The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-09
F0LK-S0NG IN AMERICA.
CThfrs Pnper.l

4
seriously considered and investigated; it,
in fact. supplies many lost links in the
history of human psychology. AS branch
of the great science of anthropology it
seems destined to exercise influence in in
dicating the course of human progress.
Then re adds in explanation of this gen.
eral statement. ''by this 1 mean that 1T
serves to place modern civilization in its
proper relationship to past civilization, and
at the same time compels one to look upon
modern institutions, not as the only posi-
| BILE good, but as an outcome of modern
| ideas only which are just as likely to be
erroneous as past ideas. 1t is quite true
! that folklore, in one sense. deals with
| large mass of human folly; but we must
remember that what seems pure folly to
us was really q very serious thing and of
enormous Importance to those generations
who originated the particular form of
folly
| 1t seems to me, however that in the par
| ticular branch of folklore known as folk
song the enduring quality that commends
| certain of its melodious voices and sends
| them singing through the ages is just that
| nameless some hing-grace, beauty. pathos
exaltation. hope, PROFESSIONALISM you will
that appeals to the common heart in all
countries and through all time. That which
merely tells the story of things that were
peculiar to past civilizations may cling long
in the memories of men, but it must ulti-
nately sink into the general body of his
tory and be known no more in it's individual
forms.
If Homer's heroes and heroines had been
drawn by a weaker hand than his-a hand
that lacked the cunning to portray, with
RI hac 1od
passions and forces in their characters that
are common to the great and virtuous of all
ages, though the recital of battles the
catalogue of ships and the details of as
saults and rebuffs might have been as ac-
curate as Homer made them, the story
would long ago have ceased to be of inter-
est except to the antiquarian and the his
torian or novelist in search of data.
We cherish the old gods Of the pantheon
not through any belief in them as deities,
but because their creators, the poets and
seers of the pagan world, endowed them
so marvelously with the passions and mo-
tives of men and women. For very similar
reasons the ballads and songs, from great
est to least, that have come down to us
from the past anchor themselves in our
memories sometimes to the exclusion of
worther and more important matters. 1t
is true that fragments of ancient customs,
beliefs and superstitions are preserved in
them, and in the children's plays and fairy
tales, and also in the wise sayings and old
songs that like Tennyson's Brook, "go on
forever" but they do go on because they
touch and set to vibrating certain chords
that are common to the souls of men.
These chords are not always those that
give back the purest tones, for there is
cnro incr oF he
in every nature that has sufficient indivd-
uality to be more than inert clay in the
hands Of the ethical, theological, political or
social potters. Otherwise the songs and
tales of Bold Robin Hood and His Merry
Men and the countless other robbers Dor
der chieftains, outlaws and footpads whose
picturesque deviltries and dashing exploits
fill so large a space, not only in folklore
but also in more pretentious literature,
would rot appeal to us as they do,
Why should a long-drawn-out wall of
tedious repetitions like that inspired by the
fate of Robert Kidd have penetrated even to
the backwoods of Ohio and Indiana and
have been sung in the homes of the pioneers
if there was not that i'll the mournfu re-
cital which appealed to some little-recog-
nzed tendency or sympathy of the common
heart?
My name was Robert Kidd
AS | sailed, as l sailed.
Ny name was Robert Kidd
As / sailed.
My name was Robert Kidd,
And most wickedly | did
What the laws of God forbid,
As | sailed.
But every one will recall the old ballad
and how, at last the pirate was represented
as crying out:
Now in Newgate I am thrown
For my sins, for my sins:
Now in Newgate / am thrown
For my SINS
Now in NeWagte | am thrown
And to God l must atone
For my sins.
In the children's plays and stories there is,
in addition to the well-known legends,
myths and fairy tales, an almost endless re-
currence of old superstitions and fragments
of old customs that are only recognized by
the student of history. Often what appears
to be but meaningless repetitions of discon-
nected words and purposeless motions, but
which in some mysterious manner clings to
childhood and delights it, is the survival of
some ancient ceremony of love-making and
marriage, the planting, the harvest the
spinning and weaving, or of the chase or Of
war.
The spirit of anthropomorphism is so
strong in all that we cannot avoid think
ing of the Deity as an enlarged and all
puissant human being with those traits we
most admire strong in his character. In like
manner the child endows animals and in
animate things with thoughts and aspira-
tons similar to his own Then the child lives
largely in an imaginary world that lies over
and about him like a golden mist shot
through with sunshine or obscured by clouds
in which abide many things to be loved and
feared. The fairy tale, when it has once
reached his ears, enters into and becomes
part of his imaginary world and never
thereafter wholly departs from it. The
quaintness and obscurity of the rhymes
taught at his mothers knee or in the
nursery commend them to his romantic in
stincts. Then, they are among the first
things that he is taught, and like all first
memories of things, they cling to him the
longest, and he is morally sure to transmit
them to his children in turn.
How many hundreds of wel-meant efforts
have been made to reform these children's
songs and plays, dress them up in approved
grammar and make them conform to mod
ern ideas of morality and TRUTH The fairy
tales have been worked over into stories of
good little boys and girls, anxious to please
their model papas and perfect mammas, but
all to little no purpose. Childhood finds
these counterfeits and limitations all very
stupid, and falls back upon the genuine
article, which it recognizes at once, not by