The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1857-09-05
The Songs Of the Nation.

We find the following exquisite paragraph
IN the New York TriJune, in an article de.
lending the Americans from the charge that
they DO not appreciate songs The writer
has music in his soul:
1--WE would not exchange the nrof,nnJ
reverence with which Yorker receives
4 LILLY Dale" or "Woodman 4" Spare That
Tree" or "Oid FClns at Home" as in some
sort, a stammering utierance Of his bes.
hopes and sweetest "reminiscences, for all the
sensuous and delin9u:scent raptures of the
southern shores.
What song is, and by what rule it should
be constructed, reuaias TO this day an un-
solved and inscrutable problem. Horace,
with all his art poetical, would have been
puzzled to say by what method be compos.
ed "bunc est bibeHtum," the most Joyous
and fascinating OF Latin melodies. or all
singers, it may he best said Of the song sing
or that he is born and not made These
harmoDists Of the heart are always bursting
upon Us Ike angels, without the drill of
college or the drum OF the discipline. From
the ayrshire cottese u Burns, fron the cot
tagc OF Carey, from the printing house Of
/ BerTanger, from shr hiking women and from
! unIettered 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 life the Mar
sciIlaise," it is the accident Of an accident
Often, like a foundng, it comes into the
world without paternity, first winning by it's
honest humanity the affection Of the street,
OF the cottage, and walls lis way to the af-
feet on Of the palace. Poor Howard Payne,
sitting in his lonely London chamber, hard
at work by Manufacture and adoption, and
heaven knows by what other resources,
constructing his maid OF Milan" for q
manager greedy Of novelties, feels some old
thought come over him, of Boston or New
York, and Of boyish triumphs there, marIics
Home, Sweet Home" TO a Sci Ian air, and
the world catches the complaint Of his home
sick heart, and will sing it for 4 ce' tury A
young lawyer in Philadelphia i, asked for q
song by an actor whose benefit nig docs
not promise to be most lucrative; he dashes
off - Hail Columbia.' aud to this day he is
chanted BY glee-singers, played by brass
bands, and whi>t!ed upon the forccastle OF
ships sailing about Cape Horn. We re-
member that Prof Wilson undertook to
prOve-we think in one Of the "Noctes -
that Tom Moore could not write a song yet
there is no land upon this globe that has
not listened to "Oft in the Silly Night"
''Mary's Tcar-," and There's NJthing Pure
but Heaven"
The song h,lts into existence priceless
waif, a most opuient estray, and an anony-
nous donation, a love gift Of the modest
and kindly, the kind and retiring. The
masses. taking up the cheerful chord or the
minor plant, seldom inquire whose master
hand struck the key note Of their unfath-
omed crudition. How many gallant tars
roaring out - The Bay Of Biscay,' know
who wrote i? How many srimmed whis-
kereI soldiers, singing with unusual tears
" Annie Laurie ~ the trenches Of Sebas-
t5p0l, have heard Of the pure-hoarted wo-
man whose white hand first wrote Max
wcl:on braes are bony:" The singer Of
songs must 5s f9F{snt tat aaP4 tG aP4f in hi Tss
however, should be cur gratitude towards
those who have cheered our loneliness, ele-
waited our hopes or assuaged our grief.
The sons is especially the property of the
people. 1t Is pleasant, therefore, and encou.
raging - find that the taste Of the people in
cljucs to lhe decorous, the cEastened, the ai-
fectionate, and eSchcws the coarse, the ri
bald and the heartless. OF dozen ballads
purchased Of q hawker the other day, We
found but one which might not be sung by
modest woman. \ recapitulation Of the Ii
ties will at once recal. 10 the reader the cha
ractcr Of the productions. We have An
ME Laurie, &" Ellen Bayne," Song of the
Farmer the Dying Californian, Willie,
We Have " sscJ You" Jennie with the
light brown hair Cheer boys, Cheer"
Z" Let Us speak of d man as we find him.
productions widely differing in poetcal me-
rit, but all Of them honest and true in their
sentiments, and decorous in their. express
sion. Nor DO we discover in those which
are designated grotesque, any unpardonable
OF taste. The best of Us have
laughed at John Perry's inimtable "Villi-
kns and his Dnah ~ now and then we relish
a little nonsense. Our scrutiny Of our pur-
chase was certainly satisfactory. We found
as We have said, but one song TO which We
could object, and that rec.ted the deinqueI-
cies Of a reverend gentleman in Boston.'