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Here's
a late-1800s chromolithographic advertising card (a popular
marketing device of that time) from the publisher of Joplin's A
Picture of Her Face, Leiter Brothers. While it's not our
goal to collect memorabilia from all of Joplin's publishers, we
thought this one was somewhat unusual and offers a nice glimpse
at one of Joplin's very first publishers. According to
Rudi Blesh's and Harriet Janis' book, They All Played Ragtime
(TAPR), Joplin's vocal group, the Texas Medley Quartette,
traveled as far east as Syracuse, NY, where Joplin sold his
first two songs (A Picture of Her Face and Please Say
You Will) in 1895. TAPR also notes the pre-ragtime
"typical sentimental Victorian" tone of Please Say
You Will, the lyrics of which culminate in:
"...Although my love is dead, my only darling Grace, / My
eyes are oftime looking on / A picture of -- her -- face."
With this sentiment in mind, you can perhaps understand why a
company would offer as an advertising piece a beautifully
colored lithograph of a boy burying a dead bird.
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