The record-union., 1897-09-11
A UNIQUE HYMN WRITER.
Fanny Crosby's Method of Compos'
ing Religious Verses.


| circles the world over, and who can
| safely say that she has more hymns
| to her credit than any mortal, living
or dead.
| Her eyes have been sightless since
her habybood, seventy-seven years ago,
the effects of some maltreatment. She
is, too, a frail, wee creature, tipping the
scales at about 100 pounds, and yet,
| despite this lifelong intirmity, Fanny
| Crosby has made a generous competence
and an enduring name by composing,
since 1864, over 1000 Sunday school
hymns. Her versatility is well-nigh
incredible. Her pious muse is always
| ready, and can work without meals
or sletL or any of that spirit-moving
sentiment supposed to govern the
| versemaker.
They tell of her that one day Will
liam H. Doane, the composer, rushed
| into her poetical laboratory, satchel in
| hand, on the way to catch a train.
| He had twenty minutes to spare, and
wanted a hymn written to set to music
before he left. The time had not ex-
pired before Miss Crosby had dashed
| off one of the best-known hymns of all
her productions, safe in the Arms of
Jesus NO IlOQ6I1h nyIIln HAS ClICuIII-
navigated the religious globe more
thoroughly than this one or been trans
lated into more modern tongues. By
| the way, it is her own favorite, possi-
bly, because of the way it was railroad
ed through her brain.
Miss Crosby never does any compos-
| ing o. music, but when it comes to
verses, she can do business on the
motto of Hymns written while you
| wait" Naturally her other senses are
made more rapid and acute by her to-
tai blindness. Her memory is astound-
ing. Many portions of the Bible she
knows by heart. Before the age of ten
she had committed to memory the
books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, and the Four Gospels, and
she can quote from her own favorite
authors by the ream. Equally wonder
full is her sense of touch. She can al
ways tell the names of her intimate
friends by a mere shake of the hand,
and people she has seldom met and
knows but slightly can be identified by
the voice.
Fanny Crosbys life is an object les
son for all unfortunates whom Provi
dence has stricken. She was born in
South East, Putnam County, N. Y. in
March, 1920. When she was a child of
s her parents removed to Ridgefield,
Conn, where they made their home
four years. In 1885, when Is years of
age, Fanny was placed in the New
York Institution for the Blind where
she received a good education and was
| a teacher for some years. She began
| to compose crude verses when a girl
| but 1t was not until she had passed
into the thirties, and was spending her
| vacations as a teacher at North Read
| ing, Mass, that she fell into the hands
| of the late Professor George F. Root
| Gn after years the composer of so many
| famous war songs), and he first turned
her talent to practical account. They
| formed a combination by which he set
| to music the songs she wrote. Some
of the songs produced in that partner
| ship period are popular and good sell
| ers to this day, notably, Hazel Dell"
| The HOneysuckle Glen" "ROsalie
| the Prairie Flower" and that perennial
| favorite of all the college boys in New
England "Music in the Air" And she
wrote, too, about this time, cantatas of
The Flower Queen" and the Pilgrim
Fathers" which had a good dsal of
popularity in their day though long
since IN the musical junkshop.
Miss Crosby has enjoyed the personal
| friendship of no end of prominent men.
among them Presidents Tyler and Van
Buren,, Henry Clay, William Fl. Seward
| and scores of big wigs of a later date
A bit of sentiment surrounds her ac-
quaintance with Mr.. Clay. The great
statesman lost a beloved son in the
Mexican battle of Monterey and Miss
Crosby had tried to cheer him up by
the gift of a few appropriate stanzas,
which appeared to touch a chord in the
old commoner's heart, for when, few
months later, he visited the institution
where the writer was teaching, while on
a visit to New York, and when she was
delegated to give him a poetical welcome
Mr.. Clay very tenderly drew her arm in
his and said, as he wept: This is not
the first poem for which I am indebted
to this lady. She sent me some beauti-
full lines on the death of my dear SON.
Miss Crosby says that Mr.. Clay soon
| recovered himself by splendid effort,
but she could not control her tears
Miss Crosby, by the way, was the first
woman whose voice was heard publicly
in the Senate chamber at Washington,
where she once read a poem, back IL
the fifties.
1t was not, however. till about the
close of the war that Miss Crosby
struck her real poetical vein. She was
in this CITY, at the Ponton Hotel in
Franklin street, when she met the late
William r. Bradbury and wrote for him
her first HYMN, beginning:
We are going. we are going
To a home beyond the skies.
1t met with instantaneous success, and
she has had no trouble since then in sup
porting herself handsomely by her Won
derfully prolific pen. In addition to Alr.
Bradbury she has worked in unison with
such well-known composers as William
H. Done, the Rev Robert Lowry, J. r.
Sweeney, Philip Phillips, w j. Kirkpat-
rick. Silas J. Vail H. p. Danks. Fl. f.
Mann and the Rev. Samuel Almon.
While at work. friend says, she always
composes with an open book in her hand
held closely over her eyes. She had ex-
cellent musical instruction in her early
days, which naturally improved her fne
sense of rhythm, a most important fac
tor in all song work, not only for the
composer but for the singers as well.
This feature of her hymns has had
much to do with their world wide popu-
larity. Though simple in construction
they were always clear and direct, and
composers find it comparatively easy ID
set them to pleasing airs.
No happier or merrier creature lives
than this remarkable old lady. She loves
her work, glories in the assurance that
her life has not been barren 5f good re-
suits, and she does not look her age
within twenty years. She laughs at the