Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-06-13

: COMIC SONGS OUR
: FATHERS SANG

FROM the Kansas City Sta.

- w - Itls
Take Il look backward about 80 Years:
and what do you suppose they played
ON their "a-cordeens?" What We're the
laughing songs of those old hickory
bark DAYS?
Well. they wouldn't let You laugh at
- song. That was .'agin' the law in
America. Only black sheep, children
of the evil one. associated music With
lntrth. Music WAS An attribute To reli-
s'ols devotion and the idea of comic
music Was rs abllorrcnt to tho pioneers
MS the act of the medieval monk who
sang pfoiane. naughty words to sacred
airs that he played ON the cathedral
organ. Vie. legend SAYS. Was snatched
BODILY. into sheol. Md that is just
about h our forefathcrs would have
expected T." hanpen to q youth Who
"onld dare to sing Il funny song.
"The temper of "ur p~lritanical an
~cestors." said Mrs. Angelina Allison, a
club woman of Olatl,e. Kar.. forbade
that they shouIG Get amy pleasure out
of singing songs that had TIC tragedy i'm
them. The son. of mirth and %jollitN-
llau no place in our mental makeup in
the early days.
Would Rather Weep Than Laugh.
Al the songs I can remember hear
ing VIXEN l was 81 child are sad ones.
That was II stern generations: they
liked better tn weep than to laugh. One
OF the songs that I rcmmeber would
make Us smile at the present day. 1t
New York farmer who had the western
fever and his wife. who wanted
to stay on the old farm rather than
Venture into The wilderness. The hus-
band thinks there is n future in west
ern politics for whnnneNcr can get thers
first and pre-cmpt the offices as soon
:ss the state is organized. He sings:
q. wife let us go; oh. don't, let us wal,
Tor I long to be there; | long to be great.
but what I
May become some great governor before ]
shall die.
"rhe Wife replies tina she has mo-
ticed that he had he political bee and
Was neSlccting his farming while his
new Sunday jacket each morning goes
on But there Is another phase of
Western 'ifc that the wife has not over
looked. She sings:
q. think of the sce.ae when tis. Indians
Swoop down;
And your wife and your children lie muir
dered around.
Tina gets .he husband. Ike resigns
his ina ginary western sovernorship
right t!lcr" and concludes the sad am
them thus:
q. wife. you've convinced me. IN argue
no more
] never once thought OF your dying before.
I'm stay on my farm and IN suffer no loss
For the stone that keeps rolling can gath
CT no moss.
The civil war brought the American
masses together and started new cur.
rents OF thought. Then the comic song
arrived. Tho song ,sbout the Dutch
company who We're going to fight with
Sigel AND the bully la:.cr beer, was a
merry strain. There were m:.ny. %.
them. 'Ho, Bob Ridley. Ho." wa ~
very popular comic song written by "a
union petty Officer whose real name
was Fob Ridley, just as the son.
states. IN. nation was beginning To- be-
frivolous ard .saN.
To the ante-bellum nc.iod belongs
perhaps the first great comic son. o.
the Americans. Joe Bowers bat il
vas sung in the western mining camps
where they dared to break any law,
including the unwiitten m%nnaatc tl,.:
man horn of woman shall not sing 80
the accompaniment of laughter. ,>h.
"JOc Bowers song had its laugh, ia th..
last lire where the unfaithfulness of
his distant sweethear is revealed
in the fact that she has Il child whose
come in the last line III our modern
Casey Jones" jingle in which Thu.
children have another papa on the Sal.
Lake line.
Some of the songs Of 40 wears ago
show not "ny that our taste i'm hunnol.
has changed. hut That our industrial
system has been ruvolutionized and
prices of foodstuffs boosted. For in
stance. our fathers. when they felt like
dong something cXcruciatingly funny
used to sing:
I bought a rooster for fifteen cents.
The son of a u jumped over the fence.
"Nowadays,' said NJ. J.. Allison ~
farmer who knows what he is nm
against. womld sing it thus:
I sold a rooster for fifteen cents:
The middle man rctailed him for seventy-
five"
. Mr.. Allison vas n youth in New York
state during The civil war period. He
drew a good salary as train dispatcher
on the Erie railroad ana associated with
the young "swells,' as they were called
In that day. who ang and played all
the latest comic song hits. most Of
them direct from Tony Pastors the
alter on the Bowery.
Pastors Song for Workinaman.
Pastors songs appealed to the null
titude." said AFR. Allison. He aimed
them at the w~Orkingman. In those DAYS
re all worked, most of us with our
lands. The machine was just coming
.nto our civilization. Give Me the
Extravaganza at commencements.
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