"The Little Lost Child" is a popular song of 1894 by Edward B. Marks and Joseph W. Stern, with between one and two million copies in sheet music sales. Also known after its first three words as "A Passing Policeman", it is usually considered to have been the first work promoted as an illustrated song (an early precursor of the music video). The song's success has also been credited to its performance by Lottie Gilson and Della Fox.
Marks was a button salesman who wrote rhymes and verse, and Stern, a necktie salesman who played the piano and wrote tunes. Together they formed a music publishing house called Joseph W. Stern & Co. and became an important part of the Tin Pan Alley sheet music publishing scene. The lyrics, written by Marks and based on a newspaper report, concern a lost little girl found by a policeman, who is then reunited with his estranged wife after it transpires that he is the girl's father. Stern wrote the music for piano and vocals. Joseph W. Stern & Co. "started their career in a little basement at 314 East Fourteenth Street with a 30-cent sign and a $1 letterbox, which to say the least was not large capital even in those days..."
