The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1871-08-24
THE STAR.SPANGLED BANNER.
How il was Composed and bct TO
Music, Rs Related by an OctOgcna-
rlRn.

Music, ms Related by an OctORchn'
rlan.
"And yNl knew FRI ncis KG?o
"Knew him! Why he lived but u
few doors above my fathers house.
There was once two brothers, John
Ross and Phillip Barton Key. Phillip
was al officer in the British army dur
ing the revolutionary war, while John
was in that of the United States. John
lived on Pope's creek, near Taney-
town, Frederick county, Maryland,
where Francis and his sister Anna,
Johns only children, were born.
There was an exiled Scotchman,
Mr.. Bruce-said to have been heir to
the throne of Scotland-whO had built
q mill on Pope's Creek, and there, III
the company of his noble old aristo-
crat. Frank spent his very early boy
hood. The brothers, Philip and John,
were large, manipulating fellows,
but Frank and Anna were of much
smaller mould. Anna Key was a
beautiful little girl, with the cheerful
est face and most pleasant smile |
ever saw. When they moved into
town, near my fathers, Frank was
half grown up, and ready to enteras Il
law student with Roger B. fancy,
then at the head Of the Frederick bar.
Roger was q tall, gaunt fellow, as
lean, they used to say, as a Potomac
herring, and as shrewd rs the
shrewdest. He married bright little
Anna.
1t was like the union of II hawk With
the skylark; but she lived to be the
wife of a chief justice of the United
States, and [ never heard that either
repented of the marriage. Mr.. Taney
was q catholic and Frank an Epis-
copalan, not considered very jealous
and shary in his profession, and much
giving to dreaming. lie went to Viz
ginia and brought home n wife much
larger and taller than himself, wentto
housekeeping on Market street, and
had couple of little children when |
left home in 1909 to seek my fortune in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
"You have heard of Admiral Cock
burn, who commanded the British
fleet! The atrOcious scoundrcl =
Words can never paint the miserable
coward and boaster in his true colors.
After his depredations along the east.
crn shore of Maryland, there followed
the sacking of Washington, the battle
OF North Point, and the attempt of the
enemy to take the city of Baltimore
by water, as they had failed to DO by
land. You know all about the bonn
bardment of Fort McHenry, Septem-
Der IS, 1911. | have gone over it again,
i'm fancy, hundreds of times, and | tell
you Frank Key, patriotic as he was to
hearts core, could not help composing
that poem. 1t was forced out of him.
Just think He was a prisoner on
the fleet, which was anchored in two
miles of Fort McHenry, the city's de.
fence. He could watch all the enemy's
preparations, and he knew the danger
they foreboded. Through the terrific
cannOnading of that midnight fight,
while the sky was lit up with the fiery
courses of the flying bombs, do you
think he could sleep? AS the trouble
ceased upon the coming morning, and
lie looked through the dim twilight
for the flag of his country, his heart
was sick with fear and doubt, could he
help the grand outburst of that first
verse? And then, as through the
mists of the deep the banner lOomed
dimly in the morning SUMS first rays,
and he exclaimed:
"Tis the Star-Spangled banner. uI long
| long may 1t wave,
| O,'r tho land of the fee and the home 81
| the biavc!'
1t was prayer and praise, all in one,
and there has never been anything
like it since"
Mr.. Hcrndon stopped to wipe his
sweating face with his silk bandana
handkerchief, and take u few rapid
strides across the floor. He had for
gotten his cane and the weight OF his
eighty years in this "Reminiscences OF
his strong young manhood; and il
Admiral CoCkburn had that moment
stood before him, in the flesh-and' blood
insOlence of his real self, ] would have
been the chronicle of his fate.
"Have you heard from Francis
Keys poem " said one of our mess,
coming in one evening, as we laid
scattered over the green hill Gear the
captains marquee. 1t wasa rude copy
and written in scraWl which Horace
Greely might have mistaken for his
own. He read il aloud; once, twice,
three times, until TIE entire division
seemed electrified by its pathetic elo-
qlence. An idea seized Fred. Durang
Hunting up volume Of old flute.
music, which was i'm somebody's tent
he impatiently whistled snatches ol
tune after tune, just as they caught
his quick eye, One called 'AnaGeon
in Heaven U have played it often
for it was i'm my book that he found
it,, stuck his fancy and rivted his at
tentiOn. Note after note fell from his
puckercd lips, until, with leap and
Shout, he exclaimed, Boys, l have it !.
and fitting the tune to the words, there
rang out for the first time the song o
the Star-Spangled Banner.
"How the men shouted and clapped,
for never was there wedding of poe
try to music made under such inspir'
ing influences Getting brief fur
lough, the brothers sang it on the
stage of Holiday street theatre sOol
, after. at was caught up in the camps
and sang around our bivouac fires, ant
, whistled in the streets, ami, Nhr'
peace was declared, and we scattsre,
to our homes, carried to thousands o
firesides as the most precious relic o
: the war of 1872. Ferdinand Duranl
died. do not know where-and Franl
. Keys bones lie i'm the cemetery n
FrederlcktOwn; but ] guess that son,
! will live as long as there is al Ameri
, can boy to sing it,"
SEASONING OF Woop.-An Englis