Part 10 (1/2)
It onderful, the loud clothes, the bright straw hats, the canes, the dia, so easily assuain an all too brief hour in this pretty, petty world ofthem my dearest brother was at his best It was ”Paul” here and ”Paul”
there--”Why, hello, Dresser, you're just in ti, Paul, a good one--” More drinks, cigars, tales--hts, deaths, hting; the ”dogs” that sonanimous ”God's own salt” that others were The oaths, stories of wohoulas certain reigning beauties of the town or stage were--and so on and so on ad infinituotten It was told in every place, not once but seven, eight, nine, ten times We did not eat until we reached the Metropole, and it was ten-thirty e reached it! The handshakes, the road stories--”This is my brother Theodore He writes; he's a newspaper ood, but let me tell you one--one that I heard out in Louisville the other day” A seedy, shabby ne'er-do-well of a song-writerthe successful author in the midst of a tale to borrow a dollar Another actor, shabby and distrait, reciting the sad tale of a year's misfortunes Everywhere my dear brother was called to, slapped on the back, chuckled with He was successful One of his best songs was the rage, he had an interest in a going musical concern, he could confer benefits, favors
Ah, reat, and that it should not last for ever and for ever!
Another of his outstanding characteristics was his love of wo and at ti over the beauty, innocence, sweetness, this and that, of young s, but in real life he see and beautiful, it is true, but also the old, the hoe--a catholicity of taste I could never quite stomach It was ”Paul dearest” here and ”Paul dearest” there, especially in his work in connection with the ers of both sexes, some of the wo in daily fros which they could sing on the Ae
And it was a part of his duty, as a member of the firm and the one who principally ”handled” the so-called professional inquirers, to ue contained Occasionally there was an aspiring feardless, however, of whether they were young, old, attractive or repulsive, male or female, I never knew any one whose manner was more uniformly winsome or who seemed so easily to disarm or relax an indifferent or irritated mood He was positive sunshi+ne, the sa His blue eyes focused mellowly, his lips were tendrilled with sestive of my mother, as never brisk
And how he fascinated the where he was concerned! Positively, in the face of it I used to wonder what had beco morality”
of the world None of it seemed to be in the possession of these wo and beautiful They were distant and freezing enough to all who did not interest them, but let a personality such as his coraces
It was so obvious, this fascination he had for them and they for him, that at times it took on a coe another and remark
”Say, some tenderness, that!” This in reference to a slance on the part of a fe like a ith the ladies So the flick of a skirt and a backward-tossed glance perhaps, as some noticeable beauty passed out
”No wonder he's cheerful,” a sour and yet philosophic vaudevillian, asabout the place for what free meals he could obtain, once remarked to me in a heavy and morose undertone ”If I had that many women crazy about me I'd be too”
And the results of these encounters with beauty! Always he had soht, and whenever I encountered hi” was, of course, a wo runtled youth, he began to wish to introduce me to some of his marvelous followers, and then I could see how completely dependent upon beauty in the flesh he was, how itin the office, a large group of vaudevillians, song-writers, singers, a chance reave rise to a subsequent practical joke at Paul's expense ”I'll bet,” observed soe man were to rush in here with a revolver and say, 'Where's the man that seduced my wife?' Paul would be the first to duck He wouldn't wait to find out whether he was the one ht The subject of this banter was, of course, not present at the ti about there as decidedly skillful in uised hi with us, he disguised hi person of about thirty-five--side-burns,his arrival to an hour when Paul was certain to be at his desk, he entered briskly and vigorously and, looking about with a savage air, demanded, ”Where is Paul Dresser?”
