The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1907-05-18
ADJUSTMENTS.
WHO WROTE DIXIE?

Dixie'-Dixie's Land. There is
the suggestions in the words Of ro-
nance, of war and peace, of love and
bloodshed, Of charging columns and
the dashing half frontier life Of the
ante-bellun south of the Mississippi
river days. Through near three gen.
erations it has meant all this to the
natives Of the south, and now the
stirring strains Of Dixie are playing
to cheering audiences of Americans in
every part of the whole United
States 1t was played at the battle
Of Manila, at the battle of Santiago,
and to it's rhythm now march the
soldiers of the nation as proudly be-
meath the stars and stripes as ever
STROBE the southern legions beneath
the stars and bars,' writes the New
Orleans Times Democrat.
The meaning Of the term, how it
originated, how it grew to favor, is a
question often mooted and never yet
settled to the general satisfaction of
all those Investigators of the unique
and unusual who delve in the mine OF
tradition and legend. Dixie" was a
lc6AO AAAAAoIAOA 0OAA6s sung 80 AAAo0AS
halls of New York in the late hfties.
beloved Justify to Mark TwainesQue
audiences from the "Floating Palaces"
of the ante-bellun Mississippi by
burnt cork artists and artisans who
have long since followed the echoes
of their song into silence and oblivion.
And the song took. BY 1859 it was
whistled and sung from the James to
the Passes, from Richmond to New
Orleans. Peculiarly was it the favor
tie song of the jolly gentry who
thronged the steamboats, upon the old
highway of the Mississippi, and all
through the states tributary to the
stream the song spread with rapidi-
ty strange In that day of restricted
communication and slow travel.
Then the war came. and blood made
precious the suggestion Of the song,
and the song itself became part Of
that which it suggested. Young lips
sang the song at parting, went forth
to death, and died. In stricken homes
the stirring strains have brought
through all the years gone, memories
and day dreams Of that which might
have been, or that which was. Gray
boards Of today, through the mist Of
decades, hear in the appealing cadenc-
es voices which long ago blended
sweet soprano with their bass.
And the song itself! Nothing in the
words beyond silly doggerel; but a.
silly dogerel hs'laughirgly refer
red to all the southerner held dear.
The music, catchy, with a spark Of
the vital fire in the Tilt and turn Of
the dashing phrases, struck a re-
spending chord in every listener hail
ing from the Land of Cotton"
And the origin Of the song? There
are several explanations. Everybody
knows the name of the song? There
are several explanations. 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 ex-
ploded, was that the expression,
"Dixie's Land" came from the phrase,
Mason and Dixon's Line. The other
was that q certain farmer down In
New Jersey, just before the war, ran
his fields with negro labor, and assum-
ed the manners and the bearing Of q
southern planter. His name was
Dixie, and topical songs Of the period
referred to his estate as q miniature
Audiences Wit oh did not