The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-08-27
CAMPAIGN SONGS.


the younger generation that no agency in the
great contest Of 1910 carried so much force or
won SO great advantages as the songs that all
could sing. A club of trained singers led
but the volume, the power, the conquering
force, came from the really sublime roar Of
ten thousand enthusiastic voices that followed
and swelled mere pleasing entertainment
into great popular demonstration It was
like the fine display of torches and music and
military parade on Saturday night. There
was no argument in it, no fact, no confrma-
ton Of doubt, no inducement to conviction
but there was spirit confidence Of success
enthusiasm, the very agencies fall that affect
fix the unconfrmed We may criticise as
caustically as Heraclitus the weakness Of
human nature that can be affected and borne
away from intellectual conclusions by a force
SO illogical and irrelevant, but since human
nature enlivened the earth the emotions have
been the masters Of the intellect and the man.
and will remain masters till the fast day in
the morning a mans reason may decide
that the right way is this way, but if his
feelings are impelled the other way by any
appeal or sympathy, the other way the man
viii go. Now, Of all the appeals that go
surest and straightest to the heart, there is
none so forceful or direct as a song that unites
music and sentiment in a perfect expression
ofthe feeling Of a great body of men. Itmay
not be especially relevant to the occasion, but
it gives utterance to the feeling stirred by the
occasion. There may be no particular rele-
vancy in aAuld Lang Syne' to the emotions
of meeting Of friends on some occasion in
no way concerned with the past or with
''auld Acquaintance" but if everybody who
can sing doesn't sing with all his heart and
soul when the song starts, he is ''fitfor strata
gems, for treasons and for spoils" Why
should feeling ever speak, said Tom Moore,
why seek expression in ordinary language,
"when music breathes her soulso wellfD It is ten
to one that a iubilant crowd will break into
song, because singing is the natural express
sion of warm feeling, Of hope, Of enthusiasm.
And the power that breaks out SO is the
power Of all known to man to win and hold
the feelings of others. The philosophy Of
human nature shows that this is reasonable.
All experience proves that it is real as well as
raoeonobIa tho al ~ e,r,,,o, ,,,,.c ,1,.,osao
practical conclusion. Let US have songs in
this campaign that all can sing. Not elabor-
ate refnements Of sentiment or far-fetched
illusions, like Julia Ward Howes .Battle
Hymn, which is about as apt an excitant Of
the feelings required for a battle as astanza
from Darwins botanical Garden, but some
thing of the fashion Of that really fine war
song, fRally Round the Flags fine
@battle hymn as the MarseiIlaise if less
elevated in style and musio-and let the
choirs and musical companies that drill upon
campaign songs lead in the singing. They can
have more than enough to do in singing their
well-arranged and well -harmonized choral
effects all to themselves, and it will be
pleasant diversion, too, but for power for poll
teal effect, we want them to lead off in songs
that ten thousand voices will join in when
the chorus comes, or all through if they can.
Some of us can remember the effect of that
roaring old .TipTTscanoe1 song, 1T is the ball
arolling on for Tippecanoe and Tyler too, -
as empty thing, as far as political ideas or
any other were concerned, as ever was ranted
and we know that sensible song, not
mere collection of words vowelized to make
big noise with, but something like Rally
Round the Flag or Tramp the Boys are
Marching, simple, direct, explanatory, rather
than coherent, made apt to the time and the
cause, as certainly it may easily be, will be
worth at least ten stump speeches to every
line. We don't want fine poetry good songs
are never unusually good poetry-we want
the plainest sort of expression of Republican
feeling, in metre accurate enough to sing cas-
lily, and coherent enough to make all it says
pertinent to the cause and occasion. Such a
song, or several Of them, with tunes that
everybody knows-and we have some left
over from the war which affect Democratic ar
dor about as bucket Of holy water is said to
affect the devils sympathies are the thing to
make the strong assurance Of victory already
visible, doubly snre
The workingmen fail to rally to the Butler