I thought Nelly Bly was the other woman in "Frankie and Johnnie" ("Bartender said, Miss Frankie, I cannot tell a lie/Johnnie left here 'bout an hour ago/With that tramp named Nelly Bly.")
That's more the blues than ragtime, but my friend Ray Argyle has a new book just out, Scott Joplin and the Age of Ragtime, and he's posting bits of it on his blog, including this essay on Nelly Bly the journalist who went around the world in 72 days.
Book looks pretty interesting too.
