Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-11
OLD FAMILIAR FEATURES
OF i. S. LIFE DISAPPEAR
Recent News Items Recall County Fairs,
Barn Dances, Red Schoolhouses
and Peddlers.

night on the kitchen f1oor-and the
privilege was gladly granted, for the
sake CT the peddler's conversation about
the outside world.
II there is no peddler still peddling,
when and where did the last one trudge
the roads? One would like to identify
the spot and time. think 1t quite like
~ there are men still living who were
pedc,ers, It is possible one might find
eEpeddlers as the heads of important
businesses. Some Of the most important
mercantile institutions in America had
their origins. and not very remotely in
peddler with his pack.
have been told-and should like to
verify this-that several of the largest
department stores and department store
chains are but one or two generations
removed from peddlers who established
honorable traditions. founded permanent
businesses, caused them to grow, and
handed them on to sons and grandsons
If there are such cases they are testi-
mony at once to the honorable trading
practiced by those old peddlerS, and the
opportunity for growth that America af-
fords. Are there any verif1able cases of
department stores or other businesses
that have q direct lineage back to a
peddler's pack?
At least few words of the familiar
song. ZACH du Lieber Augustin" (also
known as Buy Broom") are about the
German pedd)er:
From Deutschland come.
With my light wares all laden.
Oh listen fair lady
And young pretty maiden,
Oh buy Of the Wandering Bavarian
broom.
What Is the origin of this song and
how close is the association between 1t
and the German peddler? Apparently,
the peddler in the song sold brooms.
Were there in America peddlers who
carried broomS about on their backs?
Was this song written about a peddler
in America? The words would seem to
suggest so.
Little German Band.
to oblivion the Little German Band"
The band lasted longer than the ped
dler. The writer of this article recalls
hearing and seeing a little German
band as late as Is ye. IS ago. Are there
any today? If so. where? Why are
they no longer common? To what
did they succumb?
One can see how the German peddler
succumbed-first. to the trolley, and
later to the automobile, which made
it easy for the farmers to go to the
village to make their purchases. But
why should the little German band
have been affected disaStrously by the
automobile? What were the instru-
ments carried by the little German
bands? One seems to recall a from
bone, horn and a piccolo-but were
there other instruments? Did they
have a drum?
Every American town and village
learned to expect those strolling Ger
man bands with the same confidence
and about the same time as buds began
TO burgeon in the Spring. They were
celebrated in a song once as familiar
in the affections of America as the in
stitution itself was:
Dot leedle German band, dot leedle
German band.
De beoble cry und say, "Oh my" as
We march drough de land.
We go around de sdreeds almosd every
day.
Und set de beoble Wild nit de music
dot We blay:
"Good-by. Sourheart" und "Hime.
Sweed Hime," We blay so fine.
But We always do our best ven We blay
Die Wacht am Rhine"
"Good-by. Sourheart." one need not
tell the apperceptive, was really Good
by. Sweetheart" popular song a good
many years ago. Persons who wrote
burlesque songs about German immi-
they were called
used to impute to them racial trait
Of getting American words inverted
thus.