The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1915-09-17
Kitty Cheatham and Ter Message
BY ANNE RAN KIN

The posies they are good to her,
And bow them as they should to her,
AS fareth she upon her royal way;
The birdlingS of the wood do make
her music,
Gentle music all the day.
The little stars are kind to her,
The moon she hath mind to her,
And layeth on her head a golden
crown;
And singeth then the wind to her,
The song she loveth best of Beth.
lem town.
Did YOU ever hear Kitty Cheat !
ham sing "Dixie!" !
Perhaps you may say that 1t is not
our Dixie" Perhaps you may feel
that it lacks the martial ardor thai
brings old soldiers to their feet and
that YOU miss the ringing call of the
rebel yell, the throbbing tribute OF
tear-wet ewes and bursting heart.
1t does indeed lack all of these. 1t
is the merest breath of song, a
dream melody, far, high and sweet.
1t is a battle song no longer, but
tender lyric of childhood and OF hap
plneSS. III carries DuI Cle le'illrN''
echo of fife and drum, but the DIM
NEST thought of charging gray lines
or crimson flags, of battle or OF
bloodshed. 1t holds, instead, the
child-memories of an entire people,
and brings back in full tide OF rec
objection the widespread fields OF co.,
I ton and tobacco, the perfume of mag
nolia and of jasmine, the softness OF
Southern ar ana the glue anu So of
Southern childhood IN It's 1oollSh
words and in its mounting, eager
notes. 1t interprets the picturesque
spirit of old Southern slave Gays DIS
they are growing, without bitterness
or rancor into the larger purpose OF
a new time. And into the song the
singer puts the full sincerity and
sweetness of an abiding faith IN the
ideals of our Southern people, wheth'
err the history told Of them be OF the
things that are gone the iAl!gS Una.
the now, or the things thaV are u
come.
For this message alone, II 1oI
nothing else, the South must owe u
u Kitty Cheatham lasting debt O
ID gratitude and affection. she ma
"A gone over the water to foreign land
and among people to whom "CnGl
Toms Cabin" was the law and tn
gospel of our old slave days, and sh
has carried to the hearts OF men an
have heard of Thomas Nelson Pag
or of Howard Weeden, true plctur
Of the negro as the South knows an
loves him.
In The North of her own countr
and in MANY big cities abroad she ha
asson,bInd audiences to whom ht
"onTs and stories of darkey life al
9o,, s regelations of the loyalty, a
-f>~fscit6f and understanding that al
nat,,rai bonds between the Southel
naonie and the negro. For the co
pe LEI nam who tries to make viii
o,en Of himself she has but little p
4 ti,,,, Init for the negro's inhere
race characteristics OIL l"l..i, u,''C :.
and courtesy she has U'hounueI J
9pe' .aro.tion of each one of her e
trtainments is al%ly" gwen up
fine singing of what " .ter'lh pap
has spoken of as 1.-The hitherto u
known old negro songs M'iN'
u %nre Inv inheritance" and 1t was
al YES re,son ~ Of her loving and intimate
ternrefation of the old darky me
ttap' t ~" t'c She won the interest of h
f frst audiences.
III a nretty story is told Of the W
IN which Kitty Cheatham came
a. o''r nm the work she has made
S S~Nc 81 1t will be remember
Fiat after a care-free girdhood y'
characteristic of the Ola o Lud
town VINE, wrS career on the stage, {
a a.: y0" aftar that there had followed
Una s aroe' Years of private life.
he Tb sor'C Suddenly and sadly tn
men tbo G need of self-support,
tan n,o ,r seemed very wide
u che as she looked out v
n tn e,ebied ewes we from the refuge of
o otoG chateau in Brittany, where
N i InJ zone 10 an old time friend
aau a ga counsel,
resi- an" tha iate dusk of certain |
III Ime sot before the open fire
EM udN SIG 9t'N b,,,zplF