The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-01-27
MAKING SONGS.
THE ORIGIN OF SOME WE'LL
KNOWN COMPOSITIONS.
The Little Back Parlor in PittsburG
From Which Came Forth Many
Beautiful Melodies-A Story
Of Three Friends.

Who has not been awakened from his
sleep in the early morning hours by some
party of home-going revelers singing,
''Way down upon the Suwanee River ?'
! The melodious music invades the half
reused senses like dream, and the
dreamer does not resist it. He closes his
| eyes again to listen-motionless He has
heard the old song many times before; he
| can anticipate every word and note; there
is no novelty in it for him, but he is not
| provoked at being awakened. He listens
dreamily and lets the music bring to him
| thoughts of homc-not the home Of his
manhood, made happy by wife and chill
| dren, but the dream home of his child
hood, where mother was.
There stood in the city of Pittsburg,
forty years ago, a cottage at 81 Pearl
street. 1t was cozy home, with vine
covered windows and broad hearth
stone. 1t was the home of Charles P.
Shiras and his mother, familiarly known
to her friends as "Aunt Becky Shiras.
Charles Shiras had two particular friends
of his own age, Stepen Foster and John
Hull. These men had been companions
from their boyhood. and death alone
broke off their friendship.
Shiras was literary genius. He was
we'll educated, brilliant, and possessed of
q fertile, active mind. He was ambitious
and animated by the noblest purposes.
| For some years, and at the time of his
, death, he was connected with the Pitts
burg Commercial Journal. All his literary
work was full of merit and many of his
productions gained wide attention. He
| published two small volumes of poems,
! the best known of which are "Dollars
and Dimes, "Redemption of Labor" and
''The Iron City," These he considered
his best work, but he strangely refused
to publicly acknowledge the authorship
| of the beoutiful songs which would have
given his name, with that of Foster,
worldwide fame. He erred in his judg-
ment of the effect they would produce,
and in his ambition for higher flights,
considered them childish and foolish.
Foster was a musician and composer.
His soul was full of the poetry of sound.
He had fine, effeminate face, and his
nature was as soft and yielding as q
maiden's. He was dreamer, often sad
and melancholy, and every bar of his
beautiful. simple music is marked with
the characteristics of his nature. He
found close sympathy in the fine, poetic
mind of Shiras, and both found sympathy
and encouragement in the more rugged
and aggressive nature of their mutual
friend, Hull.
Hull was a mechanic, working for his
daily bread from his earliest boyhood-
Unlike his friends, he had no education,
but the circumstances of his life gave him
strong good sense and clear judgment.
He was a lover of the beautiful, and he
found much to admire in his friends
Shiras and Foster. He had musical
voice. and Foster, who could not sing,
tlught him music. He had rctentive
memory, and from Shiras he learned much
of literature. He became the critic OF
the productions of both his friends, and
his judgment of poem or song was to
them all-sufhcient.
And so beautiful friendship existed
between these three in boyhood, In youth
and until their early manhood, wnen
Shiras died. They were together during
all their leisure time, and ''many happy
hours they squandered" in "Aunt Becky"
Shiras' little back parlor. 1t was here
that Shiras, in his resting moments, wrote
those beautiful songs to please his trlend
Foster; it was here that Foster composed
music for them to please himself and his
friend Hull, and it was here that Hull
sang them for the pleasure of all.
The first song they published was cold
Uncle Ned" Foster sold it to a Pitts.
burg house for $1OO. With this money
he purchased q small piano and placed It
in D"Aunt Becky" Shiras' little parlor.
And on this little piano he after
ward played music which has gone
around the world. "Old Uncle
Ned" made its appearance about the
year 1850, and Immediately became popu-
lar. Within three years later shiras and
Foster together produced "Old Folks at
Home" "Susannah, Don't You Cry"
"Gcntle Annie" 'Hard Times Come
Again No More," ''My Old Kentucky
Home" "Massas in dc Cold, Cold,
Ground" "Old Dog Tray" willie, We
Have Missed You," "Come Where MY
Love Lies Dreaming" and others fully a.
popular.
It is certain that Shiras wrote the
lines of nearly all these songs, except
"Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming"
Foster was willing and anxious to share
their authorship with his friend Shiras,
but the latter often laughingly. told
Foster that he was welcome to all the
reputation he would get from their pub
lication.
Poor Shiras died when he was twenty
nine wears old, before he dreamed that
the songs which he had written in an
idle fancy, as mere pastime, would live
in every home in the Christian world.
Mrs. Jane Swisshelm wrote his obituary
He left young wife and girl baby.
This baby is now buxom. mother OF
babies.
Foster lived some years after the death
of his friend. He went to New York
CITY, where be died in 1864, from the
effects of fall in the Bowery. He was
widely known and very popular. His
funeral was attended largely by the lit
erary, theatrical and musical classes. A
chorus of voices sang over his grave,
Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming"
Chicago Neecs.
How Long Have We to Live?
The following is one of the well-au-
thcnticated tables in use among London
assurance companies, showing the aver