American History in Song: Lyrics from 1900 to 1945

American Histoiy in Song

Lyrics From 1900 to 1945

All Rights Reserved © 2001 by Diane Holloway

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Contents

Dedication

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1901

1902

1903

1904

1905

1906

1907

1908

1909

1910

1911

1912

1913

1914

1915

1916

1917

1918

1919

1920

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

1935

1936

1937

1938

1939

1940

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

Epilogue

About The Author

Song Index

References

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my mother, Helen May Hatcher, whose love of music has always inspired me. She encouraged us to sing along as she played America’s popular songs on the piano. Even as a child, she helped me recognize the role of lyrics in defining our culture.

PREFACE

THE ROLE OF LYRICS IN DEFINING OUR CULTURE

Songwriters record the attitudes of the people who live in their times, including attitudes which now make us extremely uncomfortable. In this book, we examined over 1,000 American songs from 1900 to 1945. They show how our white American male-dominated culture gradually changed. They demonstrate male attitudes toward women voting, taking formerly male jobs, becoming educated, changing their looks, changing their marital and sexual mores and changing their goals.

These lyrics track the painfully tragic and slow progress of blacks as they tried to enjoy American freedom and equality. They show the use of subhuman stereotypes, feelings about Ku Klux Klan terrorism and lynchings, and attitudes toward black soldiers up to World War II.

The songs reveal attitudes toward millionaires, politics and politicians, other countries, individual cities, and reactions to international and domestic events. Songs show Americans reacting to new inventions, transportation advances, movies, movie stars, music phases, food trends, as well as sport and recreational fads. They show us a new kind of role model; movie stars. They illustrate how we moved from a rural to an urban society. They draw a picture of our transition to an advertising and media-driven culture. They expose the practices of employers, the formation of labor unions, and the attraction of communism in America.

This book exhibits the feelings that spurred and challenged Prohibition, the Great Depression, war involvement, the use of tobacco and drugs, views about crime and punishment, and the change in morals throughout this time period. These songs record the values, morals and conscience of Americans in the first half of the twentieth century.

Songs have been sung throughout history. People sing to celebrate, prepare for war, long for loved ones, pine over losses, whine about problems, inform others, bond with each other, satirize and criticize, kid about things, prepare to take on odds and a host of other reasons. Soldiers preparing for battle, cowboys tending herds, groups facing mortal danger on sinking ships, workmen, strikers, protesters, supplicants, children and religious adherents have enjoyed singing. These are the types of songs examined by the authors to understand how America moved into the modern era.

In the first half of twentieth century America, inventions made it possible for people to sit alone and listen to music in addition to hearing music in public. After the inventions of Thomas Edison and others, songs could be spread across great distances instantly. Once records, radios and movies began to carry sound, songs had the power to quickly influence thousands or millions of people within days. This was different than earlier times when songs could travel no faster than people crossing the land by horse and wagon. It is because of the speed with which new ideas could reach every part of the country that we revolutionized our society between 1900 and 1945.

Music has great power. The mood of music, even without words, has long been recognized as being persuasive in its own right. Plato warned in the Republic 2,400 years ago that soldiers should only be exposed to marching tunes. He feared that minor chords had a mournful, relaxing or erotic effect on men. Ministers fought the introduction of jazz because it symbolized freedom from the usual restraints and might encourage people to behave with abandon. Just as moral degradation was expected when hearing particular music, triumphant battle songs were thought to inspire victories.

Popular songs in America captured our changes as we passed through eras and occasionally presaged changes. Over There by George M. Cohan picked up our patriotic fervor at the outset of our participation in World War I. Irving Berlin’s Suppertime in 1933 captured the sadness of a black woman trying to prepare supper and tell her children that her husband had been lynched and wouldn’t be coming home. Strange Fruit in 1937 by a Jewish communist school teacher and sung by Billie Holiday shocked and punished white audiences for lynching blacks and hanging strange fruit from trees for crows to pluck.

History books can seem dull to some. But following events through the remarkable poetry of lyricists and tunes of composers, historical events come alive. While this book cannot hope to bring the contribution of sound and flare to the reader, the lyrics can give flesh to events and personalities and help recall memories and honestly recount attitudes of the past.

These brief quotes from lyrics cannot substitute for the original entire lyric. The intent is to quote only those things that pertain to an historical event, trend or person. In many cases, a familiar chorus will not be mentioned because it is not pertinent, but a few relevant lines from a verse will be quoted.

