Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-11-27
SONGS THAT STIR THE HEART.
Women Were the Inspiration OF
Writers of Many of the World
Renowned Melodies.

In a majority of cases the heroineI
whose graces and virtues form the
theme of the song writers have been
real women and not creations of the
imagination. Which of those girls
who have had their love affairs immor-
talized in verse are the most popular
to-day it is hard to say. The revival
of the old songs by the minstrels in
these latter days shows plainly that
they have as strong a hold on the
public as when they were first sung.
Men and women who have travelled in
many lands and listened to everything
worth hearing in the way of good mu-
sic will settle back in their chairs and
listen to one of the old songs with
an air of contentment never seen on
any other occasion.
For the time the white-haired man
smells the apple blossoms of the old
homestead and is a boy again, and
the grave-eyed woman by his side
hears the young lover telling his tale
as she listens to "Annie Laurie"
1t is with a sigh that they both
come back to the present as the singer
ends. And they are happier for those
few moments in which the dear, dead
past was a living reality.
Nothing will work this transforma-
ton so effectively as the old songs
sung when new to women who long
since have passed to the other side.
There was Annie Laurie, for in
stance, Scotland's ~favorite woman, in
song. She was the daughter of a
Scottish knight, Sir Robert Laurie,
and was born about the year 1852.
William Douglas, of England, one
of the noted Scottish family of that
name, loved the girl. When he left
Scotland to fight in Flanders for fame
and fortune she gave him a lock of her
aair. In the lonely night watches
when thinking of home and the maiden
LETT behind the soldier scrubbed the
song that became famous. 1t was the
only remembrance the girl had of heI
lover. He was slain in battle. Ira
dition says he met death with the lock
of Annie Laurie's hair in his hand.
Jane was a typical country lass who
lived in her fathers cottage in Cam
bridgeshire. Her roguish eyes rested
with approval upon a neighboring
farmers son, one Edward Ftzball.
Passing up the street on one occasion
he saw "Pretty Jane" watching him
shyly from behind the window curtain,
believing herself to be safe from OBJ.
%servation. Fitzball continued his walk
until he reached the stile marking the
boundary of his fathers fields. He
sat on the stile and unused on James
charms. Then suddenly inspiration
came, for he was a poet as well as
a farmer, and the result was the oversees
which have delighted the world for
years. Before the ardent lover the
rye was in full bloom, and he headed
the poem with the title "When the
Bloom Is on the Rye" Later he went
to London and made his mark as a
singer. He met the celebrated com.
poser, Sir Henry Bishop, and asked
him to set the words of the song to
music. Bishop did so, but thought so
little of the composition that he
threw it into the waste-basket, from
which Fitzball rescued it. He sang
it that same evening, and it was en-.
Enthusiastically received. 1t was after
ward renamed and has since been one
OF the most famous songs in the world
Jane herself was not so kindly treat.
ed by fate. While still young she died
of consumption.