The San Francisco call. [volume], November 20, 1910, Page 14, Image 14

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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WOMEN WHO HAVE CAYGHT
THE RIGHT JINGLE
HMOME Song Successes That \ Have ßrought \',i Fame
and a Large Measure of Royalties to the Sex
OJfCB there a young convent
girl whese flnger tips tingled
with a catchy raelady, while
sentimental verses ran through
her head keeping tune with the elu
sive air, She wrote the verses, set
them to the melody her finger tip*
unconsciously played, published the
eong herself and made one of the m«*t
remarkable cueeesses that a writer of
- lju;<i.'!ar lyrics and scores ever has
n-.ade.
Incidentally, ehe amassed a fair sized
fortune — at least !t sesmafi large to the
practically penniless girl, for It fell
only a little Bhort of the hundred thou
sand dollar mark, and the royalties
from this bit of musical tentlment are
still maliinsr har purse bulyrn oomfort
ably as the quarterly cheeks corao In,
This is what !t means to writ* a
popular eons;, It means wealth, btio
ree* &n<i being sought after toy pub
lishers of music, and fam* as well,
even though it h« limited to th« vaude
ville and tha hurdy gnrdy circuits.
Sine* the convent girl's achievement
other women have composed popular
conga, and those who are known to
' the pnbllo as w^ll as to the publish
er* receive handsome checks for what
seems to the outside world only a few
hours* wtrrtc — merely the dashing off
rof ft dozen or so melodious bars of
'. annsto and fitting to them & set of
1 T«r«es bubbling over with sentiment
or having a stirring swing.
One ef the publishers said the other
| dsy that song writing seemed to him to
| "be the easiest and znost delightful way
' of making pin money that a woman
could try. •
"Of course," he added, "she would
hero to know music and harmony and
be able to compose, but every girl
receives a gocd musical education now,
\u25a0o If she has originality why shouldn't
she make four or five or six thousand
a year from a few catohy songs? Why,
the stage Is clamoring for popular
songs, or songs to be made popular.*
smd music publishers are as eager
to pet bold ef a promising writer
of lyrics and soorea as theatrical man
agers are to tret good plays.
**It !\u25a0 far easier to -write a song than
it la to write a play. Think how sim
ple a sheet of xnuslo looks by the side
of a play many script, and the royal
tiea sometimes ar« equal to thosa of
THE TRAGEDY OF THE CHINAMAN WHO TOLD
((~~T— O have a Chinese friend tell me
I that smuggled opium was con
cealed in a certain den In China
town; to raid that place a few hours
later and find, Instead of opium, the
dead body of a Chinaman Is an exper
ience that I do not care to repeat," said
T. 8. S-evenue Agent Thomas, when I
asked him about his work in San Fran
cisco's Chinatown.
And this is the story as it was told
to me by Thomas, a man who has spent
25 years in the revenue service, and
who has risked his life a score of times
among the moonshiners of the .Ken
tucky hills and the opium smugglers
of the western coast.
"It happened a number of years ago
when, although opium was imported
under a heavy, tax, yet there \u25a0was much
more smuggling going on than there
la at present. The stuff was brought
Into the city In various ways, left afa
designated place, and then distributed
around to the hop dens by an organ
ized gang.
"It used to keep me pretty busy those
days, as this gang was made-, up "of
daring and clever Chinamen. Besides,
there were not as many customs offi
cers on duty here at that time as there
are now. Today the coast is prettywell
patrolled by special agents of the cus
toms. .
a moderately successful melodrama or
farce." ' . .
The convent girl lived 'in ' Chicago
"when she made her fame and fortune
with "Sweet Bunch of Daisies.", That
was 14 or- 15 years ago, and 'the com
poser. Miss Anita Owen, is still draw
ing an lncomo f rom ; the song, which
"There used to be -a Chinaman by
the name of — well, say Charlie "Wing, as
I don't care to give his real name—
who kept me pretty well informed as
to the work of this gang. I had done
him a little favor once and he knew of
no other way to repay: me. ,
"Wing was said to be half white,' but
I Uon*t know about that. Anyway,: it
didn't take me long to find out that
his tips were to' be reliid upon. When
he came into my. office; and. told me.that
a quantity of opium could be found at
10 o'cle^i on a certain night at some
specified place in Dupont street, I al
ways found It there. : .
