The Press., 1889-07-18
A NEW NATIONAL HYMN.

Some one writes to the Houston (Texas)
 Tribune In Houston paI CT of the thin
 t1eth ult. saw piece If nnsic rutili q :: "America's New National Hymn" L. my
 young days l was often told that mad n | large ear for music, and even now some
 ancient tunes have the p ,wer of striking chord which sets me vibrating and squirm- ing as though ice water were running down my back. GA sort of spinal chord as it were.) I do not know that am different from many others, as I have seen people whose cold exterior and we'll studied man.
 ners would have placed them beyond the
 suspicion of any thing like emotional weak
 ness, laid out, so to speak, limp and help
 less by the strains of some old we'll woin
 melody treasured in their hearts and asso-
 ciated with recollections of by gone days,
 the resurrection of which caused phantom
 procession to pass before their mental eye
 and shook them from circumference to cen
 ter. Great is the power of music Poor,
 weak humanity, whom few familiar notes
 can toss and bend like freed shaken by
 the wind" I, however, tried this thew | national hymn" on an instrument, out of
 curiosity, to know if it were any improve
 ment on the old "Star Spangled Banner"
 which Gin triumph shall wave,' , etc., and
 found it so utterly inadequate to take its
 place that I laid it down with tired feel
 ing. l thought of the times which gave
 birth to that song and of the flag receiv.
 ing it's "baptism of fire," when the heart
 of the nation, bleeding at every pore, seem-
 ed to cry aloud in its anguish; of the dark
 days of fratricidal strife when so much of
 the nobleness and chivalry of this country
 was sacrificed on the altar of-shall say
 it? a great mistake. Good songs were
 plentiful in those days, songs which ap-
 pealed to the hearts of the people. have seen social gathering broken up, might
 say Gall broke up," by an innocent miss
 of fifteen summers sitting down at piano and singing ''Just before the battle, moth
 CT, am thinking most of you, etc. First,
 handkercbiefs came out to blow moist
 noses, then came sobs, tears started, peo-
 pie moved uneasily, till finally some poor
 lonely mother of soldier hero, unable to
 restrain herself, would cry ''Don't! don t
 sing that, I can't stand it. Oh my boy,
 my boy" Bereaved mothers were numer-
 ous in those days, and anguish stricken
 hearts were no rarity. The contagion of
 the utterances of a broken hearted wom n
 would infect whole company with grief,
 for desOlate homes were common.- Death
 stalked thl hloughthe land ,drag aging shrohd,
 gathering them in," gathering a ghastly
 harvest of the corpses of the brave and
 true, followed by procession of disconso- late widows, helpless orphans and mothers,
 the light of whose life was extinguished. It was in times like those that the stirring, , prophetic song, the "Star Spangled Ban. ner, sprang spontaneously at the bidding
 of the Creator, giving voice to the aspira , tlons of despairing people. And it seems as though it requires journey through
 the weary valley of tribulation before the , human heart can give utterance to or ap preciate good music. It has ever been so from the Psalms of David to the Home ! Sweet Home, of the homeless wanderer Payne. We don't have many good song
 now-a days. The people are too well off The music of the day has cheery ring but like the song of running brook, i passes us and is forgotten, ripping ant trickling over the stones until it is lost il l. the sea of oblivion. And yet they want ''New National Hymn" do they? It vii , require new national disaster to give l. birth, which Heaven forbid. think w :. . can safely use the old melodies for fe, u years. Some of them will out last us an be sung by nations yet unborn. The chi dren of our children's children will sin ,, with ever increasing admiration our [" H ome Il Sweet Home, our "Suwanee Rlbber," an u it is to be fervently hoped our ''Sta
 Spangled Banner" and long may it wave