Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines. Written & Sung By T. Maclagan [cover title].

“My Creditors at me did shout…”

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This postbellum American comic ballad was likely written and performed by Scottish entertainer Tom Maclagan, active since the mid-1860s. The piece gained fame in the United States through performances by English actor and female impersonator William Horace Lingard, an émigré who adopted and adapted the song for the American stage by 1868. That year marked its first American sheet music publication. Issued in Brooklyn, New York, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia, these editions reproduced the lyrics and music that would enter the American folk repertoire for the next century. The present Philadelphia edition is the most visually compelling and desirable of the group.

The character of “Captain Jinks”—a vain, hapless soldier—became a widely circulated figure of satire. His bumbling incompetence, fashionable excess, and comical mishaps (“I am Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines, / I often live beyond my means, / I sport young ladies in their teens, / To cut a swell in the army / I teach the ladies how to dance,”) made the song a favorite in vaudeville and among amateur performers. Widely published on both sides of the Atlantic, in various editions of sheet music, and in broadsides and songsters, “Captain Jinks” has been described as the first “military swell” song, a soldierly take on the popular genre that mocked fashionable young men about town.

Its popularity extended into musical theater, literature, film, and opera. Clyde Fitch’s 1901 Broadway melodrama, which launched Ethel Barrymore’s career, borrowed the title. In 1902, Ernest Crosby, an anti-imperialist and friend of Mark Twain, published the satirical novel Captain Jinks, Hero, set during the Spanish-American War. Fitch’s melodarama was later adapted into a now-lost silent film in 1916, and Jack Beeson’s 1975 opera reprised it again for a modern audience.

Of the two Philadelphia editions published by Lee & Walker in 1868, this variant is the scarcer. (A cursory review indicates that this variant is only held by Yale, Connecticut College, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and Baylor University.) This copy conforms exactly to the example cited by Dichter & Shapiro, p. 103, described as ca. 1868 and noting: “Figure 5 in 5 pointed star. 8 pp., p. 2 blank, adv. on p. 8. Plate Mark 8711-5. Illustration: Captain Jinks himself, in uniform consisting of a bearskin hat, green coat, red and white striped trousers, sword and beard.”

Of the 1868 editions published in Cincinnati, Brooklyn, and New York, only the present Philadelphia example presents a cover illustration printed chromolithographically. Lithographed by Thomas Sinclair, it features a gilt border and unusually vivid colors, especially the greens, reds, and whites of Jinks’s uniform. In contrast to the others, Sinclair’s effort offers a more finely executed and visually striking design.

Not in Philadelphia on Stone Digital Catalog or the Lester S. Levy Collection.

Price: $250.00