The native American., 1838-01-27
OLD TIMES AND OLD RHYMES.
[From ne B,wliagton Free Press

n r lA'o"" We DuffuStOH Ffee ffsso.J
The editor Of the National Gazette has recently
called Tor some oft the Revolutionary popular songs,
and last week he gave '.Come out ye Continen-
talers," and limited that means were at hand to
preserve vast many from that oblivion to which
they are fast Fastening
We are fearful that the hand of afiectionate
diligence will never bring back those lyrics which
cheered the "Continentalers in their labors and
suiterings. Too many of them have passed
away-the hands in which they were stored are
cold beneath the sod, or pasied with age. Some
years since, we made effort to empty the store-
house OF memory of a mass of rhyme, which we
had in boyish days picked up from those who
had sung them, or heard them sung by the revo-
lutionary soldiers, and our recollection was then
SO strong, that we found materials there, and in
some scraps that we had laid away, for small
volume, and had looked forward to publication
OF poetical productions where the " measure :"
would rather have reference to the number than
the length of the lines.
In the pride of our heart, we kept this store
in sight, and only dreamed of the pleasure Of
editing such volume as it would make; but in an
evil hour 1t was deemed advisable that our room
should be cleared up, and the whole mass OF
manuscript was put to the inglorious use of light
ing fire beneath the pot Of the vandal that was
scrubbing thelroom. The evil we have before
an allliction to be remembered
and to be spoken Of
4 There was song in which the British were
tainted with certain losses. One verse will show
it's character: % F
20 to your King, and to him say, -3
Call home his troops, call them away,
Il Lest Prescor's fate they share;
i For Barton with his sling and stone, H,
i Hath knocked your great Goliath down,
i And caught him in a snare.
II - + .# { Ill.
j Another song, which certainly had the merit
lof energy, thus commenced:
The Stygan God, great Bezebub e.
| With Butte and North, his fa,orite club,
| In Pandemonium met;
| Where they with all their internal host,
Fl Which Heaven and Liberty had lost
Foamed with invidious sweat
4 Some twenty or thirty verses of such measure
and tone as the above, must have had an effect
equal to a bass drum and bassoon, instruments
not then in use among the soldiery of the coun-
! TRY.
j Another song seemed to regard England Great
Britain was not then much spoken Of as ap-
preaching her end. 1t was a sort of death-bed
confession. The poet thus starts off:
As old England dying, and making her last moan,
ri She spoke her last word with deep sigh and groan,
j Saying cursed be ambition and hypocrisy
81 Adieu to this world, for tis all vanity.
4 The song then proceeds to detail the conquests
f|of England, imputing all to the valor of the
, provinces:
In fighting with France it was nothing but play,
i For then was IN company with North America.
And certain victories over Spain
i ---------------- were nothing but pride,
For then my daughter America taught by my side"
i Over-reaching ambition is thus confessed:
] 1t was to st. Eustatia, my shame for to tell
She'd nothing to defend her and knew it very well.
4 Such songs as these, wSfear, are fast passing
away We see none of them in the ballads, and
do not know where to look for them. If our
lneighbor of the Gazette can "ro back the
tide Of song" and brighten up these forgotten
pieces, he will do service.