The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-07
ORIGIN or ssYANKEE DOODLE
The Air Universally known in One
of the Provinces of Spain.

From the New York sun.
you know Yankee Doodle isn't a Yam
kee air at ALL" said the Confederate maj
or lighting his corncob pipe and leaning
back in his easy chair near the club win
dow
'Whatr exclaimed his boon companion,
the son of a Federal colonel
no, by Georgew answered the major
" Yankee Doodle doesn't any more be-
l6ug to you Yankees than it does to ;he
Southerners. When my father was a COM
paradvely young man he visited San Sc
bastian. and met Senior Queheille, an aged
Biscayan gentleman, who was United
States vice-consul there. and Senior QUE
heine proved to him that Yankee Doodle
was Biscayan air. My father
told him about a difficulty which
he and some friends had Just
had with a crowd of angry Bas-
ques. The Basques had surrouned them
and shouted, Mueran! mueran" meaning
kill them! kill them! Senior Queheille
said to him:
g" Why didn't you whistle your national
air? 1t would have saved you.
" Our national air. my father exclaim-
ed. What do these people know about
that?
Had you but whistled 1t, repeat,
said the old gentleman, the angry Bas-
ques might have taken you to be what
they modestly esteem Themselves, the
cream of all the Basques. for purity of
race, and purity of language, and, in
deed, originality of music; for the air Is
so old they believe our great forefat ler
Tubal brought the tune here with him,
a1o Wit our a
know has been saved by knowing the
Secret signs the Freemasons use My
son, it would have been worth the trial
But surely, sir, YOU jest answered
my father incredulously.
on my word, no. answered the vice
consul. 1t is most certainly an old Gui-
puzcoan air. l have known it from my
childhood. / was amazed and amused,
too years ago when / first heard 1t in Bos-
ton and asked a gentleman what il was.
why our national air" he replied in
disguised tone. No" said l, lit is ours. "
He then told me that you had got it from
the British at Bunker Hill. | told him
that might be, but that originally it must
have come from the Pyrenees. He did not
believe me, bur l can prove the fact to
you. Tomorrow is one of the days those
gentry outside let their women come in
With vegetables. Come and take an early
breakfast with me and you shall be con-
WINGED.
you may be sure my father was on
time the next morning." continued the
major, refillng MS pipe. ION proceeding
to the plaza with the old Spanish gentle
man, they found It thronged with market
women from far and near. a middle
aged woman who had sold her supply of
vegetables was getting ready to start for
home. Senior Queheille accosted her in
Basque and learned that she was from To-
Ter ort q Of
San Sebastian. He spoke 70 her again.
She smiled and Immediately began to sing.
Her language was strange to my father
ears, but the air thrilled in his ears and
made him take off his hat and stand with
barred head. II was Yankee Doodle.
There! exclaimed the consul trium-
phantly. Is not that the tune you play
on the Fourth of July and when you GO
into battle?"
The very same answered my father
Come along; we have only begun the
proof and Senior Quehelle hurried him
from point to point of the crowded square
addressing here a woman from Vergara
there one from Hermann; now a girl from
Trun, then another from Oyarzun, until ht
had questioned the length and bradth OF
GuipuzcOa. The result was invariably the
same. Most could sing words TO the tune
few could only hum it, like the children
An our nurseries from Maine to Tampa
from the Atlantic 10 the Pacific, but my
father had proof positive that the air o.
Yankee Doodle was not only known il
that region but universally known"