"This man Wing was «' peculiar char
acter. He had a good' business and
was quite an influential Chinese. Also
he was a splendid actor and a magnifi
cent liar. Although>he was!, qulto
wealthy, he usually looked like a match
peddler when he- came .into r the office
to sec me. He would: give me informa
tion that would get some .well" to do
Chinese into "serious .trouble ; '; and ., that
Chinese,- never suspecting, would send
for Charley Wingto Interpret for. him
and plead his case. > Wing? would' meet
me out ,in;the hall and 'say:
that _ man got ; plenty ? of , : money.-; \u25a0. Make
him' pay/ fine.'? '\u25a0:, Then;-. 1 Inf. the 'presence:
of the Chinese he "represented, hei would
paint a word 1 picture of the abject pov
erty of; the :offerider\that 'would* bring
tears to. the* eyes-of an Irish- potato: \u25a0- •
"One plea Wins always made, rc^arj
co«t her less than $50 to place on the
market. Recently Miss' Owen moved
to New York and allied .herself with
a music publishing house, agreeing
to furnish ten songs a year for which
ahe is to write the lyrics and scores.
That Is less than an average of a song
a month, and the publishers do not
expect, greedy as they are for real
successes, to have all ten reach the
high water mark of sales, which is
one hundred thousand copies of a^song.
But at least some, of them "must have
a run which is helped on to success
by the whistling public and the übiqui
tous hand organ. And her yearly guar
antee is much larger than what the
the average professional woman 'earns.
,Once Miss ' Owen wrote 'an opera,
less of the age of the violator, used to
amuse me greatly; With: his voice
trembling and ] with \ his *- % yellow face
wrinkled up into a most doleful ex
pression, he, would say:
"'This.- poor man velly ; ol' man,
Thomasee.: Him> die soon anyway.
Please let him go." ; > \u0084
"Wing never charged" any, one for his
services;" nor did he ever Inform, on a
fellow countryman .'who •-•was -'..in*- poor
circumstances. I never tried to under
stand the complex .psychology of 'iiis
nature. It is as hard to - fathom the
ways of the tricky Chinese; as it ia -to
keep track the: government'l decis
ions on 'what is; whisky?' \u25a0
: "Well," one day Wing; came Into, my
office about 10 o'clock- in the -morning.
He sat down ; In " that chair, where '\u25a0 you
are sitting' now,. -and"V after 1:- talking
awhile about nothing in- particular, he
said: •' . \u25a0" ' • \u25a0 \u25a0 \u0084: \u25a0\u25a0;'\u25a0:'- '\u25a0: \u25a0: \- r,.'.--- ' -:\u25a0
"Thomasee, velly good .» fiend
mine long time." ; .V- >--,-' T
"'Oh, forget it,' I ; said. -'you . have lots
of friends. Come, (what's 'new.' today?"
'• "He; then told T me = that.aMarge;ship
ment I . of opium 1 was ;.toT be Jfound^ats a
den runrby— well/, Fohg" Lee ; ls ; as good
a name as any-^—and- that *l3had? better
drop; around '.there ; 'about' noon. ,- : . '
. ' "The noon, whistles i.were JUstblovr
lng -when I^took three'officersand/start^
ed for the'opiumfden^ of »Fong!Lee!' We
adopted ; our;usual tactlcs.^ofrappeitring
to be 'strangers ! to.each. other. 1 . Two of
"Th& Great Mogul,". and she has been
ambitious with her songs, too, having
many serious ones to her credit, but
no classical composition could ever
bring to her the pleasure and the suc
cess • - which her first flower , - song
brought. Since this 16 year 'old girl
launched- "Sweet r ßunch of Daisies" In
Chicago, attending to ';• the printing ;of
the music, designing, the title., page
and the placing of , tho' song" on the
market, it has 'sold about one million
copies. In those "days the composer's
profits amounted : to , 10 cents a' copy,
but since those days' the prices of
sheet music have gone down* and the
composer's profits have gone with them,
so- that two cents 1 a copy is consid
ered a fair profit to' be handed over by
us went out the Washington "street'door
of the. revenue office and up that street
to Chinatown. The other two officers
went out the Sansome; street door (and
took a different route. Each man had
a pocket electric light, a smaU y hatchet
and a revolver. '; •
\u25a0"A few minutes later, 'two; officers
were stationed: at the back door of
Fong Lee's place, which was located "In
the basement of a Chinese restaurant.
