Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 276, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1913 — Songs of Today. [ARTICLE]

Songs of Today.

Where is the present-day “popular song” that may be compared with “Annie Laurie,” or “My Old Kentucky Home,” or “Sally-ini Our Alley?” Nay, where is the present-day popular song that has more than an off chance of being remembered or sung a single year hence, let alone remaining a favorite for a generation? Nowhere. In songs, as in so many other matters, the one desire just at present is to get the applause—and dollars —of the moment. If a “bearcat” dance or a kJoppily sentimental ballad attracts attention to Itself and Income to Its inventor, nothing more is asked or expected. So of “cubist art,” which is -flferelv lunacy on canvas; so of tenderloin plays. The one thing required Is not that they shall be true, or beautiful, or thoughtful, or enduring; but that they shall make money. It is strange that an age like the present, which has so many superb achievements to its credit, and which is more deeply imbued with the sense of human brotherhood than any preceding time in history, should have come to this sorry pass in matters ’of art and recreation. -