The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1871-07-20
''The. staE-spangIed Banaer.,'
how IT WAS COMPOSED AND SET TO MUSIC,
AS RELATED BIZ AN oCTOGENARIAN.
'sAnd you knew Francis Kew ?"

AS RELATED BIZ AN OCTOGENARIAN.
"And you knew Francis Key p
''Knew him Why he lived but a
few doors above my fathers house.
There were two brothers, John Ross and
Philip Barton Key. Philip was an Off
Ger 10 the British army during the Revo-
lutionary war, while John was in that Of
the United States. John lived on Pipes
Greek, near Taneytown, Frederick county,
Maryland, where Francis and his sister
Anna, Johns only children were born
| There was an exiled Scolchman, Mr..
Bruce-said to have been heir to the
throne of Scotland-who had built mill
on Pipes Creek, aud there, in the CONS
pany Of this noble old 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. An
na Key was a beautiful little girl, with the
cheerfulest ways and most pleasant face
! ever saw. When they moved into
town, near my fathers Frank was half
| grown, and ready to enter as q law stu
dent with Roger y. fancy, then at the
head of the Frederick bar. Roger was a
tall, gaunt fellow, as lean, they used to
say, as a Potomac herring, and as shrewd
as the shrewdest. He married bright
| little Anna. 1t was like the union OF n
hawk with a sky lark but she lived to
| be the wife of Chief Justice Of the
United States, and l never heard that
either repented Of their marriage. Mr..
fancy was strict Catholic, and Frank
an Episeopalian, not considered very
Jealous and sharp in his profession, and
much given to dreaming. He went 10
Virginia, and brought home wifa much
larger and taller than himself, went to
housekeeping on Market street, and had
a couple of little children when l left
home in 1909 TO seek my fortune in Ian
caster, Pa.
"You have heard of Admiral Cock,
burn, who commanded the British feet
The atr ocious scoundreI Words can
never paint the miserable coward and
boaster in his true colors. After his dep
relations 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 it by land. You know all
about the bom5ardment of Fort NJ Henry,
September 18th, 1914. / have gone
over it 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. 1t was forced out
of him. just think. He was prisoner
on the feet, which was anchored two
miles from Fort M'Henry the city's main
defense. He could watch all the enemy's
preparations and he knew the danger they
foreboded. Through the terrific cannon
aiding 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 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 outburst of the first
verse And then, as through 'the mists
of the deep the banner loomed dimly in
the morning suns first rays, aud he ex-
claimed,
""Tis the star spangled banner OH long may
it wave
Ger the land of the free and the home of the
brave!'
it was prayer and praise all in one; and
there has never been anything Ike it
| since"
Mr. Rendon stopped tc wipe his sweat
ing face with his red bandana handker~
chief, and take a rapid stride across the
floor. He had forgotten his cane and the
weight of his eighty years IN this remin-
iscence Of his strong young manhood ; and
if Admiral CUckburn had that moment
stood before him, in the fesh>and>blood
of his real self, l would have been the
chrenicler of his fate.
"sHave you heard Francis Key F
poem ? said one of our mess, coming in
one evening, as we lay scattered over the
green hills near the captains marquee.
It was rude copy, written in scrawl
which Horace Greeley might have mis-
taken for his own. He read it aloud
once, twice, three times, until the entire
division seemed electrified by its pathetic
elouuence. An idea siezed Ferd. DuranG.
| Hunting up volume of old flute music,
which was in somebody's tent, he impa-
tiently whistled snatches of tune after
tune, just as they caught his quick eye.
One called 'Anacreon in Heaven Il have
played it often, for it was in my book
that he found it, struck his fancy and
riYeted bis attention. Note after note fell
from his puckered lips until, with leap
and a shout, he exclaimed, 'Boys I've
hit it 7 and fitting the tune TO the words,