Right: Robert Darch, Marshall at the piano, and G. Tom Ireland, the band leader for the Queen City Concert Band, in background, Sedalia. Marshall was able to play the trio of "Little Jack's Rag" for the audience, despite his having suffered a stroke the previous autumn.

Bob Darch: Do you have any letters from Scott Joplin? Do you have any of his writing? Any of his handwriting?

Arthur Marshall: No, I don't think I've got any ­ the last letter I got from Scott -- I don't know where it is. I guess it's been destroyed. He was a pretty well-educated man, though; there's no joke about that.

Bob Darch: Well, his musical ability sure was good -- there's no question about his rags. They were reflected, though, in the works of the fellows under him, too, such as yourself.

Arthur Marshall: Yeah, Joplin was a fine man, good writer ­ kind, and very well understood amongst the public. You know, a lot of piano players just like to see who could play the best rag -- what they called "shootin' at one another" -- joking it up. And that caused a lot of them to compose some pretty good rags. A lot of good rags have been wasted and there's no way to get no record of them. They just played them going from one town to another making money. But there's no record of what they were playing made that I know of...

Hear a basic "Midi" file of Little Jack's Rag, as keyed-in by composer Reginald R. Robinson. The music, assembled and published by Mr. Terry Waldo in his invaluable book, "This is Ragtime," was written for Marshall's daughter, Mildred Steward.