Peter M. Heaton is another of those one-off ragtime composers of whom precious little is known. The cover of his only known published work, Rose Wood Rag (1909), provides a lead to possible further biographical information however, in that it graced by a photo of a certain Josephine Jacoby holding a violin. Now the Metropolitan Opera singer Josephine Jacoby (1875-1948) is well-known and Internet searches turn a number of postcard pictures an wax cylinders of her recordings. Not being a forensic expert it is not possible to identify with absolute certainty that the Josephine Jacoby on the cover of the sheet music is actually the famous opera singer. An intriguing titbit found on the Internet is an entry in the 1915 city directory for Mission Street, Bernal Heights, San Francisco, California which lists a Peter M. Heaton, musician living with wife Josephine an No. 3551. Another tantalising titbit is that Peter M. Heaton also wrote the music for the song They've Stopped Doing It Now (1912), lyrics by F.R. Jacoby and Chas. A. Meyers. Two obvious questions. Was the composer married to the opera singer and what kind of musician was the composer? Who knows?