The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-07-04
Our Fourth
of July Songs
Or;o;n Of Yankee Doodle
"America," Hail Columbia
and "The Star Spangled
Banner
u, FRANK G.

nv FRANK g.. CARPENTERS
reformation Recently Exhumed From
,h, Records by the instruction of
Conoress-"Yankee Doodle From a
Nursery Rhyme-Did a Britisher
write it?-"America" Comes From
the Germans and Was First Sung
i'm ton-"H Columbia Was
SING for President Washington and
# Ruined the SingeT-Where Fran
,is scott Key Got the Music for the
"Star Spangled Banner'-Fresh In
formation About Our Four Greatest
National AIRS.
Uopywright 1911 by Frank G.. Car.
penter.)
Washington. D. c., July lit is
+hrnugh the researches Of the antlOna1
library as directed by Congress, that [
am able to give you some live lnforma-
,ion Of the four national songs which
will be sung all Over the ountry next
Tuesday. These are Yankee Doodle"
"America," Hail Columbia and The
Star Spangled Banner The work of
Investigation concerning them has
been collected by Prof. Oscar G. II.
Sonneck. chief Of the division Of music
of the Library of Congress, n Con-
gress has ordered that his work be
published, but that no copies whatever
are to be distributed without payment
therefor.
Yankee Doodle"
The oldest of these songs is Yankee
Doodle" 1t was sung one hundred and
fifty years ago, and, next to Dixie it
is still the most popular of u nation
al melodies. How it originated no one
can be absolutely sure. There are six
teen different theories which haVe
sprung up since the song was first gen.
orally sung, in 1875. The first is that
it was COmn09p1 nv a British officer az
the revolution in contempt Of the Am
orleans, and that it was written to the
jingle Of a nursery rhyme which was
in use as far back as the time Of
Charles | of England. This rhyme be
gan:
Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it;
Nothing in it, nothing in it.
But the binding round it,
At the same time it was suggested
that it might have come from Holland,
and had been sung there as a harvest
song corresponding to the following.
relating to the workmen receiving for
their wages as much buttermilk as
they could drink and a tenth of the
crop:
"lanker Diddel. doodel down..
Didel, dudel Ianter;
lanke ViVer, I'VE vown,
'B~otermilk. and tanther."
This Is something like:
Yankee Doodle came to town
Upon a little pony;
He stuck q feather in hts hat
And called it macaroni.'
Another theory is that the air haC
Its origin in a military march Which
was brought to this country by the
Hesslan soldiers during our war fol
Independence. and another states tha
]! was founded on a tune in use durins
me ume OF Cromwell, and was writer
10 rldlcuie him. AS to the kitty Fish.
er, spoken of in the first Verse as tn
glrl who found Lucy Locket's pocket
she IS said to have been a lady o
,hafIes Is time, who. like many o
the ladies of that day. was not quit
80 good as she hou be Neverthe
less she was a celebrated characte
and was painted by Sir Joshua Rey
hcldS more than once.
>fieeiin@ at John Hancock.
As to the word "Yankee.' that wa
USED by the New England colonials a
an expression meaning "simon-pure'
or excellent, and by the British as on,
Oh contempt. Some of the British songs
quoted relate to John Hancock. tn
Il'SI sIgnef of the Declaration of In
repentance. Here is one of them:
fankee Doodle came to town
For to buy a firelock:
We VIII tar and feather him,
Ana SO We Will John Hancock"
mere. by the way, is another. which
itiates to Hancock'S wife, Which i
SAID to have been sung by the Britisl
officers:
Madam Hancock dreampt a dream,
she dreampt she wanted something
0he dreamt she wanted a Yankee kin;
!" crown him with a pumpkin
Ina gust one more, which was sun
pN the schoolboys many years ago.:
fankee Doodle came to town.
lut ON his strip'd trouse's:
VOW q he couldn't see the place.
Ihere We're 81 many houses
me earliest printed version to b
1'uhd OF the air Yankee Doodle an
pears in Walsh's collection Of dance
-, the year 1850 under the title Q
Nftty Fishers Jig" h air was ais
USED as the Presidents march. 1t wa
pitSed by the Yankees after the haiti