St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-29

But those who love the exquisite pathos
-sneltingness. Is the word for it-of
Irish music, will never admit that
Carey in his one song, even ap-
preached Crouch in his
Not long ago Patti sang this song
In London, and the next day the Lon
don papers blazed with great editorials
about the beauty Of the masterpiece
and its absolute spiritual value to man
kind. The- voice of Patti, the tender
ness of the words and the complete
oneness of the sentiment in words and
music set the metropolis of the world
on fire. The scene at the theater was
remarkable. Men and women looked
at one another with tears streaming
down their faces and binding their
eyes, and fell In contact with some in
finite, fnscrutable force not known TO
physicists and without a name. In
the glory Of that brilliant scene no one
thought Of the cemposer-or, say, no
one thought of him as a helpless old
man, living in almost squaIor in. a
back street of The. American city.
Next day, too, the London Times said
that the composer had received as much
as f5 for his song. That is $50 in
American, money. Milton got the same
sum for the manuscript of Paradise
Lost, But who will contend that
Paradise Lost'i has in 1t half the gen.
1us or divinity. of Kathleen MaYour-
neen?' The poem itself was not writ
ten by Mr.. Crouch 1t was first pe1b-
lished IN an English magazine Here
it was that Crouch saw It. That was
in 1887, when the musician was but
ptneteen years. of age The perfect
rythm OF the lines at once fastened
his attention, and the melody grew
upon the words as he repeated them in
his mind. The melody was more COM
pletefy evolved soon afterward, while
one day he was riding about the
grounds Of the Duke of Bedford's cas-
tie in Engley. These are the verses:
Kathleen AavouFneen. The gray dawn is
breaking
The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill:
The lark from her light wing the bright dew
is shaking
Kathleen Mavourneen! What! sIunnbering
Oh, hast thou forgotten how soon we must
sever?
Oh, hast thou forgotten this day we must
Il may be for years and it may be forever.
Oh, why art thou silent, then, voice of my
heart2-
Kathleen Mavourneen! Awake from thy slum-
bers
The blue mountains glow in the suns gold
en- light;
All! Where is the spell that once hung on my
numbers?
Arise in thy beauty thou star of my night!
Niavourneen, Mavourneen, my, sad tears are
falling
To think that from Erin and thee I must
part
II may be for years and it may be forever.
Then why art thou silent then. voice of my
heart?
Crouch wrote out his melody and Of
fered ii to a firm of music sellers, who
paid him in hand just f5. They took the
piece and coined money with It. Edi-
tton after edition was sold, and the
song swept over the world. The simple
little poem was translated into every
tongue spoken by civilized people, and
it, with the Irish melody that clothed
it around. drew tears from all the
world Fortunes were made out of the
song by many publishers in divers plac-
es, and the original buyers sold the
co wright by auction for $500, after
hs ing published many editions.
! his. younger years Crouch was
w known. to- the. amateurs Of music
in England. Like BayE, who wrote
I'D Be a Butterfly and ''I'll Hang My
Harp on a Willow Tree" Crouch was
very popular in his day And like the
personality OF Bayly.e which has been
satirically reconstructed by Andrew
Long, dlis personality faded with the
time he was a. Rogue in tile. concert
rooms of London. He was the cofftem-
Iorary Of Rraham, Crauer. Mori, Law
emu and DPagtRIetti. He, may have
known. CataEnfr Saple aud IneIedon.
His songs were sung by. Maria Tree.
Nine Vestris and Mrs. Waylett. ITa
was dscadeft3 when Miss Brpeea and
He was born in; 1908, and was a mu-
steian almsst from .hj * infancy. At the
age of mine he WAS playing the bass III
a theater. He was attached to what
is now Her Majesty's theater, whefr
1t was the Kings theater. He played
violin solo in the presence of Rosini.
When King George ". founded the
Royal Academy of Music, Crouch quail
ifed for royal studentship. His first
ballad was 'Zephyrs Of Love" sung
by Miss Tree. He grew rich, lost all
his money IN a zinc mill, and wrote
Kathleen Mavourneen" for Mrs.
Crawford.
In 1649 lie came to this country at the