The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1908-02-25
We Are Not as Familiar With
Them as We Should Be.
FEW OF US KNOW THE WORDS
How Many Americans, For Instance,
Can Recite "The Star SpangIed Ban
nor" or my Country, 'Tis of Thee?"
ADixie" and maryland, My Mary
land

doubtful whether many are aware Of
the bits Of history attached to some of
the lands patriotic airs.
Take The Star spangled Banner"
for Instance. How much can you sing
Of tIiat song7 Yet, Ii any can be called
tie national anthem, this is the one
OF course it is unfair to ourselves to
say that we cannot sing it, but 1t must
be admitted that we don't know 1t as
generally rs we should.
Its author, Francis Scott Key, now
lies in q cemetery at Frederick, Nd,
where an American flag Is always
waving over his grave. Key wrote the
song after an experience he had while
4 prisoner aboard a British war vessel.
While he was aboard the boat Fort
McHenry, the sole protection Of Bal
timore, was bombarded, and the song
tells of his satisfaction at finding the
Gag Of his country still waving upon
the dawn of the succeeding morning.
It is q hymn which all Americans
can join in singing, because it breathes
the spirit of the whole land and has
not che suggestion Of sectienalism In
1t.
Next rs q national song comes
america" sometimes known as my
Country, IT'S OF Thee" Objection is.
frequently raised against this because
the tune was not original. 1t is the
property of the British empire as much
as It Is Of the United States, and when
It Is heard from afar one cannot tell
whether the band wants to feel the In
SEPARATION that is in the words Of
America" or in 'God Save the King"
The words Of the song MY Country,
IT'S Of Thee" were written by Samuel
Francis Smith. The song was first
sung at Sunday school celebration Of
the Fourth of July at the Park Street
church In Boston. 1t is an interesting
fact that one Of the little boys who
helped to sing America" for the first
time is now the chaplain Of the United
States senate, the venerable and rev.
erend Edward Everett Hale.
Then we have Columbia. the Gem
Of the Ocean," which has something
like an echo of britannia, the Pride
Of the Ocean" The tune of yankee
Doodle" Is good one, and we all like
to whistle or hum 1t, but the words
unfortunately are not very good and,
furthermore, 1t has been said did not
mean great deal at the time they
were written. At any rate, it has not
the solemn grandeur that 'The Star
Spangled Banner" holds.
The origin Of yankee Doodle" is
shrouded in the mystery Of a score of
conflicting tales. 1t Is generally
agreed, however. that the tune came
from England, and the words were In
vented by the British soldiers to be
sung In, derision of the raw American
troops who Joined them at the camp
on the Hudson below Albany in 1855
during the French and Indian war.
Twenty years later the rebellious pa
triots played Yankee Doodle" at the
battle of Lexington, and 1t became the
first national song of the United States.
Philadelphia has considerable inter-
est In 'Hail Columbia" 1t was writ
ten by Joseph Hopkinson of this city,
although the air was one composed by
q German who was conducting an or
chestra In New York. Hopkinson
wrote the words at the time when war
was threatened with France in 1898,
and for long while it was the most
popular of our patriotic songs.
AS for sectional songs, there are some
which have mighty good tunes, case
In point being Dixie" Although this
was the battle hymn of the Confed-
eracy, Lincoln enjoyed it immensely
and on the day of his assassination
asked a band to play it for him.
"Dixie," however, was written long
before the civil war and was not in
tended for the use of the Confeder-
ates. It was written in 1859 by DAN
lei D. Emmett, who was singing with
Bryant's MINISTRIES in New York. Bry-
ants show was dragging. and as fail
ure seemed imminent he asked En-
NETT to write a negro walk around"
which would stir up some enthusiasm.
"Dixie" was the result.
It's adaptation nearly two years later
as the war song of the south was an
accident. Mrs. John Wood was ap-
pearing at the New Orleans Varieties
theater In "Pocahontas." On account
Of the rising tide of war zouave drill
was introduced into the show. The or
chestra leader tried over several airs
for the march and finally hit upon
ssDixie." The war cloud burst the next
week, and from, New Orleans "Dixie"
spread all over the south. At the north
Fanny J. Crosby, the hymn writer,
wrote a song for "Dixie" which was
strongly Union in sentiment, but the
other side had pre-empted the air.
Then 1t was that the north took up
"John Browns Body" which was first
pat on by a Boston company, and later
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe wrote to this
tune 1.-THE Battle Hymn Of the Repub-
licr
Another popular southern air is real
" an old German one. 1t had been
used In America for many years as a
vehicle for the old college song Tau
riger Horatius," but it is now univer
sally associated with Maryland, Ny
Maryland"
This song was considered by James
Russell Lowell to be the best poem
produced by the civil war, and Mr.
Lowell could not have been partial tc
its sentiments 1t was written by
James Ryder Randall, Marylander
At the outbreak Of hostilities Mr. Ran
dali was teaching In small college In
Louisiana. When he heard the news
of the riots In the streets of Baltimore
In April, 1861, he was fired by the In
telligence and angry because his ma
tive state did not forsake the Union.
Under these circumstances he wrote
the poem. 1t was first published in the
New Orleans Delta and copied in all
the southern papers and, of course, be-
came very popular among Maryland
secessionists. One of these. Miss Jen-
ME Cary, suggested adapting it to the
air of the familiar college song. Miss
Cary was In Virginia just after the
first battle of Bull Run. She and a
party Of friends were serenaded at
Fairfax Court House by the Washing
ton Light artillery Of New Orleans.
Miss Cary responded by singing Ma
ryland, Ny Maryland. "-Philadelphia
Press.