The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-05-31
ORIGIN OF YANKEE DOODLE"
The Air Universally Known in One of the
Basqae Provinces of Spain.,


Yankee air at all, said the Confederate
Major, lighting his corncob pipe and lean
ing back in his easy chair near the club
window.
"Whatl !" exclaimed his boon COM
panion, the son of Federal Colonel.
''No, by Georgei" answered the Major.
yankee Doodle doesn't any more be-
long to you Yankees than it does to the
Southerners. When my father was com.
paratiyely young man he visited San
Sch astian, and met Senior Queheille, an
aged Biscayan gentleman, who was United
States Vice Consul there, and Senior
Queheille proved to him that Yankee
Doodle was Biscayan air. My father
told him about difficulty which he and
some friends had just had with crowd
of angry Basques. The Basques had sur
rounded them and shouted, 'Mueran
mueranv meaning Kill them! kill
themP Senior Queheille said to him:
why didn't you whistle your nation
al air? 1t would have saved you.'
g Our national air. my father ex-
claimed. What do these people know
about that?'
Had you but whistled it, I repeat, )
said the old gentleman, the angry
Basquss might have taken you to be what
they modastiy esteem themselves. the
cream Of all the Basques. for purity 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, along
with our tongue. Many a man, you
know, has been saved by knowing the
secret signs the Freemasons use. Ny
son. 1t would have been worth the trial.
But surely, sir, you jest, answered
my father, incredulcusly.
On my word, no, answered the Vice
Consul. 1T is most certainly an old
Guipuzcoan air. / have known it from
my childhood l was amazed and amused
too, years ago when / first heard 1t in
Boston, and asked gentleman what it
was. Why, our national air, he replied
ina disguised tone. No. said /, 'it is
ours. He then told me that you had got
1t from the British at Bunker Hill. I
told him that might be, but that origin
ally 1t must have come from the Pyre-
nees. 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
s Md the next morning" continued the
Malor, rehlling his pipe. son 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 yege-
tables was getting ready to start for
nome. Senior Queheille accosted her in
basque and learned that she was from
Ioiosa, some ten or twelve 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.
. 'Therel' exclaimed the Consul
trlumphantly. is not that the tune you
play on the Fourth of July and when you
go into battle?'
father.
Come along; we have only begun
the proof, and Senior Queheille hurried
MIN from point to point of the crowded
square, addressing here a woman from
VeIgara, there one from Hermann; now a
glri from Trun, then another from
Oyarun, until he had ques toned 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 children in our
nurseries from Maine to Tampa, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, but my father
nao proof positive that the air of Yankee
Dooo!e' was not only known in that re-
glon but universally known"