of the firm's trade journal, Ev'ry Month, which promoted their newest songs. Theodore later became a nationally known novelist. During their time together in New York, the brothers frequented Broadway theaters, popular restaurants, and hotel bars as well as the city's brothels and saloons. In the mid-1890s Dresser began composing his most famous songs, including "Just Tell Them That You Saw Me" (1895). Dresser's songs, along with others published by Howley, Haviland and Company, were included in the top minstrel acts and shows around the country. Dresser's success continued with "We Were Sweethearts for Many Years" (1895), "Lost, Strayed or Stolen" (1896), and his most famous hit, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" (1897), which took Dresser's career to its pinnacle. In "Wabash" Dresser reminisced about his childhood home in Indiana, which was near the Wabash River. With the success of "Wabash", many newspapers compared Dresser to popular music composer Stephen Foster. When asked what inspired him to compose the song, Dresser replied, "The same sweet memory that inspired that other Hoosier, James Whitcomb Riley, to sing the 'Old Swimmin' Hole." The location of where the song was written is referenced in a short story in The Atlantic by Elizabeth Stuckey-French. She wrote, "Paul Dresser wrote 'On the Banks of the Wabash' at Mudlavia." For a period Dresser was the most famous composer in the nation. Wabash was the best selling song of its time, terms of sheet music sold; over one million copies had been sold in the first year. The Chicago Record reported that "Wabash" "has had the most enormous sale of any popular song." Newspapers reported that Dresser earned over $50,000 ($ in 2020 dollars) in the first year of sales; Dresser boasted that he made far more than their estimates. Popularity of the song continued for several years. In August 1898, the song was still selling over 10,000 copies a week. One music historian attributed "Wabash"'s success to the "perfect marriage of words and music", where the flow of the music matches the words in a perfect fashion. Millions of people sang this popular song in the U.S. It was a featured song in music halls, on vaudeville stages, and in male quartet performances across the country. In addition, the song's popularity spread internationally to places frequented by American travelers. Other songwriters wrote comic parodies of Dresser's songs as well. For example, at the