Popular Songs

At every mnsic hall from twenty to thirty songs, or eveu more, will be sung in the conrse of the evening, and of all these perhaps two or three in a year will catch the popular favor, ba pïayed on barrel organs, Whistled by atreet boys, adapted for burlesques and pantomimes, and overrnn the entira eouncrv in a marvelonsly short tinw, ontü it "palls npon the very villagors. Soms fifteea years ago, for esample, il was impossible togo aaywherein the ünitsd Kin-lom without hearing a certai)! Tommy being vocally adjurnri to make room for bis ancle. It would be cariona to resuscitate Tommy and his uncle now and see how mucli suoces they wonld obtain with the public of today. The tune was irresistibly catching, bnt it would probably fall on deaf ears now. No snperannuated thing is so titterly dead and forgotten as a once popular ínnsic hall song, compared to whieh Jonah's gourd was a hardv nnnnaL Who compose these ephemeral tunes? Their names seldom or uever appear, any more than do those of the gentlemen who write the songs, though it is safe to conclnde from internal evidence in either ca.se that they are uot persons of exalted tnnsical and literary eminence. And what are the songs like? Do they show any graphic or satiricfJ power, any command f the pathos and .inmor which appeal to popular tastes? One would hesitate to answer in the negative, since these ditties are fonnd acceptable by those whom they are intended to delight, and yet to hear or read them is apt to produce a convictiou that the ïnusic hall public is enterteined with the eauie facility as excited Mr. Piclrwick's envy in tlie case of Mr.