The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1884-12-31
POPULAR SONGS.
onr. That Have Moved Nations-who
Wrote Them and What Inspired
Them.


Wrote Them and What Inspired
Them.
The greatest poem OF the war was
written at Washington by Julia Ward
Howe. under the title of 81 he Battle +
HYMN of the Republic. 1t is sung to /
the tune of John Brown" and COM t
mences, mine eyes have seen the glory /
of the coming of the Lord Mrs. /
Howe wrote it early one morning and /
it is said that she penned the lines with |
her ewes shut. The night before she 1
she had been out riding in the country |
near Washington and her party had |
narrowly escaped being captured by a |
troop Of Confederates. As they came I
into Washington they sang John t
Browns Body" and the tune kept
ringing in Mrs Howe's head all night
When she awoke before daylight she
began to make verses of it, and in the
fear that she would forget them she
wrote them off. according to habit
she had formed TO save her eyes, with
out looking at the paper. Mrs. Howe
is still living. and she ranks among
the leaders Of the woman's rights move
ment. :.
Speaking of John Browns Body,
the tune itself is an old Methodist
camp-meeting tune and the words were
adapted to it by glee club of Boston
in 1851 1t was first published at
Charlestown. Mass. Capt. James
Greenleaf, an organist of the Harvard
Church, set the notes for music. and
Massachusetts regiment made them
first noted by singing them at Fort
Warren in 1861.
The author of Maryland. My Mary
land" lives at Washington. and you
NAV see him in the press galleries OF
Congress almost any day during the
session. He writes gossipy letters to
the Augusta Chronicle. His name is
James R. Randall, and ne is modest
looking, dark-complexioned man OF 40
He must have been very young when
he wrote that beautiful poem. His
ideas are broader now, and ne IS as lib
eral in his views as any member OF the
gallery.
America was written by the Rev.
! Samuel Francis Smith in 1882, and it
was first sung in Boston on the Fourth
| of July of that year. Like the Battle
HYMN of the Republic" it was inspired
| BY a great tune, viz: "God Save the
| King" This tune is in use in nearly
every country, and it has been ascribed
to Handel. The writer of the words
still lives in Massachusetts, and he says
he wrote the song at sitting. He is
| now 76 years old, and he graduated at
! Harvard in the same class with Oliver
Wendell Holmes.
John Howard Payne's Home, Sweet
| Home was written for an opera, and
he never got anything for it but his
tombstone in Oak Hill cemetery. 1t
was first sung in the Covent Garden
| Theatre, at London, and made a big
hit One hundred thousand copies
were sold the first year, and by the end
of the second year its publishers had
cleared $4,000 from it.
Robert Treat Paine wrote ''Ye Sons
of Columbia, - early in 1900, under the
| title of adams and Liberty" and he
was paid $3.50 for it. Paiae was the
son of one of the signers of the Dee
| laration of independence. He was
christened Tom Paine, but on account
of his dislike to Tom Paine's infdel
tendencies, he had the Massachusetts
Legislature change his name, and give
| him what he called Christian one.
Foster got $4,000 for writing ''Od
Folks at Home" Crouch, the writer
| of kathleen Mavourneen, received
S25 for the production, ard afterwards
became a begging tramp while his pub
| Usher could have built brown stone
front out of its sales. George p Morris
wrote 'Woodman, Spare that Tree, y
because the purchaser of a friends es-
| tate wanted to cut down a tree which
| HI cr,.a ', 4 70 +bo,. baJ ,Dlo,toJ
Hail Columbia was written by
Joseph Hopkinson, in the summer OF
1898, and it was first called the ''Presi-
dents March" 1t was always sung
| when Washington came into the thea
ter, and one of the objects of its writ
ing was the cultivation of a patriotic
spirit among the people of the new Re
| public. 1t was first put into music by
German music teacher at Philadel-
phia, named Roth.
The Star Spangled Banner" was
written by Francis Scott Key while
Watching the bombardment of Fort
McHenry, in 1914. He was in a small
vessel among the British ships, and he
saw his countrymen win the victory.
All through the fight he watched anx-
| iously to see if the flag was still stand
ing, looking for it at night by the flash
| of the bombshells, and anxiously wait
ing the dawning. he song was print
ed in the Baltimore american eight
days after the battle, under the title OF
1.-The Defense of Fort McHenry."
Many people will be surprised to
learn that Yankee Doodle is not OF
American origin. Even the words date
back beyond the days of Queen Anne,
and the tune is still older. In the wars
OF the Roundheads, says Commodore
Preble, in his book on the flag of the
| United States, Yankee Doodle" OF
''Nankee Doodle" was applied in de-
rision to Oliver Cromwell. and Pro-
fessor Rimbault, prominent musician
of London, wrote a song directed at
| Cromwell under this title. The jingle
of these two songs is about the same,
and the words are not much different.
Dr. Schuchburg first introduced the
song into this country in 1905, and this
was also in contempt of the ragged
colonial soldiers. At Concord and Lex
ngton the British, when advancing to
fight, bravely played ''God Save the
King, and after they were defeated
the Yankees, as they watched their re-
treat, struck up Yankee Doodle. y
"Carp" IN the Cleveland Leader.