The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1876-02-25
YANKEE DOODLE.
History and Words OF the National Song.
From the Worcester Spy.l

| not so wild in their guessing as they
might be- 1t has been said, and believed,
that this tune was composed in 1755, by
DIR. Shackburg, of the British army.
for the New England troops that fought
with the British against the French, at
Niagara and Fontenac. 1t may be or it
may not be true, that he brought it to
the attention of the New Englanders at
time; but it is certain that he did not
compose it. 1t was known in England
at the time of Charles First; and, in the
time of the second Charles, it was used
for a song on lady of questionable
character, which has since become a
nursery song:
Lucy LccIet lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it:
Nothing in it, nothing il it,
But the binding round it, ete-,
In times not much later the English
had Yandee Doodle in Kent, and sang
the tune to popular song which begins
thus:
Yankee Doodle came to town
Upon Kentish pony,
He stuck feather in his hat
And called it Macaroni.
Evart A. Duyckinck, after considera-
BILE investigation, suggested that the tune
originally came from Holland, and re-
ferred to an old Dutch harvest song,
which has this refrain:
Yankee didle, doodle down,
Didel doodle danter,
Yankee viver, vOOver vown,
Buttermilk and Talther.
The pay of the harvesters was butter
milk for drink, and one-tenth of the
grain they harvested. Hence, the last
line Of the chorus, which means "butter-
milk and one-tenth." This old song, with
its tune, our Yankee Doodle, has been
current in Holland and the low countries
from ''time immemorial There is good
reason to believe the tune originated
there. 1t is manifest that our Yankee
Doodle was originally and anciently
Dutchman, jolly gentleman of the low
countries, who came to us through En-
gland, was gladly naturalized, and at
length advanced to high honors. In the
time of the Revolution, the song for
which yankee Doodle was most used,
may have been first written as burlesque
and then revised with a more genial aim.
1t has come down to us in the following
form, with the accompaniment of several
''various readings The chorus must,
of course, be sung after each stanza:
YANKEE DOODLE AT THE CAMP.
Father and went down to camp,
Along with Captain GOOding,
And there we see the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding.
Yankee Doodle, keep it ur,
Yankee Doodle, Dandy,
Mind the music, keep the step,
And with the girls be handy.
And there we see thousand men,
As rich as Squire David,
And what they wasted every day,
wish it could be saved
The 'lasses eaten there each day,
Would keep an house a winter;
They have so much that I'll be bound
They eat when they're mind to.
And there we see swamping gun,
Large as log of maple,
Upon a deuced little cart,
A load for fathers cattle
And every day they shoot it of,
1t takes horn of powder,
And makes a noise like fathers gun,
Only nation louder.
went as nigh to one myself,
AS Siah's underpinning;
And father went as nigh again,
thought the deuce was in him,
And cousin Simon grew so bold,
Thought he would have cooked it,
1t scared me so shrink'd it off,
And hung by fathers pocket.
And Captain Davis had gun,
He kind of clapped his hand ont,
And stuck crooked stabblng iron
Upon the little end ont
And there l seen pumpkin shell
As big as mothers bason;
And every time they worked it off,
They seamperd like the nation.
l see lettle barrel, too,
The heads were made of leather;
They knocked upon it with little club
And called the folks together.
And there was Captain Washington,
Upon a stripping stallion,
And giving orders to his men;
guess there was million.
And then the feathers on his hat,
They looked so tarnal fine,
WANTED pOckily to get
To give to my Jemima.
And there they'd fife away like fun,
And play on cornstalk fiddles,
And some had ribbons red as blood
ALI wound around their middles.
The troopers, too, would gallop up,
And fire right in our faces:
1t scarei me almost half to death
To see them run such races.
1t scared me so IhoOk'd it of,
Nor stopped, as | remember,
Nor turned about till got home,
And safe in mothers chamber.