The Elk Mountain pilot., 1881-09-08
A CELEBRATED song.
How Will 5. Hayes Wrote "EVangeIne : Oh
Fence With Chared Sticks.

"More than 145,coo copies of
Evangeline we're sold in fourteen
months" said Will S. flaws, the ia
nous song writer, yesterday, to Our
reporter. The conversation was on
the stbject of his songs, their origin,
n.srnber and history Of all ne has
Published, considerably over 200,
Evangeline' Marble Darling"
and " Norah O'Neal" were probably
the most popular. Evangeline :"
IS one of the most beautiful popular
compositions ever published in Amer
lea, and just before the breaking out
OF the war was sung in every home
and by every company Ct singers in
the land. Strange to say, the author
never received one cent for his COM
position, though ct the usual ROYALTY.
three cents per copy, he would have
made 81, $50 out of it in the fourteen
months. How many copies in all
have been sold he does not know,
though 1t is still IN demand, and the
total number would probably reach
800. 900. When Evangeline was first
issued it became immensely popular.
The minstrels of the ante bellum days.
whose speciality, next to characteristic
negro delineations, was sentimental
ballads, sang the beautiful compost
ton for quintet in every city in the
land, and, as is usual with popular
ballads, the minstrel tenor, the ia
nous Campbell, OF Campbell's Min
strels, first introduced it.
:" was a wild young fellow when l
wrote Evangeline," continued Col.
Hays, land it grew out OF a frolic.
Just before the war was visiting one
sSmmer up in Oldham county, nea.,
Lagrange. There was partyof gay
young ladies visiting the house also,
most of whom have children now as
Old as was then Among them was
a beautiful girl who resembled the
ideal picture of Longfellow's Evange-
lire SO closely that I called her by the
name, and it clung to her as a nick
name. One evening we were all in
vlted over to a fro1ic at the residence
of Hon. D. Mallory, and all went.
We danced ard sang, and soon dis
covered that four Of us could sing to-
gether very nicely. We tried Come
Where My Love Lies Dreaming and
other popular quartets, and got along
SO nicely that we became quite enthu-
siastic over our success. About I or
O'Clock in the morning We started
to walk home down the road. The
night was as bright as day, with the
full moon hanging in the SKY, and as
we walked We sang. Finally VIC sat
down in nice nook to rest, and
EvangeIine began to suggest other
songs to sing.
"'1'll write you a song said |, If
you'll promise to sing it before we go
home
"This was agreed to. On the op-
posite side of the road a rail fence
had been torn away and white plank
fence had been erected. Where We
were sitting party OF negroes had
been roasting ears of corn over a fire,
and the charrcd sticks l:y all around.
l gathered up bundle Of thcmunder
my arm and, followed by the girls,
walked over to the fence. With the
charred sticks ! wrote the first verse
Of the. song on the top plank of the
fence and the notes for four voices on
the four planks beneath, making it a
quartet. Then we stood off, and, as
all could read the music, we sang Ii.
The girls were delighted and insisted
on haeing Chorus, SO | went down
to the end and wrote the chorus out
on the planks. Well, We sang 1t over
and over, and went home singing It.
Next morning Evangeline came
down stairs humming the air, and
asked n lwrite it ont and finish 1t.
tolaiker I couldn't do it, but she
might go down and copy it off the
fence. She took an umbrella and a
sheet Of paper, and soon came back
with words and music copied off.