The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1895-08-12
WHEN RANDALL CAME TO
DIXIE.

IL ever there was poet with Muse OF
fire that poet was James II. Randall in
the days that tried mems souls generation
ago.
Even now, in these piping times of
peace, I never see Randall without feeling
fiery tidal wave of memories surging over
and through me.
What Rouget de Lisle was to France,
Randall was to the confederacy. What the
Marseillaise was when the entire French
nation went mad. MY Maryland" was
when the southern people threw themselves
into the tumultuous horror of our civil
war.
Looking back upon that sulphurous era,
the author of the south's greatest war
lyric seems a figure of the dead past, and
yet. only yesterday. he met me face to
face-a young man still, as we class men
these days-wth his olden dash and i'm
pulsive vigor. chastened and mellOwed, as
one might expect, by the softening touch
of time.
While he talked with me about the ia
miliar matters of the hour, with never
word about the past. found myself think
ing of the potential part played by his
pen in the most tremendous epoch of our
history.
What our most eloquent tribunes could
not do. it was reserved for the poet TO do
Where eloquence failed to move the peo-
pie. a song set their hearts ahame IL
stirred fever i'm the blood of age, turned
weak women into herones. and wherever
its wild notes were heard leSiOns of armed
men sprang up. 1t was bugle call,
cry to arms battle shout all in one. with
a hint of clashing steel and the thunderouS
rush of charging hosts
The young Marylander who wrote that
song little dreamed of the influence which
1t was destined to WELD. He awoke 10
find himself famous.
The flaming lyric swept over the land ike
a connagratIon.
| From the Potomac to the Rio Grande
| "NIy Maryland was everywhere-in the air.
| on every lp-an inspiration and a prophecy
| Millions of southrons heard it with feelings
| of divine cxaltation. intense enthusiasm or
maddened frenzy On the other side OF
! the border our foemen heard it with mingled
anger and admiration. 1t rolled across the
| sea- and rolled resurgent back again TO
! mingle its strange notes with the brazen
clamor Of war.
In gay salons. in crowded assemblies, on
the stage. in the trenches and on the
| tented field the song did its perfect work
sped on"ara through The cay and
| mountains. avaSening the echoes in The
valleys, stirring every heart and nerving
every arm.
The words alone did not WELD this won
spirit back of them that made them i'm
mortal.
Looking at Randall. yesterday. I lived
in the past again. In how many Of the
beleaguered cities of the confederacy ] had
heard his great war song,
l had heard it from gentle maidens, and
from rough troopers as they rode booted
and spurred to the fray l had heard it
here in the city of the siege. at time
when roaring cannon and shrieking shells
were its only accompaniment. l had heard
Il in our celebrations Of victory, and again
when we were in the throes of "a heroic
despair.
How it fired the blood and strengthened
every arm that welded n sword. How
well il has been called the Marseillaise OF
the confederacy!
In those red days Randall was the idol
of the people. Crowds rushed to see him,
and every city was proud 70 claim him as
its honored guest. Statesmen, warriors
and fair womt.l overwhelmed him with
their attentions which he modestly tried
to avoid.
on side Of the Potomac n nation
would gladly have voted him monument;
on the other an Infatuated people inpatient
ly longed for the accident of war that
would enable them to load him with chains
in one of their Bastiles.
Beranger said that IT ne could make h
nations songs, he cared not who made
its laws.
Randall's famous song is an illustration
of the force of the Frenchman's oft-Guoted
saying II was a power in the land and
it nodded the thought and character and
literature of one of the greatest and yet
one of the most short-lived of republics.
Fortune has not been kind to the poet
since that final day at Appomattox. but no
man ever felt more contempt for its
caprices-no man ever fronted its sings and
arrows more bravely.
High-souled and serene, s:eadfast in his
lofty purposes. Randall goes his way.
Another man with only touch OF his
genius and his fame would have posed be-
fore the public and coined money by the
bushel. But our singer is of a different
stamp.
He wants vain trumpeting of his work.
and he scorns the arts by which smaller
men keep themselves before the people.
lie knows that the glorious past is his, and
he can afford to look forward to the future.
without giving a thought 10 the temporary
freaks of an adverse fate.
And he is right. The younger generation
may know little of his personality. but
that matters not History viii take care
of his ringing verse his splendid fame and
his stainless name.
WALLACE p. REED.
Outrage Upon newfoundland.