Show A MUSICAL PITFALL by carroll watson rankin some of the popular songs ot of the present day are wonderfully catchy affairs the music is attractive the melody is tuneful the words well sometimes the words word s are positively indecent its a we wonder rider that the things are permitted to go through the mails of course the words of a great many of our well known knon songs are in merely silly A good many of the sentimental ti ones are merely flat and of such poor quality of erse that they stand alone for a moment without the accompanying music i most of them are not particularly ele bating but nobody is going to object very much to these defects as long as the songs remain within the bounds ot of propriety but when they go beyond those bounds just see to it girls that you cut them off yew list the market affords plenty of delightful songs that you be ashamed of singing in any company really c lever clever nonsense verse good nonsense is a most admirable thing in its place set to charming music dut but do examine your songs carefully do be certain that you understand exactly what the uses unes mean then if the meaning seems not quite nice dont sing them the vulgarity in some songs Is so entirely apparent that even a perfectly innocent girl will be able to see it but in others unfortunately the horridness is so skillfully yelled veiled that the heedless or unsuspecting young person does not dream of its presence I 1 have known phoud fathers to listen with unconcealed pleasure to the sweet young voices or their daughters lifted in merry song and right afterward I 1 have seen those same fathers fairly crumple with horror upon picking up the sheet music and reading the words the things it seems are not always considered too bad to print I 1 have known brothers to say dont sing that song little sister the words arent decent you dont know how hov bad they are also ive known merry groups of 0 boys and girls quite grown up young persons in ia fact to sing these worse than doubtful songs together and ive wondered on dered sometimes what these boys thought of 0 those careless girls if they really respected them I 1 have liked to hope that the lads were generous enough to suppose that the girls were too innocent to know what they were singing As for the boys well they should have had their ears boxed for their twinkling eyes showed how bow naughty the songs were and girls sometimes it even sate safe to sing a risque son song you run the risk of 0 being hideously misunderstood by strangers there was once a tuneful little lass of seventeen a regular apple blossom of a girl as good as is she was pretty whose daily walks took her through a large number of sleets some of tile the streets were aulet and secluded not a soul in sight for blocks at a stretch other streets in the business part ot of the town were more densely populated but all the streets were considered perfectly sate safe tor for youthful pedestrians this heedless little maid had one peculiar trait but one rather liked it in her because it was so much a part of her so natural to her wherever she happened to be she was very apt like any other songbird to burst into little snatches of song in the very quietest street she permitted herself to sing quite loudly but she merely hummed tunefully in passing through the busier portions ot of the town one day a loudly dressed swaggering traveling salesman with bold unpleasant p eyes separated himself from the group on the hotel steps and followed the hurn humming ming girl along the pavement presently some little time after she had entered one of the quieter streets singing louder as was her habit in that deserted place the man suddenly quickened his pace until he was walking beside her then without a word of warning ho he seized the unsuspecting girl in his arras arms and kissed her a horrid loathsome kles kiss that made the little singer want to kill him just at that moment fortu fortunately natel v the girls big brother swung into sight from an abutting gateway lie he took |