H ,; and another officer tried the front
door but found it locked.- After pound
ing on the door and no answer
we proceeded to break it down .with: out
hatchets. : ; The, door .'was of light ma
terial and we were soon inside, v
"There : wasn't'a Chinaman "in \ sight. ,
The place gave every .'evidence' that the
occupants had made a ; hasty exit. About
a dozen peanut oillamps, over- which
: they | cook , their \ opium ; pills,^, were ' still
burning; }a; chair, had been:: knocked
over, and i a; number/ of Chinese \ tobacco*
\u25a0 water-pipes .were" scattered on the floor.
*V ' Wl ?£ ''\u25a0 Q ad "> told ; me that v the (smug
gled opium ; was : hidden 'in- a " false >'. wall
near the ; end of a' hallway; that' led into
the rroom , wh er e Fong i Lee i: slept. We
started :. : flown v. narrow, dimly
lighted -passageway,^ but 'hadn't c gone
farj -when : ; I : stumbled over^what^l
thought; was a roll^of; blankets. "i> v
• -.n sta rtedr tO.t 0 . g O < o n v. butj'a;. thought
occurred to me.' \u25a0 There' were ino^ beds'
near ; , ho w • cam c > thbse^b ian ke ts '.there ? j
I turned around qulcklyJand: flashed my
the publisher to the lyric and melody
writer.,
"My friends tried their best to per
suade me to let some music publishing
house handle my first song, but I was
determined to look; after the business
end myself," said Miss Owen the other"
day. "What did I, a girl of IC, know
of publishing music? Nothing at all, 1
and now I marvel at my courage. But
the success of the song was in no
way due to. its launching. It sold in
spite of, rather on account of, my: ef
forts. .
"By the end of the first year checks
began to come in so fast that I could
not \u25a0 keep count of them, and as soon
as I had an armful, l concerted them
into gold, which I kept stored In. "a
vault in /a bank. My convent head
coon- became turned by all this "money
and ,1 rushed Into all sorts of extrava
gances. I bought French gowns by
the half dozen, had a maid and my own
carriages, traveled wherever I wanted
to, and felt like a Cinderella who had
suddenly been released from the brown
convent walls and got all the money
ehe , wanted to spend and told to en-
Joy herself. I did enjoy every cent
of my wealth, and it all seemed Just
like a fairy tale to find that I -suddenly "
began to have a steady income of from j
ten to ' fifteen "thousand a year, when
a year before I had no; money at aY
"But you can not live always on, the
proceeds of "pne popular song," said
Miss Owen. "Not when you spend your,
earnings as I did, and after I had had _
all the fun and the dresses and the^
traveling I wanted I took'Vip my pen
cil and paper again and sat at the
piano ; hours at a time setting other^.
words to the music which -ran through
my; heed. But the ' 'Sweet Bunch of
Daisies') had cut out a path : which I
had to follow to please my publishers,
for they called me the writer of flower %
songs/ and whenever -I . ; brought in
something. that had no mention of roses
iOr daisies or \u25a0 pan sies— -some sentimen--.
tal j flower— they : looked disappointed.
