Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-06-04
ORIGIN OF .YANkEE DOODLE"
The Air Universally Known in One Of the
Basque Provinces Of Spain.

You know Yankee Doodle isn't a
Yankee air at ALL" said the Confederate
major, lighting his corncob pipe and
leaning back in his easy chair near the
club window.
What" exclaimed his boon compan-
ion, the son of Federal colonel.
No, by George!" answered the ma
jor Yankee Doodle doesn't any
more belong to you Yankees than it
does to the Southerners. When my
father was comparatively young man
he visited San Sebastian, and met Sc
nor Queheille. an aged Biscayan gen
tleman, who was United States vice
consul there, and Senior Queheille prov
ed to him that Yankee Doodle was
a Biscayan air. My father told him
about a difficulty which he and some
friends had just had with a crowd If
angry Basques. The Basques had sur
rounded them and shouted. 'Mueran.
mueran. meaning XIII them? Kill
them,' Senior Queheille said to him:
Why didn't you whistle your ma
tional air? 1t would have saved you.
'''Our national air., my father eX-
claimed. What do these people know
about that?
Had you but whistled it, | repeat,
said the old gentleman, the angry
Basques might have taken you to be
what they modestly esteem themselves.
the cream Of all the Basques, for puri-
ty of race, and purity of language, and,
indeed, originality of music; for the
air is SO old they believe our great
forefather Tubal brought the tune here
with him al with
Many man, you know, has been saved
by knowing the secret signs the Free
Masons use. My sons, it would have
been worth the trial
81 But surely, sir, you jest answered
my father incredulously.
on my word, no. answered the
vice consul. 1t is most certainly an
old GuipuZcoan air. l have known it
from my childhood. l was amazed and
amused. too, years ago when l first
heard it in Boston, and asked a gentle
man what 1t was. why, our national
air" he replied in a disguised tone
No" said l, lit is ours" He then told
me that you had got it from the Brit
ish at Bunker Hill. l told him that
might be, but that originally it must
have come from the Pyrenees. He did
not believe me, but I 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 convinced
You may be sure my father was on
time the next morning. continued the
major, retilling his pipe. "On proceed
ing to the plaza with the old Spanish
gentleman. 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 Que
heilIe accosted her in Basque and
learned that q she was from TolOSa,
some 10 or or II leagues south of San
Sebastian. He spoke to her again. She
smiled and Immediately began to sing.
Her language was strange to my
fathers ears but the air thrilled in his
ears and made him take off his hat
and stand with barred head. 1t was
Yankee Doodle .rt"'
I''"f'There" exclaimed the consul tri-
umphantly. 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 Queheille hurried
him from point to point of the crowd
ed square, addressing here a woman
from Nergara, there one from Hermann;
now a girl from Trun. then another
from OyarZun. until he had questioned
the length and breadth of Guipuzcoa.
The result was invariably the same.
Most could sing words to the tune. a
few could only hum it, like the chill
dren in our nurseries from Maine to
Tampa, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, but my father had proof posi-
tive that the air of Yankee Doodle
was not only known in that region but
universally known"