The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1894-04-19
SONGS ANDALEGENDS.
[By Member of Glass ID.

In order to appreciate the great popularity OF
the songs and legends. and the mighty influence
they had in moulding the character OF the people
who had their being during the middle ages. we
should take into consideration the time and con-
ditions under which they lived. The world has
taken wonderful strides in the past five hundred
years and it should not be forgotten that BOOKS
or literature of any kind was very scarce ana
only within the reach of the very wealthest peo-
pie of those times. Although Greek and Roman
literature had reached a very high state OF per-
lection. it was not generally disseminated among
the people. 1t would have required three mOntns |
wages OF an ordinary tradesman to have pur- |
chased the writings of Homer or Virgil, ana |
whole years wages would hardly suf1iced to nave |
purchased a copy of the Bible. Inc library |
shelves of the ancients were not covered, as ours
are. with books and magazines treating on every !
subject good, bad or Indifferent. 1t is well
known that a person can, at the present day,
buy the works of any-celebrated3 author for
mere song; but a singers vocal chords would
have been paralyZed ere he could shave sung
enough songs to purchase book during the
crusades The vulgar WORKSHOP Shakespeare, By
ron, George Eliot, Albert Ross Agnes Fleming,
lola and Eugene Sue were all coming, but had
not vet arrived. Such sweet morselsl as Venus
and Adonis. Don Juan, Daniel DerOnda and
Griffith Ga,lnt could notlbe hadIfor the prce.of
a cigar or a box of bon bons. MadamOiselle de
Paris or a Duenna of CASTLE could not lie down
in a hammock and read Kreutzer Sonata or Tess
of the D'Auberville's until they went into an eX-
static fit as do the girls of to-day. Such highly
perfumed novels had to await the enlightened
but more perverted taste of. the people OF the
nineteenth century. 1t would be interesting
were it possible to trace the origin OF the legends
and traditions which have come down to us. LIZ
is reasonable to suppose that many OF them are
founded on fact, and it would seem, from the
strong resemblance, that Shakespeare had
drawn his Romeo and Juliet from the story OF
Hero and Leander.
There is sufficient resemblance between Chris
tianity and Buddhism, as shown lDy Sir EdWln
Arnold, to warrant the. suppOsition that the for
mer is but an improvement fupon theSlatter, and
that both are merely legends.
We are safe in asserting that sthe telling OF
stories and singing of songs was the.princlpal
source of amusement among the people OF an
Gent Europe just as it was among the pioneers
of our own country. The singers and story tel
lers became great favorites and were in great
demand at all social gatherings. This demand
induced many of both sexes to adopt story telling
and singing as a profession; hence the Minnie
singers of Germany and the travelling Ministries
of Great Britain and France. These poets or
minstrels' generally carried harp, composed
their own airs and sang them in some lords
castle or upon the village streets; accepting
whatever pay their listeners might feel inclined
to give.
The middle ages produced few poets; but many
songs which mothers sang and legends which
fathers told. have been handed down from gen
tiaip az
made them sacred. Then came the Mother
Goose stories. No one knows when they were
first published in England, but it must have been
many years ago, and they have-descended from
age to age without any change.
What would the children of the past have done
and the rising generation of 1.-THE Fpresent do
without Bluebeard. Beauty and the Beast, Gin
derella Snbad The Pied Piper or William Tell?
Who can estimate the pleasure which the legend
of Santa Claus has given to the juvenile world?
Christmas would be dead and almost meaning
less to them without the genial SANITY This
reminds us of that sweet story of old, which had
its origin in Bethlehem of Judea about 1900 years
ago. The sweetest story told by any mother to
. her children. is the story of the.~Babe III the
Manger 1t went forth from sthat little hamlet
of Judea to gladden. the ;hearts ofsthe human
race; but mans false conception, and mlslnter-
probation of its meaning, caused Europe to run
with rivers of blood.
Scott wrote upon. and Shakespeare dramatlZcd
some of the most beautiful legends of ancient
times. Hans Christian Anderson. theschildren'
friend, has left to himself a monument of eterna
fame in his book OF fairy tales. Who would moi
have given much to have heard Joseph De Lsle
author of the Marseillaise, sing that stirring
martial hymn? What Il divine conception art
the words and music of The Last Rose of Sum
mer. What potent sweetness breathes IN Com
ing Through the Rye. which the immortal Burns
wrote on the banks of the Ayr How the hear
of the Scottish highlander eXults when he hear
the notes of Highland Laddie, The Campbel
are Coming, or Bonnie Dundee; and one has bu
to commence The Wearing of the Green or st
Patrick's Day to set an Irishman to dancing. or
if he be of belligerent turn, he'll want to figh
the English nation single handed and alone.
We need not go beyond the borders of our owl
land, however, for thrilling legends or patroti
songs, the story of the Pilgrim Fathers, of Wash
lngton, of POcahontas, and host of Others ar
familiar to all. Nor are songs lany less de
serving of Immortality than are the songs of an
Gent Europe 1t was divine inspiration tina
prompted DIR. Smith when he wrote our natiOna
hymn, America. What glorious melody Keye
cast upon the breeze when he wrote The Sta
Spangled Banner. When Payne composed HON
Sweet Home, he dipped his pen in celestial fiui
and it breathed a song, the angelic sweetness Q
which, will continue to echo down the aises 9
time, till the sun shall grow dark and the ange
of the apocalypse shall draw the sable curtai
over the last heart-throbs of vanished humanity
Although written by an American, it cannot
claimed by any nation or people. To the sailo
at sea, the soldier in battle the convict in hi
cell, to the exile, or wherever human heal
beats in sympathy with its fellows, it is theirs
and its sweetness will ring from pole to pole
till the sun shall set to rise no more.
Success is successfully reaching success. An(
success in welldoing leads one further from vic