On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, Bill Edwards flamboyantly asserted:

}Greetings.
}
}The difficulty of the rag and finding it is part of the history. It
}dates back, reportedly, to 1903 when Eubie was 16 (if you tend to
}believe the large body of official government census, marriage,
}military and death records which put his birth at 1887 instead of
}Eubie himself putting it at 1883), when he says he started playing it.
}It was then put to a piano roll, Sounds of Africa, around 1917 (as I
}recall). But it was not officially in print until around 1973(?) when
}Terry Waldo transcribed and published this plus some older and more
}contemporary pieces of Blake's in Sincerely Eubie, now difficult but
}not impossible to locate. Since then, that particular book has been
}the source of record for at least a framework on playing Charleston
}Rag, Rhapsody in Ragtime, Tricky Fingers, Baltimore Todolo, etc. I'll
}ask Terry when I see him soon about the status of that book, if he
}doesn't see this first and respond.

Is this the book from the musical/review "Eubie!"? I think I've
heard of it but never seen it.

}In print, as far as Eubie Rags are concerned, you'll find Fizz Water
}and Chevy Chase in Dover Sources,

Yes, I have those.

} and Dictys on Seventh Avenue in one
}of Max Morath's extant ragtime books. Beyond that, most of the
}available sources are of his songs for the theater, or original sheet
}music you may see on eBay from time to time, like Bugle Call Rag.
}
}Hope that explains the situation to a degree. If anybody else has
}corrections or addendum for this, it may be useful.

Bill, I think I came across your website a couple of years ago when I was
doing some web research on ragtime. You seem to be highly knowledgeble
about the original ragtime period; maybe you can shed some light on
a question that's bothered my for a long time now?

Why is so little of Eubie Blake's music published? That he was a seminal
figure in the history of ragtime is acknowledged by virtually every history
of ragtime I've ever read. Practically everyone who's made commercial
recordings of ragtime piano has recorded some of his rags (and often
the 'Charleston Rag'). Add to that the fact that he lived longer than
any other ragtime pianist from the original ragtime era, and continued
performing into his 90s (whichever birthdate is correct), and it would
seem that his music should be better represented in print than just
about anyone else.

Yet such is not the case. There are dozens of collections of Joplin;
plenty of printed examples of Scott, Lamb, and even Matthews; Dover
seems to have gone out of their way to preserve a whole host of
lesser-known "country rag" composers