The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-01-02
PArR1orlc pokr.
IHarper's Young ReOpls.l


 ner," which has been sung for twenty years, and is still our nobleSt patriotic song. Mir. Key was born in Frederick county, Maryland, on the Ist of April, I77o, and died in Baltimore the nth of January, Is43, He was a lawyer, and he wrote a good many poems, which were published in book in 1857 but the only one of them good enough to be remem~ oered or even read by people generally is " The Star Spangled Banner" During the years from ISI2 to lSIS thls country was at war with Great Britain, and in 1874 British fleet entered Chesa- peake bay. A fierce landed and marched to Washington City. The city fell into the hands of this force, and the public buildings were burned. It was gloomy time for Americans, for when the capital of the country was taken it seemed likely that VIC were to be conquered, and lose the liberty that Washington had won for us in the Revolution.
 Alter taking Washington City the Brit ish land force marched against Baltimore, and the war ships in the Chesapeake sailed up at the same time to bombard the town from the water. The town was held by a small body of American sol- diers, and it's principal defense on the water side was Fort McHenry, which was held by Major Armistead, with about 8 thousand mer, mostly volunteers. Its guns were small ones, which could not throw their shot very far; but the men in the fort were brave fellows, who meant to do their best to save the city with such cannon as they had.
 A few days before the attack the British had captured a well known citizen, Dr. Beanes, and carried him to their ships, where they held him prisoner. Mir. Key, who then lived in Georgetown, near Washington, was sent under a flag of tSuce to ask for Dr. Beanes' release, and he succeeded in persuading the British admiral, Cechrane, to set the good doc tor free. But as the ships and land forces were about to attack E Blltimore, 1t would not do to let the Americans go until the fight was over, lest they should carry in- formation to their countrymen. So it came about that MT. Key was on board one of the British ships while the battle was going on.
 The fleet moved up on September I9, and at sunrise on the 23rd the ships opened fire on the fsrt. The fight that followed was a fierce one, which lasted till midnight, and the Americans on board the British ship could not make out in the darkness which side had the best paced the deck of the ship in an agony a British land force had made an attack on the other side of the town, but he could not learn what the result had been. He had seen the bonn bardment of the fort, but he could not see whether it had fallen under the fire of the ships or had beaten them of, as the vessel he was on was at some distance in the rear and the night was dark
 It is easy to imagine what his feelings were as he waited through the long hours from midnight till morning for the first light of dawn to show him whether or not the star spangled banner still floa,ed over the fort. It was during that anxious time of waiting that he w.ote on the back oi an old letter, the stanzai
 Oh say, can you see, by the dawns early
 light,
 Wha, SO proudly we hailed at the twilight s l last gieaming,
 Whose broad stripes and brigh, stars through | the clouds of the fight l i iantly streamingi
 And the rockets red glare, the bomb burst ing in air,
 Gave proof through the night that our flag 1 was still there;
 Oh say. does that star-spangisd banner yet
 
 Der the land of the free and the home of the brave I"
 When the long looked for morning l INas snNs at the joyous truth that "our flag was still there," that the British were beaten both by land and by sea, that the city of his birth was saved, and that he still had 6 country free, strong and unconquered When he went ashore he wrote out the whole Of his poem and read 1t to Judge Nicholson, one of the men who had fought to defend the fort. The judge took it at once to a printer, and had it printed as a hand-bill and distributed among the glad citizens of Baltimore. The song was set to music, and sung in the theatres, in pri- vate houses, and on the streets, and every where throughout the country, men, women and children joyfully took it up. From that day to this The Star Span gled banner has been the song that can most quickly and deeply stir the hearts of Americans.
 The man who wrote 1t has been famous for that one song now for seventy-one years, and away on the other side of the continent a Californian, James Lick, in the year 1874, gave SI5o GOO with which to build a monument to Francis Scott Key, in the ci.y of San Francisco, which was a sandy waste thousands of miles from the settled parts of our country, when the noble song was written.