Evening star., 1903-07-02
NEW ENGLAND SONGS
WRITERS OF MUSIC THAT THE
WORLD APPLAUDS.
How Some of the Famous Ballads Were
Framed-Sung in Camps
and Homes.

Hezekiah Butterworth in the Boston Herald.
The popular New England songs Of the
olden time hold the poetry Of the family
affections; thousand new musical num-
bers come to supplant them, but as a rule
they vanish like the flight of the bird
through the air; the old inspirations live.
1t has been my pleasure to meet some
Of the later writer's of these songs that
have life in themselves, and to talk with
them in regard to their work which went
to the human heart. In most cases, when
I have asked about song, the answer has
been in effect-"It came to me-"
The first of the song writer's whom l
CHANGED to meet was Bernard Covert the
author of the music to Tom Moore's Lake
of the Dismal Swamp" and of the stirring
air to the realistic, patriotic ballad. THE
Sword Of Bunker HILL"
Covert was an old man when first saw
him. l had often heard my mother sing
.'They have made her a grave too cold and
damp" or 1.-The Lake of the Dismal
Swamp" and my heart went out to the
old composer of the sympathetic music, He
sang the ballad to me. He caught pleasure
from my sympathetic interest, and turned
to the piano again.
"And now" he said, Il will sing you
another song that wrote some years ago."
A sudden energy and a peculiar beauty of
expression came into his voice as he sang.
He rose up after the song, and bent his
brow over me. II have sung you my song
Of The Sword of Bunker Hill,'" he said,
land I am ninty- years old" l never
saw him again.
John Hutchinson.
have met John Hutchinson number
of times. He still lives in the eighties, and
sometimes sings at patriotic assemblies
To meet him socially is to listen to beauti-
full anecdotes of the past, of the temper
ance cause, of the music of the war, and Of
many benevolent movements in America
and England. He sang in the English lake
district in the days of the lake poets.
when such rare spirits as Harriet Marti-
neau and Hartly Coleridge were present.
He was one of the minstrel family now
gone who delighted England as we'll as
America in the days of American min
strelsy, the charm and magic of which are
now partly vanished like the entertainments
of the times of the troubadours.
A beautiful story is told that the Hutch
insons agreed with each other Ito sing
their own songs around each other graves
as one by one should pass away. All died
but one. John. and when the last but him
self, Abby Hutchinson, was buried, he sang
the song that she had probably composed,
and by which she was best known,
Kind words can never die.
Songs of the War.
I often met John Locke. and he several
times related to me the story of his old
political songs and ballads that he wrote
for the camps on the Potomac.
One OF these stories related to President
Lincoln. and particularly interesting
as an Interpretation of the heart of the
great commoner.
Springfield, Ill., said Father Locke, with
the Massac chusetts delegation In the fall
of the first Lincoln campaign. l caught the
western enthusiasm. and wrote the song,
Our Lincoln is the Man, and sang 1t at
the great assembly of some G0.OOO or 10000
people. The audience seemed to go wild
over it-crazy as 1t were.
Lincoln, who was in his own home, and
who liked popular ballads, heard of the
sudden popularity Of the song and wished
to hear me sing it. He sent for me. Come
in and sing 1t to me privately. he said He
was too modest to ask me to sing before
him in public Our Lincoln Is the Man!
I went to his simple home and sang the
song to him. 1t became the popular song
of the campaign. But I shall never forget
how he hid away, as it were to hear me
sing it,
Among Father Locke's camp songs was
Were Marching on to Richmond" Presi-
dent Lincoln secured a place in the army
for Father Locke as a sutler. that the lat
ter might compose songs and sing them to
the soldiers. and so make more cheerful
the rugged life in the camps.
Father Locke recently died at Chelsea,
at a great age. He won household fame by
a touching song, There's a Dear Little
Mound by the Willow In his last years
he used to sing at the Soldiers Home in
Chelsea.
1 never met Woodwork, the famous au-
thor of the New England temperance song,
1.-The Old Oaken Bucket" but l have visit
ed the well of 1.-The Old Oaken Bucket"
and have had the history of the song re-
peated to me there.
tGnr Of Cuynn ~
spent his boyhood In Boston, and the old
house in which his father lived used to be
shown, where now rise the unquiet Struc-
lures of this busy world. 1t was simple
house Payne was born in New York, but
his parents moved to Boston in his early
years. He died in 1926, and. of course. I
never saw him. but have lived near the
place associated with the immortal song.
The Minstrel Period.
During the minstrel period of the Hutch
insons Covert, Dodge and others, many
writer's of single songs arose, which won
a national and in some cases an interna-
tional reputation. Among these writer's
were Mrs. Allen. whose Rock Me to Sleep,
Mother" outlives the early days of Its pop
ularity. Mrs Allen once wrote me that
the song was the result of no particular in
cident, but of the whole experience of life
which crystallized in a reminiscent hour.
She was weary Of toiling that others
may reap anu Her experiences Hdu coHl-
PEELED her to see in clear light, like a
vision. the value of mothers heart whose
love never fails whatever may happen.
Another of these writer's Leonard Heath.
produced song that a meteor; we
seldom hear it now. Mr.. Heath was a New
Hampshire poet and musician. but 1t has
been questioned if he produced the words
of the ballad. He belonged to the minstrel
period and won a great popularity by his
song. 1t voiced a romantic atmosphere;
1t followed the pathetic interest in the
death of Napoleon. 1t has been called the
best literary poem of the New Hampshire
song writer's. The last stanZas are vivid
and melodious
The period of true American minstrelsy,
which was a charm in the middle of the
10Th century, was followed by the planta-
ton minstrelsy, of supposed negro cabin
songs, but really Of suggestions of old
slave life, in which Foster easily led.