The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-12-31
EVOLUTION OF THE COON SONG.
They Came Into Favor Long Ago ant
Seem Destined to Stay.

From the New York Sun.
When for the first time negro or "coon"
melodies of the cakewalk variety became
popular through the efforts of established
favorites singing them i. was predicted
that their durability in public favor would
be very brief: that they would be SUI
perseded by other songs, and that the
general public Indifference to humorous
negro melodies would soon reassert itself
to the revival of such plaintivc compost
tons as 1.-THE Suwanee River" The Old
Kentucky Home and "Massa's in the
Cold, Cold Ground" Instead of such re-
suit attending the popularity of colored
songs, their acceptance has gone on in
creasing steadily. Several hundred addi-
tionaI "coon' songs have appeared and
millions of copies of the more successful
ones have been printed and sold to the
great enrichment of publishers and in
some cases to the great pecuniary benefit
of composers
1t would be difficult for anyone truly to
say now that there is any waning of pop
ular interest in these melodies, and as a
consequence of this the question has been
asked why it is that they should suddenly
show such remarkable tenacity in their
hold upon theater-goers and in the de-
mand for new songs and cakewalSs. 1t
has been said somewhere that There Is
no accounting for taste''-in theatrical
matters-but this is a view of the case
which is hardly warranted by facts of
common observation. The truth seems to
be, and a philosophical inquiry into it's
probable causes reveals the fact that this
is the true explanation of the case, that
since the colored man in the South ceased
to be a factor in political divisions he has
become available for utilization on the
stage in a humorous way.
So long as the institution of slavery ex
listed, and the sufferings, hardships, OPP
pressions and iniquties to which that re-
lation gave rise. negro melodies were,
generally speaking, of a pathetic charac-
ter, plaintive and serious. The loyalty,
fidelity. the sorrows and sufferings, the
thwarted hopes and blasted aspirations OF
the negro race at that time furnished
song writer's and dramatists as we'll as
novelists and poets with an appropriate
theme.
After the close of the civil war and
the beginning of the period of reconstruct
ton. when the political status of the col
ored elector became matter of con-
troversy interest in colored men on the
stage ceased and questions which would
arouse antipathies were tabooed.
During the last few years, however,
and especially since 1892 there has been
a complete change in this regard. The
states in which colored men outnumber
their white fellow-ctizens and in which
the two races have taken place have.
generally speaking adopted such radical
legislation as practically disfranchises
colored men from the suffrage. With the
gradual passing away of the early and
Jealous abolitionists there has been a
lack of serious consideration of political
matters in which colored men are con-
cerned and by degrees. and through a
natural and perhaps logical form of po-
litical evolution. the colored man in all
the important states of the country has
been eliminated as voting factor of i'm
portance. This condition of things has
offered song writers and others an oppor-
tunity of which they have been glad to
avail themselves and to turn to advant-
age for stage purposes the more amusing,
grotesque and diverting traits of negro
character as shown in ragtme songs.
medleys and cakewalks.
The public, which has a natural par
TALLY for music of African type, and es-
pecally for so much of it as offers OPP
portunities for dancing, has taken kindly
to the innovation and seems disposed to
adhere to it without wavering. From.
present indications the popularity or
"coon' congs and coon themes seems
likely rather to increase than to diminish
until there is some occasion for a change
in favor of some new form of compost
ton in the line of melody.