| In 1883 the rate for sending a letter by first class mail was changed from three cents to two cents. Since the denomination with the biggest usage always bore a portrait of George Washington, the post office had to design a new two-cent stamp with Washington’s picture on it. To make it distinctive, they replaced the green three-center with a red two-center, and a song was born along with it: Good-By, Old Stamp, Good-By. | Thanks to William Wrigley and others in the chewing gum business, gum-chewing became a favorite 1890s pastime. When songwriters recognized its popularity, they wrote little numbers like She Chews Gum. | In the latter 1890s a second gold rush took place; this time in Alaska. Musicians took advantage of the excitement to introduce a number of songs about the new gold discoveries in the great Northwest. One was dashed off by Theodore A. Metz called The Klondike March of the Gold Miners. |
| The Spanish American War was started by the torpedoing of the battleship Maine, which was attributed to the Spaniards and which formed the basis of the slogan on everyone’s lips at the time. Composer E. A. Warren used that slogan as the title of his song Boys, ‘Remember the Maine’. | The neck-and-neck election of 1916, when Woodrow Wilson edged out Charles Evans Hughes at the last possible moment with the announcement of California’s switch to the Democrats, inspired the best-selling music sheet Be Good to California, Mr. Wilson; California’s Been Good to You. | The Volstead Act, designed to enforce the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, was passed by Congress over President Wilson’s veto and immediately made illegal the sale of intoxicating beverages. Amidst the bathtub gin and secret stills, songwriters were devising pieces such as The Moon Shines on the Moonshine, by Bert Williams. |
