The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-04-04
Concerning 5000 n Songs.

The effect of the ''coon song'' has,
without question, been wonderfully
good. When l say 'coon song" l
mean those remarkably catchy and
melodious ones that send theatre audi
ences on their honleward way humming
and whistling the air, and the melody
goes tipping over the country from
New York city to the Klondike, back
over Chilcoot pass to Seattle, and from
Seattle to Presque isle, Maine You
can no more hold back a catchy ''coon
song" then you can the duke of Man
chester when creditor gets after him.
| Songs that set an entire nation land
the brainiest nation on earth( dancing,
whistling, singing and ''cake walking"
have got something in them besides the
price of the copyright.
1t Globe man should walk up and
down Washington street on a bright
spring day and every man and woman
he passed hummed dead marches or
dirges, he would return to his desk and
write up an article to the effect that
the country was going to the dogs, and
| the people to private madhouses; but
when nine out of every ten boys and
girls he meets are humming or whiStling
a coon melody, it's fair. safe gamble
to make that the country is more than
all right, and the people ditto.
Another good thing about the ''coon
song is it sets all kinds and classes of
people singing the same songs. While
Wong Lees white wife down in china
town is singing verse of "Guess I'll
Have to Telegraph My Baby" Mrs.
| Gould, in her beautiful palace in New
York, is singing the chorus of the same
song. The people of the tenement dis
tricts and the people of the 400 are
whistling, hummlng and singing "coon
songs" from dawn to dawn.
The ''coon song" is no fad; like all
good and desirable things, it came be-
cause it was wanted and will stay be-
cause we cannot do without it. Twenty
odd years ago l began, with my brother,
ducing "coon songs" Our first effort
in this line was "We'll Raise de Roof
Tonight" We wrote this song for
Milt Barlow, and it was sung for the
first time by Barlow and Wilson's min
strels at the Boston Museum. The
song had first class sale, and is selling
to-day.
Our next song was ''Who's dat Calm
so Sweet?" which was written for Miss
Lydia Yeamans Titus, and she made a
great hit with it, and it proved large
money maker for the publisher.
| The above songs were written years
enough ago to entitle us to make the
claim Of being either the first, or we'll
up toward the head of the small class
who first produced the sO-called ''coon
/ song"
One effect of this class of song has
been to compel the ballad writer's and
sentimental song writer's to do their
level best to produce sweet, melodious
and catchy airs; they have got to do it
to compete with the ''coon song.'
[ dislike to hear people worrying
about the future of the ''coon song"
There is so much that is uncertain to
worry about; we don't know whether
some things have come to stay or not,
will last as long as human beings love
melody. People like them, sing them,
dance them, and are better for them.
My brother, H. G. Wheeler, who has
written verses for more ''coon songs"
than any man in the trade, says: "When
you see a drunken man Keeling along
home in the early morning hours, and
you hear him singing a 'coon song" as
he tracks along his route, you needn't
fret about his wife and children; he is
not going to harm them; possibly he
has squandered all his money, but he'll
have box of chocolates in his pocket
for his wife and a trinket or two for
the kids, and he won't lift a finger to
either of them. The man whom the
wife and babes have cause to stand in
fear of is the man who staggers home
bowling 'Throw EN- Down McClus-
KY" or "Show Me the Mick that Threw
the Brick. j. w. Wheeler in the Bos-