The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1885-08-19
SONGS AND AUTHORS.
Popular Dittes That Have Gained World Wide
Fame.
The Poems and Melodies that Have Lived
and Survived From Among the Mass
of Rhymes and the Jingle of
Many Tunes


tune itself is an cid Methodist campmeeting
tune, and the words were adapted to it by a
glee club of Boston in 1861. 1t was first pub
blished at Charlestown, Mass. Captain
James Greenleaf, an organist of the Harvard
Church set the notes for the music and
Massachusetts regiment made them first
noted by singing hem in Fort Warren, in
1861.
The author of Maryland, My Maryland"
lives at Washington, and you may see him
in the press galleries of Congress almost any
day during the session. He writes gOssippy
letters to the Atlanta Chronicle. His name
is -James r. Randall, and he is modest-look-
ing, dark-complexiODed man of ferty. He
must have been very young when he wrote
that beautiful poem His ideas are broader
now, and he is as liberal in views as any
member of the gallery.
America" was written by the Rev Sam
uel Francis Smith ia 1882, and it was first
sung IN Boston on the Fourth of July of that
year. Like the Battle Hymn of the Re
public" it was inspired by great tune, viz:
in nearly every country, and it has been as
cribed to Handel. The writer of the words
still lives in Massachusetts,, and says he wrote
the song at a sitting. He is now seventy-tive
years old and he graduated at Harvard in
the same class with Oliver Wendell Holmes.
JOHH sweet
Home" was written for an opera, and he
never got anything for it but tombstone in
Oak Hill cemetery. Ii was first sung in the
Convent Garden theatre in London and
made a big hit. One hundred thousand
copies were sold the first year, and by the
end of the second its publisher cleared S10,-
600 from it.
Robert Treat Paine wrote, eye Sons Of
Columbia" early in 1900 under the title of
Adam and Liberty" and he paid $3.50
for it. Paine was the son of one of the
singers of the Declaration of Independence.
He was christened Tom Paine. but on ac-
count of his dislike to Tom Paine's iufidel
tendencies he had the Massachusetts legis-
lature change his name and give him what
he called Christian He was a Mass
achusetts man, and he died in Boston in
1911.
Foster got SIS 900 for writing "Olk Folks
at Home" Charles Dibdin melted several
weeks board for writing Poor Jack" while
his publishers made $4,000 out of it,
Crouch, the writer of Kathleen Mavour-
men," received S25 for the production, and
afterwards became begging tramp. while
his publishers could have built brown
stone front out of its sales. George i. Nor
ris wrote ''WOOdman. Spare That Tree"
because a purchaser of a friends estate
wanted to cut down tree that his grand
father had planted. His friend paid the
purchaser so to spare it. Morris was
DN the StOiN ana wrote the song.
Hail Columbia was written bv Joseph
Hopkinson, in the summer of 1898, and it
was first called the presidents March," 1t
was sung when Washington came into the
theatre, and one of the objects of its writing
was the cultivation of patriotic spirit among
the people of the Republic. Joseph Hopkin-
son was % years old when he wrote it, An
autograph copy, penned in 1923, was shown
at the Centennial. 1t was first set to music
by German music teacher, at Philadelphia,
named Roth
The Star Spangled Banner was written
by Francis Scott Key, while watching the
bOmbardment of Fort McHenry. He was i'm
a small vessel among the British ships, and
he saw his cOuntrymen win the victory. All
through the fight he watched anxiously 10
see If the flag was still standing, looking for
it at night by the flash of the bombshells
and anxiously waiting for the dawn. The
song was printed in the Baltimore American,
eight days after the battle, under the title of
''The Defense of Fort McHenry'
Many people will be surprised to know
that Yankee Doodle" is not of American orr
gin. 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 Prebel, in his book on the flag of
the United States, to which by the way am
indebted for much of this information.
Yankee Doodle, or "Nankee Doodle" was
applied in derision 10 Cromwell, and Pro-
fessor Rimbault, prominent physician of
London, wrote the song directed at Cromwell
under this title. The jingle of these two
songs is about the same, and the
words are not much different.
DIR. Schuckburg first introduced
the song into this country in 1915, and this
was also in contempt of the ragged Colonial
soldiers. AT Concord and Lexington the
British, when advancing to fight bravely
played God Save the King" and after they
~ defeated hp "a haH
their retreat, struck up, Yankee Doodle"
Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean," was
written by Thomas A. Beckett, an English
actor, who in 1889 was a teacher of music
in Philadelphia
''The Blue and the Grey" was written by
Francis Miles Finch and delivered before
reunion of the army of the Potomac. 1t
was drawn out by the fact that the women
of Columbus, Miss, strewed flowers ON the
graves of Confederate and Union Soldiers
alike. 1t was published in the Atlantic
Monthly, September, 1867.
Joseph Rodman Drake wrote the Gamer
lean Flag when he was % years old, i'm
1919. 1t was written quickly, and its author
was not satisfied with the last verse. He
showed the poem to Fitz Green Halleck,
saying: 'FiH can't you suggest a better
stanZag' Halleck sat down and wrote the
four concluding lines, and drake incorpo-
rated them in his poem. Drake died at
the age of %. His last poem was 'The
American Flag" He did not think much
of his poems, and when, on his death-bed,
friend asked him what should be done
with them, he said: 'Oh, burn them; they
are quite yalueless."
''Sheridan's Ride was written by Mr..
Buchanan Read. James f. Murdoch, the
actor and reader. claims to have melted it.
He was reading in Pixies opera house. Gin
cinnati, shortly after Sheridan had made
his famous ride, and he asked Read to write
him poem describing it. Read did so, and
the result was the greatest effort OF his life.
Women in Persia.
TEx-Minister s. W. Benjamin.