D. L. Bullock said:

> I have been unable to find any indication that ragtime originated
> from anyone other than Joplin.

In response, Dan Wilson wrote ...

> ... there was at least one Gottschalk piece from about 1890,
> where he was simulating a local fair, which includes some bars
> of pure ragtime.

While Gottschalk wrote a fair amount of syncopated music, for him to
have written "pure ragtime" more than 20 years after his death would
have been quite remarkable.

> Also Cesar Franck, the Belgian composer based in Paris, quotes some
> ragtime passages about five years earlier.

Franck may have used rhythms later associated with ragtime (many
composers did), but he could not have quoted what did not yet exist
in 1885.

Ed Berlin

 [ Louis Moreau Gottschalk, born 18 May 1829 in New Orleans, Lousiana,
 [ died 18 Dec 1869 in Rio de Janeiro.  "Dictionary of Musicians" (1940)
 [ says, "... 90 pianoforte pieces of distinct and tropical charm."
 [ -- Robbie