The Washington times., 1905-04-09


ton of the Indiana house of representa-
tives in adopting unanimously resolu-
tion calling for the restors ticr to the
school books of that State of '"'le Star
Spangled Banner as Originally written
by Francis Scott Key, insteao of the
poem as published in these school books.
changed and nIutilated to suit the
whiIns and caprices of certain critics.
did not surprise the people of louisiana,
who have already gone through a SINH
lar experience and who are perhaps
responsi ble, indirectly, for the protest
which the Indiana house has made.
The saction of the Indiana legislature
was due TO an Investigation brought
about by letter in the New York Sun
of February T. in which attention was
called TO the fact that The otar-Span-
gled Banner was '-emasculated In re-
cent editions of the school readers in use
in some of the public and parochiai
schools of the city" -'he enasculatl ton
consisted chiefly in The elimination Oh
the third verse of the poem, IN winch
Francis Scott Key, flied with the pa
triotic enthusiasm reused by TIE war OF
1872, hurled his anathema at Ensiand
and the American Tories and sympa-
thizers with England
II was assereed Inat the change IN the
poem mad been made in Difference 10 En-
gIish and pro-English sensi5iiities, al
though it was due to the blood Is thick
or than water speeches that came into
vogue soon after the outbreak of the
Spanish American War. 1T is indeed
In bold scheme said The SUI cores
pondent, when foreign influence dare
n \
children But he was thirty years
! wrong in his statement of the time when
the emendatfol occurred ,nd all the
trouble due to it came about, and the
guilty person will be found 10 be that
eminent poet and American eitizeh' On
yer Wendell Holmes. The first change
in The Star-Spargled Banner was
iaade in 1856. another followed IN 1895 OF
! 1901, which may have given rise 70 the
error. For the nrst change Oliver Wen
| dell Holmes was responsible, for the sec
| ond the school board OF Louisiana
/ In the latter part of 1903 some OLD
/ Confederate veterans. attending schoo
| celebrat ton in New Orleans, were sur
prised TO hear their own grandchldren
when opening the school service with
THE Star-Spangled Banner" light into
the Confederate cause with great viSor
deno11nce the South and applaud the
crushing cut of slavery. The veterans
were staggered by the song they heard
which they were certain was not Wha'
they themselves had sung N then
Younger days
/ II seemed remarkable, too, that Key
a Southerner by birth, should d1nounce
the South and that a man who died, as
he did. in lS43, should De acquainted IL
tadvance with the results OF the clvi
war. The matter was called Ia the atten'
ton OF the New Orleans school board
which at once pronounced two verses o
the poem as sung in the New Oriean:
public schooIs-and for that matter IL
most of the schools of the country
fraudulent interpretations. IL was some
time before the fraud was run 10 earth
1t was then discovered that immedi
/ ateIy after the civil war Dr. Holmes,
the invitation of d Boston pubiishint
house, had written TWO additional verse!
OF the song, in which the South wa
roughly handled and very properly de
noilnced." AS New England hostility a
that time was directed rathe, agains
the people of the late rebellious State
than those of England, these Holme
verses were substituted for the secon'
and third verses of Keys poem, the lat
ter being the one referring TO Englan'
and English sympathizers- From Me-
England this new version. actuall,
changed so as to give it an entirely diff
ferent sentiment from the original song
found its way over the whole country.
Especially was the new version vel
coined in the South during the earl
davs of reconstruction, where IL wa
thought that by teaching the Southe;
children to denounce and repudiate IN