THE ETUDE SEPTEMBER 19,>0 Pac,e 583 From an Interview Secured Expressly for THE ETUDE, with the Most Successful Composer of Songs of the Present Day CARRIE JACOBS-BOND Music Composition as a Field for Women [Mrs. Carrie Jacobs-Bond was born at Janesville, Wis-consin, and was educated in music in that city under Pro-fessor C. G. Titcomb and Professor J. W. Bischoff, the celebrated blind composer, later of Washington, D. C. At the age of four she commenced to improvise at the piano in a way that attracted the serious attention of many. She has the remarkable gift of repeating by ear almost anything she has heard. Her story of how she became a composer "I MAGIN E a little girl with a tiny dog as her only confidant—a small, silky skye terrier, his bright eyes half hidden under a fringe of fluffy hair, an animal intelligence that seemed to know and understand all that I said to him and a faithful little heart that never failed in sympathy. His name was Schneider, and many thousands saw and knew him, for he was none other than the very dog that Joseph Jefferson used at one time in his famous play, Rip Van Winkle. Jeffer-son came to Janesville and made a great friend of my grandfather, G. H. Davis. I fell in love with the tiny dog, and when Jefferson left he gave the little creature to me. "It was to Schneider that I first told my ambitions to become a song writer. He, and he alone, knew at first how I longed and longed to bring music to the world, that would sing in the hearts and souls of men and women who need music in their daily lives. "Schneider was my friend, companion and confidant for five years. Then he died. W e found him frozen in the snow. I hope those who do not love dogs will not smile at this incident, for it was one of the trage-dies of my childhood. Every day until spring I went out in the yard to the tomb I had made in the snow for poor Schneider and combed the silky coat of my little friend until my mother forced me to bury him, which I did with my own hands. This was my first great grief, and it made a lasting impression upon me. "Music was a matter of the deepest concern to me, but I scarcely believe that my parents ever dreamed that I would devote my life to it. I was to be—like thousands and thousands of other women—a good wife, a good mother and a good housekeeper, etc. I knew I could be all these and something besides, for that some-thing was a vital part of me. Blind Tom's Visit "One day when I was about eight years old, Blind Tom came to town. It was a feature of his program to play a piece from memory after it had been performed for him just once. In order that there might be no mistake, my teacher, Professor Titcomb, played an original composition which Blind Tom could not pos-sibly have heard before that time. He played it in fine fashion after once hearing it. Then someone said, 'We have a little girl in our town who can do that, too.' I was brought forward, and Blind Tom played an original march of his own, which I promptly repeated, to great ap-plause. I was put down as a genius and was given the very best instruction the town af-forded. "Years passed like a panorama. Many beauti-ful and many terrible things happened. After the death of my husband, Dr. Frank Lewis Bond, at Iron River, I moved to Chicago with my son, ready to do anything to earn a living. At the time of my husband's death I had a lovely home, but with his passing everything changed and I found myself, as more than one doctor's wife has found herself, with very little. In leaving Michigan I lost my dower right to my home also, but I had been able to keep the furnishings which I took to Chicago, and there rented an apartment large enough to sublet and in this way earned barely enough to support myself and boy for the first year. I managed to keep out of debt and now I scarcely know how I did it. The report that I was a seamstress is not altogether true. I really had not been practically educated in anything, but, like many other women twenty-five years ago, I knew how to make my own clothes. I did sew for some of my relatives and did a week's sewing in the house of a friend in return for an advertisement in her musical magazine. I think those hours in the six days that I sewed for her, trying to make myself believe that I was earning the money, were the longest hours of my life. and how she entered the publishing business is extraor-dinary in many ways. This is the first time that it has been given from this standpoint in its completeness. Combined with her balance of business ability and wholesome sanity she has as well a broad, kindly, human outlook upon men, women and affairs. This, together with great energy and pluck, has made Mrs. Bond a success where thousands have failed. Only a woman endowed with diverse and "I also did china painting and was very successful at it—so successful, indeed, that it was later a question whether I would take up a musical career or make china painting my means of subsistence. As things turned out, the china painting went