I checked the Copyright Office card file on "Fig Leaf Rag."
There are two registrations one for "Fig Leaf Rag" by Scott
Joplin punlished Feb. 24, 1908 by Stark Music Printing and Pub.
Co., New Yrok; the other for "The Fig Leaf; rag and two step" by
W.R. Lawrence, June 7, 1909, with claimant Wm. R. Lawrence,
Philadelphia, Pa.
It is not impossible that two versions (arrangements) of the same
tune were registered at different times, and not impossible that
one was be registered under the composer's real name and another
under a pseudonym. But is less likely that a tune be issued
first under the real name and subsequently under the pseudonym;
it is usually the other way around WHEN it happens at all. To me
the evidence (including the slight variation in title and the
fact that copyright registrations, being legal records, usually
reveal pseudonymous usages) suggests--without proving-- that
these are two different tunes by two different composers.
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