New-York tribune., 1922-01-27
The Old Songs
Some Verses That viii Set Elder
Readers to I1ummina


To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: "Who remembers them now? ?"
you ask in publishing the letter Of a
correspondent who mentions some Of
the songs which were popular half
century or so ago. The answer is easy.
All the old boys and girls of sixty or
seventy years OF age remember them;
the airs, the words and everything else
about them. Since clay ?. Dee" your
correspondent called their names to
mind, l have been whistling and hum
ming tho tunes Of Tommy Dodd,"
"Champagne Charlie" "Up in Balloon,
Boys" "Captain .Jinks," "The Bell Goes
a~Ringing for Sarah" and THE Tassels
on Her Boots"
And I remember some other sanos
TOO, which your correspondent, who re-
calls vividly to mind The merry DAYS of
the lase '60s and early '7Os Of the last
century, has not mentioned. There was.
tor instance, "Thc Man on the Nlvine
Trapeze," the chorus Of which ran about
as follows:
on, he few through the air with the
Inns daring young man on the flying
trapeZc. e
h'S nsure was graceful. all girls he could
AS he hung by his nose from the wall.
And then there was Down in = Goa,
Nine The refrain ran:
Down IN coal mine
Underneath tho ground
here no ray OF sunshine
ever can be found
Digging dusky diamonds
MI tho year around
Down in coal mino
Inderneath the ground
surely the old boys Of the late COS
have not forgotten "The Grccian
Bend or II Should Like to Marry:
Oh. should like to marry
II L could only find
Some gay. xomo dashinr f.,low,
d uSt suited 10 my mind
On, snonld like him handsome
-and l should like him CAV
leader OF the fashion
And player OF croquet
Ihlnk Of it! "a player of croouet,
as qualification for a husband, pn+
really, nothing has changed much
more IN this country in a half CEN
tury than our sports and amusen,ents
Baseball was played to some extent
but 1t wasn't the general sport that
II has become in later years. We had
no tennis and no golf. And when
'croquet" was introduced from France.
where the Empress Eugenie popular
lzed it, it took the country by storm.
~ To<,, -
who remembers them now?" V'hv.
surely. no ono has forgotten "rhe
Upper Ten" or the rollickinc re-
frain of:
o"' ~ never kiss my love again behind
~, the kitchen door,
80 . any moro,
e"e1l never slap mo on the face until It's
on where's Jemima gone.
These songs were preceded. Of
course, by the sweet negro melodies
OF Foster and others. "Oh, Susannah. y
'suwanee River" "Massa's In the
Cold, Cold Ground" and the like. and
also by the Irish "Come-all-yez" like
Tim Finnegan's Wake" "My Name ia
"s "A"''oy, ETC., etc., and they were
followed short time after by the
songs popularized by Mile. Aimee and
the French opera company which held
forth at the Grand Opera House, in
Twenty-third Street. None of your
elder readers, am certain, have for.
gotten or ever will forget Mile. Aimee's
rendition Of Gas Pretty as Picture y
1t memory serves me Alright, it was
Billy Emerson, not Bobby Newcomb
who made such hit with "The Biz
Sunf1ower." Two other songs Of tha.
period were Little Fraud" and "The
Captain With the Whiskers Gave a
Sly Glance at Me-" 1t seems to me
that "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me-
really marked tra9sition from the
old to 4 nav character Of song. II