The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-14

By Arthur T. Abernethy, author Dld
 Washington Aspire to Be King" Musical melodies have borne an inn portant part in the affairs of mankind. From the time ''the mornings stars sang together to the dawn of that promised era when the redeemed shall sing new song" the musical compositions that have found favor with their peculiar represen- tations have furnished and will continue to supply to a national principle what the heart tonic and nerve force does in medi- cine.
 When the walls of Jericho could not be shaken by the batterlng rams of the He brew army its national anthem was rem dered-and the walls of Jericho fell be- fore 1t.
 One night in Washington at a reception accorded the nightingale of melody, Jenny Lind as her rich, mellow, tenderness pull sated and gave life to her rendering of John Howard Payne's "Home Sweet Home," the President of the United States and the entire cabinet arose enraptured and joined in the chorus, while the ragged and hungry author of the song, a vaga- bond on the streets of the American capi-
  able audience of American culture that had ever assembled in Washington, and cried out his heart under the wierd spell of tenderness of his own sweet song. At the singing of the Marseallaise in Paris, on one occasion, the entire city went mad, pacing the streets, shouting the air and defying the repeated petitions of the city military to dsband. | But it is to be questioned if any musi- l cal selection in the worlds history has | ever achieved such influence over vast l ooncourses as Dixie" or has ever given
 the impression upon its hearers of such actual life and fervor
 Once, during the war between the states,
 when the spirit of bloodshed was ritcst
 on the night preceding the combat that was to be one of the most deathly in 1 history, the armies of the north and the I south were camped so near each other that but small stream divided them. l Band after band challenged the bands of l the opposing armies with spirited per- 1 formances of each favorite air. When the l sound of America had died out on the | still air of night the southern bands struck | up the refrain of Carolina" My Mary
 land" and echoed back, came Yankee | Doodle from the northern side After l still wait of some moments, in the dis l tance a small gathering of Confederate, I musicians struck up the strains of Dixie" which was listened to with death
 like silence by the men of the north. It.
 brought to each soldier the memory of
 home and friends and loved ones behind ] him. He had heard it's strains as he had i bidden affectionate farewell to mother, ! wife, sweetheart-the man from the north
 to do quick execution of his orders from
 his country; the man from the south to
 repel the invasion of an overwhelming
 army that had never known defeat. The
 music died out on the quiet hillside. A 1 still hush, like veil hung over the river 1 banks on either side. The silver moon,
 gathering the moment to bring its streams
 Of brlliance upon the bands of freemen | who were to wage death on the coming
 morrow, lifted itself over the historic hills of old Virginia and threw long lines of 1 gentle radiance upon the camps of the
 blue and the gray. It was the psychologi-
 cal moment that was to knit the human 1 heart. Suddenly the band. of a regiment | of Federal soldiers threw out the strains l of Home, Sweet Home," softly at first l upon the wings of the listening night, | then swelling in volume until another
 Federal band caught up the melody, and
 it spread from regiment to regiment
 throughout the northern army. The hearts
 of the soldiers were quickened, and join | ing with disregard of precedent or conse- quence, band after band on the Confed-
 crate side chmed in with the Federal l leaders, until both armies were mingled
 IF one common chorus, and guns were cast | aside, men leaped into the shallow stream | that divided them from their enemies
 and mingled with each other in the tender | fraternity of common cause. It has
 been said by men present at the time
 that bold leader could have addressed
 the armies on the occasion and disbanded
 them then and there
 But the acme of musical achievement
 was reached by the rendering of Dixie | in the grand parade of the Confederate Veterans at Birmingham, Ala, when
 men, women, children and soldiers went
 mad under its alchemc and alluring spell. | The spell first began to manifest itself
 when the Boys Band of East Lake sere-
 naded the exhausted veterans before the l Colonial hotel, where a vastAnumber of | them had congregated to rest.
 | It had been a long, dreary march, and
 the line, passing through the streets in
 the very heat of the day had been choked
 for moment by some delay far in the