Billie Boy- (NY) 1863 Beadle's Dime Song Book No. 10
[From Beadle's Dime Song Book, No. 10, 1863. This is a reprinting of Oliver Ditson's 1847 text, with Billy changed to Billie. At the bottom on this page is some information about the Beadle publications.
R. Matteson 2014]
Billie Boy
1. Oh where have you been Billie boy, Billie boy,
Oh, where have you been, charming Billie?
I have been to seek a wife,
She’s the joy of my life,
She’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother.
2. Did she bid you to come in, Billie boy, Billie boy,
Did she bid you to come in, charming Billie?
Yes, she bade me to come in,
There’s a dimple in her chin,
She’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother.
3. Did she set for you a chair, Billie boy, Billie boy,
Dis she set for you a chair, charming Billie?
Yes, she set for me a chair,
She has ringlets in her hair,
She’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother.
4. Can she make a cherry pie, Billie boy, Billie boy,
Can she make a cherry pie, charming Billie?
She can make a cherry pie,
Quick as a cat can wink her eye,
She’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother.
5. Is she often seen at church, Billie boy, Billie boy,
Is she often seen at church, charming Billie?
Yes she’s often seen at church
With a bonnet white as birch,
She’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother.
6. How tall is she, Billie boy, Billie boy,
How tall is she charming Billie?
She’s as tall as any pine,
And as straight as a pumpkin vine,
She’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother.
7. Are her eyes very bright, Billie boy, Billie boy,
Are her eyes very bright charming Billie?
Yes her eyes are very bright,
But alas, they’re minus sight,
She’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother.
8. How old is she, Billie boy, Billie boy,
How old is she charming Billie?
She’s three times six, four times seven,
Twenty-eight and eleven,
She’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother.
--------------
From: Beadle and Adams Archives 1848 - 1920
Special Collections, University of Delaware Library
The Beadle Dime Novels, together with numerous other publications issued by the firms Beadle and Co., Irwin P. Beadle and Co., and Beadle and Adams, were a tremendously successful foray in cheap literature for the mass public. Dime novels, like the story papers that had preceded them and the pulp magazines that would replace them in the twentieth century, delivered adventurous or sensational stories in inexpensive, paper-bound editions. Although the Beadle brothers, Erastus and Irwin, were not the first publishers to exploit this medium, they were the first to do so in a continuous, serial form. This innovation, combined with their large number of publications and sales, makes their firm an integral part of the history of the dime novel.
Erastus Flavel Beadle was born in Oswego County, New York, on September 9, 1821. His brother, Irwin Pedro Beadle, was born in 1826. They were the grandsons of Benjamin Beadle, a Revolutionary War solider. After a brief move to Michigan, the Beadles returned to New York, settling in Chataqua County. There, Erastus worked for a miller named Hayes, where he supposedly began his printing career when he cut wooden letters to label bags of grain. In 1838, he was apprenticed to H & E Phinny, a publishing firm in Cooperstown, New York, where he learned typesetting, stereotyping, binding, and some engraving. He married Mary Ann Pennington in 1846, and the next year the couple moved to Buffalo, where Erastus worked as a stereotyper. In 1849, Irwin followed his brother to Buffalo and found a job as a bookbinder. The next year, the brothers set up a stereotype foundry of their own, although Irwin would leave the company in 1856.
In December of 1851, Erastus Beadle, together with engraver Benjamin Vanduzee, began publishing a magazine for young children entitled The Youth's Casket. Vanduzee dropped out of the partnership in 1853, but the magazine continued publication until 1856. Erastus' next project, in 1855, was the monthly magazine, The Home: A Fireside Companion and Guide for the Wife, the Mother, the Sister, and the Daughter. In 1856, Erastus briefly abandoned publishing and moved to Omaha in an attempt to capitalize on the Kansas and Nebraska land boom. During his absence, Robert Adams, a former apprentice in Beadle's stereotyping foundry who would become the Beadles' future partner in the dime book trade, probably took over publication of the two serials at this time.
After failing to make his fortune out west, Erastus returned to Buffalo in 1857. The next year, he, Irwin, and Robert Adams moved to New York City, where Erastus and Adams continued to publish The Home. The December issue of the magazine had a new editor, Mrs. Metta Victoria Victor (1831-1885), who would write several novels for Beadle and Adams, including the popular slave story Maum Guinea, which was reportedly praised by Lincoln. Her husband, Orville J. Victor (1827-1910), would work as the main editor for the Beadle house from 1861 to 1897.
While his brother worked in magazines, Irwin began the dime booklet business that would make the Beadle name famous, although Erastus would eventually receive most of the profits and the credit for its creation. In 1859, he published the Dime Song Book, a paper-bound collection of popular ballads that had previously been issued singly. It sold well, and encouraged by its success, Irwin began publishing a series of dime booklets on such varied subjects as cooking, etiquette, speeches, and baseball. At the end of this year, Irwin and Adams formed the publishing firm Irwin P. Beadle and Co.