The National tribune., 1891-06-25
JOHN HOWARD PAYNE.
A Little Inside HIsiory ST the Author or :. Home,
Sweet Hnme."

/ NNeet uulnes
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: was in Bos
ton at-tho time your letter arrived here. and
have just returned to Bedford, therefore beg
you will pardon my delay in replying 10 your
! kind letter
You set mo difficult task, for while might
easily find some little story about my uncle
John Howard Payne, that you would like tC
/ hear, since, rs you say, you have always felt a
/ great interest in him it will be much more per-
picking for me 20 add anything to the great
mass OF information regarding him, which has
| already found its place in his Memoirs and
| the newspaper notices about him, which will be
| worthy To engage the attention Of the readers
| OF The NATIONAL TRIBUNE. Nevertheless |
am very glad to have the opportunity to correct
one or two fallaeies which are often repeated
| In the various accounts of Mr.. Payne.
My uncle was not born in Easthampton, /. l.,
| as has been 50 often stated, but in the city of
| New York, at No. % Broad street. His grand
| iathcr lived many years in EasthamptOn and
| ms father passed several years there. and my
| uncle often went thither in his childhood. His
! srandiathers house was one Of the best built
ana handsomest houses in the place. and has
remained all these years in quite good repair,
but lt has now been moved back from the road
and somewhat altered. The house in New
York where Mr. Payne was born has long
SINCE been torn down to make way for business
buildings
The illustrations of articles on John Howard
iayne often give, as the sole picture of his
birthplace, an old, broken-down kitchen, over
the remembrance Of which / should hardly
think ho would have been likely 10 have sung
his famous song. lie wrote Home. Sweet
Home" simply as one Of several songs in the
operetta of "Clari; or, The Maid of Milan"
and II IS curious fact that that one song
should have so touched the sympathies Of the
world as to survive so many creations Of other
minds OF greater merit aud more lasting worth.
ms was as great surprise to him as 10 any
one.
IL may interest you to read these additional
verses, which he wrote many years afterWard
Tor his cousin, Mrs. Bates, in London:
To Us. in despite Of the absence Of years,
How sweet the remembrance of home still appearsi
From alluremenis abroad which but natter the eye.
The unsatshed heart turns and says, with "a sigh,
Home, home, sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like homel
Your exile is blest with all fate can bestow,
liut mine has been checkeTed with many n wo,
Yet, though different our fortunes, our thoughts
the same
And both, ~ we think Of Columbia, exclainI,
Home: home. sweet, sweet home,
There's no place like home.
doubt entirely the statement, so often made,
that the song was written in great want and
poverty; for while from the natural effect Of
the bohemian life he led for so many years no
was often straitened, and indeed imprisoned
for debt, as was the foolish and cruel fashion Of
his time, yet he was also often on the upper
side of fortunes wheel, and l have every
reason TO believe that he wrote " "Clari when
no was living in Paris in comparative luxury.
Unfortunately he liked spending money when
lie had IL, and always did spend 10 generously.
His gentlemanly tastes and kindly manners,
his fund Of anecdote and genial character made
him iavorite wherever be went, and his dis
position was 10 lavish his own good fortune on
his friends; so, though he made several fortunes.
he spent more, and the road through the val
leys WAS generally longer than the pathway
over the hills. am sorry that all the engrav-
ings Of my uncle fail to give his kindly ex-
preston and tho old fashioned elegance of his
manner, which were marked characteristics,
as were also the sweetness Of his voice and his
finished articulation. which was refined with
out a1ectation, and cultured without pedantry.
As youth he was wonderfully handsome,
aud oven in middle life he retained traces Of
the well-cut features, fine cOloring and noble
expression Of his early days.
Feeling that these few remarks are quite in
adequate both to my subject aud TO your pur-
pose, but begging that you will remember the
difficulty Of the topic aud the shoTtness OF time
] have had in which 10 consider ID, and there
fore excuse all impcriections, am, yours, etc.
-ELoIsE L. LUQUER, st. Matthew'S Rectory,
Bedford, y. Y.