The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-17
NEW CONFEDERATE ANTHEM.

The Mobile Item lately noted the fact of new Confederate anthem in course of final polishing at the hands of it's com poser Prof. Frederick A Dunster It is now open secret that it will be twin composition, it's theme being MT. T. c. De Leons brief verses on Fitz- hugh Lee and Gordon. These are Cor don" and the Lee quatrian. 'Mors yincta." Both have been universally copied, north as well as south. The two verses twinning the great Geo1'- gian's memory with the battle flag, were written at Oakleigh within an hour after the death telegram was received, at night. MT De Leon says:
 General Irwin and l were smoking and talking of General Gordon's fight for life, when the telephone rang and announced that the hero had gone to sleep until the reveille. I went up to bed. An hour later, l called Irwin and showed him the verse as 1t stands to- day; rang for a messenger and sent 1t to Clark Howell The Constitution gave 1t place of honor on the morning that the body of Gordon was brought No lie in state at the capitol. Mors Vincta was written under similar impulse.
 "Yes, the letter to a Now Orleans friend, printed about the time. told truly the story of the little poem. had re- ceived shortly before letter from Gen. eral Fitz-probaby among the latest he signed-telling me where to ask informa- tion as to some battle paintings. I was taking notes of it while Miss Mccoy read to me, when the postman brought another. This was from Mrs. Matte Paul Myers, widow of gallant and gifted Willie Myers, adjutant general of Breckenridge's division. She was Going to look for the last time on the dead face of our dear Gen. Fitz Lee; and she dwet so tenderly and touchingly upon his having mellowed with the years in gentleness and dig nity, sthat you would scarcely recognize the man we knew when life was jest and war a pastime. Her letter haunted me- and drove work out of my brains 1 wrote to a Crescent City friend, the let ter you saw. That night the one pre- eeding his funeral-I woke suddenly, all most hearing Mrs. Myers words spoken loud. l tried to forget them in sleep but got up and wrote. almost from dctation. Next morning; at breakfast, I told the ladies that I had dreamed of writing a poem on Lees death, but could only re- member that it was some idea of his being walked by Fame to ride again. could not recall another line. but when Miss Mccoy came-and had told her the same thing-I opened my typewriter. She warned me not to move it; that there was a scrap of paper on the roller That scrap was the quartrain I had written when half asleep.
 T certainly cannot conceive why this simple little verse should have caught popular fancy as 1t has done. Possibly it's very simplicity was the cause. It has been copied into almost every south ern paper; friends in the north, and even strangers abroad have written for copies and some of the dead chiefs relatives wrote me they hoped the lines might be engraved upon his monument"
 Still, l see nothing out of the unusual in them What there may be, is due more to my friends beautiful tribute to him than to any original thought of mine.
 Yes; many times I have had requests from composers-and some of them well known-to writes music for the verses to Gordon, and later. even more to those on Lee. declined. for many and good reasons. A little while ago I was Mrs. Tannebaum's guest. She sang one of my old songs, composed by her husband. We spoke of the Lee and Gordon verses and l copied them for Mir. Tannenbaum. l heard no more from the veteran man ager until last week. Then he telephoned me that MT. Dunster had written the an them. Equally surprised and pleased that two such competent yet widely differing critics, thought them worth that compli- ment, I asked details MT. Dunster told me that MT. Tannenbaum had shown him
 Mors Vlncta," and that he saw in them opportunity for real anthem. A few nights he played and sang it, at my house. To say that I was delighted mild ly expresses my praise of that admirable musican's results The tone-poem he has produced is what James R. Randall once said: The epic of the red Confed- crate drama
 "The anthem is not yet baptized, save
 in the music. l think we have decided to send it out as Tmmortals-Dedicated to the Brave Who Died-and Live!
 Tt opens with a soft and starlight pre- Jude that
 Whispers only one sweet word, and that is-Peace.
 Through the evening quiet, steals mourn ful sweetness of bugle, blowing Taps
 "Then is rest; moving strain cut by the Revelle. the Boots and Saddles and the .Chargev Then follows the picture of Gordons grandeur as he
 Sleeps in the alabaster arms of Death! as Randall wrote of Pelham: quick fol- lowed by the glorying swell that tells the flag and he were once It was Sem ator Hoar who said: Yes, the senator from Georgia is loyal citizen of union. but he will ever live as Gordon of Stars and Bars,'
 Next the soft and yet triumphant writing of Lees name by war. its trac- ing quick by peace. And the ending rises