Mining old magazines

This article was published in Bret Harte's Overland Magazine in 1899.  The author had visited  Tyrol, in Austria, and was impressed by the singing he heard there...it's a very American 'take' on the old country.  Would our Hesch ancestors have recognized what the author describes? 

And...this, from a filler in 1906.  It's still funny! ☺