Iron County register., 1886-07-29
YANKEE DOODLE,
oris1n OF the Most Popular and Oldest
M

tional Songs published in 1876. the
following account is given of the origin
of Yankee Doodle: ''In the summer
OF 1775 the British army, under COM
mand of General Abercrombie, lay en-
camped on the east bank of the Hudson
river, little south of the city of AL
bany, awaiting grelnforcements of militia
from the Eastern States previous to
marching upon Ticonderoga. During
the month of March these raw lions
poured into camp company after COM
pany, each man differently armed,
equipped and accoutered from his neigh
bors, the whole presenting such an APP
pearance as was never equaled unless
by the celebrated army of Jack Fa!statf.
Their appearance furnished great
amusement to the British officers. One
DIR. Shamburg, an English surgeon,
composed the tune of Yankee Doodle
and arranged it to words, which were
gravely dedicated to the new recruits.
The original words which we take from
Farmer and Moore's Historical Collec-
TONS, published in 1920, we have not,
however, met with before in many
years"
w il1 Ilc llSlOElcdl COIEcC-
tons that the attack on Ticonderaga by
Abercromble took place in 1858, and
not 1916, and that DIR. Shamburg did
not compose the tune of yankee
Doodle" the above as quoted is general
ly correct. Another authority states
that the song originally appeared in a
Boston newspaper in 1875, under the
title of The Yankees Return from
Camp" This version of the famous
song appears in the Historical Collec-
tions of New Hampshire. The first
verse and chorus of this version are as
follows:
Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Tooding,
And there we see the men and boys,
As thick as hasty pudding.
Yankee Doodle, keep it up,
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.
There are fifteen additional verses in this
version of the song. There is a mistake
somewhere, for Yankee Doodle" in
both words and music, has lineage that
dates farther back than either 1775 or
175S. In an old newspaper, the Colum-
bian Gazette. published at Georgetown,
ID. c., during the early years of this
century, appears letter from a CORE
spondent telling of his having seen. in
the collection of gentleman in Chel-
tenham, England. called Musical An
tiquities of England" q song entitled
''Nankee Doodle" one verse of which
ran as follows:
Nankee Doodle came to town,
Upon a little pony,
With a feather in his hat,
Upon Macaroni.
The song was written after the restora-
ton of Charles H., and the verse given
is a satirical allusion to CromwelHs 60
ing to Oxford, on Il small horse, with
his single plume fastened to his hat by
a small knot called ''Macaroni."
Watson, in his Occurrences of the
Revolution" says: Before the revolu-
ton, under another name, Lydia
Fisher (.Yankee Doodle') was favor
ite New England jig, the custom being
to sing it with impromptu words, such
Lydia Locket lost her pocket,
Lydia Fisher found it,
Not a bit OF money in 1t,
Only binding round it."
which, instead of being an impromptu
verse, is part of a song from Gays
'.Beggar's OPERA" first performed in
1927. Miss Clayton, IN her ''Lives of
Celebrated Singers" asserts that from
that opera the tune was derived; but
the fact is that it was only one of the
many popular airs of the time that were
incorporated in the opera. During the
revolution, when arms and ammunition
were carried from Boston into the coun-
try in carts, ostensibly loaded with
| manure. the British officers adapted the
following words to the tune:
Yankee Doodle came to town,
For to buy firelock,
We will tar and feather him,
And so we will John Hancock.
Watson. in his "Annals of Philadel-
| phia,' says that John Carr, who opened
the first muse store in Baltimore, in
! 1897, had a book of tunes, one called an
sAir from Ulysses" an English opera,
! written for Lincoin's Inn Fields The
I alter, London, about 1871. by John
Christian Smith, which was identical
with the air of yankee Doodle -
! Watson gives US the first verse of the
! original American song:
Yankee Doodle keep it up,
| Do it neat and handy;
The boy to fog the British troops,
| Is Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Clearly all patriotic Americans should
| f ell proud of yankee Doodle" Writ
! ten originally to satirize the dead Pro-
! tector Oliver Cromwell. by some friend
. of the newly-returned Stuart, Charles
IL. nearly n century later it was still
popular enough to be used in the great
est dramatic Success of the age; a sec
ond time it appeared in opera, and then
! crossed the Atlantic. where it at once
became favorite. Although used by
the British as a means of poking fun at
the recruits in the army. in less than
fifty years the song was used by the de-
scendants of those recruits as a battle
cry when chasing the British out of the
United States. The song of Yankee
Doodle truthfully represents the spirit
! of the Nation, and long may
Yankee Doodle keep it up.
And do it neat and handy,