The Washington times., 1902-10-06

"IFTEEN years ago a schoolgirl,
n nineteen years old, said to the
i writer of this article, while on a
school excursion:
ssI wish YOU would sing The Year OF
Jubfio, or Kingdom Coming Papa USED
to sing it., but / have entirely forgotten
how it goes"
No single expression had, up to that
time. SO forcibly brought to mind the
fact that the war was part OF history.
and that the majority Of our people
knew it only as such. Words. that were
familiar enough to me, were known by
this girl only as a kind of dream. Hun
dreds Of thousands, perhaps millions,
once sang them, now forgotten.
However, l complied with her request.
and to show the popular. natural char
acter of the music. that party of iubi-
liant youth, a year subsequent to the re-
bellion. Immediately saught the refrain,
and the country woods rang out
1T mus be now de Kingdoms comm,
An de year OBJ juhilo
/ fell to wondering what became of the
melodies that once fired our Northern
hearts. and whether the people of today
would like to hear those soul-stirring
words as they did in times when drums
were beating and cannon firing. At any
rate, / determined to give the public a
chance to hear, and at once organized a
chorus of pupils, and, obtaining copies
of the most noted war ballads, We set
to work.
In due time people were informed that
the High School pupils of W would
give a concert of war music. The hall
was crowded to its utmost limit, and
every selection, from THE Battle Cry
of Freedom" to Corporal Schnapp,
was received with the highest acclama-
tions. The aasry was answered.
The public appreciated the music as
well as 1t ever dJd, but in the years i'm
mediately subsequent to the conflict all
parties, both those who fought and
hearing and talking about the war.
Other songs were written, and in the
twenty years since the strife We have
gone through Champagne Charlie, y
"Captain Jinks." ''Shoo Fly" Grand
fathers Clock" and hundreds of other
equally ephemeral productions. and now
are ready to hear war songs again.
The modest effort which | inaugurated
gradually spread. Others caught up the
refrain and the idea till next to Gill
more's great jubilee, the greatest con-
cert ever given in Boston, was that
under the auspices of Dahlgren Post,
No. 2, of the G. A. R., in May, 1889.
More than five thousand men and
women gathered in the Mechanics
Building to hear Boston's greatest
artists reproduce the words that had
as it were, slumbered for nearly score
of years. Unbounded enthusiasm greeted
the bugle-calls, the drum beats, The
boatswaius whistle. and those stirring
lines that had come to life again.
After all, what We're the songs, and
who wrote them? / am not writing about
the poetry, of which there are volumes
good and bad, but about the songs. the
ballads that were written 10 fit music
already in existence. or give expression
to some refrain that fingered for days
or weeks in the writer's fancy.
No popular song in war times came
unsuggested or unprompted by some
stirring scene or incident. They were
brief, usually not more than four stanZas
in length. They were rhythmic, though
In many cases they violated all accepted
standards of verse.
Inc great poets Vi tUe cay. NsNoteN
as Whittier, Lowell. Bryant. and Long.
fellow were TO he downfall of slavery
were not song writer's. ! have at my
side 200 pieces of music of those darf
and stormy days Almost every ballad
as Chevy Chase to Sidney" is capable
of thrilling a man like trumpet blast
but Whittier's name occurs only once
and then with Barbara Frietchie.
Lowell is represented by a selection
from his "B:gelow Papers" ] have al
idea that the piece is counterfeit
since it claims TO be by Hosea Bigelow
while Bryant and Longfeliow do not ap
pear at all.
In fact. save as song makers, these
writers are not known to fame at all
II is had reflection that though we ma,
remember the song We usually forge
the singer. That Is, / believe para
phrase on Philip Phillips. one of th'
greatest OF song writer's, but II is start.
lingly true. Many man. as he crossed
the dark and sluggish stream, cranet
his neck to get sight of the Suwanet
River. but to save himself would have
been quite unable to tell you who wrote
the words that have delighted English
ears in both hamispheres.
Stephen c. Foster. the writer, was IL
the heyday of his popularity when the
rebellion began.
The same pen that had given Us Way
Down Upon the Suwanee River" Mel
lie Was a Lady and host of Other
equally charming strains Of negro mel
ody we might have expected to make
the songs of the new era; but war mu.
sic was not his forte, and, while his
name is indissolubly connected with the
most popular ballads ever written In
this country, ne left little of the rebel
lion type to remember him by. "Oh
Comrades, Fill My Glass for Ne" is al
most the only one, and this is far from
ranking with those of other writer's who
made the period noteworthy. 1t calls
70 mind In its title the fault which was