The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-31
Yankee didee dude down
Didee dudel launter.
Yankee viver voOver voWn,


Yankee viver voover vown,
- Botermeit und taunter
Nobody knows exactly what this
verse meant, but the lines are interest
ing, because they are primarily re-
sponsible for the word Yankee ana
for the familiar English version OF
Yankee Doodle
Soon after being first sung this
quaint verse became SO popular among
all classes in Holland that it became
truly national song. 1t was sung
in livelier time than the old chant
which it supplanted.
While the great naval war of the
sixteenth century was in progress the
English, under Admiral Drake, caught
the tune. Much to the surprise of ev-
erybody, England broke the mighty
sea power of Holland, and when the
fighting was over the English people
sang hooking parodies of the old song
against it's hated authors. Yankee was
understood to mean Dutchman. Since
the Dutch were sharp traders, the pop
ular meaning of the word came to be
a shrewd, hard-headed, ungracious sort
of fellow. Holland then tried to forget
the song, and it thus passed into the
hands of another nation.
All England sang varying words to
it in Oliver CromWel's time. But one
day-the day that the great reformer
rode into Oxford at the head Of the
rebels to battle with the kings army
he wore an immense ostrich feather
fastened to his hat by band of heavy
silk "maccaroni'' cord. Yankee Doodle
then being aSternl sof contemptuous rid
icule, one oftthe courtiers of the boast
full king composed The famous refrain:
Yankee Doodle came to town
Riding on d pony;
Stuck a feather in his hat
And called it maccaroni.
The rhyme did not, hold it's first pop
ularity very long, because the rebels
We're successful, and probably it would
have been forgotten entirely had not
the old kings son returned to power
a few years later. Meanwhile the re-
formers had sung the tune to many
nonsense verses, which soon spread to
America.
The best knewn of the verses was
Lydia Fishers Jig" which made it's
appearance in New England about the
year 1713, and became famous as a
dance song. The words ran:
Lucy Locket lost her pocket;
Lydia Fisher found it.
Not bit of money in it,
+ Only binding round it.
Lucy Locket" was very popular until
1775, when British regulars were en-
camped on Boston Common, and
the natives of the city and
surrounding towns were organ
lied into companies of minute men"
under John Hancock. While as yet
there had been no open war, the feel
ing was very bitter among the colonists
who We're held in such contempt by the
soldiers that they were tainted with
the familiar tune to the words
Yankee Doodle came to town
For to buy firelock,
We will tar and feather him,
And SO we will John Hancock.
This made the colonists so angry that
they declined any longer to sing an air
put to such contemptuous words against
themselves. A few weeks later some
thing happened that changed their
| minds, for it was the destiny of Yankee
Doodle to become, apparently forever,
| the undisputed property of America.
In April, 17I5, Lord Percy marched
out of Boston with brigade of British
regulars to dispense the rebels assem-
bled at Lexington and Concord. Amid
cheering and flying flags the bands
| played Yankee Doodle, and the red
| coated soldiers sang boastfully the old
| words which had vainly ridiculed oliver
| Cromwell over hundred years before.
Perhaps, when they began to sing, they
| had forgotten how, even before Crom-
wells time, the tune had been turned
against its very authors. He must
| have remembered before returning to
| Boston, for at Lexington the Wanted
soldiers of King George were routed by
handful of patriots, who, when they
saw how things We're going, went wild
with joy, and taking the words right
out of the mouths of the adversaries
shouted in eXultation the song which
| had been aimed at them in contempt.
| During the flight back to camp the
regulars We're peppered with shot from
behind stone walls and trees, so much
to their discomforture that Lord Percy,
| in a fit of disgust. next morning con-
| fessed that after marching out to the
tune of Yankee Doodle they had danced
| to it all the way home.
Yankee Doodle has always belonged
to the three great families of the eau
| casian race-the Latin, the Teutonic
| and the AngloSaXon. In seven cen
| turtles it has been carried into the heart
of four of the greatest political powers
| of history. Now that expansion is an
| accomplished fact, who can tell what
new freaks destiny will play with it?-
| New York Sun.