The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1908-01-31

To the Editor of the Evening Star:
Kindly distinguish for me the duties OF
an ambassador, a minister and consul.
L. b. n.
IAN ambassador is the highest rank or
public minister accredited to a foreign
court. He is supposed to represent di-
rectly the person of his sovereign, who
signs his articles and, therefore, the ambas-
sador enjoys the privilege of personal
communication with the sovereign to whom
he is credited, Ministers and charge daft
flares do not in theory possess this right,
though in the case of the minister, at
least, the privilege is not usually denied.
The charge d'affaires Is not accredited to
the sovereign, but to the ministry Of for
eign affairs, and is regarded merely as an
agent of his government to transact the
business entrusted to him. A consul Is an
agent appointed by one nation to reside
within the territory Of another for special
purpose of promoting commercial inter-
course between them.-Ed.l
"Ben Bolt"
To the Editor Of the Evening Star:
VIII you please state the date and au-
thor of the song Ben Bolt" +. w. A.
THE words of the song were written by
Thomas Dunn English, a Newarker, whose
name was more or less familiar. to the
reading public for the last fifty years be-
lOIG his uedtn, though lew people heSHi
TO know him as the creator OF Sweet
Alice" The music appeared with only
the composers name attached and was
almost always given incorrectly. DR., Eng
lish was born in Philadelphia and re-
ceived the degree of NJ. d. at the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania In 1889. He began
the practise OF medicine at Fort Lee, N.
j., in 1853. Ben Bolt' was written in
1912, Its author was visiting in New York
and N. p. Willis, who with George p.
Morris was editing the New Mirror, asked
him for a gratultous contribution and sug-
gested 1t be a sea song. DR.. English
promised. Instead he composed the 'hve
stanzas of Ben Bolt'' as 1t nov reads.
Within a year the poem had been reprint
ed IN England and Doniniok NJ. II. Hay
wrote an air for it which was never
printed, and DR.. English wrote one him
self, which, although printed, had no
sale. No appropriate music was ever sup
piled until 1SS. when a play called the
Battle of Buena Vista was brought out
at P.ttsburg, in which the song ben Bolt
was introduced. A. M. Hunt, an English
, journalist, had read the words in an Eng
fish newspaper and gave them from MEM
cry to Nelson Kreass. Kneass adapted a
German melody to the lines and they were
sung in the play. The drama died, but
the song survived. In the theatre concert
hall, minstrel shows and private parlors
nothing was heard but Ben Bolt" 1t
was ground on hand-organs, whistled in
streets and sweet Alice became the pet
Of the public. A steamer in the West and
a ship in the East were named for her.
The steamer was blown up and the ship
was Wicked, but Sweet Alice hoated
s~erenely on. A play was written in Eng
land based upon the song and a serial
novel in 1877, and in 1894 it was again re-
vived by Du Maurier's introduction OF the
song in '"Trilby.'' Nelson Kneass was a
teacher Of music in New York and a
singer in the Park Theatre. and after
ward became a negro minstrel. A publish
err in Cincinnati procured 9: copyright Tor
the song and made a small fortune. Its
| author got nothing.-Ed.l