The Tupelo journal., 1903-01-02
A FEW SONG WRITER'S
Bill Arp Speaks of Septimus Win
ner's Notable Works.
This Line of Thought Leads Him On
to Recall Some Old POeticaI Fa-
v~orites-LiSt of Preside EN- ts'
Mothers Filled In.

Mothers Filled In.
Septimus Winner is dead. / never
heard of him until the other day, when
a brief notice in a New York paper
attracted my attention. For 60 years
he was a musical composer and a
writer of songs. He was the author
ever charmed our households, and yet
we never heard of him. Fifty years
ago my wife used to play: Come, listen
to the hooking Bird" and l accom-
panied her on the flute, and was proud
of my skill. Then there is What Is
Home Without a Mother" and "Whis-
pering Hope" and How Sweet Are
the Roses" He made over 1000 mu-
steal compositions, and published
books of instruction for every kind of
musical instrument. After the seven
days fight before Richmond, Nc
Clellan was removed because of
his defeat, and Haileck was put
in his place. This d~ispleased the
soldiers very much, for they were
proud of Little Mac" and loved him,
and so Winner took up their griev-
ance and wrote a song and composed
the music: Give Me Back My Old
Commander" The air was simple and
the words pathetic, and it soon was
caught by the army of $4,000 men, and
could be heard for miles along the
lines and in the camps. 1t was in
spring and significant, and made
Stanton mad. He said it was democrat
izlng and an insult to Gen. Halleck,
and must be stopped, and he issued an
order to that effect. Of course, the
boys stopped singing in the daytime
or on the march, but away in the dead
OF night a whole regiment would break
out: "Oh, give US back our old COM
mander." Then Stanton ordered its
publication stopped, and thr~eatenedto
arrest Winner. But Winner had sold
the copyright and couldn't stop it. A
famous singer dared to sing it on the
stage in New York city, and she was
warned not to do so any more, but she
repeated it, and Stanton had to give it
up and let it wear itself out. Winner
was the winner of that fight, and Stan
Ton made a fool of himself.
stephen Collins Foster was another
composer who was very dear to us in
his day, and charmed millions with his
exquisite melody. We old-fashioned
people still call upon our children to
comfort us with odd Folks at Home"
Uncle Ned" 80, Susannah,' "OId Dog
Tray" Nellie Bly," and MY Old
Kentucky Home" The royalty ON
this last piece made him a good sum
of money. What would the travelling
minstrels have done without his songs?
But in his last years he aspired to a
higher plan of composition, and wrote
such beautiful pieces as Come Where
My Love Lies Dreaming" He was a
man of fine culture and familiar with
many foreign languages. He, too, is
dead, and there has no one come to
take their places as composers of these
sweet tiresiGe songs.
Shakespeare says: 1.-The evil that
men do lives after them. The good is
often inferred with their BONES"
Well, it is often, but not always. Isaac
Watts has been dead $50 years, but
his beautiful hymns and his cradle
songs are still familiar to every Chris
tlan household. Hush, my dear, lie
still and slumber," has soothed to
sleep thousands of little children.
Let dogs delight to bark and bite"
is the first little speech of childhood,
and next comes: How doth the lit
tie busy bee" The hymn books of all
Christian churches abound in his
beautiful verses, such, as when 1 Can
Read My Title Clear" There Is a
Land of Pure Delight and 'While the
lamp holds out to burn, the vilest
sinner may return" These we're not
inferred with his bones and will live
through the ages.
Sometimes the man or woman who
did the good is forgotten, but the
good remains. Not one church mem
BIER in a thousand in this country
knows who wrote the Doxology that
is sung all over the world, Praise God
from Whom all blessings f1ow."
Thomas Ken has been dead 200 years,
but those -four lines will live, and
doubtless he is in Heaven and hears
more of his own verse and music than
any Saint around the throne of God.
Shakespeare might have said with
more truth: "The good that men do
lives after them Our venerable
Judge Warner went north in his old
age to revisit the home of his youth
and found the town adorned and shad-
ed with beautiful elms around the
churches and along the sidewalks
trees that he planted half a century
before and had never seen since he
came to Georgia to teach school. The