Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1863-07-10
Miscellaneous.
Yankee Doodle.


In the quiet Of the evening, as sat in my
nom, looking broadly out upon Trafalgar
Square my thoughts ran back over my rapid
ligzag run through Continental Europe, and
and inevitably compared the free
Institutional popular lmonarcby of England
With imperial France, imperiOus Austria, and
hg1ied Italy. | thought of the great bat
ties Of modern timcs-those terrible davs of
Slaughter that have taken their names from
The fields soaked with human blOod-not one
them was fought on British soil. though in
-inc of them the British soldier was in the
,tic5eet of the battle. and under British lead
IT covered their arms with glory. The stat
ges Of George ". and Charles l. were fading
the twilight. and the lion of the Percy'S
Igh-b1rn race, and the lofty column and
llpturcd monument of Nelson, whose great
Il achievement gave its name to the square.
ssre duskily relieved against the sky. | was
that dreamy mood IN which the viii seems
give up the mind to the control of associa-
u, and images come and 20 with as little
,unce rs the phantasmagoria of actual
-ams-Arms and Literature-ChevyC Chase
Bannockburn. and Marston Moor and
B1yne-and Wellington, and Cromwell,
marlborough. and Nelson, came and went,
arrested by the strain Of a strolling musi-
l. who, with a gentle instrument like
.llct, whose tones were quite in harmony
. T-nv thoughts. struck up the air Of Yam
@1oodlc. Let any one, who for months has
al absorbed with scenes 50 unlike anything
-erican, judge how, for a moment, every
n- European would vanish even more
ekly than phantasmagoria, and home,
friends, and cOuntry-the success Of our
ms, and the pride of our national glory,
l.d fll his heart with the JOY Of affection,
hi, eve with those waters that well up
ID the deepest springs of the SOUL was
ilrcly overcome 10y it. | remember freshly
Fln it was fashionable to laugh at Yankee
ode, as a vulgar air, written to make fun
oar extempore Yankee soldiers of olden
1c. How it was written by DR.. Shack
rsb, or some one else, and given to the
1ukcc soldiers as celebrated European air,
\ udicule their fondness for European fash
! l1,. Notwithstanding all its simplicity,
4 troops have kept time to its measures on
their fields of glory-and it is quite i'm
I .sible 10 imagine an air more perfectly fit
y % the national tone Of such people as
Pm. As we have grown stronger and greater
as the stars and stripes have ioated higher
p higher. over more and more fields of tri-
Bpm, 50 Yankee Doodle has risen in the
|,ale Of merit, and. believe, it is at last dis
II 7ercd 10 bc not new, nor an American
r. nor burlesque, nor a musical drollery
but It Is found. among the most precious
lsical archives of do not know how many
| sffal Il t..l
selected for Immortality, by the sitting of
. Of traditional popular harmony. 1t is,
ed, among the music Of the nations. Its
L have vibrated with the heart-strinss of
Tcople in all ages The Alpine echoes
repeated Its strains-it has more than
roken out among the ariozo trills and
f, Of emasculated ltaly-the Suliote has
-el TO 1t in the forest glades of Greece
11e has been made insane by it-Crom-
H 'sl his troopers to it's resistless quick
"A E-"nd Ziska 5 Invincible Brethren strobe
ls u. mlraculous triumphs in the spirit of its
.-1 1'as measures. One writing from this
% New York, in 1913, said; Oddly
'a' the staple air of the Grand Quad
al Nations at the Opera House is
zee Doodle, which pervades the entire COM
70 ana gives 1t most of its character"
- how all the nations at the sound of
mote struck of into its harmonies
one say with a sneer or a sardonic
uiat the strains of lS4S were short
music evanescent. The instrument
nLoken-the music is not lost-the
,''., '.1i knows that it will yet burst forth
d Ahl"s whether in years or in ages
IN ,ie- i,~tllins and universal symphonies
II hH,,t,' great ra-dance of nations thew
c.n..,.'.l.f s.i'lf measure from Yankee Doodle.
an5 .-H ..i'l'nal liberty will marshal the
rlr, - t''i :, The tgures.-A Run THROUGH