This book would make a valuable addition to history, sociology, and social psychology classes at the high school and college level, musicol-ogy, women’s and black studies as well as non-credit courses. It could also be used in courses for senior citizens, who will remember many of the songs and events. While not intended to be a complete history of America from 1900 to 1945, this will enrich the reader’s understanding of American attitudes and changes during this critical and formative period of our history.

It is hoped that this work may spur readers to purchase and enjoy songs mentioned. Toward this end, titles, lyricists, musicians and years are listed wherever possible so that readers may obtain the works. Most of the songs, especially after 1922, are copyrighted. Fair use of copyrighted material has been employed since the goal of this work is historical research rather than unauthorized performances of musical works.

A curious phenomenon has recently occurred due to the new marvels of mass media. Words have been unable to keep pace with the innovations of musical instruments and amplifiers. Shocking and numbingly rapid visual images paired with sound in movies and music videos have diluted the effect of lyrics. Now, lyrics often have less impact than the visual and auditory effects of songs. The impact of drums, horns and a singer’s hand clutching his crotch are more powerful than whatever forgotten words he sings.

The effect and importance of lyrics has diminished dramatically since soldiers came home from World War II. At that time, jazz, boogie-woogie, and big bands became the music of war-weary Americans. For this and other reasons, our study stopped with the year 1945.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book involved the help of many people, the most important of whom was my co-author and husband, historian Bob Cheney. Bob took time from his own writing to assist me in historical details, editing, corrections, and maintenance of morale.

My mother, Helen May Hatcher, has always inspired me by her abilities, her interest and her knowledge of music throughout my life. In addition, she donated many songs from her impressive sheet music collection that were used in this book.

My brother, Richard Hatcher, displayed an interest in music and research that spurred me to take this side of life more seriously than I had during my career in the psychological fields of endeavor. My sister, Cynthia Meyer, allowed me to use her facilities to conduct research in the Texas area. My uncle, Gene Six and his wife Joann contributed many songs and valuable inspiration. Gene and Joann were musical professionals with specialty areas of clarinet, saxophone, piano, organ, and other instruments. They played in big bands and their careers culminated in their own trio, engaged at places such as the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs for many years. Nothing can compare with a musical family to get one off to a good start on a project such as this.

So many people offered sheet music, research information and ideas that it is difficult to give them all their just credit. At the top of the list are Janet Hochstatter, Don Woolpert, Don Holland, and Stuart Cheney. My daughter, Kathleen Anne Wagoner, has always supported my work and celebrates my successes as does my son, Brian Holloway.

My thanks go out to the many wonderful musicians who composed the songs in these pages.

INTRODUCTION

AMERICA AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

It was the best of times for white men and the worst of times for black people. And just as the Bible said that God created women as an afterthought, they were similarly considered by American white males. Attitudes toward minority races and ethnic groups within American society in 1900 were fraught with stereotypes, prejudices and intolerance. Lyricists captured uncomfortably accurate American feelings as they wrote the songs of this period.

The United States began a period of prosperity after a Klondike gold strike in 1896. The country had just won the Spanish-American war in 1898, mainly through naval actions and sailors were heroes. Wall Street was joyous and bankers declared that America was the envy of the world. The Spanish American War, sometimes called the splendid little war brought the U.S. into prominence as a world power.

A song of 1900 depicted the popularity of sailors. Strike Up the Band, Here Comes a Sailor, with lyrics by Andrew Sterling and music by Charles Ward said of the sailor, He’s the boy the girls adore.

In 1898, Spain refused to recognize the independence of Cuba. When an American ship, the USS Maine, in Havana harbor blew up, Americans blamed the Spaniards, although this blame was later found to be incorrectly placed. The Rough Riders, a group of volunteer soldiers, led by Col. Leonard Wood and Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, blockaded Cuban ports and seized Spanish ships and brought fame to themselves.

While the American Rough Riders were defeating Spanish troops in Santiago in the name of liberating Cuba, Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in the Philippines. U.S. troops also ousted the Spanish from Puerto Rico and Guam, countries that they took as possessions. They found it easy to justify their claim that they could administer over Puerto Rico and Guam in the name of democracy, whereas Spain’s claim was labeled colonialism.

