Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1871-07-07
"The Star Spangled Banner"-.-How
IL was Composed and set to Music,
as related by an Octogeranian.


aThe Star Spangled Banner"-.-How
IL was Composed and set to Music,
as related by an Octogeranian.
"And you knew Francis Key?'
.Knew him! Why he lived but
few doors above my fathers house.
There were once two brothers, John
Ross and Philip Barton Key. Philip
was an officer In the British army
during the Revolutionary war, while
John lived on Pipes Greek near Ta-
neytown, Frederick county, Mary.
land, where Francis and his sister
Annals only children, were born.-
There was an exiled Scotchman, Mr..
Bruce-said to have been heir to the
/ throne of Scokland-who had built
mill on Pipes Creek, and there, in
the company of this noble aristocrat,
Frank spent his very early boyhood.
The brothers, Philip and John, were
large. manly looking fellows, but
Frank and Anna were of much
smaller mould. Anna Key was
beautiful little girl, with the cheer
fullest face and most pleasant smile |
ever saw. When they moved into
town, near D,y fathers, Frank was
half grown, and ready to enter as a
law student with Roger B. Taney,
then mt the head Of the Frederick
bar. Roger was a tall, gaunt fellow,
as lean, they used to say, as Poto-
mac herring, and as shrewd as the
1 shrewdest. He married bright little
rAnnn. It was like the union of
hawk with sky lark but she lived
| to be the wife of Chief Justice of the
United States, and never heard that
either repented their marriage. Mr..
Taney was a strict Catholic, and
Frank an Episcopalian, not consider
ed very jealous and sharp in bis pro.
fession, and much given 10 dreaming.
He went to Virginia, and brought
home wife much larger and taller
than himself, went to house keeping |
OH Market Street, md had n couple |
of little children when | left home
in 1909 to seek my fortune in Lancas.
ter, Pennsylvania.
"You have heard of Admiral Cock
burn, who commanded the British |
fleet? The atrocious scoundrel u
Words can never paint the miserable
coward and boaster in his true colors. |
After his depredations along the
Eastern 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 1t by land. You
know all about the bombardment of
Fort McHenry, Sept. l3, 1914.
have looked over IL again, In fancy,
hundreds of times, aud I'll tell you
Frank Key, patriotic as he was to
his hearts core, could not help COM
posing that poem. It was forced
out Of him. Just think. He was a
prisoner on the fleet, which was an
chored two miles from Fort McHen-
ry, the city's main defense. He
could watch all tho enemy's prepara-
tions 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 course of the flying bombs, do
you think he could sleepp AS the
struggle ceased upon the coming
morning, and he looked through the
dim twilight for the flag OF his coun
try, his heart sick with fear and
doubt, could he help the grand nut
burst of that first verse? And then,
as through the mist of the deep the
banner loomed dimly I'm the morning
SUMS first rays, and he exclaimed,
IT'S the spar-spangled bannerl oh, long may 1t
Ger the land of the free and the home of the
| brave"
1t was prayer and praise all In one,
and there has never been anything
like IL since.p
Mr.. Hendon stopped to wipe his
sweating face with his red bandana
handkerchief, and take few rapid
strides across the floor. lie had for
gotten his cane and the weight of
his eighty years, in this reminis-
cence OF bis strong, young manhood,
and IL Admiral Cockburn had that
moment stood before him, In the
flesh and blood iEsolence of his real
self, / would have been the chroni.
cler OF his fate.
"Have you heard Francis Keys
poem ?" said one Of our mess, COM
Ing i'm one evening, as we lay scatt-
cred over the hill near the captain .
marquee. 1t was a rude copy, and
| written In q scrawl which Horace
Greeley might have mistaken for his
own. He read 1t aloud, once, twice,
three times; until the entire division
seemed electrified by its pathetic elo-
quence. An idea seized Fred Du-
rang. Hunting up q volume of old
flute music, which was i'm some
body's tent, he impatiently whistled
snatches of tune after tune, just as
they caught his quick eye. Once
called 'Anacreon i'm Heaven have
played it often, for it was In my
book that he found 1t, struck his fan
CIV and riveted his attention. Note
after note fell from his puckered lips
until, with a leap and shout he ex-
claimed, Boys, I've hit itp and fit
ing 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 q wedding of poetry to
music made under such inspiring
Influences Getting q furlough, the
brothers sang IL on the stage of Holi-
day Street Theatre soon after. II
was caught up In the camps, and
sang around our bivoux fires, and,
when peace was declared, and we
scattered to our homes, carried TO
thousands Of firesides as the most
precious relic of the war of 1S12.-
Ferdinand Durang died-I do not
know where---and Frank Keys
bones lie in the cemetery at Freder-
icktown; but guess that song will
live as long as there Is an American
boy to sing it.---Mrs. Nellie Eyster, d,
H0rper's Magazine for J1iy.