San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-12-20
A COMPOSER OF SONGS.
HE WROTE SWEET BALLADS, BUT
OTHERS GOT THE DUcATS.

Songs, Many of Them Famous, Now Mail
ing Clerk of a Pswtucket Newspaper.
Story of Touch the Harp Gently"
Samuel ~ Mitchell ought to be a rich
man today from the proceeds of the $50
songs which he has written, and which have
been set 60 music and sung in every habita-
Ole part of the earth.
When it is stated that Mr. Mitchell is the
author of Touch the Harp Gently, My
Pretty Louise, when the Whippoorwill
Is Calling" Put Ny Little Shoes Away"
"The Lane That Led to School, "My Dear
Savannah Home" and Eve Deck Their
Graves Alike Today" his title to place in
The Globes roll of honor cannot be dis
puted
A New Yorker who published many of
Mitchelrs songs lives at Newport in a S70.-
600 cottage but Mr. Mitchell, the author,
was found by The Globe correspondent
down in the basement of a newspaper Office,
mis- shirt sleeves rolled up, and the fingers
which had penned the most delightful of
ballads nimbly plying a long, thin brush,
with which he was painting the news bull
letins for The Pawtucket Evening Times.
MILLIONS SOLD.
Modest as is Mr.. Mitchell's income as
mailing clerk of The Times, he reaps more
from it than from song writing nctwith-
standing the fact that Hopkins & Cew, of
London, sold ZOO, 900 copies of his Touch
the Harp Gently, Ny Pretty Louise"
II don't believe | shall ever write ballads
again." said Mr.. Mitchell. 81 think that
if should count every penny received by
me for the GOO songs | have written the
sum would not exceed s. 900, and yet one
London musical firm, according to its own
showing, cleared over 800 900 from the pro-
ceeds of one song, and that one, too, for
which never received cent 1t was stolen
bodily and carried off to London, where, in
pothouse, it was shown by Jack Tur-
ridge, one of Kelly s. Icons Ministries, to
Charles Blamphin, the composer, who,
struck with the lines and their possibilities,
set them to the music with which the song
is so familiar today.
1.-The song became the rage of London,
and when Lydia Thompson brought it
back to this country in the extravaganza
Of Blue Beard il became as famous on this
side of the Atlantic as the other.
sit never occurred to the publishers on
either side to give the author so much as q
| sou, but then did not write that song for
| money. wrote it for love-
"The Louise of the song was your own
Louise?"
mo, indeed She was another fellows;
but come to think of it she was not even
his. She did not marry him"
Him" it appears, was the late l.. p.
Kendall. manager of the once famous Ber
ger family, and bosom friend of Mitch
ellis. Kendall had been signing like fur
mace in the poets corner of their joint
| office, and finally told his friend that he
was badly hit in the direction of Miss
Louise Berger, who had so captivated him
that he proposed to have her or perish
| Now it happened that the well known Sol
| Smith Russell entertained the same sort Of
feeling for Louise Berger, who, by the way,
was an exquisite player on the harp.
Mr.. Mitchell thought out plan for help
ing his friend. He would write a song en-.
titled, ''Touch the Harp Gently, My Pretty
Louise" which he would dedicate to Ken
dali and have it published. The words and
the dedication would be understood by the
lady, who would, of course, succUmb to the
sweetness of the song and give encourage
ment to his suit.
In less than half an hour the song was
written and on its way to The New York
Clipper, which published it at once.
But alasi Louise thrummed not her harp
gently nor otherwise for Mr.. Kendall, who
in a moment of madness undertook to sing
it, he being ut that time possessed of the
most unuelodiouS voice in the United
States.
The experiment proved fatal to his hopes,
for although Miss Berger often went to
hear the song sung by singers of repute,
she fled precipitately from Kendall's pres
ence whenever he manifested symptoms of
desire TO sing it.
SOME OTHER SONGS
Mr. Mitchell used to write many songs
for the wife of Lngard, who used to sing
them at the Boston Theatre Comique, then
somewhere near where Jordan & Marsh are
now. His "Giri with the Golden Switch"
he sold to White, Smith & Perry. of Bos.
ton, for $50 1t had great success.
The revenue for one of his songs is still
to come in from Boston. He wrote when
the Whippoorwill Is Calling" and sold it
to a musician of Boston, then leader of one
of the theatre orchestras, who, Mr. Mitch.
ell says. was to remit the revenue. The
song became 50 popular that it could be
found in every music dealers shop, but up
TO date the author says he has not seen
the color of the purchasers cash, although
fifteen years have passed since tho song
was written
Mitchell is ii much older man than he
looks He could pass for 81, bat he served
in the army a. q man twenty-five years
ago, having gone to the front with the
Eleventh Rhode Island and served in the
famous Irish brigade.
He com posed the Decoration day hymn,
"We Deck Their Graves Alike Today"
which is sgug 1T so many Grand Army