hand-in-hand with my music. For many years I designed and painted the covers for my songs with wild roses, the flower I took for my trade-mark, as it was the flower I loved the best. The past few years I have been too much occu-pied with other things to paint, but I always design the titles and have been very successful in finding artists who have painted more beautifully than I. "Perhaps you know, to begin with, I was too poor to hire anyone to write my verses or draw my title pages, so I had to do it all myself. "The first song that I ever wrote was a child's song, which I sold many years ago, but the first song that I published was I Love You Truly. As I look back now I wish I could feel once more the thrill that came over me when my good friend, Mr. Nelson, who printed my songs whether I had the money to pay him or not (and who believed in me) handed me the first copy of I Love You Truly, and I realized that I had written the words and music, that I had drawn the title page, and that I believed, even though I could not sing, that I could go out into the world and make somebody buy that song. Well, I did this with many songs; in fact, my songs were given their publicity by my singing them in homes of my good friends. They generally versatile gifts could expect to achieve such a success. When Mrs. Bond heard that Helen Keller had been persuaded to appear in vaudeville for the season she decided that one of the very best ways in which she, too, can reach that public is by accepting proposals from well-known mana-gers for a tour of the larger vaudeville houses that will take her work to those with whom she could not possibly come in contact otherwise.—EDITOR'S NOTE.] paid me $10 for my services, which I presume now was a pretty big price for the way I did my work. My first recital was given in the home of Mrs. Henry J. Howe, Marshalltown, Iowa, in which city I often hear that I was born. Hardships, Humiliations, Cold and Hunger "My musical work was not altogether unknown in Chicago. Tw o publishers had accepted and issued some of my songs. However, I realized that if they were to pay me the amount I must have, the promotion that these publishers were giving the works and the returns therefrom were entirely inadequate. A song is like any other piece of merchandise when you consider it from the commercial standpoint. Write the best song in the world and lock it up, and it is a dead issue. I had always desired to be in business, and accordingly I decided to publish my own songs. My son was grow-ing up and I realized that in him I would have a fine aide in the matter of business details later. "Had I known then what I know now—had I ever imagined the terrible hardships, humiliations—yes, even cold and hunger—I do not believe that I would have had the courage to make a start. Let me give you one little example. When I had published about twenty five songs I showed them to Mr. David Bispham (always a noble friend to ambitious and deserving workers), who was to give a great recital at the leading hall in Chicago. The songs pleased him and he agreed to put them on his program. The manager of the concert thought it suicidal. He begged Mr. Bispham to change his plans—to put anything on his program but the works of an unknown composer, and a woman at that! However, Mr. Bispham, with his mind once set, was not easy to move and he determined to carry out the idea. And, as a further assurance of his belief in my songs, he invited me to accompany him in this group. Friendship f i n iges. "The songs were more than c *rdially r^ I was so overcome with the applause that5 got to even turn to look at the audience used Bispham until he came to the piano and my shoulder and asked me to acknowled him the reception that my songs were r<|arter It was the longest applause I had ever h , to hear and, though I do not suppose it ^ then #than half a minute, I lived years in t^g not recognition which Mr. David Bispham , , the opportunity to enjoy. I wish to say ficthod this was the second public appearance move -stage' for me, and may I please tell you , of the first one? fiuscles would "In a well-known piano company technic cago I found a friend who recog is rich talent as a song writer and whose id natu-and encouragement meant more thai;o inter-else to me at that time, Mr. Car!t would now living in Los Angeles, throi influence this company offered to friplifying penses for a public recital for rrDr. Wm-ing hall, program and advertising necessity, concert I was assisted by Jessie Bafor small Mr. Paul Schossling, former 'ce it within Theodore Thomas Orchestra, Mr.hose with Clark, the singer, and a little girl extremely I do net now recall. The concerned in two wore that night wras made out c originator lace curtains which had been i the way he home, and I could never tell y< yards of feather-stitching and Ihs in finger-put on—little bands of satin wh^ hands, but on to this lace so it would ncly hampered had ever hung in anybody's wi
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