Mark Twain’s Earworm

Mark Twain’s obsession with and popularization of Isaac Bromley’s original horsecar jingle not only inspired an entire school of horsecar poems but also parodies of them that satirized political campaigns, public corruption, organized labor, vices such as gambling and alcoholism, the work of newspaper editors as well as admonitions to respect the law. During the Great War, parodies of the jingle commended the women knitting brigades on the home front. The parodies also led to the introduction of jingles in advertising. The original rhyme has survived in the public imagination for generations.