Omaha daily bee., 1884-11-19
Uniforms nnd Party war Cries.

I Uniforms snd Party War Cries.
The Hour, New York, Nov. Is.
Deserving of speedy oblivion, as have
been most of the political innovations o.
the campaign just ended, it has added al
lesst one picturesque feature to The
equipment Of street professions namely,
great variety cf what may be termed
"marching war cries" SONGS have borne
their part in former campaigns, from time
immemorial. "Nsp, Van, he's a used
up man" was shouted ard sung by thou
sends of stentorian lungs duting the
1 "Hard Cider Campaign" of 1874, and no
doubt there are veterans still living who
can recall popular refrains which did duty
at a still earlier day, but the marching
war cries which at this writing still echo
through New York streets, and have been
taken up throughout the country as fast
as they could be transmitted, viva voce,
are new and popular to the period, and
will, no doubt, be perpetuated in coming
years. 1t may not be toolate TO discover
and identify the individual whose genius
evolved them. He certainly deserves
credit for having added telling feature
to the usually monotonous vocferation of
cheers and yells which have heretofore
formed the stock in trade of street pro-
cessions.
The time-honored three cheers and q
"tger," with which party shouters re-
alsd themselves and sought to exssper-
ate their opponents in former times, be-
gan to be varied dozen or more years
ago by the "Rah! Rahl Rahl" of Harvard
students, an acceptable improvement
upon the old "Hurrah" three times re-
peated of the traditional cheer it was
easier of execution and had snap and
nerve that carried with it an Enthusiasm
if it's own and rendered possible great
| er number of cheers in o given time,
which was certainly desirable for collegi-
ate and political meetings where the ex-
ercises consisted mainly in lung work.
The Seventh Regiment Sky Rocket"
too, played its part and perhaps antedat'
cd the Harvard "Rah." This latter,
however, was quickly adopted elsewhere,
until now every college has its distinctive
cry, as "Rah! Rah! Rah! Yalel""Prince-
ton, Columbia" &c, the name of the
college being sometimes spelled out in
full with good effect.
The marching war cry, however, is be.
lieved to have originated in connection
with the stamping of an impatient audi
ence while waiting for tardy speaker.
This stamping in unison-a familiar fea-
ture of the "gods" gallery in theatres
was being executed by an expectant
crowd in this city, when it occurred to
some inspired enthusiast to strike up the
cry of ''Blaine! Blaine James G..
Blainel p as if in time with the footballs
of marching company, the cadence cor
responding with the customary Left,
left, left, right, left" as sometimes called
out by drill sergeants for the instruction
of an awkward squad. The crowd
readily caught the idea and nearly took
the roof off with its repetition of the
magic syllables. The meeting broke up
and the crowd marched home to the same
refrain, and 80 the custom was estab-
lished. In few days every marching
body of men or boys was taxing it's col
lectlve ingenuity to invent appropriate
variations of the popular theme. The
democrats and their dissatisfied republi
can allies were not slow to take it up, land
"Jay! Jay! Jay Gould Blaine! p was
among the most effective of the opposi
ton cries. "Brokel broke! broke the
solid south i" cana from the republican
ranks, and "Soap soap! soapy your only
hope! I! !" was derisively hurled back by
the democrats.
This class of cries was used for the frs
time in large turnouts, when the reall!
impressive business mems procession
took place in this city, some two week
ago, and aided materially in enabling un
accustomed pedestrians to cover the Ions
miles of rough pavement which lie be
tween Wall street and the reviewing
stand at Madison square. In the enorm
GUS torchlight PROFESSIONS which on two
different occasions kept the streets ablaze
till long after midnight, the cries were
used with wonderful effect, enabling un
trained men to march In step without the
aid of bands or drum corps. Sometimes
indeed, the music or drums would be
fairly overwhelmed by the volume of hu
man voices as some 'calch" was taken
up and repeated along the line, the uni.
formed platoons stepping off togethe,
quite as well as do some of the regiments
of state troops. Such is the effect of Civ.
ing men something that they cannot help
doing in unison.
Another characteristic of the campaign
has been the largely increased elaborate.
neas of uniforms. The great republican
procession of the Friday night before
election was probably the finest display
of the kind ever Witnessed The tunics,
helmets, breastplates, spears, battle-axes,
and GO on, were of the cheapest con.
struction and cost comparatively little,
but they were made with special reference
to torchlight effect, and with the count
less numbers who wore them certainly
made up very picturesque and impressive
combination.