Waterbury Democrat., 1901-05-29
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BY w.

"And YOU knew Francis Key v eagerly asked, fired to know some thing of a real poet who dared appro- priate such an old quotation. 'hnew him ? Why he lived but a few doors above my fathers house. There were once two brothers, John Ross and Phillip Barton Key. Phillip was an officer in the British army during the revolutionary war, while John was in that of the United States. John lived on Pipe Creek, near Tarrytown, Fred erick county, Maryland, where Fran cis and his sister, Anna, Johns only children, were born. There was an ex- fled Scotchman, Mir Bruce, said to nave been heir to the throne or Scotland, who had built a mill on Pipes creek, and there. in the company of this no- ble old aristocrat Frank spent his very early boyhood. The brothers, Phillip and John. were large, manly looking fellows, but Frank and Anna were of much smaller mould. Anna Key was a beautiful little girl, with the most cheerful face and most pleas ant smile I ever saw. When they moved into town, near my fathers, Frank was half grown, and ready to enter as a law student with Roger B. Torrey. then at the head of the Fred erick bar Roger was tall,. gaunt. fellow, as lean, they used to say, as Potomac herring, and as shrewd as the shrewdest He married bright little Anna. It was like the unlon of hawk with q sky lark; but she lived to be the wlte of a chief justice of the United States, and I never heard that either repented of their marriage. MT Fancy was a strict Catholic and Frank an Episco- palian; not considered very jealous and sharp in his profession and much given to dreaming. He went to Vlr- ginia and brought home a wife much larger and taller than himself. Went to housekeeping on Market street and had a couple of little children when l left home in 1909 to seek my fortune in Lancaster, Pa"
 s.Then you little thought you had been daily seeing the man whose 1n- spired song would become the national anthem of America?" 1 asked. No more than Abraham was aware that he was entertaining angels. Yet the war cloud, through which the light of his genius was to burst upon us, was even then gathering. You have read about the embargo which was declared in 1906, when England, jealous of the naval power of the States, fired into the United States ship Chesapeake, and behaved otherwise so rudely we were compelled to close our ports against her vessels and imports Those were the daEs''-and here the old gen. tleman inyoluntarily drew up his bowed form-"when even the proudest @ity belIes were wooed and won in homespun rather than be dependent on foreign finery. 1 have danced with many an elegant woman i'll linsey- woolsey and tow frock of those times and well remember that Governor Shy der at his inauguration in 1908 wore d suit of broadcloth manufactured in a loom in the borough of Lancaster. Patriotism was strong when it could conquer even woman's vanity" 1 for gave the malicious twinkle of his eyes at that last hit out of honest reverence to our grandmothers. who inspired 1t. t.Well,'' he continued. England kept growing more insulting; the whole country was clamorous to punish her. and war was declared on the 18th of July, 1872. I had gone down in the stage to Baltimore to buy some type metal for my father, who was an as ] tronomical instrument maker, and wit messed one of those outbreaks of popu- l lar feeling, growing out the state or the times. which gave that patriotic 1 but impulsive city the temporary title 1 of mob town. A newspaper called the l Federal Republican, which had been published in Georgetown by party of | rebels to the administration, was re- moved to Baltimore, where its issues ! contained violent articles in opposition X to the war, the government and loyal