Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1861-03-21
where Yankee Doodle Came
From.

B. II. Taylor, Of the Chicago journal,
writes as follows in regard TO Yankee
Doodle: t.HIe I..t ..I..r
We have heard traveller tell, when he
was floating down some lazy river in the
"drowsy East" how Yankee Doodle, in
accurately wbistled by q boatman who
had been all over the world, took him
back home in moment, as neither "Hail
Columbia" or the "Star Spangled Ban
ner" could; took him back home, and set
him down on the orchard fence, under
the lee OF the old cider-mill, with knife
in one hand and pine stick in the other,
morning light on his brow and hope in
his heart. And we believe the story; for,
without sentiment or sweetness, or 10 any
thing we most esteem in music, there is
something in the merry warble of Yankee
Doodle that will charm out Of its hiding
the least lurking atom Of Yankee spirit.
And yet, after all, this idle little tune,
that is whistled around New England
homes, as common as the winds, is YER
Itable Don, and came from Spain, where
they dance such a solemn thing as a min
uet, MADE, as we are credibly informed,
Of coupee, a high step, and balance;
Spain, where everything is so lofty and
sonorous. We are sure Yankee Doodle
must have moved little merrier since it
came to America.
Open the Atlas to the map Of Spain,
and glance along the northern border,
until you come to st. Sebastian, one of
the keys of the kingdom, on the Bay of
Biscay Back of the indented coast bris-
tie, like lines of bayonets, the serried
ranks of the Pyrenese. Now in all those
valleys and among those m mountains, from
Folosa the capitol of Guipuzcoa, many a
league, to Oviedo, the capital of Austrias,
the people sing our Yankee Doodle!--
They have nothing to say, to be sure. OF
the dandy" nor the difficulty there was
in seeing the town, "there were so many
houses" for the words they sing are
Basque, but the music is as Yankee as Il
guess" ....-......
Go into the Plaza of St. Sebastian, on
market days, as the American Vice-C Jon
sui at that port declares, when it is
thronged with girls and women rom all
the regions round about, and you shall
hear sung and hummed, and wbistled.
our own veritable Yankee Doodle. Ac-
cost one after another, no matter whence
they hail. from Irun or Tolosa, or Odu-
ma, or Vetgara, and they all smile at your
question, and all know Yankee Doodle.
1t is evidently mountain air of the Pyr-
enese, and household tune.
We have no knowledge that the royal
bands of the Castilian Court ever play it,
or that it is the fashion in Cadiz or To-
ledo. but it is certainly quite at home
along the Bay of Biscay. Some British
tar. maybe, caught the air as he went
ashore on market day, carried il aboard,
trolled it over in the dog watch, it prov
ed contagious, and so he and his ship
mates carried it to England; from the
forecastle it went andward to the garri-
son; thence on its upward way, from the
Spanish peasants of the Pyrenese. to the
scarlet and gold-laced gentry of the Off
GERS quarters. opp
The rest of the journey is easily traced;
it crossed the Atlantic in soldiers head
and he launched it at the absurd fellows
that worked at hedging and ditching, not
a great way from Boston, on hot night
in June, a number Of years ago. 1t was
a ridiculous tune to put ridiculous peo-
pie to; it was good joke. and he perpe-
trated it, and the Yankees knew how to
take it. 1t proved to be worth as much
to them as a shipment of trusty blades
from Toledo. Ir rr..T -t.