The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-08-04
MODERN SONGS DEcRrnD.
They Lack the Honest Sentiment .
Songs Of Long Ago.

They Lack the Honest Sentiment Of
Songs Of Long Ago.
Baltimore Sun.
Our principle objection to the modern
songs Is that they are entirely desti-
tute OF true sentiment. Aided by alco-
hol, true enough they are capable Of
producing q sort of saccharine melan-
choly which sometimes eliminates in
copious weeping. but the effect here.
we submit, IL more physical than
psychicai. The juice Of an orange peel
or OF an union, injected into the eyes,
will make the tears flow In an equal
fiood. and the ingestion OF broiled
lobster, half an hour before bedtime,
will engender an even greater mel
ancholy. Here. In word. we have
not emotion. but . neurosis; not .pathos
but bathos; not sentiment. but senti-
mentality. The tears that flowed from
the eyes Of the fashionable bucks nifty
years ago, when Darling Nellie Grey"
was sung, came from the heart, and
were honorable alike to .shedder and
provocator. But the tears which fol-
low Are You Sincere?" today are the
secretions Of maudlin vulgarity.
The old song-writers were not cynics
but poets. The theory that love 10 q
beautiful thing was the corner stone
of their philosophy. They were not
ashamed to set their ravishing melod-
les to simple words-to the ancient.
alf-articulate vocabulary Of true
lovers. They assumed, as a cardinal
principle. that love was both agree
able and permanent. Ibsen was still
an obscure scribbler, in remote Nor
way, and the divorce courts were yet
unknown. In that pure air, surcharg-
ed with simple faith. blossomed the
sweet songs Of Stephen Foster, Henry
Bishop. George F. Root, Nelson Kneass.
Michoel william Bale. and Septimus
Winner. In that pure air blossomed
I'm the Gloaming," Alice, Where Art
Thou" and When the Corn 10 Wav-
ing, Annie Dear"
Today the folksong. when 1t is not
banal Is essentially ironic. 1t cele-
brates not the love or ardent youth
and shrinking maid. but the connubial
fsticuffs Of belliEerent husbands and
wives. A whole series Of songs OF inn
mense popularity deals with one dis
tressing, but unfortunately familiar sit
uation in the modern hymeneal drama
1 e, the registering husbands fear Of his
waiting wifes Indignation I'm Affair to
Go Home in the Dark" Il Used to be
Afraid to Go Home In the Dark, Now
I'm Afraid to Go at ALL" and Don't
Take Me Home Here we have q
sample triology of baleful burden and
influence. And when the subject 10
not Ine nOEToE VI QOSt-hAotEhAhOhAbA
strife, 1t Is certain to be the risks
and ahzards OF matrtmony Itself.
waiting at the Church." Poor john"
and No Wedding Bells for Me-" are
examples. A century of such songs. and
the public will begin to regard mar
rage not as the apotheosis of love. but
as a. cruel punishment to be visited
only on felons.
The trouble with the modern song
L. 49, aaNN ST. a0h
with the world. All they see OF the
universe is the minute molecule known
as Broadway In the city of New York.
Sitting in the cafes OF that cynical
street, in the company Of bartenders.
stockholders, and actors. they forget
that viture still reigns In ninety-nine
per cent of the continental area of
the United States that the young
folks of other towns still hold hands
and swap daguerreotpyes--that the
old folks still look back with pleasure
to the days OF their counting, that
love Is still a million times as powerful
as gasoline everywhere save on Man
haitian Island.
Like Congreve and wycherley. they
mistake their, taprooms for the nation.
Cooped up in their little Babylon, they
know nothing OF Already. Unacquaint-
ed personally with a single Romeo.
they assume that, the race Of Romeos
has died out in the world. and 20
give us their hordes of Valentines,
Harecourts. Pinchwifes. Heartweils,
and Sir Simon Addlepots. The human
race that they see Is that same race
of malefactors depicted by Wycherley
in The Country Wife," Congreve In
THE Old Bachelor" and FarQuhar In
1.-THE Recruiting Sergeant" In their
outlook upon life they belong to tho
Restoration. Away with themt Away
with their songs! Let US get out the
mellowing music and sin When the
Swallows Homeward Fly"