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46
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
TALENTED CAT SANG LATEST SONGS.
PUBLIC TASTE IMPROVING
Music Publisher's Feline Apparently Warbles
Melodies and Gives A. E. Loeffler a Shock.
As Far as Music Is Concerned According to
Victor Herbert.
A. E. Loeffler, the genial blond superinten-
dent of one of the departments of M. Witmark &
Sons, the well-known music publishers, has taken
the pledge and vows that he will remain on the
water-wagon for the rest of his life. Not that
Loeffler was ever much of a drinking man, any-
how, but now he has cut out even a small indul-
gence of spirituous liquors, and with a good rea-
son, as the following will show.
This laudable decision was influenced by the
inoffensive Witmark cat, who nimbly chases the
musically inclined mouse from among the bun-
dles of "latest hits" in the still hours of midnight
and early morning.
And this is how it all happened: Dewey, the
cat, a great yellow Angora, was asleep on the
shelf in Loeffler's office. It was lunch hour
and all the employes were out, Loeffler and
the cat being the only living objects in the room.
Suddenly he was startled by hearing the cat
sing in a high treble voice:
"Someone to love and cheer you.
Sometime when things go wrong,
Someone to snuggle near you,
Someone to. hear your song."
Each individual hair on Loeffler's head
raised on end, and a creepy chill chased up and
down his spinal column. Petrified with aston-
ishment he waited until puss had ceased singing
"Just Someone," and after a death-like silence,
the cat started on "Just Because He Couldn't
Sing 'Love Me and the World is Mine.' " It was
apparent that Dewey had a sense of humor, and
by the time he reached the first chorus of the
song Loeffler felt that a new vocalist had been
discovered. The cat had entered upon the sec-
ond verse with renewed vigor when Loeffler
seized him by the back of the neck and hurled
him skyward. As Dewey went caterwalling up
the stairs, Loeffler turned to the spot on the
shelf vacated by the cat and then discovered the
mysterious cause of the vocal phenomenon.
Directly behind the spot where the cat had
lain was the mouth-piece of a speaking tube,
which still emitted the finishing bars of the
chorus, while at the other end was the small
boy on the fifth floor, who, trying the effect
of hearing his voice through a tube, was bliss-
fully unconscious that he was in any way help-
ing along the cause of temperance.
That the public taste in music is improving is
amply borne out by Victor Herbert, the well-
known composer, who recently said:
"I do not know what hidden power is at* work
on the American music loving public to influ-
ence it, but of late years there seems to have
been a marked tendency on its part toward some-
thing better in music. It seems now to be str.iv-
ing for higher ideals, as it were.
"This is markedly apparent in all branches of
music, from the latest popular so-.g to the im-
ported grand opera. It may be due to the fact
of a broader musical education in our great uni-
versities and inland colleges, or it may be due
to the fact that the American music teachers of
to day are striving for better things, and that they
are spending their spare' time in conscientious
study and research of European music, and are
in turn imparting this great knowledge to the
aspiring young students of music.
"On the other hand, the modern composer may
be responsible, for he, like the teacher, has
"'builded for himself an ideal" far above that of
the past decade and is striving, hard though it
may be, to surmount this pinnacle of perfection.
HOWARD HEKliTCK.
It has, indeed, been a task for these workers in
the vineyard of melody to educate the mass of "some of the established composers are begin-
ning to think that their name alone on a title
so-called music lovers, who have been educated
up to the lower standards of 'My Mariucca,' 'My page is sufficient to sell a song. Never was sup-
Mother Was a Lady,' and other so-called popular position more foolish. The public demand good
songs, which are ground out over night, exist for material and buy it whether it is by John Jones,
a brief spell and are then consigned to the bone- the unknown, or by Victor Herbert, the greatest
yard of public fads along with the 'Teddy Bear' of all our American composers."
and 'Fluffy Ruffles.'
