Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-10-25
SONG-LIFE OF THE HIGHLANDERS
In the Ballads of the Southern Highlands Charlie" Still the
Bonnie Prince"-Many of Them Celebrate Local Feuds
Mine Disasters-The Old and the New
Bv WALTER PRICHARD EATON

TT WAS not until 1882, when Professor
i Child began the publication Of his great
collection of Scottish and English ballads,
that the mass of people knew much about
the treasure house Of popular poetry in the
Southern Highlands. Few people know the
tunes to this day. But we all began soon
after Professor Child led the way to take
an interest in the ballad poetry and to
thrill to it's suggestions of q vanished gener-
alton. None of us knew, however that these
songs were still being sung, not In England,
not in Scotland only, but on a much more
extended scale right in our own Southern
Appalachians. Those who did know were the
few educated people who had penetrated the
mountain retreats. They began to collect the
American versions of the old ballads, aston
ished by the fact that words and music had
been handed down for more than century
by oral tradition, sometimes almost exactly
as they had been brought originally from
England, again by memory alone. There
were also a large number of local origin,
celebrating feuds, mine disasters and so on
i'm short coming to birth exactly their
prototypes did in the British Isles genera
tions ago.
All the writer's on the subject William
Aspinwall Bradley included, seem to find
1t remarkable that these ancient ballads
have persisted solely by oral tradition
down into the goth century. OF course
In a way, 1t is remarkable and romantic
But, after all, how many songs do persist
unwritten right in the heart of civilization!
Most children never read London Bridge
Is Falling Down" I'm sure never read
It nor saw the music for 1t. There is
a whole collection Of children's game-songs
which are perpetuated almost entirely by
oral tradition-or were before the kinder
gartens came. There is also a genuine bor-
der ballad, preserved by Child, and also ex-
istent in some form or other in almost every
European language which most boys sing
at a certaip age In their development. No
body reads it to them for very obvious rea-
sons. In fact the verses Child dares print
are not the ones most gleefully sung. Doubt
less the text has been frightfuly corrupted,
but the plot remains intact, and probably
the tune. 1t is invariably taught to boys by
the next older set of boys. The village horse
sheds used to be the popular place for rem
derng this bit of Elizabethan obscenity in
my boyhood. There is a perfect example of
the oral persistence of a genuine old ballad,
not in the Southern Highlands, but in the
centre of civilized New England. and fancy
all over America.
Allurement in Mountain Recesses
However, nowhere else are the old ballads
a part of the genuine song life OF the people
as in the Southern Highlands, and nowhere
else can the student of these ballads and
the lover Of folksong find SO rich, SO quaint
so alluring a field OF study. These Highland
ers are not spoiled yet, though they probably
will be in time Public schools and newspa-
pers are the great foes OF oral traditions
and both are slowly invading the mountain
recesses OF the Southern Appalachians.
was in the Cumberlands of East Tennes-
see this spring, however. and found within
FIVE miles OF Sewanee people living under
exactly the same condtions-sometimes in
the same log cabins-that their forefathers
knew 100 years ago, when they pressed on
west over the laurel-impeded coils Of the Blue
Ridge and the Great Smokes. TO get farther
away from the bonds OF civilization. They
shoot with the same squirrel riheE (ntted
now for percussion caps). I met one noun
taineer whose rife reached to his nose and
he was six foot two in his stocking feet. 1t
has a record Of 15o bar" and even his
grandfather had lost count OF the deer Alas,
the bear and deer are scarce enough todayi
We have fer more deer In Massachusetts,. I
heard from the lips OF these people idioms
that Shakespeare used and tunes that pos
sibly Shakespeare sang. They have num-
ber OF traditional folk dances which stem
directly back to ''Merrie England" and their
songs about Charlie" are many, almost all
unmistakabiy referring to the Bonnie Prince.
though they are quite unconscious OF IL.
wish l could give examples q more OF
their songs. but one or two will have TO suf-
nee. Here Is the first stanza Of one sung
by young man, who had II from his father.
II is called he said. '.rhe Bachelors Hall"
and was taken down In Thnmping Dick HoI-
low. Tenn. by sewanee student The tune
- q nna square-toed, singing measure.
Since Laughing and talking At length did keep.
reused the old lady up out Of her sleep