Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1857-10-06
The Songs Of the Nation.

WE find the following exquisite para
graphs in the n. Y. Tribune" in an
article defending Americans from the
charge that they do not appreciate songs.
The writer has music in his soul:
We would not exchange the profound
reverence with which a Yorker receives
Lilly Dale" or NV GOODMAN spare that
Tree" or The Old Folks at Home as
IN some sort stammerIng utterance of
his best hopes and sweetest "reminiscences
for all the senSuous and dehpuscent rap
lures Of Southern shores
What song is, and by what rules it
should be constructed, remains 10 this day
an. unsolved and luscrutable problem -
Horace, with all his art poetcaI, would
have been puzzled to say by what method
he composed 'sUNC EST BIBENDUM, ixthe
most joyous and fascinating of Laeamel-
odies. OF all singers, il may best be.said d
OF the song-singer that he is born, and
not made. These harmon;es of the heart
are always bursting upon us like angels,
without the drill OF colleges or drum of
discipline. From the Ayrshire cottage of
Burns, from the garret of Carey, from
the printing house of Beranger, from
shrinking women and from unlettered
men, come the melodies which fasten
themselves upon the life of the world.
The song Is written, nobody knows how,
or when, or where. Often, like the
''MarseilIaise," it is the accident of an
accident. Often, like little founding,
1t ventures into the earth, without pater-
nifty, ami first winning by its honest hui
manty the affection OF the street or the
cottage, walls Its way TO the affection of
the palace. Poor Howard Payne, sitting
IN his lonesome London chamber, hard
at work by manufacture and adaptation,
and Heaven knows by what other re-
sources, constructing his ''Naid of Milan
for manager greedy of novelties, feels
some old thought come over him of Boston
or New York, and of boyish triumphs
there, marries "Home, Sweet Home to
a Siclllan air, and the world catches the
complaint of his homesick heart, and will
sing it for a century. \ young lawyer in
Philadelphia is asked for song By an
actor whose benefit night does not appear
10 be the most lucrative; he dashed on
Hail Columbia :" and to this day he Is
chanted by gIee singers, played 10y brass
bands, and Whistled upon the fOrecastle
OF ships sailing about Cape Horn. We
remember that Prof. Wilson undertook to
prove-we think in one of the IN octes' =
that Tom Moore could not write a song
yet there is no land upon this globe that
has not listened 10 "Oft IN the SulyNight,"
"Mary's Tears" and There's Nothing
True but Heaven"
The song floats into existence as a
priceless waif, a most opulent estray, an
anonymous donation, a love gift of the
modest and kindly to the kind and retiring.
The masses taking up the cheerful carroll
or the minor plant, seldom iIquire whose
master hand struck the key note of their
unfathomed erudtion. How many gal
liant tars, roaring out the bay of Blscay,"
know who wrote 1t! How many grim
whiskered soldiers, singing, with unus-
ual tears, ''Annie Laurie" in the tren-
ches Of Sebastopol, have heard of the
pure hearted woman whose fair hand first
wrote .'Maxwelton braes are bonnie -
The singer Of songs must be content to
find IN his vocation ''Its own exceeding
great reward" Not less, however, should
be our gratitude toward those who have
cheered our loneliness, elevated our
hopes or assuaged our grief.
The song is especially the property of
the people. Il Is pleasant therefore, aud
encouraging to end that the people IN
clines 10 the decorous, the chaste and the
affecuonate, and eschews the coarse, the
ribald and the heartIess. OF dozen bal
lads purchased of a hawl<er yesterday, we
found but one which might not be sung
by modest woman. A recapitulatlon OF
the titles will at once recall to the reader
The character of these productions. We
have 'Annie Laurie ellen Bayne," :"
''Song of the Farmer" ''The Dying Ca
lifornian," Willie, we have missed you" j"
"Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair,
"Cheer, boys, cheer" and "Let US speak
of a man, as we find him, - productions
of widely different poetical merit, but all
of them honest and true in their senti-
ments. and decorous In their expression.
Nor do we discover in those which are
designedly grotesque, any unpardona bic
violation of taste. The best Of US have
laughed at John Perry's inimitable ''Nilli-
iins and his Dinah,' for now and then
we all relish a little nonsense. Our scru-
tiny of our purchase was certainly salts
factory We found, as we have said, but
one song to which we could object and
that recited the delinquencies of Rever-
end gentleman in Boston.