Mower County transcript., 1904-06-29
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/ In 1881 William G. Woodhrddxe. a
,distingu gutshed educator visited Ger
many to study the common schools.
He noted that much attention was eiv-
en- to chidren's music; and brought
home many German 'beoks of music.
He gave them to Lowell Mason of
Boston, who. was also interested in
songs for children.
Rev. Samuel Francis Smith has told
In the Outlook how these books influ-
enced him in writing "America:"
Il was student in the Theological
seminary at Andover. One day Mr..
Mason brought me the whole mass of
his books, some bound and some in
pamphlet form, and said in his simple
and childlike way: Mr.. Woodbridge
has brought me these books. l don't
know what is in them. I can't read
German. but you can. If you fall in
with anything l can use, any hymns
or songs for children, wish you would
translate them into English poetry or
compose hymns or songs of your own
or the same meter and accent as the
German, so that can use them
Il accepted the trust, not unwillingly.
as an agreeable recrea ton from graver
studies, and from time to time gave
him the results OF my efforts. Thus he
was furnished with several hymns for
the Spiritual Songs which he was is
suing in numbers; also for the Juvenile
Lyre,' the first book of children's music
ever published in this country, in
which most of the songs were my own
translations from Naegeli and other
German composers.
"One dismal day in February. 1892
about half an hour before sunset. I
was turning over the leaves of one of
the music books when my eye rested
on the tune which Is now known as
America l liked the spirited move
ment OF It, not knowing it, at that time
to be God Save the King I glanced
at the German words and saw that
they were patriotic and instantly felt
the impulse to write patriotic hymn
Of my own adapted to the tune. Pick
ing up scrap Of waste paper which
lay near ME, wrote at once, probably
within half an hour, the hymn Amer
ica' as it is known everywhere. The
whole hymn stands today as it stood
on the bit OF waste paper, FIVE or six
inches long and two and half wide" F."
Mr.. Smith had no suspicion that he
had In that short half hour made his
name imperishable says; the: Westmin-
ster Press: He gave The song soon art
erward to Mr.. Mason, with some 9TH
ers, and thought no more about it. On
the Fourth Of July of the same year
Mr.. Mason brought it out at a chill
dren's celebration in the Park Street
church, Boston. From there it soon
found it's way into the public schools
of that city, and then Of other places,
and into picncs and patriotic celebra-
tions everywhere, and finally into the
hymn books of the various denomina-
tons. The whole history of the hymn
and its present position are summed
up in a remark once made by the au-
thor himself, '"The people took it into
their hearts,"
During his life DR.. Smith became ia
m1l1ar with no less than fifteen Ian
guages, and visitor to him in his
e1ghty-sixth year found him on the
lookout for suitable text book with
Which he might begin the study of the
Russian language. For half century
his home was in Newton Center, Mass.
Dr. Smith lived to be eighty-seven
years of age, active and busy until the
evening of Nov. Is, 1896, when he sud-
denly dropped dead while on a car.