The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-09-14
SONGS CHEER
 ARMED HOSTS TO
 VICTORY IN BATTLE

Sunday marked the centenary of the bombard1nent of Fort sMcHenry, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write that immortal anthem, The Star SpangIed Banner While Ameri- cans are celebrating this anniversary, the armed hosts of Europe are shout ing those patriotic anth ems which so thrill men that the fear of death is forgotten, and they become capable of valorous deeds which would be izn- possible except in moments of su- spreme exaltation.
 For untold centuries soldiers have gone singing to the battlefield, and the ] songs they sing have usually been an-- i1nated by the warhke spirit. It was the glad sight of his eountry's flag Haunting its folds over a fort after bombardment that gave Francis Scott Key the inspiration to write the an them which reaches it's triumphant a climax in these lines:
 .sAnd the star-spangled Banner in- tri-
 unph shall wave
 Ger the land of the free and the home
 of the brave
 Francis Scott Key was a. lawyer by profession and he wrote only one poem, Of any worth, but that one. set to the music of John Stafford Smiths tfAnacreon in Heaven, has become the national hymn of the re- public. Al majority of the national hymns of other lands have been writ ten by men who had no other claim to fame
 .sThe Marseillaise,. the great hymn Of the French republic, and perhaps the most stirring of all national an therns, was written by Rouget de Lille, a French engineer officer, who composed it in 17s2 to cheer the con scips at Strasburg. It derived itt name from a body of troops from Marseilles marching into Paris sing ing this song. The battle hymn of the first republic, it retains it's popularity under the third, and it will doubtless | live as long as men cherish liberty. ssDie Wacht am Rhein, 'i--t'sFh - ] Watch on the Rhine,'s--was composed in 184O by Max Schneckenburger, a, poor Swabian merchant, who, so far as is known, never attempted any pth-. l CT verse s'HeiI dir i'm Siegerkranz,' with the same melody as "God Save the King was the official German anthem, and little was heard of '"The l Watch on the Rhine,' until 1870, when. under. the influence of the war with France, it was sung by every man, wofnan and child in Germany. This souI-stirring composition has ev- I CT since been the one anthem that can always be depended upon to bring Germans to their. feet.
 l ssThe Wearing of the Green was Y ballads to the street hawkers of Dub I lin, and his name is unknown Tn the United States, many songs have served to cheer the fighters in time of war. t.Yankee Doodle dates at least 1 from the time. of Cromwell, when it I was known as ttNankee Doodle It l was changed to ankees Doodle by 5 the New Englanders before the Revo- ] 1ution, and after the battle of Lexing- i ton it became their marching song. In ,Jxr ro Ff11-r oh l Georgia and fJohn Browns Bedy, 1 were the popular songs of the north I ern armies, while the Confederates I made Dixie their anthem, All of these, Dixie in particular, still enjoy a considerable vogue
 l In more recent wars many songs have enjoyed a transient popularity. The British TomInies fought the Boers to the tune of '"The Absent-Minded IBeggar.'' while the troops Of Uncle Sam, in. the Spanish and Philippine Econficts, found spiritual up1ift in the
 merry melody of "A Hot Time" Many
 other war songs have made wide appeal, not forgetting Macdermoft'h Idef1:
 we don't want to fight. but by jingo.
 if we do,
 lwe've got the ships, we've got the
 men, we've got the money too-''
 "God Save the King has been the national anthem of EngIishmen since the middle of the eighteenth century, and it's melody has been adopted for German and Danish national songs and for the American, hydIln, I'M y | Country, sTisa of Thee.fs asr- -ssS 5eszzss 1 The melody Of God Save the King | is said to have been composed by
 John Bull, Doctor of Music, in 1908.
 for a dinner given to James at Mer-
 chant Taylors Hall in London. Other I fU Q ihoc the song to Henry Cardey, composer
 of, that beautiful but simple ballad
 Sally in Our Alley" Carey, after a } lifelong struggle with poverty, die ed : suddenly in 1743, and 1t was rumored . that he committed suicide, although this has been denied. While it has
 been alleged that God Save the King was known as early as the v reign of James I, it is positivly known . that Carey sang the song as his owr :, composition at a dinner held in Lon l don in 1740 to celebrate the capture 9 of PortobeIIo. The anthem frs
 achieved general popularity in 1745
 after the first successes of Prince
 Charles Edward Stuart
 The London Daily Advertiser ol Q Sept. 30, 1745, referred to the anthem n in the following paragraph:
 Q s'On Saturday night last, the aud II fence at the Theatre Royal, Drur5 c :. Lane, were agreeably surprised by the = gentleman belonging to that hohs. ii performing the anthem of God Savt d our Noble King The universal ap
 plause it met with--being encoret l. with repeated huzzas-suffieiently de r noted in how just abhorrence the.
 hold the arbitrary schemes of our in 7. sidious enemies. and detest the des
 potic attempts of papal power.1 4 The Russian national anthem con
 sists of two verses, each being re