The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1909-04-22
MISS SALLIE GOOD'N.
4 had a piece O pie,

Il had piece o. pie,
An / had a piece o. puddln,
An / give EN- bofe away
Jess t. see Miss Sallie Goodin'
Who wrote the mongrel ballard, NJ
one knows. The air was composed
a kinky- headed negro fiddler, old Jor
dan MCGOWAN, who flourished durin
the '40s and SOS and Cos OF the last
century in the rich plantation distric
of middle Tennessee. 1t was name
by him in compliment to one OF TIN
most dashing beauties of that region
of beautiful women. 1t has held it
own at dances and breakdOwns eve
favorite jigs, and contributed no lit
tie to the elevation of Our Bob
from the tripod of a country newspa
per to the executive chair i'm Nash
willie, and ultimately to the chamber
of the United States senate.
AS far ais cam be ascertained, tn
air has. never been written. But it
known by heart by every old fiddle
from the mountains of East Tennessee
to the crest of the Rockies, and from
Mason and Dixon's line to the gulf
coast
1t is favorite with the fiddlers, 70
it's sweeping, flowing strophes GID
easily from the fingers and the bow
1t is a prime favorite with dancers
for its strongly accented measure
throw inspiration into heels and toe;
and the merriest, maddest round ct
all DIS tripped when "Sallie Good n
is being reeled and swung and flung
firm S. fiddle by performer who
couldn't tell a note of written music
if he met it in the road, but whose
soul is one with the tilting harmony
of the air he plays.
Miss Sallie Goodwin, for whom the
music was named, was belle of Ruth
erford County, Tennessee, who was
born some time in the '40s and died
not long after the war. Her father,
Jonathan Goodwin, was a prosperous
planter and man of affairs whose
home was in the Stewards Greek
neighborhoOd, about two miles from
Smyrna, Tennessee. There Miss Sal
lie was born and there she grew up,
the playmate of Sam Davis, the boy
hero of the Confederacy. There her
people live at this day.
She was girl of wonderful personal
beauty and dashing spirits. She had
a laugh like the sound of a lutte, and
her quick tongue was always ready
with repartee. No young lady of her
time and section was more admired,
and no girl of any place or time has
ever better understood herself and he
relation to the world about her.
She was girl of great goodness OF
heart. She was kindly toward the ne
groes who worked by hundreds
ON her fathers broad acres, and had
always a pleasant word and quick
little smile for old Jordan Nc Gowan,
the fiddler. In those days the negro
thoroughly understood his place about
the plantation, and social equality as
pirations had never been suggested.
Jordan MCGOWAN, the composer OF
the famous abr, was a. slave owned by
one Jim MCGOWAN, white gambler,
who travelled about from place to
place, taking old Jordan with him and
stopping for weeks at a time with
the large planters he changed to
meet.
Jim MCGOWAN gaanbled for slaves.
He used cold decks, and had resort
to all the tricks by which gentlemen
of his ilk are wont to fleece the guile
less puplic; but it was not in these
that he put his trust. His mainstay
was his negro fiddler, old Jordan.
Jordan was wonderful hand to coax
melody out of catgut. He knew AN
unlimited number of jugs and reels
and dance tunes, and he welded a
tirelass bow. His business was two
fold
In the first place, ne smoothed a.
way any possible asperity in the well
come which greeted his master.
No matter how shady Jim McGQwan's
Reputation migt be considered, or
how loath any of his planter-victims
might be to receive him in their
homes, when Jordan had mounted the
chair placed for him, and had opened
his fiddle box and taken thence his
beloved fiddle, had scraped and sawed
and tweaked DIT into tune and settled
down into the rollicking measures OF
the Irish Washerwoman, or the Ar
kansas Traveller, or Fishers HOrnpipe
or Turkey in the Straw, or any other
one of the hundred old favorites
which warmed the cookies CT his
hearers hearts, the biggest and
blacklist bottle in the sideboa-d was
placed under requisition and the first
suggestion of departing was met with
precluded their leaving within a