The Spanish-American War generated many songs in 1900 such as Campaign March by Will Hardy and The Old Flag Never Touched the Ground. Songs written by black and white composers during the previous two years about the conflicts were still heard, such as Stars and Stripes by John Philip Sousa, Ma Filipino Babe, Come Home Dewey, Just Break the News to Mother, Our Billy, We Have Remembered the Maine, Cuban Independence March Two Step, Brave Dewey and His Men, Admiral Dewey’s March, and There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight.

Songs such as Dusky Troopers March and Cakewalk by Will Hardy and Will Accooe’s Ma Dandy Soldier Coon commemorated black soldiers who fought the Spanish and tried to achieve some kind of equal status with whites. The latter song was about a woman who missed her man who had gone off to fight. She was feeling blue, An’ a blue black coon’s a sight! said the song. She sang, Uncle Sam has ma black man in de army, and regretted that she had to buy his uniform. I’se pawned ma rings, ma sealskin an’ things, to buy his uniform.

Cakewalks were the rage in 1900, in a movement that found its way to France and Holland. Cakewalks began during slavery when blacks would entertain themselves at events where couples would dance and do novelty acts. The favorite couple would win a cake. The dance was composed of strutting, flirting and twirling movements by smiling performers who danced a minute, then stood watching while another couple danced a minute and so on. Whites began to imitate the cakewalks but with different variations on the movements. Then the blacks developed a cakewalk satire by imitating the whites imitating them.

Other cakewalk tunes of the year, almost always without words, were Huckleberry Finn Cakewalk, Hunky Dory Cakewalk, Little on the Ragtime Cakewalk, Loquatias Moll Cakewalk, and Looney Coons Cakewalk.

Coons or raccoons were terms that referred to African Americans and had been in use since the early 1800s. Blacks even used this derogatory terminology about themselves.

The Blackville Strutters’ Ball bore a music sheet cover that stated, By the two real coons—Williams and Walker. It began, The talk of all the folks in Coon Society… The chorus stated the plight of the blacks with the words Coons of ev’ry nation, coons of ev’ry station, all must act like white folks.

When whites wrote songs about blacks, they often satirized characteristics like laziness, which made up part of the current stereotype of blacks. Sometimes whites wrote lyrics as if they were black, but it was tainted from the perspective of a white person. Coon, Coon, Coon with words by Gene Jefferson and music by Leo Friedman was an example of a song assuming that blacks would prefer to be white.

"Although it’s not my color,

I’m feelin’ mighty blue.

Coon! Coon! Coon!

I wish my color would fade."

The lyrics continue as the protagonist’s girlfriend took a notion against the colored race and asked him to change his face.

I Never Liked a Nigger With a Beard by Monroe Rosenfeld told of Miss Cynthia whose mother found her a supposedly respectable beau, but as the title revealed she rejected her mother’s choice.

"A cullud millionaire,

He ain’t no chicken stealin’ snoozer

Full of nigger gin,

He’s got a pair of whiskers

He can tie beneath his chin."

Since many descendants of the Civil War of 1861-1865 were still alive, the theme of slavery was still seen in songs. Irving Jones wrote I’se Sorry Dat I Left Ma Happy Home and Mamzelle Aukins, referring to the departure of slaves when they were given freedom. Usually sung by a white woman using a black dialect, the chorus of the first song began, I am awful sorry that I left ma happy home. It implied that blacks had a happier lot when they worked for masters than when they were freed and went out on their own.

Will Heelan and J. Fred Helf composed an unkind song called Every Race Has a Flag But the Coon. A black man plaintively sang,

"When we were on parade today,

I really felt so much ashamed,

I wished I could turn white

Folks of all kinds and creeds

Had their banners except de coons alone.

Why can’t we get an emblem of our own?"

But the composers parodied the traditional view of blacks as chicken thieves, poker players and knife-wielding troublemakers when they described the flag:

"Just take a flannel shirt and paint it red,

Then draw a chicken on it,

With two poker dice for eyes,

An’ have it wavin’ razors round its head."

Some blacks were making progress, however slow. James Weldon Johnson, who was first a popular songwriter with his brother, wrote Lift Every Voice and Sing. In the 1960s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recognized that song as the Black National Anthem. Johnson composed the song for Lincoln’s birthday celebration in 1900 and 500 black children sang it in a moving ceremony. Johnson went on to become an attorney and later was the U.S. consul to Venezuela (1906), Nicaragua (1909) and the Azores (1912). After that, he wrote a book about being black, entitled The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man. His book was based on a friend’s comment about how he tried to pass himself off as a white man. Years later, Johnson also helped the NAACP, which formed in 1909, create an anti-lynching bill and attain voting participation in southern election primaries.

