Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1885-01-16
POPULAR SONGS.
Songs That Have Moved Nations-WhO
Wrote Them and What Inspired
Them.

Them.
! The greatest poem of the war was
written at Washington by Julia Ward
Howe, under the title of "lhe Battle
Hymn of the Republic" 1t is sung to
the tune of John Brown" and COM
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 eyes shut. The night before she
she had been out riding in the country
near Washington and her party had
narrowly escaped being captured by.
troop of Confederates. As they came
into Washington they sang "John
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
10 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 1861. 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 16l.
The author of Maryland, Ny Mary
land, lives at Washington, and you
may see him in the press galleries of
Congress almost any day during the
session. He writes gossipv letters to
the Augusta Chronicle. His name is
James K. Randall, and he 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 he is as lib
eral in his views as any member of the
gallery.
America was written by the Rev.
Samuel Francis Smith in 1882, sand 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 great tune. viz: ..God Save the
King" This tune is in use in nearly
eve V country. and it has been ascribed
to Handel. The writer of the words
still lives in Massachusetts. and he saws
he wrote the song at sitting. He is
now 80 years old, and he graduated at
Harvard in the same class with Oliver
Wendell Holmes.
John Howard Payne 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
T. -.TI---~.--H..-AI - ..---I-!-~-s----i-:--
hit. One hundred thousand copies
We're sold the first year, and by the end
of the second year its publishers had
cleared $4,000 from it.
Robert Treat Paine wrote "Ie Sons
of Columbia" early in 1900, under the
title of Adams and Liberty" and he
was paid 800 for it. Paine was the
son of one of the SignerS of the Dee
laration of Independence. He was
chriStcned Tom Paine, but on account
of his dislike to Tom Paiue's intidel
tendencies. he had the Massachusetts
Legislature change his name. and give
him what he called 4 Christian one.
Foster GOT $1,000 for writing "Old
Folks N Home Crouch, the writer
of Kathleen Mavourneen. received
50 for the prod sction. ard afterwards
became a begging tramp while his pub
ll>h could have built brown stone
front out OF lis sales. George Z. Morris
wrote Nv Goldman. Spare that Tree,
because the purchaser of a friends es-
tate wanted to cut down tree which
his grandfather had planted
'.lIail Columbia was written by
Joseph Hopkin>on, in the summer of
l19S. 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 patriotic
spirit among the people of the new Re-
public. 1t was first put into music by
German music teacher at Phiiadel-
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 any-
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. The song was print
ed in the Baltimore -inerican eight
days after the battle. under the title of
The Defense of Fort McHenry."
Many people will be surprised to
learn that Yankee Doodle is rot 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 or
"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 1755, and this
was also in contempt of the ragged
! colonial soldiers. At Concord and Lex
! ington 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
/ "Cd,p' in the Clereland Leader.