The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-08-14
" HOME, SWEET HOME"

The Circumstances Under Which job" Ho,eor
Payne Wrote the Song.
| Brooklyn Eagle.
Mr.. Payne on one occasion in 1885
| while at New Orleans, when questiOne'
| on the subject of the music of "Home
| Sweet Home" told his personal friend
Mr.. JOS. Rees, of Philadelphia, that tn
air was not wholly original with Mr.
Bishop, and related the following pleas
ant anecdote concerning it. He said
81 first heard the air in Italy. On
beautiful summer morning as 1 wa
strolling alone amid some delightful
scenery, my attention was arrested BY
the sweet voice of q peasant girl wht
was carrying basket laden with flower.
and vegetables. This plaintive air sh;
trilled out with SO much sweetness an6
simplicity that the melody at once
caught my fancy. 1 accosted her, and
after few moments conversation,
asked for the name of the song, which
she could not give me, but having 6
si. hit knowledge of music myself,
barely enough for the purpose, I re-
quested her to repeat the air, which she
did while 1 dotted down the notes as
best I could. It was the air that sug.
gested the words of Home. Sweet
Home, both of which sent to Bishop,
at the time L was preparing the opera OF
'Clari' for Mr.. Kemble. Bishop hap
pened to know the air perfectly well,
and adapted the music to the words. ="
This statement is fully sustained in the
letters Of Mr.. Payne to Mr.. Bishop,
which are introduced in the volume.
There have been many ridiculous
statements made as to the circumstances
in1, 70 J, g
of his celebrated song. "Some," says
his biographer, shave stated that he
was residing in London at the time,
without shilling in his pocket; others
have stated that 'on q stormy night,
beneath the dim Pickering of London
street-lamp, gaunt and hungry, and
without a place te shelter his poor,
shivering body, he wrote his inspired
song upon piece of ragged paper picked
from the sidewalk.
This was not so. The letter of Mr..
Payne above quoted proves directly to
the contrary. We see by his acknowl-
edgement to Bishop of the receipt of
eighty pounds that he was comfortably
situated when preparing "Clari" for
the stage. We admit that Mr.. Payne
never, at any period of his eventful life,
accumulated any considerable amount
of wealth; but those who know the
state of his circumstances knew that he
never was a street pauper. In a still
later communication to Bishop is an
other acknowledgement for fifty pounds
on the sum of two hundred and fifty,
which he was to receive for the three
dramas entitled, Ali Pacha, The Two
Galley Slaves, and CLAIR, all of which
were produced at the Covent Garden
Theater, under the management of Mr..
Charles Kembie.
Mr.. Payne has never been "let alone;"
almost every thing he ever did has been
doubted, and it is somewhat surprising
that his consulshiP at Tunis has not
been denied him, but what of that :?
Fools have been found who doubted
that Shakespeare wrote his own plays,
and that Poe was the author of the
Raven" and, with all their mooting
of the question, they never could find
any one else who did perform the works.
At one time it was stated that Mr..
Payne did not write the words of "Home,
Sweet Home I" The assertion called
forth inquiry. Washington Irving was
applied to on the subject, and his reply
was, that he had been unable to dis
cover who else did, and he could see 70
reason for doubling the authorship.