Some words from his song Lift Every Voice and Sing were:

"Lift every voice and sing,

Till earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise,

High as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith

That the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope

That the present has brought us,

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun

Let us march on till victory is won."

An African American elected during the Reconstruction Era was Rep. George White of North Carolina. He introduced a bill to Congress during 1900 that made lynching a federal crime, however it never got out of committee and there were 115 lynchings recorded in 1900.

Further progress was made by Scott Joplin, born to freed slaves in 1868 in Texas. He became the King of Ragtime, a music genre of syncopated rhythm, which began shortly before 1900. His Maple Leaf Rag in 1899 captured the ear of the public and established ragtime as the

American sound. It replaced staid Victorian music, cakewalk music and even the tinny sounds of tin-pan alley songs.

The light-hearted rhythms of black music spawned 1900 hits such as Ma Tiger Lily, Just Because She Made Dem Goo-Goo Eyes, and its sequel, If You Love Your Baby, Make Goo-Goo Eyes.

Many songs bore the words Another great coon song success on the cover. Won’t You Come Home, Bill Bailey by Hughie Cannon was an example. This song contained many of the current notions about the love relationships of blacks as well as renditions of black dialect. The popular notion was that black men mistreated black women, hurt them and abandoned them, and that black women did more than their share in supporting their men. Some of the words to Cannon’s song showed these notions.

"On one summer’s day,

Sun was shinin’ fine,

The lady love of old Bill Bailey

Was hangin’ clothes on the line;

In her backyard and weepin’ hard.

She married a B & O brakeman

That took and throwed her down,

Bellerin’ like a prune-fed calf

With a big gang hanging round.

And to that crowd, she hollered loud:

Won’t you come home, Bill Bailey?

Won’t you come home?

She moans the whole day long.

I’ll do the cookin’ darling, I’ll pay the rent,

I know I’ve done you wrong;

Member that rainy day that I threw you out,

With nothing but a fine-tooth comb?

I know I’m to blame, well ain’t that a shame.

Bill Bailey won’t you please come home. Bill drove by that door in an automobile, A great big diamond, coach and footman. Hear that lady squeal."

It’s possible that Bill Bailey drove an automobile. The Olds Company of Detroit had begun mass production of automobiles. By 1900, there were 8,000 registered cars. But the major mode of transportation across the country was railroads. Railroads had 193,000 miles of railroad track across the U.S. and had almost replaced steamboats as the preferred way to travel.

On April 30, 1900, train engineer John Casey Jones died driving a train out of Memphis. His death was remembered in the song Casey Jones. He had volunteered to drive another train for a man who was sick and left Memphis on a rainy night. An accident report at the time showed that Jones caused the wreck by ignoring a signal that showed another train had not gotten out of the way onto a siding. Realizing the wreck was inevitable, he told the others to jump, thus saving their lives, but Casey died from a throat wound a short time after the wreck. Known for his particular train whistle rhythm, Casey was idolized by his black train wiper who created a song about him, which has gone through many versions. Some words that remained consistent through the years are these:

"Come all ye rounders that want to hear

The story of a brave engineer.

Casey Jones was the rounder’s name,

On a six eight wheeler, boys, he won his fame.

Casey Jones mounted to his cabin

Casey Jones with his orders in his hand

Casey Jones mounted to his cabin,

And he took his farewell trip

To the Promised Land."

The telephone, invented 24 years earlier, was in many homes, hotels, offices and apartment buildings by 1900. Hello! Ma Baby with words by Ida Emerson and music by Joseph Howard, described a man trying to keep in touch with a girl by daily phone calls.

"I’se got a little baby, but she’s out of sight,

I talk to her across the telephone;

I’se never seen ma honey

But she’s mine, all right;

So take my tip, and leave this gal alone.

Ev’ry single morning, you will hear me yell,

‘Hey Central! Fix me up along the line.’

He connects me with ma honey

Then I rings the bell,

And this is what I say to baby mine,

Hello! ma baby, Hello! ma honey,

Hello! ma ragtime gal.

Send me a kiss by wire;

Baby, my heart’s on fire!