One of ray favbrite songs, the.'lnvita
tion Waltz Song,' was -written for and
ftiing by Marie Van Studdiford, but it
has never; reached the popularity of-my
fiiet -attempt.".- '
Another ' successf ul r woman writer of
Vongs. is. the. composer, of "Dearie,',' Miss
Clare- Kummer, * or. Mrs. Arthur Henry,
as she is known elsewhere than in the
;music world. Miss Kurajmer,' like Misa^
Owen, writes her, own lyrics and scores.
This arrangement is far r more^satisfac
tory .': in"' "general:' than; to combine" tho
talents of two, 1 one writing; the music
electric light full on the object. '
'The work of a revenue agent Isn't
' particularly j dangerous; yet . I've , seen
a goodj deal of rough life. . I was in
some- nasty 'fights with | moonshiners
back. ln s Kentucky; and on; one occasion
I saw i a fellow officer*; shot H and ki lied
right atmy side. 'The work has hard
ened "me * more -or; less; 'but * when % I
turned 'my- light on,< what I thought was
only a ~ roll iof i blankets, 1 : I ; received the
worst - shock |of /my I life. .There lay a
:Chinaman._ with: his.v throat cut and
with a savage knife^wound In his abdo
men. It was my friend -Charlie ..Wlitg.
The gangi had'gothimat last. ' ;
. 'TVe .removed ' our, biats ; and stood for
a moment -looking- : at 'the;- pitiful, form
of ' what'only,' a : few! hours before "had
been - . our •- generous, * warm - hearted,- \u25a0
faithful old- Charlie Wing, i His friend
ship for me ; had cost" him his lifeJ.; Then
:Iv remembered ;^what'r. % werei ;i almost; ;his
lastiWords.to'me: -'Thomasee," you velly
goodf fiend .mine long time.'; -
'^"WeTput a ; bianket over .him and left 1
him 'where _• fay.'; Then- we ; climbed
tip '. the [\ narrow V stairs f to Y the street,
passed V; through '\u25a0 * tha * * crowd ;. that ; ! had "
gathered • when jwe f broke l In"r the . door,'!
and left? Chinatown." '. -V . . .
< the fjtnurderers ever- caught?".
irask"ed.":'-;*'-: v C'~y--'.; '\u25a0.'\u25a0'\u25a0 '\u25a0\u25a0'\u25a0'• \u25a0'.'--.. '--. '\u25a0.:\u25a0\u25a0 . ' . \u25a0. v- '\u25a0 ' "-.
; . ."The ; police-w orked ; for a .while Vn
thecase, but there , was no use. ;,I never
befbre^told^what <I ;knew, of , the affair.
See r -that]yo'ufdo riot?fepeat'it»"
\u25a0while the other contributes the trords.
There Is greater uniformity wherw only
one person handles the entire song.
And another important advantage in
this solo work jis . that the royalties
do not have to be shared when ttxera
Is no collaborator. The two cents a
copy rate, when divided in half, seems
very, small, even when a song Is fairly
successful. _~
_The popular song "Dearie" has boen
one of the best money makers for au
thor and publisher of anymodern song.
Not even genuine ragtime has often
equaled and seldom has it surpassed
"Dearie' 3" record. Miss Kummer lives
In New York and some of her later
compositions are being sung In vaude
ville by Sally Fisher, who started
"Dearie" on its long road tour of popu
larity. Recent publications by Miss
Kummer are the "Garden of Dreams."
"I Wonder if -It's True" and "The Road
"to Yesterday;"
" Mrs. Sol Bloom is a writer of songs
as well as of instrumental music, al
though she Is perhaps better known
as the composer of the "Kiddles
March" than of "It's Just Because I
Love You So." Mrs. Bloom writes her
own lyrics and scores and has made a
very satisfactory. income — pocket money
allowance she calls it— out of her mu
sical successes.
Beinarkable N'jw Fleah-Buflder, Pro^ .
