The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1871-08-11
1.-THE STAR sPANOlED BANNER. !"
HOW fr WAS COMPOSED AND SET TO MUSIC,
As RELATED BY AN oCroaENAMAN.

HOW rr WAS COMPOSED AND SET TO MUSIC,
As RELATED By AN ocroaEsAMAN.
"And you knew Francis Keyp
"Knew him! Why he lived but q
few doors above my fathers house.
There were once two brothers, John
Ross and Phillip Barton Key. Phil
lip was an officer in the British army
during the Revolutionary war, while
John was in that OF the United States.
John lived on Pipe o creek, near fancy
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 sn heir to
the throne of Scotland-who bad
built q mill on Pipes creek, and
there, in company of this noble old
aristocrat, Frank spent bis early
boyhood. The brothers. Phillip and
John, were large, manly looking fell
lows, but Frank and Anna were Of
much smaller mould. Anna Key was
beautiful girl, with the cheerfulest
face and most pleasant smile l ever
saw. When they moved into town,
near my fathers house. Frank was half
grown, and ready to enter as a law
student with Roger b. Taney. then
at the head OF the Frederick bar.
Roger was tall, guantfellow, as lean,
they used to say, as q Potomac her.
ring, and as shrewd as the shrewdest.
He married bright little Anna. 1t
was like the union OF hawk with q
sky lark; but she lived to be the wife
of Chief Justice Of the United States,
and / never heard that either re-
pented of their marriage. Mr.
Taney was q strict Catholic and Frank
an Episcopalian, not considered very
jealous and sharp in his profession,
and much given to dreaming. He
went to Virginia and brought home q
wife much larger and taller than him
self, went TO housekeeping on Market
street, ard had a couple of little chill
dren when I left home in 1909 TO
seek my fortune in Lanchester, Penn
sylvania. >
"You have heard OF Admiral Cock
burn, who commanded the British
fleet? The atrocious scoundrel! !!
Words can never paint the miserable
coward and boaster in his true colors.
After his depredations along the cas-
tern shore of Maryland, there followed
the sacking OF Washington. the bat
tie of North Point. and the attempts
of the enemy TO take the city Of Bal
timore by water, as they had failed to
do il by land. You know all about
the bombardment of Fort M'Henry,
September 13, 1914. I have gone
over il again. in fancy, hundreds of
times, and I'll tell you Frank Key,
patriotic as he was to his hearts core,
could not help composing that poem.
It was forced QUITO him. Just think.
He was q prisoner on the fleet which
was anchored two miles from Fort
NJ Henry, the city's main defense.
He could watch all the enemy's prep
arations, and he knew the danger they
foreboded. Through the terrific can
nonading OF that midnight fight. while
the sky was lit up with the fiery cour-
ses of the flying pomps. do you think
he could sleep? As the struggle ceased
upon the coming morning, and he look
ed through the dim twilight for the
flag Of his country, his heart sick with
fear and doubt. could he help the
grand outburst of that first verse2
And then. as though the mists Of the
deep, the banner loomed dimly in
the moring sun'srays, and he exclain-
ed,
"'Tis the star spsngied Banner. oh. long may
Ore the land Of the free and tn. homo Of the
brave"
it was prayer and praise all in one;-
and there has never been anything
like it since"
Mr.. Hendon stopped to wipe his
sweating face with his red bandana
handkerchief and take few rapid
strides across the floor. He had for
gotten his cane and the weight of his
eighty years in this reminiscence of
his strong Young manhood and If
Admiral Cockburn had that moment
stood before him, in the flesh and
blood insolence of real self, would
have been the chronicler of his fate.
"tHave you heard of Francis
Keys poemY said one of the mess,
coming in one evening, as we lay
scattered over the green hill near the
captains marquee. It was rude
copy, and written in scrawl which
Horace Greeley might have mistaken
for his own. He read it aloud, once,
twice, three times, until thesentire
division seemed electrified by its pa
thetic eloquence. An idea seized
Fred Durang. Hunting up VOLUME
of old flute music, which was in
somebody's tent, he impatiently whis-
tied snatches of tune after tune, just
as they caught his quick eye. One,
called 'Anacreon in Heaven Ct have
played it often, for it was in my book
that he found it), struck his fancy
and rivited his attention. Note after
note fell upon his puckered lips un-
til, with leap and shout, he ex-
claimed, Boys, I've hit itp and fit-
ting the tune TO the words, there
rang out for the first time the song of
the Star Spangled Banner How the
men shouted and clapped, for never
was there wedding of poetry to music
made undersuoh inspiring infuencesl
Getting brief furlough. the brothers
sang it on the stage Of Holiday Street
Theatre soon after, It was caught
up in the camps. and sang around