mhney for booming the song
YOU cease to come I'm after n while
Sometimes they are paid to sing goo
songs. or rather songs that prove popu
lar when they are tried. But that doe
not happen SO frequently.-New Ycrl