The latter turned alht, and at once seemed by no means captivated by the man's looks
”That's Mr Dresser there,” explained one of the confederates lared at hi around withone hand on his right hip
Paul made no effort to explain It did not occur to hih he had never seen the ainst the rail behind hi, ”Why--why--Don't shoot!” His expression was one of guilt, astonishment, perplexity As so to discover which injured husband it reed beforehand that the joke must not be carried far--convinced him that a hoax had been perpetrated, and the removal by the actor of his hat, sideburns and mustache revealed the true character of the injured husband At first inclined to be angry and sulky, later on he saw the huhed as heartily as any But I fancy it developed a strain of uncertainty in hiard to injured husbands, for he was never afterwards inclined to interest hiave such wives a wide berth
But his great forte was of course his song-writing, and of this, before I speak of anything else, I wish to haveone, out of which, before he died, he had made thousands, all spent in thethe least power to interpret anything in a fine musical way, still he was always full of ay, kind--that of the ballad- to work the as it were over the piano wherever he ht find one and could have a little solitude, at ti various sad or wistful strains, so mastered, he strove to fit words to At such times he preferred to be alone or with some one whose temperament in no way clashed but rather har with one of my sisters for a period of years, he had a roo work, a very se a man, within which he would shut himself and thruht He seeht hour, and at this tiht thrum over one strain and another until over so usually, he would be in tears!
And what pale little things they were really, mere bits and scraps of sentis over home and mother and lost sweethearts and dead heroes such as never were in real life, and yet with so about them, in the music at least, which always appealed to me intensely and must have appealed to others, since they attained so wide a circulation They bespoke, as I always felt, a wistful, seeking, uncertain tee of any side of life, but full of a true poetic feeling for the mystery and pathos of life and death, the wonder of the waters, the stars, the flowers, accidents of life, success, failure Beginning with a song called ”Wide Wings” (published by a small retail music-house in Evansville, Indiana), and followed by such national successes as ”The Letter That Never Came,” ”I Believe It, For My Mother Told Me So” (!), ”The Convict and the Bird,” ”The Pardon Came Too Late,” ”Just Tell Them That You Saw Me,” ”The Blue and the Grey,”
”On the Bowery,” ”On the Banks of the Wabash,” and a number of others, he was never content to rest and never really happy, I think, save when co this tis I have described--a black-face ue artist, an end- and at ti with him at the time he composed two of his most famous successes: ”Just Tell Them That You Saw Me,” and ”On the Banks of the Wabash,” and noting his peculiarto a deep depression which ended a little later in marked elation or satisfaction, once he had succeeded in evoking so which really pleased his irl whose life had seeone to wreck on the shore of love or passion At any rate he caray Noveo there occasionally, a dozen or oing into a small room which was fitted up with a piano as a ”try-out” rooht it in the office), he began i over and over, a certain strain which was evidently in his mind A little while later he came out and said, ”Listen to this, will you, Thee?”
He played and sang the first verse and chorus In the middle of the latter, so moved was he by the sentiment of it, his voice broke and he had to stop Tears stood in his eyes and he wiped theh it without wavering and I thought it char it was intended to be Later on (the following spring) I was literally astonished to see how, after those various efforts usually o”--advertising it in the _Clipper_ and _Mirror_, getting various vaudeville singers to sing it, and so forth--it suddenly began to sell, thousands upon thousands of copies being wrapped in great bundles under ht to various parts of the country Letters and telegraan to pour in--”Forward express today ---- copies of Dresser's 'Tell Them That You Saw Me'” The firain, as the expression went, ”in clover” Just before this there had been a slight slump in its business and in ing self Every one in that layer of life which understands or takes an interest in popular songs and their creators knew of hi, his latest success
He was, as it were, a revivified figure on Broadway His barbers, barkeepers, hotel clerks, theatrical box-office clerks, hotel ers of the street knew of it and hiot out a button on which the phrase was printed Coraphers, his bank teller or his tailor, even staid businessto appear ”up-to-date,”
used it as a parting salute The hand-organs, the bands and the theater orchestras everywhere were using it One could scarcely turn a corner or go into a cheapa parody of it It onderful, the enormous furore that it seeed to walk about se, his friends nu over the fact that he was a success, well known, a genuine creator of popular songs
It was the sareater success, for it came eventually to be adopted by his native State as its State song, and in that region streets and a toere na way I had a hand in that, and it has always cheered h I have never had the least talent forversification It was one of those delightful sus (1896, I believe), when I was still connected with his fir, and he and one over to this office to do a little work