The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-06-25
How 1t Originated and Grew in
Popular Favor.
Its Meaning Never Yet Settled
In a Satisfactory Manner.

beginning this writer says: Dixie"
Dixie Land-there is the suggestion in
the words of romance. of war and
peace, of love and bloodslled, of chang
ing columns and the daSling half
frontier life OF the ante-bellun south
of the Mississippi river days. Through
near three generations it has meant all
this to the natives of the south. and
now the stirring strains of Dixie are
played to cheering audiences of .An,cri-
cans in every part of the whole United
States. 1t WAS played ut the battle Of
Manila, at the battle of Santiago, and
of the nation as proudly beneath tie
stars and stripes as ever strobe the
southern legions beneath the stars and
bars. And in the song there is Il story
of moment to New Orleans.
The meaning Of the term Dixie"
how it originated, and how it grew to
favor, is 4 question often mooted aud
never yet settled to the genera salts
faction of all those Investigators Of
the unique and unusual who delyc into
the mine of tradition and legends.
The Times-Democrat writer says:
'DiNie was negro minstrel song, sung
in music halls of New York in the late
5os. beloved Justify to Mark Twain
esque audiences from the Floating
Palaces of the antc-bcllum Mississippi
by burnt cork artists and artisans who
have long since followed the echoes OF
their songs into silence and oblivion.
And the song took. BY 1859 it was
whiStlcd and sung from the James to
the Passes. from Richmond To New Or
leans. Peculiarly was il the favOrite
son" OF the polly gentry who throngcu
the steamboats, upon the old highway
of the Mississippi, Hnd all through the
states tributary to the stream the song
spread With Il rapit,ty strange in that
day OF restricted communication and
SLOW travel. Then the war came, and
blood nado precious the suggestion of
the song, and the song itself became Il
part of that which it suggested. Young
lips sang the song mt parting, Went
forth to death, and died. In stricken
homes the stirring strains have
brought. through all tho years gone,
memories and day dreams of that
which might have been, or that which
was. Graybcalrls of today, through
the mist of decades. hear in the APP
pealin@ cadenceS voices which long
ago blended sweet soprano With their
bass. And the song itself. Nothing in
the words beyond silly doggerel-but
IL silly doygcrel which lau@hinenly re-
ferred to all the southerner held dear.
The music catchy, With Il spark of the
vital fire in the Tilt and turn of the
daslling phrases. struck Il responding
chord in every listener mailing from
the land of cotton.
Concerning the origin of the song
there are, according to this writer,
several explanations. This authority
says: Everybody knows the name of
the jolly comedian, Dan Emmett, who
immOrtaliZed the ballad. but few know
where he got the phrase. One theory,
long since exploded, was that the on
preston 'DiNie's Land came from the
phrase, Mason and DiXon's line The
other was that a certain farmer down
in New Jersey, just before the war,
ran his fields with negro labor, aud
assumed the manners and bearing
of Il southern planter. His name was
Dixie, and topical songs of the period
referred to his estate as Il miniature
southland. Audiences which did not
know the local reference took the
song as referring to the real south, and
Emmett, in his famous ballad. so used
the expression. However, there is an
other story, and one Which brings the
subject home to New Orleans. For
twenty years prior to the civil war the
Citizens bank of Louisiana was the
great financial institution Of the SOUTH
est in the land. Its name was as
familiar upon the Paris bourse and
the London exchanges as is now the
name of the City National bank Of
New York. In the days Of 'shinplas-
ters' and deprecated state bank cur
rency, the issues of the Citizens bank
passed at par all over the land. The
best known issue was 4 $40 note done
in red upon one side and black and
red upon the other The feature of this
denomination was that the most con-
spicuous part of the engraving was the
French word Dix Upon the river
steamers, on the ships bound for New
York, on the stage coaches which Went
west from Galveston. these bills were
termed 'Dixies. Not one man OF any
twenty that handled them knew that
dix meant ten
Then. upon the upper Mississippi
and the Ohio people began to speak
of the south as Dixie's land, and as
the years passed they forget why thu
name was applied The TimesDemo
crat writer says: THE gamblers WIG
won luscious rolls Of the 'DiNies' a
poker played with the roof removed
the victims who gave up their rigIttu