Maryland independent., 1909-07-23

In an editorial comment on the
songs of years long gone by and
those of the present, the Baltimore
Sun has this to say, in answer to let
ter from one Of its subscribers
Our principal objection to the
modern songs is that they are entire
" destitute Of true sentiment Aided
by alcohol, true enough, they are Ca
pable of producing sort of saechar-
Inc melancholy which sometimes cul-
inmates in copiOus weeping, but the
effect here, we must submit, is more
physical than psychical. The juice
of an orange peel or Of an onion, in
jected into the eyes, will make the
tears flow in an equal food, and the
ingestion Of a broiled lobster, half au
hour before bedtime, will engender
an even greater melancholy. Here,
in a word, we have rot emotion, but
a neurosis not pathos, but bathos
not sentiment, but sentimentality
The tears that flowed from the eyes
of the fashionable bucks of fifty
years ago, when "Darling Nellie
Gray was sung, came from the heart,
and were honorable alike to shedder
and provocator But the tears which
follow "Are You Sincere = today are
secretions Of maudiu vulgarity.
The old song-writers were ct
cynics, but poets. The theory that
love is a beautiful thing was the cor
nerstone of their philosophy. They
were not ashamed to set their rayish-
ing melodies to simple words-to the
ancient, articulate vocabulary Of
true lovers. They assumed as a car
dinal principle, that love was both
agreeable and permanent Ipsen was
still an obscure sc,ibbler, in remote
Norway, md the divorce courts were
yet unknown. In that pure air, sur
charged with simple faith, blossomed
the sweet songs Of Stephen Foster,
Henry Bishop, George F Root, Mel
son Kneass, William Bafe and Septi-
mus Winner. In that pure air bloom
ed in the Cleaning" Alice, Where
Art Thou" and -'W hen the Corn Is
Waving, Annie Dear"
Today the folksong, when it is not
banal, is essentially ironic. 1t cele-
brates, not the love of ardent youth
and shrinking maid, but the connu-
bal tisticutfs OF belligerent husbands
and wives. A whole series of songs,
of immense popularity, deals with
one distressing, but unto .tunately ia
miliar situation in the modern hyme-
neal drama, i. e., the registering hus-
bands fear of his waiting wife's in
dignation. sI'm Afraid to Go Home
in the Dark" II Used to be Afraid
to Go Home in the Dark, Now I'm
Afraid to Go at ALP and sDon't
Take Me Home" Here we have a
sample trilogy of baleful burden and
influence. And when the subject is
not the horror of post matrimonial
strife, it is certain to be the risks and
hazards of matrimony itself. await
ing at the Church" "Poor John" and
eNo Wedding Bells for Me- are ex-
amples. A century of such songs,
and the public will begin to regard
marriage, not as the apotheosis OF
love, but as cruel punishment, to be
visited only on felons.
The trouble with the modern song
writer's is that they are out of touch
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 virthe still
reigns in so per cent. of the conti-
mental area of the United States-that
the young folks of other towns still
hold hands and swap daguerreotypes
that the old folks still look back
with pleasure to the days of their
courting, that love is still a million
times as powerful as gasoline every
where save on Manhattan Island.
| Like Congreve and Wycherley,
they mistake their taprooms for the
nation. Gooped up in their little
Babylon, they knowNuothing Of Ar
eady. Unacquainted personally with
single Romeo, they assume that the
race Of Remeos has died ont in the
world, and so given us their hordes
of Valentines, Harcourts, Pinchwifes,
Heartwells and Sir Simon Addlepots.
The human race that they see is that
/ same race of malefactors depicted by
I Wycherley in "The Country Wife, "
Congreve in @The Old Bachelor" aud
Farquhar in "The Recruiting Ser
geant". In their outlook, upon life
they belong to the Restoration,
Away with them Away with their
songs Let us get out the mellowing
! music and sinp sWhen the Swallow.