Tradesmen,
factories, and shops commissioned the publication of sheet music to
sell their goods and services.
On the back cover of "Thy Face!" and
"No, Sir!" issued with the compliments of J. L. Cahill the Decorator,
we find advertisements for a number of local concerns, including a
woodcut of a horse-drawn steam carpet cleaning apparatus upon which
can be read "First Premium Mechanics Fair 1886."
Stores, factories, and shops distributed
sheet music to sell their goods. The New Home S.[ewing] M.[achine] Company
commissioned "Rock-a-bye Dolly" and placed on the cover a woodcut of a
doll holding a sign which said "Our clothes are all made on the popular
'New Home'."
"Song of the Ninety-Nine" (1895) extols the benefits of Brand 99 unsweetened evaporated cream, then fighting off evaporated milk "imported into a state that is admitted to possess the very finest dairy lands in the world." The back cover implores consumers to buy California and save the American Condensed Milk Co. of Novato, Marin County.