The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-18
"BRED IN OLD KENrucKY."
1t Has Succeeded "On the Banks of
the wabash"
From the ~ rork sun.


From the New Y ork sun.
In the periodical literature and occa-
sional poetry of the United States. Ken
lucky the dark and bloody ground, has
been more generally Identified in the pop
ular mind with the production and con-
sumption of a superior grade of whisky
than with sentimental matters taking
musical form in ballads. The author of
the song, Bred in Old Kentucky''-not
bread from old Kentucky, as the parodists
already have it-touched however, upon a
sympathetic vein in the first of his song,
as follows:
When lad, stood one day by a cottage
far away,
And to me that day all nature seem'd
more grand,
For my Sue. with bushes red, had just
promised We should wed,
And I'd come to ask her mother for her
hand
As l told the old, Old tale of a love that
ne'er would fail
The gray-haired mother stroked her
daughters head,
And l fancied 1 could trace just tear
on her kind face
As she placed my sweethearts hand in
mine and said.
What the mother said 10 the young man
differed materially from what. in like
cases, according to all human observation
and experience, is generally said. She did
NOT refer to her daughter or to her future
son-in-law. She did not say that matri-
monlai alliances were made in heaven;
she did not add that she had ALWAYS ex-
pected that he would propose. She did not
grieYe at the prospective loss of her
daughter or dry her tears in cnntempla-
ton of the good husband the daughter
would secure. She did not say that she
hated to part with her child, but would
gain a son in losing a daughter Her re-
marks were distinctively geographical
particularly impersonal and somewhat de-
serlpuve, and as follows-in the chorus:
She was bred in old Kentucky. where the
meadow grass is blue,
There's the sunshine of the country in
her face and manner, too
she was bred in old Kentucky, take her.
boy, you're mighty lucky.
When you marry girl like Sue
For some reason, which it Is difficult to
explain, there has been considerab bic non
ular approval of the dominant sentiment
IN the song of old Kentucky, notwithstand-
ing the fact that there is no allusion in II
TO the merits of Bourbon as a beverage or
the wholesome advantages of rye. taken
internally. Heretofore Kentucky has
been chiefly noted in the affairs of the
stage by reason of the horses bred and
reared there and Kentucky thoroughbreds
have gained marked distinction on many
race courses, but the popular merit of
young women with Kentucky as a place
OF education has not heretofore been very
clearly made known. The second verse
of the sentimental song, She Was Bred
in Old Kentucky" is of a somewhat
mournful character, as it describes the
emotions of a young husband after being
left a wdower and contains, too, a some
what curt reference on his part to THE
place we've long called home. He is
represented as soliloquizing, not as is US
ual in such pathetic pictures, in a group
of his friends and relatives, with usually
his children in the foreground of the pic
ture, but sitting alone, absolutely alone
disconsolate, and recalling the language of
his mother-n-law. These are the words
of the second verse:
Many years have passed away since that
well remembered day
When to that dear old Kentucky home I
came:
And my happiness thro' life was my
sweetheart, friend and wife,
For the sunshine in her heart remained
AHt SdiIeb
I am sitting all alone in a place we've long
called home,
For yesterday my darling passed away;
Tho in tears, 1 think with joy of the day
when, but boy,
That / took her hand and heard her
mother say.
Obviously the essential point in the pop
ularity of a song is the excellence of the
music, but the theme has much to do with
it and the words of description, too. For
a number of years matters connected with
Kentucky have demanded public atten-
ton. The play, 'In Old Kentucky has
been presented in all parts of the coun-
try, and for that reason, perhaps, the pa
irons of theaters have felt themselves
more familiar with the song on that sub
ject than one based upon Bred in Kan
sas" or BRED in Delaware" for instance.
The parodsts have not been slow to util-
ize the advantages offered by "She Was
Bred in Old Kentucky as a subject for
travesty. There is the tramps Bread
from Old Kentucky" there is the race
track "Bled in Old Kentucky" there is