The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-03-25

OF the arrangement.
The band rehearsed this, with 9th
er music, for several days. 1t seemed
worthy a good place On the program.
So when the procession was formed
on the morning Of February Is, 1861,
at the Exchange hotel, to escort the
president elect, Jefferson Davis, to
the State house, shortly to become
the capitol Of the Confederacy, Ar
nold's band was placed at the head,
with the LIST Alabama regiment next,
ann as the carriage drawn by six
gray horses swung into place the band
played "Dixie."
And this was the first time in the
history Of that most popular OF ALL
American airs that "Dixie' was ever
played by band, given place among
the street airs and placed in the rep
ertory of the whistling, singing, cheer
ing public.
At Once Became Popular.
The band played the air many times
that day. It was stationed near the
steps Of the State house when Davis,
standing before little table, took
oath Of Office and made an address.
Then slowly a flag fluttered to the
staff above the State house. 1t was
a flag with the tri-colors Of liberty,
stripes Of alternating red and white,
with a cluster Of white stars on a
blue field. Somewhere near the
building a cannon doomed. The crowd
turned to the band. "Dixie! Dixie -
it cried; and over and over again
the band played "Diae." Since then
it is safe to say that no crowd has
ever heard the tune played through
in silence. The music is usually:
drowned out before the band has
"turned the tune"
Prophetic Davis, two days after his
inauguration, wrote his wife: ~ was
inaugurated here Monday, having
reached here on Saturday night. The
audience was large and brilliant. Up
on my weary heart was showered smil-
es, plaudits and flowers; but beyond
them I saw troubles and thorns IN
Vulnerable. -
The troubles came swiftly, but the
air that Arnold had given to the
South through his band was a tune
to fight to and a tune to die by.
There was lilt in the line, trumpet
call in tthe gay little tune that put
courage into men and sent them to
fight and die unprotesting for the
Gland of cotton,'' and for the prin-
eiples that they felt were guaranteed
to them by the constitution adopted
by the thirteen colonies seventy-odd
years before. The rebel yell went
with it,
The cry that rang through Shiloh s
woods
And Chicamauga's solitudes,
The fierce South cheering on her sons
Davis has passed on to a greater
reward than the South ever gave
him for the sacrifice he made in TAX
ing a leadership for which ne di2 not
deem himself fitted; reward be-
yond the irons at Fortress Monroe
and the citizenship denied. Tie seal
of the Confederate States, brave IN
its wreaths and letters of gold and
its "Deo Vindice," is only souVe-
mir of a cause that was lost. TIE flag
that Davis accepted, protesting as a
substitute for the Stars and Stripes
of the United States, is thing ROW
only for song and story. A reunited
nation garlands alike the graves Of
those who wore the blue and the
grey. A new South Of industry and
unprecedented progress has risen on
the ashes of the old. The nation has
gone charging down the ''ringing
grooves Of change" airs coming and
going, to find favor and be forgotten,
I but out of all the chaos 'Dix;e'' mas
come unchanged. A recent census
taken by o. G: T. Sonneck shows
that it is the most popular tune Of
all in the United States. Whether
played in New York, Denver, San
Francisco or New Orleans, the old
rebel yell rises to greet it, rises from
throats that hoarsened with l., and
with the smoke Of war in the olden
days, and from throats of young oeo-
ple that never knew war, but choke
nevertheless with some unaebned
sentiment when they hear the air.
Herman Arnold lives IN Memphis,
Loo,v o,1 oontant in his pretty