Oh, re Trevathan and "sportswriter." He was a sportswriter, but not in St. Louis. Apparently, he wrote for a paper in San Francisco, although I'm relying one of his own accounts for how the song got to May Irwin for that. Supposedly, the two shared a train ride from St. Louis to San Francisco where Trevathn lived. Trevathan played the guitar and sang the song for Irwin, and Irwin demanded a cleaned up version. Trevathan obliged. According to that account, Trevathan got the song from black singers in Tennessee. Note the possibility that he may have been reluctant to tell Irwin that he picked it up in Babe Connor's brothel.