If you refuse me, honey, you’ll lose me,

Then you’ll be left alone;

Oh baby, telephone

And tell me I’se your own,

Hello! Hello! Hello there."

Sometimes blacks fulfilled their hopes or told of their dreams when they wrote their own songs. I Must A’ Been A’ Dreamin by Bob Cole told of dreams and topical subjects like Spain and the Waldorf Hotel in New York City, where politicians and visiting foreign dignitaries were reported to stay. Some lines were:

"Last night I took dinner With the King of Spain,

I was right up with him On a social plane, Last night to the great Waldorf Hotel I went, There they all mistook me For a Spanish gent, Last night I was rated As a millionaire, Money was as common To me as the air, I must a’ been a’ dreamin’."

Dreams were a news items with the publication in 1900 of Sigmund Freud’s seminal work, The Interpretation of Dreams. Many dreams, said Freud in his book, such as this song, fulfilled wishes in a harmless way during sleep. Another 1900 song, Devil’s Dream showed the strife that occurred when wishes were frustrated. That was the unpleasant side of dreams, according to Freudian theory. Freud visited the U.S. in 1909 and his theories became even more discussed after that.

Orville and Wilbur Wright fulfilled their dreams in 1900 when they flew the first full-scale glider at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Flying caught the imagination of the public, but gliders were not powered, and it would be a while before airplanes were a common form of transportation.

In this Victorian age, Carrie Nation, a lady married to an alcoholic, began to crusade publicly against alcohol by wrecking and hatcheting saloons in Kansas, San Francisco and the East. Songwriters picked up on women’s complaints about men drinking. I Don’t Care What Happens to Me Now by Artie Hall described a black woman married to a lazy moke, as black as smoke who came home blind drunk and knocked her down.

Women did not yet have the vote and crusades such as Carrie Nation’s were often at odds with the way women were still seen on Victorian pedestals by many. Men revered women in songs such as Mother Was My Best Friend with words by Herbert Powers and music by Ben Chadwick.

A big hit of 1900 was Tell Me, Pretty Maiden. The house came down in cheers and tears when a male chorus on their knees sang to six girls called the Floradora girls, Tell me, pretty maiden, are there any more at home like you? The only Floradora girl to become famous was Evelyn Nesbit who was painted by Charles Dana Gibson and called The Gibson Girl. She became the mistress of elderly millionaire builder Stanford White who liked to watch her swing nude in a specially constructed red velvet swing in his suite. When she later married Harry Thaw, another wealthy man, Thaw became jealous and killed White in a restaurant in front of 130 people in 1906.

In 1900, it was unusual for women to make money. Their main avenue to wealth was by marriage to rich men. Only one-fifth of the work force was women and many of them were lady type writers. Many states denied women the right to own property and even more forced women to give their paychecks to their husbands. Despite this, it was frowned upon for women to marry solely for money. This theme was apparent in She’s Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage with words by Arthur Lamb and music by Harry von Tilzer.

"The ballroom was filled

With fashion’s throng,

It gleamed with a thousand lights

And there was a woman

Who passed along

The fairest of all the sights.

A girl to her lover then softly sighed,

There’s riches at her command

But she married for wealth,

Not for love he cried,

Though she lives in a mansion grand.

She’s only a bird in a gilded cage,

A beautiful sight to see,

You may think she is happy

And free from care,

She’s not, though she seems to be

‘Tis sad when you think

Of her wasted life,

For youth cannot mate with age,

And her beauty was sold

For an old man’s gold,

She’s a bird in a gilded cage."

Divorce was a rarity, with only some 56,000 a year out of 16 million marriages. This was the time when songs were written like Give Me the Good Old Fashioned Girl and It’s Nice To Be a Father. The cover of Take Her Back, Dad with lyrics by Andrew Sterling and music by Bartley Costello showed a woman outside a house as her son pleaded with his father to take his mother back. The father relented and his cheeks with tears are streaming as the door he opens wide, and leads the wand’rer to the fireside near.

Despite opposition, increasing numbers of women sought higher education. Albert Krug wrote a march called College Belles that he dedicated to the College Girls of America.

On the political scene, William McKinley was re-elected with a running mate that he did not choose, Theodore Roosevelt. In that year, Hawaii became a United States territory and the U.S. divided Samoa with Germany and used the American share for an important naval base.

