The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-07-15
FATE OF A SONG-WRlTER
How the Author or rive Little esIrIs
In Bines' Played Out

How the Author or 1--WE Little Girls
Ia Bineo Played Out
New York, July 14.-It is something over
twelve years ago since Charlie Graham
came to America He had little money
and some kind OF trade but neither his
money nor his trade were his long There
was in him gift of song. readiness OF
rhyme and a deftness of metre that do
not go with money getting or money
keeping. whats the use working when
You can sing for a living?" the young
Englishman used to say.
He became ballad singer with a min
strel company, and grew accustomed to
seeing his name displayed and his face
pictured on the billboards He had a
sweet, clear voice in those days and was
| as ready to sing on the stage as on, and
soon knew everybody uptown" You
could find him any night after the theatre
| at a friends fat entertaining his hosts
guests, himself the merriest of the COM
| pany.
These midnight musicales began to be
heard of. There was one song Graham
sang which was so enticing that the po-
liceman on the beat listened beneath the
window. caught the refrain and went of
and presently nearly the whole police
force of New York was humming a song
that had never been heard of on the stage
and Of which nobody knew the name. It
was something of Grahsms own, and he
had not. because of modesty, used IL in
his minstrel turn. Somebody of the late
at-night crowd suggested that Graham
might sell It. He did not heed the ad-
vice. but one day when he had no watch
or scarfpin to raise money on-a con-
dition of affairs not at all uncommon for
him in his minstrel days-he took the
song to a publisher and sold 1t outright
for SO
Ten dollars for Two Little Girls in
Blde!"
The policeman who caught the melody
on his post was a good musical critic.
In months time the song was the fea-
ture in the repertory of every vaudeville
balladist from San Francisco to Bangor.
Maine. In another month it had crossed
the Atlantic. and the English music hall
audiences were applauding 1t. When the
song was half year old the hand organs
were grinding 1t out and there was a copy
of IT on every piano throughout this
piano-haunted land
Graham's fortune was made for all that
he only got S11 for this song The man
who wrote 1.-TWO Little Girls in Blue
could sci a song to any publisher.
His fortune was made. but 1t slipped
through his fingers. He seemed to think
there was no end to the store of melody
on which he drew so freely. He ceased to
sing Perhaps the midnight musicales
and the revelry that went with them had
something to do with that. Whenever he
needed money he wrote a song.
The Wagnerites will say his songs were
not music; the literary critics will tell
you his pathos was false. but for all that
the ballads, with the minor strain run
ming through them, were music enough
and pathetic enough to catch the ears OF
millions
'"rhe Picture That Is Turned Toward
the wall' was another OF Graham's sue
cesses. and "My Dads the Engineer"
went almost as well. Besides these. there
are other songs of nationwide fame that
he wrote that do not bear his name. He
sang them at private gatherings. and so
they spread abroad and the pirates made
prey Of them, and Graham-the man who
wrote a song, music. and words. in an
fight them to get them back. This was
the summer OF the song writer. His
pocket was full Of money, which was all
the proud. unknown little wife and the
children needed. Everybody was glad to
know Charlie Graham. He spent the
music tht was his wealth lavishly. He
was a good fellow" "a blood" an "old
sport" "crackerjack'' and a thorough
bred" No man was without resources
who knew Charlie Graham. His purse
was his friends.
This was his summer, but II was years
ago He never dreamed that the notes
would refuse to come. that the friends
would disappear. that outraged nature
would at last refuse to forgive him for
his violence to her gifts and that when he
struck the Tyre It would give no sound.
A depressed man and a sorrow-stricken
woman in rusty black. carrying tiny.
pinched-faced baby, with the New York
Summer death in its face. made the
rounds Of the music publishers Saturday.
The man was Charlie Graham's brother.
the woman Charlie Graham's wife. the
baby the youngest Of his five children
Charlie died at Bellevue yesterday"
the man told the publishers. He caught
cold a few weeks ago and didn't have
money to get proper treatment or proper
food There isn't a penny at his place.
and his wife and the kids are in bad
way
whitmark & Sons headed a subscpit-
ton to keep the song writer from the pot
ter's field. The other publishers put down
their names, but the pitiful total means
nothing more than a grave The wife and
babies OF Charlie Graham are pennlIess.