Beyond the small Manhattan sector where songs are published and songwriters remembered, little is known of the men who wrote the homely old tunes which today are almost U.S. folksongs. Last week Douglas Gilbert of the enterprising New York World-Telegram traced the fortunes of some oldtime songwriters in a series called "Songs That Linger On— Who Wrote Them?" Four songs and their composers:
"Sweet Adeline" (1903). Harry Armstrong wrote the music in Somerville, Mass., when he and three other Somerville boys were annoying the townsfolk by singing quartets on the gaslit street corners. In...
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