Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-03-17

10 all classes OF the irish race Inere
is no song more dear than THE Wear
ing of the Green On st. Patrick's
Day, March II, the day of the sham
rock, on the buttonhole nearest the
heart, is carried the national emblem,
and on the lips of all true Irishmen, at
some time during the day, are repeated
the words of the song as the late great
Irish actor, Dion Boucicault, arranged
them from a song probably several
generations earlier, the author of the
original of which no one has eve been
able to learn.
A song is the song of a nation only
when it is a sons men sing when they
face death, or for the singing of which
they are willing to risk Imprisonment.
There is no method in the musical
madness of fighting men. This has
been demonstrated in the spirited
French "Marsellaise" in a lifting
quickstep. musically worthless. and
fitted with n words such as Yankee
Doodle and Dixie" or in a solemn
hymn such as Elm Feste Burg"
In the trenches of the Crimea the
song was Annie Laurie" In the
trenches of Cuba it was "a Hot Time
in the Old Town Tonight" There was
no more reason for the lads from. Kent
and Yorkshire to choose a Scotch love
sons for their hymn before action"
thar for Yankee boys to discard their
national airs for a ragtime tune-but
they did.
So there can be no argument why
Irishmen from one end of the world to
the other are stirred by The Wear
- q H. C.o1~is -. +loxr - hu M
| other earthly sounds, rich as their
mother land is in rival melodies.
1t has a proud h~istory-this old song
which once brought forth a royal re-
script against its being sung In the
British dominions. Long before n a
eventful singing it sent men to the
scaffold because it symbolized a patriot
ism that was the assurance of death.
Prison was the penalty, down almost
to the present day. Yet men never
cease to sing it.
The origin of 1.-THE Wearing of the
Green" is not easy to trace. The we'll
known Welsh chronicles of the Eistedd-
fod furnish a clue to the g~enealogy of
most of the old songs of England and
I Scotland, as we'll as those of Wales.
But the beginnings of Irish melodies
are lost In the haze of traditions that
merge into folklore.
Antiquarians are of the opinion that
at first the tune was a "keen'-the
hereditary funeral sons of one of the
royal houses of the island before the
days of Cromwell. Certain it is that
it was a song of the camp when James
made his hopeless stand. But the
words are lost, and it is not until 1745
that it is found linked with stanzas
that begin:
The pixies must be together
When the moon is on the green"
The present words-the present song,
in fact-may, however. be accredited
to Dion Boucicault, the actor. The
words are his, written to the ancient
melody n introduced by him close
to fifty years 6 in the popular Irish
play, "Arrah ma Pogue."
1t was on the evening of March %,
1865, that 1.-The Wearing of the
Green in it's present form, was first
sung. The play was produced at the
| Princess Theatre, London, Dol after
| CIerkenweIl prison was blown up by
the Fenians. There was a storm of in
~dignation on London, and B~oucicault's
English associates and admirers adj
vised him not to sing it, but sing it he
would and did, and it almost caused a
riot.
1t resulted in the cabinet ministers
of the late Queen Victoria issuing an
edict prohibiting the singing Of the