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\u25a0arring none. ; I
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\u25a0 It w?ll cost you nothing to prore the re- '
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TRY MUEDfE EYE BE3IEDY
for Red, Weak, Weary, Watery. Eyes 'aad
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XU WUUrj-a;bMC»«3a- lo\T.a»eUtr A'f.Cswliai.a
The Sair Francisco "Sunday Cab
Henrietta Blanke-BelcTier la another
leading woman song writer living In
New. York, although she cam© from
Detroit. Mrs. Blanjce-Belcher writes
only the music to her songs, collaborat
ing with some one who suits her with
the lyrics. TV'hlle the words of a popu
lar song may seem unlmportanl com*
pared with the music, they roallr heTj
to make the song a success or failure.
As one publisher explained It. "tht
words must have at least one catchy
Une and be filled with sentiment cr
g-ush," as he called it. "to maka It tak«
with the popular sons singing public."
Mrs. Blanke-Belcher writes the score
of her song first and then has the word*
fitted to It. She Is very critical with
her collaborator and often changes ho
that her songs are rather more varied
in sentiment than those of many of
tne other writers. . Her b?st known
one Is "Love Dreams." She has a flat
tering reputation as th» composer oS
"Lazarre "Waltzes** and the "Enchant- —
ress Waltzes," this rhythmic tlanco
measure being her favorite both for
songs and Instrumental compositions.
Miss Chzrrlotte Blake's forte la writ
ing novelty numbers. She is a Detroit
young woman whose musical reputation
was made by a sentimental composi
tion, hers being called the "Bridal Veil
"Waltzes."
HOW FRENCH WOMEN
DEVELOP THE BUST.
" Th« Positir* French Jlaihod of tteveioping th»
Bust, by MaUamo Duliarna, v no* beios explained
tot the tast tima to tiia ladies of America, "ilow
to obtaio a luxurioos bust development seems ta
be little understood *ia tins
country." saYs MaJamo Da Jft£s§?BiSs2/L
Itarrie. "Tis Freact ceth- KSistsßS^llA.
od, oa the contrary, 13 ex- rs^*T-^' i^>§r\
treme!7 eftective. the result 3 V IJ^^W
are prompt, and the bast frl?*sl3m<3s&&.
becomes firm, symmetrical tkt : ''^v9^M -5^3
aad luxunonj la * vi* aad ''J»y^BeßH
Anj Woman May Now vMS^.fgP^
Develop Her Bast. j^^'^^
By this method the bieuts V^*V : ' y S% r vV
may be developed from V^'-'vi.^ ?JWrOk
2to S inches ia SO >^'-'«^-'- V'-^^Nv
days ta women of ml- >*&*?*•*>'.' - ,'::\u25a0<\u25a0;..'\u25a0 '2>~»
most any age, f rom j^^'* •* '-'^ ';'\u25a0.\u25a0\u25a0 : '^r9^ij
young guls to elderly
catron3, -whether tho * L O«»e4>»- r^S**. T-%k*& ~j
bust « absolutely not |^jwGF^ ;^^v^^«*/
deTeloped at all, or VT^T*-" ' ' " WSIP'
has grown weak aad - - t ..,-.. & /.*.* \u25a0SBB>^
limr>. no matter from what cause.
Thi3 may «ound Remarkable to those who ha»»
nerer «een It done, but to any woman who wants
to know how she may do it erfectiTety. Iniurously
and in a sale aad lasting way, Mme. Dn Barns
wUI . t>e .J )nlj ' tOOt 00 C' a(J to senc} . without charge p
llß'J 7 , ?n?? n ?H ated *°° u 't ia Pl»'a, »»*led wrapper
wttHfoU information, if ahe wiU inclose 2 cents la
•Ump. to pay for postase.
We suggest to ovr lady readers that
they iafite to Mme. Dv Barrin for par- -
ticulars of this effective French Method,
inclose 2 cents in stamps for the illus-
trated booklet and address it to Mmc D>t
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YARICOSB YE INS B^*P*-f
are completely cared with toexpeaslY» homa treat-
ment. It Bbsorately remores the pala. awellin<»,
tiredness and disease-. Send stamp for particulars.
W. F. tocnjL P. 0. F. 222 lem;!3 Street. SsrltKfeit Man.