San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1879-01-25
ACCOMPLISHMENTS CLOCK


Henry q. Werk's Aeiedtes.
mot to know "Grandfather's Clock
argues yourself unknown. With its ac-
Compartment of winding up, striking,
ticking and running down, IL il nightly
played in theatre and concert hall to
applnuding auditors, and is whistled by
unnumbcred puckeiing mouths But
not to know the words Of this latest mu- !
steal hit, or not to be able to name the
author, is simply to enroll ones self
with the thousands who would be oblig- |
ed to confess to the same ignorance.
Two years ago the writer was shown a
sheet of music by Chauncey NJ. Cady.
The music was entitled "Grandfathers
Clock" 1t was then unknown. Mr..
Cady hummed it, and said: "That's
going to be popular. II will be just
the thing to catch the popular ear"
This was in T6. Mr.. 'Cady's prophesy
has come true in rs, and he himself
told me how it was done. ut was writ
ten by Henry G. Work." said Mr.. Cady.
"You know him? No! Bless you'll His
life is little romance. Let me tell you
about him, In the first place, his fa-
ther was Alanson Work, who, with Burr
and Thompson, were, in lS41, condemn
ed to- twelve years hard labor in the
Missouri state prison for assisting fugi-
tive slaves across the Mississippi. river.
Well, about the time Of the beginning
of the rebellion, Henry Werk came to
our Office in Chicago q was then with
Root, in the firm Of Root e. Oady) with
the manuscript of a song. He was then.
a printer, struggling4or living. We
saw that he had something in him, and
not only took. his song, but engaged him
| to write for us for q term Of years, agree
ing to pay him q stipulated copyright,
After he turned out Kingdom Coming
and one or two other popular songs, we
increased his copyright voluntarily.
His songs made great hit, especially
Wake, Nicodemus, Babylon is Fallen,
and Marching Through Georgia. You
didn't know he wrote that? Yes, indeed.
+ told you that he had it in him.
b. ellis proceeds from his SONGS con-
tinued Mr.. Cady,, "made him rich. He
travelled extensively in this country and
in Europe, and in 1867 he went from
Chicago with snug fortune. Then he
went to Vineland, N. j., and with his
brother invested his earnings in two or
three hundred acres Of land, built hou-
ses and prepared to establish an extern
sive fruit farm. But the hard times
came on, his investments were unproft-
able and he lost all his property. Add
ed to this were domestic trials of the
most heartrending nature, and finally
there only remained to him his little
daughter Nellie. He disappeared from
view, no one knew where he was.
Meantime the Chicago fire dissolved
the firm of Root & Cady. We lost $315,-
900, and recovered from the insurance
companies only $4,000. It was Sc
we're stroke to me. I was threatened
with brain fever, and had to quit work.
About three years ago came here and
started in business again as amusic pub
Usher ! wanted some one to write
popular music for me, and I thought of
Henry G. Work. But I couldn't find
him. He had secluded himself so effec-
tually that it was six months before 1
found him, and then it was by meeting
him accidentally on Broadway. He
was very poor, and was trying to sup
port. himself and his little daughter by
writing magazine articles. Well, the
result of our meeting was that Work
wrote three songs for me, The Mystic
Veil, Sweet Echo Dell, and Grand
fathers Clock. These were all pub
lished in 1876, and sold well from the
start, but the latter has eclipsed the
others, and, in fact, all other songs re-
Gently published. It is the hit of the
times" ..t.te W..
@But how did you make it popular,
Mr.. Cady? .You showed it to me in
1876, but did not hear of it again un-
til 1875" isi - g1.1..s ID @'ttH
I'll tell you. I have collected the