St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-01
THOSE WE HAVE ARE FLAT.
EIMY COUNTRY, TITS OF THEE,
TOO MUCH LIKE EEGOD SAVE
THE QUEEN.n
l.suwANEE RIvERv LACKS VIM.
Suggestion for n Song Combining
the Spirit of Two Popular
FavOrites.

morning Rev. Robert hammond
Cotton preached a sermon from the
text, 80, sing unto the Lord new
song, for He hath done marvellous
things" Cps, xcviii., y, in which he
took occasion to say that one of the
chief needs of this country in a
patriotic point of view was ma
tional anthem. 1t is entirely unnec-
essary to dilate upon the power and
influence of music in general, and
upon its function in expressing and
fostering the love of country in par
ticular. These things go without
saying, and every true-hearted
American must feel that his country
is laboring under a great defect in
this regard. We want a truly ma
tional hymn-one that our children
in school will easily learn and sing
out with throbbing pulses; one that
will always catch the popular ear,
and stir the popular sentiment; one
that when the military band strikes
up all will recognize as their coun-
try's marching orders to victory or
DEATH one, in short, that will full
fill for the United States the func-
ton performed in France by the
Marseillaise, in Germany by the
Watch on the Rhine in Russia by
the inspiring strains of God the ALL
terrible" and in England by God
Save the Queen Prizes have been
offered for such a thing before now,
but this seems to have done no good.
The fact must be at present admit
ted that this country is without a
national anthem. We have not been
able to agree on either words or
tune. No existing piece has, met
with sufficient popular favor to Sc
cure it's adoption. THE Star-Span-
gled Banner" while beautifully ex-
pressive of the true feeling of the
American heart, seems to be too
elaborate, or not sufficiently
catchy" for the popular ear. We
want something brisker and more
dashing. Other pieces not open to
this objection suggest associations
too local and specific for national
application. In some respects per-
haps the "Suwanee River might be
supposed most nearly to fulfill the
requirement; but it lacks the mill
tary vim, and suggests too domestic
and, perhaps, sectional a connotation
to be used universally for such pur-
pose. AS for my Country, IT'S Of
Thee" all are agreed that the very
attempt to use it for this purpose
is a confession Of failure and pow
erty of national utterance. To Dor
row the melody of another country,
and to adopt words to that melody
which, however beautiful, have no
specific national application what
ever, except in a single line-and
that so obscure that large proper
ton of our foreign population must
fall to recognize the allusion-must
be acknowledged as a confession of
failure, and an evidence that the
thing wanted is still Ito seek"
l shall never forget the emotion ex-
perienced some five years ago, soon
after L landed from England, when I
heard one night in the city of Boston,
played by some friends beneath my
window, what I, in my innocence, took
to be the strains of God Save the
Queen" discoursed, as I fondly i'm
native country. Judge of my aston
ishment on being told next morning
when l came down to breakfast that
that tune was called America" and
that 1t was the national anthem of the
United States! A piece that had been
the national anthem of Great Britain
years before the United States were
ever thought Of! Americans them
selves tacitly acknowledge that it is
failure. They can never be persuad-
ed to rise to the occasion when this
hymn is started. 1t never provokes
enthusiasm. The people, as a matter
OF fact, instinctively know and feel
that it is-that it cannot be-their real
national anthem. The response is al
ways half-hearted and unsuccessful.
All feel that the hymn is an exotic. a
foreigner, stranger not born in the
land. L was present at a Fourth of
July celebration in the pretty little city
of st. Peter in the Minnesota valley,
also four or five years ago, at which
Archbishop Ireland gave one of his
stirring and inspiring. patriotic adj
dresses, after which it was announced
that My Country IT'S of Thee would
be sung, and the audience were asked
to join in. AS a matter of fact the
piece was sung by the quartette on the
platform, one or two of the crowd
here and there softly humming the
melody with their mouths half-shut.
No; you cannot persuade the intelli-
gent, Wfde-awake American people that
this is their national anthem. They
know better; and would be infinitely
grateful to the poet and musician who
shall succeed in voicing their pure,
free, lofty, patriotic instinct; as Mir
dren of Israel had been delivered in the
Red sea, or as the pSalmist in the text
when he sang, 20 sing unto the Lord
new song; for He hath done marvel
Gus things"
In connection with this subject, how
ever, 1t may be remarked that our own
country is not so entirely poverty
stricken in regard of patriotic music
as all this might seem to imply. We
really have patriotic songs in abun-
dance. 1t seems to me that there is no
need to despair of solution of the
problem. 1.-The word is nigh us; in our
own heart and in our mouth" With
such a fund of truly loyal and pat
riotic sentiment as this country pos
sesses it would be strange if good
national hymn were impossible Of at
tainment The only drawback has
been in the persistence with which we
have tried to make out of impossible
material the thing required. For ex-
ample, if 1 could make my voice heard
in influential quarters throughout the
length and breadth of the land, l
would ask, What is the mater with
that glorious Battle Hymn of the Re
public" whose tune has certainly
Caught the popular ear in the stirring
and inspiring strains of John Brown"
and to which the most glorious of pat
riotic words have been welded by an
American poet. We all know the tune.
1 have arranged the following words
for the same music, which perhaps
might easily be adapted and learned:
Upraise the starry banner, for the
army of the Lord
Is marching forth to glory. in the
power of His word;
And God the Lord Omnipotent un-
sheaths His spirit sword.
His truth is marching on.
Glory glory halleluiah. etc