Beadle's Dime Song Book No. 1

Beadle's Dime Songbook No. 1 (1868) collects seventy comic and sentimental songs, arranged by page number in the contents list. The volume includes popular period compositions such as "Gentle Annie," "Nelly Gray," "Ben Bolt," "Old Dog Tray," and "The Star-Spangled Banner," alongside dialogue-songs like "A Thousand a Year" and its "Answer," featuring characters Robin Ruff and Gaffer Green debating wealth and morality. Sentimental pieces predominate—songs of lost love, homesickness, and mourning ("Poor Old Slave," "The Old Play-Ground," "Willie, we have Missed You"). Patriotic and nautical selections appear ("Red, White, and Blue," "Bold Privateer," "The Rock of Liberty"). The songbook credits copyright holders including Firth, Pond & Co. and Russell & Tolman, indicating professional composition and publication. The collection represents the domestic parlor-song repertoire and popular entertainment of the American mid-nineteenth century.