The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1905-07-06
Familiar Songs and their Authors.
YANKEE DOODLE.

SulIHouulS lue authorship OF TOD save
the King" Though the song is about
$50 years old, the number of different
accounts of its origin is bewildering.
Each person who has written about it
seems to have found out first legend
concerning it. One story takes it back
to the days of Cromwell, who had
among other nicknames that of Maca-
roni, and rhyme had it in this form:
yankee Doodle came to town
Riding on pony;
He stuck feather in his cap
And called it Macaroni.''
This was in derision of course of the
pretenSeS of Cromwell in his leader
ship.
Another story has it that the tune is
based on an old English air of kitty
Fishers Jig associated with the nur-
sery rhyme:
Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it;
Not penny was there in it,
Only binding round it."
In 1872 song called yankee
Doodle was published in England in
Ards selection of Scotch, English and
Irish Airs
Its first appearance in America, it is
said, was during the French and In
dian war in 1875. The trivial words of
the original song, in derision of the i'll
assorted provincial troops, are said to
have been written by DR., Shuck burg
surgeon in the English command of
General Amherst. The ragged militia
adopted the song, to the intense amuse-
ment of the regular troops, but years
later, when an English army heard the
strains of "Y ankee Doodle at Lexing-
ton, the laugh was on the other side.
Then and there, in the words of Brit
ish officer. the army of Geo III: was
''made to dance to the music" and they
different versions of words have been
written, but none possess merit.
John Dickinson of Delaware wrote
one of the earliest patriotic songs of
the colonies. The title of it was 1.-The
Liberty Song" and the date 176S. The
opening stanZa read:
Come join hand in hand, brave Americans
And rouse your bold hearts at Liberty's
call;
No tyrannous acts shall suppress your just
claim,
Or stain with dshonor Americas name.
In freedom we're born, and in freedom will
live;
Our purses are ready
Steady, friends, steady
Not as slaves, hut as freemen, our money
We'll give.
When the stamp act was klndllng the
fires of revolution, a stanZa from pop
ular song just before Bunker Hill
heralded the coming contlagration in
these words:
| Then freedoms the word, both at home aud
abroad,
And every scabbard that hides good
sword.
Our forefathers gave us this freedom in
hand,
And we'll die in defense of the rights of the
land,
Derry down, down, hey derry down.
If the meter was rough, the senti-
ment was all right. Not many battles
had been fought when the victorious
colonists began to ask in exultant song:
Great heavens! is this the nation whose
laundering arms were hurled
Through Europe, Africa, India? whose
navy ruled the world?
| The luster of whose former deeds, whose
ages of renoWn,
Lost in a moment are transferred to us and
| Washington.
THE American Soldiers Hymn was
| the title of one of the religious songs
of the revolution. The Puritan spirit
| breathes out III every line Of it:
| IT'S God that girds our armor on
| And all our just designs fulfillS;
| Through Him our feet can swiftly run
And nimbly climb the steepest hill.
i IT'S God that still supports our right,
His Just revenge our foes purSueS;
IT'S He that with reSiStlesS might
Fierce nations to his power subdues.
At about the close of all, the Old Con-
tinentals sang among Others this roll
licking verse:
CORVALLIS led a country dance,
The like was never seen, sir;
| Much retrograde and much advance,
And all with Gen. Greene, sir.
| The war of 1912 brought forth an i'm
! mense crop of martial song. One of the
earliest songs of that period has this
| spirited verse:
| The days of Seventy-six, my boys,
We ever must revere;
| Our fathers took their muSketS then
| To fight for freedom dear.
| Upon the plains of Lexington
They made the foe look queer,
| O, it's great delight to march and fight,
AS IA Yankee Volunteer.
| "Columbia's Bold Yeomanry" was
one of the stirring songs during the
second war with England. The closing
verse read:
Though the powers of Europe in arms
should aSsail
The land of our fathers, their millions
would fail;
| Whilst memory dwells on the deeds OF their
fame.
The war cry of victory, Washington's
name,
| To repel every foe from our shore would
invoke,
Columbia's bold yeomanry, firm as her oak.
Onion and Liberty" was sung all
over the country:
Let England exult in her castles of wood,
And shake every port in the East with her
thunder;
Let her quench her ambition with oceans
of blood,
Her huge lion may roar
With his name bathed in gore,
Still Americas eagle triumphant shall
soar.
EBut of all the war songs our fathers
sang, 'The Star-Spangled Banner" has
probably taken the deepest and strong