Sold on streets by peddlers, in St. John's, especially during the heyday of the broadside, from 1890 through the 1920s, most ballad mongers tended to be young boys who were supplied with "slips," or "dodgers," as broadsides were sometimes called, by balladeers who had access to small printers. Broadsides provided accounts of sensational events, celebrated heroic historical incidents, and presented details of humorous, horrific and fantastic occurrences. Although they wrote in verse, broadside ballad-makers were less concerned with literary art than with making a living through practical journalism, exhibiting no qualms about writing in cliches, employing recognizable ballad phrases or "commonplaces," reprinting ballads written by others without credit, and publishing materials from oral tradition.
Vernacular song traditions owe much to broadsides. The widespread regional view, until the advent of sound recordings, that a "song" is primarily a verbal text, not a melody, derives in large part from broadside emphasis; broadsides sometimes suggested an "air," but generally left the choice of tune to the singer. Songs inviting specific members of an audience to listen ("come all ye tenderhearted parents") in their introductions, betray a survival of broadside influence, a time when song sheets were hawked to passers-by on busy streets. Similarly, moralistic, often religious endings, wherein a song narrator didactically provides pious "lessons" for the listener/reader, reflect broadside ballad style and/or content. With regards to content, approximately 100 folk ballads in the province are directly traceable to 18th and 19th century British broadsides. Included among these songs are "Donald Monroe," "The Greenland Whale Fishery," "The Dark-Eyed Sailor," "Jack in London City," "The Wexford Girl," and "Edwin in the Lowlands." Many more songs, however, derive from broadsides printed here by local songmakers. Two of the best known versifiers and ballad mongers in St. John's were James Murphy (1868-1931), "The Sealer's Poet," who composed the popular ballad "The Southern Cross," and John Burke (1851-1930), "The Bard of Prescott Street," who is well remembered for his humorous songs "Kelligrews Soiree," "Trinity Cake," and "The Teapots at the Fire," and for the recently revived romantic ballad "Old Brown's Daughter." Both of these balladeers also published many paperback songsters and collaborated on at least three compilations of song and poetry.
An example of an actual, anonymously written, broadside, "Lines on the Sad Drowning of Two Young Men," appears above. Note the journalistic headings, the wealth of detail, and the pious ending, all typical broadside traits. Because of the cheap paper on which they were printed, few broadsides have survived, and to a great extent they comprise a lost chapter of our literary history. If anyone who reads this, has (a) broadside(s) in their possession, they are urged to place copies in the Memorial University Folklore and Language Archive by contacting Ms. Patricia Fulton, Archivist (737-8401).