Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1871-08-26
THE STAR.SPANGLED BANNER.
How il was Composed and Set 10
Music, rs Related by an OctOgena-
rIRn
.,And ynu know Frencis KAY I?

huGW nllll w ny uG uNtu Uul
few doors above my fathers house,
There was once two brothers, John
Ross and Phillip Barton Key. Phillip
was an 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 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 heir to
the throne of Scotland-who had built
mill on Pepe's Creek, and there, in
the company Of his noble old aristO-
crat, Frank spent his very early boy
hood. The brothers, Philip and John,
We're 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 enter as a
law student with Roger b. Taney,
then at the head of the Frederick bar.
Roger was tall, gaunt fellow, as
lean, they used to say, as a Potomac
herring, and as shrewd as the
shrewdest. lie married bright little
Anna.
1t was like the union Of hawk with
the skylark but she lived to be the
wife of chief justice Of the United
States, and / never heard that either
repented of the marriage. Mr.. Taney
was q catholic and Frank an Epis-
cOpalian, not considered very Jealous
and shary in his profession, and much
giving to dreaming. He went to Vii
ginia and brought home wife much
larger and taller than himself, went to
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 scOundrel =
Words can never paint the miserable
coward and boaster in his true.colors.
After his depredations along the east
ern 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 Cf Fort McHenry, Septem-
Der 10, 1914. | have gone over it again,
in 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
he 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:
Ills the Star-SmngIcd BmueE uh long
long may ii wave,
OC'r the land OF the hee and the nome 81
the brave"
1t was prayer and praise, all in one,
and there has never been anything
like it since"
Mr.. IIerndou stopped to wipe his
sweating face with his silk Mlndana
handkerchief, and take n few rapid
strides across the floor He had for.
gotten his cane and the weight Of his
eighty years in this remini3cence OF
his strong young manhood and If
Admiral COCkburn had that moment
stood before him, in the tlcsh-and' blood
insolence ofhis real self, ! would have
been the chronicle of his fate.
"IIave you heard from Francis
Keys poem ~ said one Of our mess,
coming III one evening, as we laid
scattered over the green hill hear the
captains marquee. 1t Wasa rude copy,
and written in a scrawl which Horace
Greely might have mistaken for his
own. lie read it aloud; once, twice,
three times, until tie entire division
seemed electrified by its pathetic eIo-
quence. An idea seized Fred. Durang
Hunting up a volume of old flute
music, which was in somebody's tent,
he impatiently whistled snatches oi
tune after tune, just as they caught
his quick eye, One called 'AnacreOr
in Heaven Il have played it often
for it was in my book that he founC
it, stuck his fancy and rivited his at
tention. Note after note fell from hi,
puckercd lips, until, with leap ant
Shout, he exclaimed, Boys, | havei it p!
and fitting the tune to the words, there
rang out for the first time the song o
tile 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
Tough, the brothers sang 1t on tn
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, and, whel
, peace was declared, and we scattere,
; to our homes, carried TO thousands G
tiresides as the most precious relic G
the war of 1872, Ferdinand Duran
| died-I do notk where and Fran
Keys bones lie in the cemetery q
Fredericktown; but guess that son
will live as long as there is an Amer
can boy to sing it,"
SEASONING OF W0oD.--Au Englis
writer states that smallpieces ofnou