Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-04-12
TIE ORIGIN Of yANxEE DOODLE.


TIE ORIGIN Of yANzEE DOODLE.
Some time ago Mr.. Benson ]. Los
sing communicated to the Pough-
keepsie IN. " Eagle, tho following
historical account of the origin of
Yankee Doodle, which perhaps has
not met the eyes Of some OF our read
ers, and which in this centennial
year has peculiar interest. A friend
kindly furnishes US the copy, having
clipped it from paper several years
ago and preserved it:
Permit me to correct an error In
your paper of this morning. You
quote verse of poem commencing,
"once on time Old Johnny Bull"
to show the correct metre of Yankee
Doodle, and speak of it as the "orig-
inal song This is an error. The
poem from which you quote was
written from Geo. p. Morris few
wears ago, and is entitled "The Or
iginal of Yankee Doodle" 1t was
written for and sung by the Hutch
inson family, You will find it in the
latest edition Of Morris Poems.
The original song of Yankee Doo-
die, if we trace it to its germ, has
considerable antiquity. The tune
was known as early as the time Of
Charles the First, when nursery
song had these words:
Lucy Iocket lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it;
Net biz of money in It,
OEly binding round it"
In the time of the Roundheads-
the period of Cromwell's Protector
ate-when Italian fashions being in
troduced into England were ridiculed
by the satirists and preached against
10y tho Puritan clergy, we find the
following verse to the same tune.
Here we have Yankee Doodle in
name for the first time:
Yankee Doodle came to town
Upon q kentish pony;
lie stuck feather in his hat
Ana Called IL MriCcdfoHi.
Maccaroni, at that time, signified
a dandy with Italian fashions. Some
have supposed that it was written
lv royalist to satirize Cromwell,
who "wore feather in his hat"
The "original song" SO far as
Americans are concerned was writ
ten, it is supposed, in the spring OF
1875, after the skirmishes at Lex
ington and Concord. ! subjoin a
copy, as printed by Isaiah Thomas,
author of the History OF Printing"
in 1918. 1t is called the yankees
Return from Camp"
Father and went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding,
And there We see the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding,
CHORUS.
Yankee Doodle keep it up
Yankee Doodle. Dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
And there we see a thousand men
As rich rs Squire David;
And what they wasted every day,
] wish 1t could be saved
Tie 'lasses they eat every day,
Would keep our house winter
They have us much that, I'll be bound,
They eat 1t when they re mind Ter.
And there we see n swamping gun,
Large rs a log of maple,
Upon deuced little cart,
A load Tor fathers cattle.
And every time they shoot 1t of,
Ii takes a horn OF powder,
And makes noise like fathers gun,
only Il nation louder.
went as nigh to one myself
As Sals underpinning
Aud father went as nigh again
thought the deuce was in him.
Cousin Simon grew so bold,
thought he would haye cooked 1t;
j scared me SO | shrinkt OIL
And hung by fathers pocket
And Captain Davis had gun,
lie kind of clapt his hand ont
And stuck n crooked stabblnS iron
Upon the little end ont.
And there see pumpkin shell
As big as mothers basin;
And every time he touched 1t off
They scampercd like the nation.
l see little barrel. too,
The heads were made of leather,
They knocked upont with little clubs,
And called the folks together
And there was Captain Washington,
And gentle folks about him
They say he's grown So tarnal proud
lie Will not ride without EN-.
lie got him in his meetn' clothes
pom a slapping stallion
lie set the world along in rows
In hundreds and in millions.
The flaming ribbons in his hat
They looked so tearing fine, ah,
! wanted pukiIy 10 get
10 give 10 my JeInimah.