The Portland daily press., 1885-07-20
OLD JORDAN.
A New Chronicle of tho Drum.
[Charles Dudley Warner in Harpers Magazln,

[Charles Dudley Warner in Harper's Magazine
for July.l
Although the Drawer is not much in favor
of war, it confesses to a lingering fondness
for the drum. Indeed, it is difficult to con-
ceiye Of Fourth Of July, or what we call
independence Day, without drum. 1t has
theory, which, like some other theories,
only needs facts enough to sustain it, that
the progress Of real civilization and refine
ment is indicated by the decline in impor-
tance of the drum. Whether this is a health
full sign we do not know, for since society
rests upon a force of order reserved some
where, the elimination of the drum may
mean a loss of that pugnacity which is nee
essary to vigorous state. 1t is certain that
there is no sound equal to the throb Of the
drum to set the blood pulsing to heroic meas
ure, nothing else that can so arouse pug
nacity and the desire to kill somebody or
something. The reason that sportsmen do
not use the drum to beat up snipe and quail
is that their desire to kill is already excited
beyond their opportunity to crafty it, 1t is.
perhaps, too much to say that if the drum
were abolished there would be no more wars,
or that the converse is true, that with the
cessation Of war there will be no more drum
ming for we have the recent example of Mr..
Gladstone beating the drum great deal when
he meant peace and the drum will long remain
in 0rchestraS to satisfy that in our human
nature which requires emphasis and noise.
But we all feel that the drum is the most inn
portant adjunct of the martial spirit, and
that the point of view of Thackeray's drum
mer, old Pierre, is not far wrong lin making
his instrument the chief in the martial
achievements of France. Old Pierre was the
fourth of generation of drummers. His
ancestors drummed for King Harry of Ma
varre:
"While Conde was waving the baton
My grandsire was trolling the sticks"
1t was his daddy who drummed the English
"From the meadows of famed FontenOy.
so well did he drum at that battle
That the enemy showed us their backs;
CorOtetG IL was pleasant to rattle
The sticks and to follow old SAKE"
1t was old Pierre himself who ratified the
drumstlcks at Yorktown, and caused the
British to lay down their arms 1t was the
same drum that drummed for Louis XVI.
and the lovely court ladies at Versailles and
for the fair Antoinette, and which drummed
their heads off afterwards in the Place de Ia
Concorde. 1t was all the same to the drum
it was monarchieal, republican, imperial.
"0ne day 1 drummed down the Bastile
At midnight beat the tattoo
And woke up the pikemen of Paris
To follow the bold Barbaroux."
With equal fervor it followed the fortunes
of the gallant young captain, Bonaparte.
SIN the glorious year ninety-six
We marched to the banks Of the Po;
carried my drum and my sticks
And we laid the proud Austrian low.
This cross-'twas the Emperor gave it
God bless himD 1t covers blow
had it at Austerlitz fight,
AS beat on my drum in the snow"
Perhaps Thackeray invented his hero in
''The Chronicle of the Drum; - but If The had
gone to New Orleans he might have found
his counterpart in the person of "Old JOr-
dan, man OF color, to whom this govern
ment owes what success it has had anywhere
in the field of war since it won its indepen-
dence. Everybody in New Orleans knows
Old Jordan, Gen. Jackson's drummer. the
most prominent figure in all martial process
slons, riding in carriage with his histor-
lc drum since age has enfeebled him; for Old
Jordan came in with the century, and has
drummed it up to its present brilliant achieve
ment. Visitors to the late exposition always
found Old Jordan in his place in the gallery
OF the government building, seated in an
easy-chair, with his drum before him and
other insignia of his triumphs about him, re-
counting his story day after day-every day
except Sunday, which he said was Gods day,
and not an exhibition day for him.
venerable figure and sturdy relic of
our historic past, Old Jordan has been the
intimate friend of all our military heroes.
whom he always addressed by their first
names, and who perfectly well knew that
their success was due to his rattling sticks.
This drum-the slightest tap upon it awak-
ems the echoes of many wars-was first
beaten to any purpose in the war of 1912. 1t
was upon this drum that jackson depended
Jordan was only lad then, but his drum
was full of war, and he handled the sticks
in such manner as to attract the attention
of Old Hickory, who, in his perplexity,
called upon him to repel the invaders. Moth
ing loath, Jordan came to the 'front.' and it
nc drIrr N kaAk IL =.
strument of noise and glOry-that beat the
long roll that called the American soldiers to
arms on the approach of the British in De-
eember, 1914; and 1t was his drum, on the
Sth of January, 1915, on the plain of Chal-
mette, that struck terror to the British host.
1t was not the cotton breastworks, as has
been supposed, but this drum, that rolled
back the invader; and it was the din of it
that was the dying. music for Packenham
when he fell under the tree which still stands
to witness the prowess of Jordan. The bat
tie was won by Old Jordan and General
Jackson.
"My grandsire was ever victorious
My grandsire and Monsieur Turenne"
The Florida war was long and harassing
one, but 1t would have been longer if Jordan
had not been there, following our flag
through the swamps and sandy barrens,
Scaringt the alligatOrS and r0using the thought
ful pelican, and driving the Seminoles into
the Everglades by the terror of his ever-vic-
whittier Jordan carried his drum with the
invincible Washington Artillery, and having
surmounted the caetus-covered hills, he
drummed down the halls of the Montezumas,
and twirled his sticks in salute of the flag
which is the emblem Of conquest and peace.
Chalmette, Florida, Mexico-these are the
trophies of Jordan's bellicose drum. But its
achievements do not stop there During the
years of peace he kept alive the martial spirit
in his drum, and when the civil war broke
out, it was this drum which drilled and in
spired the forming squads of confederate
soldiers. 1t was this impartial and patriotic
drum that performed the same service for
the Union companies which drilled in the
Crescent City after its capture by Farragut;
and it was this drum which inspired the Sew
enth Louisiana volunteers, colored troops,
raised for the defense of New Orleans in
1861 so that Old Jordan performed his last
warlike drumming for a troop of his own
emancipated people. Since the war the his
toric drum continues to furnish field mu-
sic" for entertainments, and the old drum
mer of many wars is held in affeetionate es-
TEEN by all classes in the city of his birth.
And the old man sat there proud of his