Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1906-12-23

l soldier on one side OF the other. it l matters not, commenced to sing I Home. Sweet Home. It was caught up by others. then soldiers on the opposite side, until both armies were sinisng the sweet old song, Home, Sweet Home. and who can tell the silent tears that were shed ! behind the breastworks that moon light night.
 Perhaps the most gifted of all the 1 Southern poets during the War was Abram J. Ryan. the exact date and place of whose birth has not yet been definitely settled Some song writer, realizing the beauty of The Conquered Banner set it to 1 music and today it's sweet words are heard from many lips
 It is an encouraging fact to note that the most popular songs of the day. the songs of the masses, are so very ephemeral. but very few of them outlive the year of their birth. Some of the melodies are as catchy and bright as possible, echoes of the songs of long ago, but the words and frequently the sentiment are i inane. If We want true feeling and 1 touching beauty We must go back 1 to the old songs, the kind that reaches and touches the heart. Though simple and true these melo- i lies had virile strength in them. Fond associations cling about them and give to them new meanings. Composers combined music and sen 1 timent. the kind that makes the whole world kin. As the soldier boys went from their homes many of them (not to say all of them) left their sweethearts behind. Many were the love songs that were writ ten in those days by the lad to his lassie, and when he was far away | tl tHC II Oilt liN ooi1S lilSili III 1ii' camp and she in the home with the ] hope of an early meeting. "Lorena was the greatest sentimental song of the war period How beautiful the thought
 "It matters little now. Lorena,
 The past is in the eternal past. 1 Our hearts will soon lie low, Lorena,
 Life's tide is ebbing out so fast. | There is a future. o thank God, Of life this is so small a part, 1 lis dust to dust beneath the sod,
 But up there 'tis heart to heart
 And still another:
 Then carry me back to Tennessee.
 There let me live and die,
 Among the fields of yellow corn.
 In the land where Ella lies"
 Many are familiar with "The Girl l Left Behind Me for it is one of the many beautiful songs of long ago coming down the years like a bird to entertain us with it's sweet and charming music. The sweetest singers in all the world are the darkies of the South. You may call their songs plantation ditties, coon songs or whatever you like, but to me there is more pathos and power in one of the old-fashioned darkey songs of the South than in many of the magnificent oratorios and operas of the present day Nellie Gray is one of them Another one, beau tiful in sentiment and equally as popular, is Kitty Wells.
 have touched brieiy and tried to call to your minds the most pop ular and impressive war songs that will be handed down to generations yet to come. The old veteran with voice that may not be as strong and true as forty years ago, sings to his grandchild these songs of the ! days of battle, while he lives over again the toll and strife for the cause he so truly loved.
 So the songs of those who have passed away will be music to the living until time shall be no more
 EMMA T. WHITE.
 December II, 1906.