I just got an old 1920-ish roll of "Oh By Jingo! Oh By Gee!", an Arto
Word Roll, played by Doris Goodwin (another pseudonym or not??, but I
digress.)

My question is about some printed markings on the roll.  The label says
the roll is "with patent word roll scale".  What this appears to be is
a vertical oriented G-clef music staff, all the way up the right side
of the roll (the entire length of the roll).  The words to the song are
staggered on the lines, kind of like notes would be.  I'll try an ASCII
attempt at what I mean.  (This is not the actual alignment -- I don't
have the roll here right now -- if the actual alignment is critical to
deciphering what this is for, I can certainly dig it out over the
weekend.)

  |||||
  |||||
  |||me
  |for|
  ||girl
  only|
  ||||the
  |you're
  |||Jingo
  |By||
  Oh|||
  |||||
  |||||

My question is, what's the purpose of this?  What is the "smart"
staggering telling you?  Is it as a guide in singing melody, for guitar
accompaniment, telling you what notes to hum :-) ?  Does anybody know?

Rick Inzero, Rochester, NY, rdi@cci.com