"I honestly feel that the public has gone too
far for any retrogression, and I think that from
Biggest Musical Comedy Success
now on the development of American music,
Now Playing In New York City,
At Wallacks Theatre
while slow, will be sure; that in the future gen-
erations our descendants will turn back to the
musical compositions of a few years ago, if in-
By Raymond Hubbell and Robert B. Smith.
Complete score and musical gems, including the following
deed they do not destroy them out of shame, and
big Song Hits:
marvel that their forefathers should have been
"YOU'RE NOT THE LITTLE GIRL IN BLUE"
so lacking in musical education and tastes."
"SEE-SAW"
NEW WRITERS WITH STERN.
Jos. W. Stern & Co. announce that during the
coming season they will publish songs and in-
strumental numbers by John W. Bratton, Will
D. Cobb, Henry E. Warner, and a number of
young writers who will make up in talent what
they at present lack in reputation. They retain
almost all of their successful writers of last year.
Arthur Lamb asks us to deny that he is under
exclusive contract with Jerome H. Remick as
reported.
"A KNIGHT FOR A DAY"
NEW INSTRUMENTAL NUMBER.
One of the most popular instrumental numbers
of the new year is a nocturne entitled "The
Wiching Hour," which Howard Herrick, the com-
poser, has dedicated to Augustus Thomas, the
author of the play bearing the same name. Mr.
Herrick is responsible for several excellent num-
bers, all of which are published by the Theo.
Bendix Co., among which may be quoted "Class-
mates Waltzes," "Sweetheart, Love or Dearie"
and "01' Time Things are Good Enough for Me."
He also wrote the lyrics of two of Alfred Robyn's
numbers, "Mine for Evermore" and "My Chi-
quita."
As a lyric writer, as well as a composer, Mr.
Herrick is fast coming to' the front and it is not
unnatural to suppose that the libretto of the
new comic opera upon which he is now at work
You Can't Guess What § THEO. BENDIX
He Wrote on My Slate'
1431 BROADWAY
MUSIC PUBLISHER
THE COMEDY CHILD SONG OF THE YEAR
A. HIT, Emphatic and Pronounced
We are the Publishers of the most
successful of modern operas
"WHISTLE WHEN YOU WALK OUT"
Published by
CHAS. K. HARRIS, 31
MEYER COHEN, Manager.
ROBERT TELLER SONS & DORNER
Music Engravers and Printers
SEND MANUSCRIPT AND IDEA OF TITLE
FOR ESTIMATE
M l WEST 26th STREET, NEW YORK CITY
PUBLISHERS' DISTRIBUTING CO.
fl West 28th Street, New York
JOBBERS ONLY
We do NOT PUBLISH Music, SELLING AGENTS
exolueively.
Carry Music of til the Publishers. W« solicit the
Sheet Muslo Business of Deslcrs throughout the country.
Orders properly taken care of and goods promptly skipped.
NEW YORK
'• THE ROYAL GEWGAW "
Two-step Intermezzo
"You're the Sweetest Girl I Ever Knew"
TOM
eJONES
"THE SKATING RINK GIRL"
By EDWARD GERMAN
Weiltz Song
CHAPPELL & CO.,
will meet with the success which its composer,
Alfred Robyn, confidently expects for it.
It might be said en passent that Mr. Bendix
is showing considerable wisdom in getting a
corps of young writers around him. He is a
great believer in the idea of infusing new blood
into the music publishing business. "As a mat-
ter of fact," he said recently to The Review,
BeJltvd
"BABBALINA"
Two-step IdeaJ
WILLIS WOODWARD <& CO., Inc.
48 West 28th Street
NEW YOR.K
The House that Publishes
"School Days."
Also the real song successes
"That's What the Rose Said to Me,"
"See Saw,"
"I Just Can't Make My Eyes Behave."
GUS EDWARDS MUSIC PUB. CO.
1512 BROADWAY,
-
NEW YORK