The 1900 census was 75,995,000, which indicated an increase of 21% in the last ten years. Of this increase, 3,688,999 immigrants had arrived during the last decade, mainly from Europe. America’s melting pot was seen in songs about ethnic groups, many of which would soon be written by immigrant composers like Irving Berlin.

LYRICS FROM 1900 TO 1945

1901

The results of an easy victory in the Spanish American War left Americans with a feeling that they were justified in taking over new lands to Christianize them, according to speeches delivered by President McKinley. There was a feeling that America’s manifest destiny was to spread their influence across the Americas and perhaps across the world. In fact, not only was it America’s destiny, but perhaps its duty to save the world.

The attraction of America was hard to resist. Many immigrants were lured to America by promises of greater wealth. Wealth came in various forms such as gold, silver and oil. The first significant oil find in Texas was Spindletop which blew in and turned the regional economy away from cattle and railroad interests.

Songs were written about instant riches, such as Arizona Prospector with words by C. Ellsworth Snider and music by Theodore Morse. Arizona, not yet a state, was described invitingly. Away down in a southern clime, the land of flowers, gold and sunshine was followed by the chorus, Oh, who would not a prospector be, in the sun-kissed land of Arizona. Obviously, the songwriters had not experienced a summer in southern Arizona.

The South was idealized in many songs as a place where life had been better in the past. Down Where the Cotton Blossoms Grow with lyrics by Andrew Sterling and music by Harry Von Tilzer was popular. It began, I was going home again and was waiting for my train, followed by a refrain starting Picture tonight a field of snowy white. In actuality, the only people who might have had a better life in the south were those who previously had a cotton plantation before slavery was abolished.

Although the lure of wealth drew record numbers of immigrants, for many Americans, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. J. P. Morgan and other investors bought out Andrew Carnegie’s industrial empire and created the U. S. Steel Corporation. This was the largest business deal to date in American history. But most songwriters focused on the individual’s sense of poverty with titles such as That’s Where My Money Goes, M-O-N-E-Y Spells Money and My Castle on the Nile. The latter song, by African Americans Bob Cole and J. Rosamond Johnson (brother of James Weldon Johnson), has become a rousing, hand-clapping Boy Scout camp song. Obviously, the singer longed for riches:

"I’m gonna build my castle on the Nile

So I can live in elegant style

Inlaid diamonds on the floor

A genuine butler at my door

I’m gonna marry my prince Alaboo

My blood will change from red to blue

Entertaining royalty all the while

In my castle, castle, castle on the River Nile."

In 1901, the UCV March by Theo Northrup was dedicated to the United Confederate Veterans, since many survived the Civil War. The sheet music cover, published in Tennessee, bore pictures of Robert E. Lee and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Some songs also reflected the lessening of Civil War bitterness with titles like Paul Dresser’s There’s No North or South Today.

Patriotism increased, as it usually does around war times. A song composed for a musical called The Night of the Fourth with words by J. S. Matthews and music by Max Hoffmann celebrated the Fourth of July. The song, Walk, Walk, Walk—A Night of the Fourth contained the words, When you’ve gone the pace and speedy; walk, you sucker, walk! A popular march by Abe Holzmann called Blaze Away was dedicated to Teddy

Roosevelt and was inspired by his escapades in Cuba. In fact, the cavalry rider on the cover looked very similar to Roosevelt.

Still recovering from separations by the recent international conflicts, sentimental songs about loved ones, children and home were popular during the year. One was Goodbye Dolly Gray March by Will Cobb and Paul Barnes. Other sentimental songs were Josephine, My Jo; I’ll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again; Maiden With the Dreamy Eyes by Bob Cole and J. Rosamond Johnson; and Mighty Lak’ a Rose by Ethelbert Nevin. Probably the most popular song of 1901, the latter song included these lines:

"Sweetest little feller, everybody knows,

Don’t know what to call him

But he’s mighty lak’ a rose!

Lookin’ at his mammy

With eyes so shy and blue,

Makes you think that heaven

Is comin’ close to you."

Tell Me, Pretty Maiden, the 1900 hit, continued its Broadway success launching South Sea settings for songs and musicals during the next few years, replacing the Orient as a favorite locale.

Chinese groups called Boxers who rebelled against foreign intrusions in China occupied Peking, China at this time. They killed scores of missionaries and Chinese Christians. An international military expedition including American troops occupied Peking, looted the city, rescued missionaries and forced out the Boxers. Soldiers of Fortune, a march