The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1917-07-05
HOW THE IMMORTAL DIXIE"
CAME TO BE WRITTEN
BY Adeline Leitzbach and VIM. w.
Randall.


Randall.
Songs may come and songs may
go but some live forever" is an old
slogan that we hear quite often. But
there are songs that never die, songs
that are sung day after day and will
be sung in the future generations
with as much ardor as they are today,
songs that call forth a message, that
awaken something within us-some-
thing we cannot name, yet know it
exists. There are some such songs
and among them Dixie must take it's
place in the foremost ranks.
Dear old Dixie! 1t seems to rouse
the blood in US, it brings us to our
feet, it makes us clap our hands, it
brings tears to our eyes-why? Well
that's just it, perhaps if we knew
the reason why it wouldn't be the i'm
mortal song it is. 1t keeps us guess
ing, it is an uncertain quantity, and
after we've solved the problem we
are no longer interested in it. We
don't want to know the reason why,
we're satisfied with Dixie just as it is.
Once the battle song of the Confed-
crates, Dixie has become so popular
that it is national; in fact, one hears
it the world over. Its music is so
contagiously appealing that it has be-
come song without words of univer
sal appeal.
There is scarcely child who
doesn't know Dixie, but there are
great many of us who do not even
know who wrote the song, let alone
still more who ever heard how it came
to be written, and considering the
popularity of the song it's history can
not fail to interest. And so, back to
its history and how it came to be
written. There was neycr any uues-
tion that originally nxie was the
work of Daniel Decatur Emmett,
while he was a member of Jerry Bry-
ants Minstrels. But we are getting
ahead of our story.
Dan Emmett was born at Mt Ver-
non, o., in 1915, and he died there in
1904. His grandfather, an Irish i'm
migrant, fought for the Colonists in
the War of the revolution, and his
father an Indian agent, served in the
war OF 1912, so there was fighting
blood in Dan Emmett, and he entered
the army, but after short military
career he joined a circus, and in 1910,
with four associates, he formed the
Virginia Minstrels, an organization
supposedly popular in those days
when the minstrel show was the thing
in the way of entertainment. Later
Emmett joined Jerry Bryant's Min
strels, and it was part of his contract
that he was to compose a new "walk
around" to be sung at the close of
the performance, whenever called up-
on to do so. Emmett had been writing
some pretty good songs, and a great
deal was expected of him. While the
company was playing in Bryant's
Theater, then at 472 Broadway New
York, Jerry called upon Emmett to
write new "walk around' in a hur-
ry. Emmett was not in a song-writ-
ing mood; he delayed and delayed un-
til the last minute, for no idea seemed
to come to him, but suddenly an idea
came to Emmett. Whenever the cold
weather set in up North the negro
minstrels of the company would wish
themselves back in Dixie, referring,
of course, to the land south of the
Mason and Dixon's line. More than
once Dan Emmett had heard some
colored member of the company de-
clare Il wish l was in Dixie" and the
remark gave him an idea for tie song
he had to write in hurry. He wrote
it. Evidently Jerry Bryant was salts
fled with it, for the company sang it
for the first time on September l2,
1859, and it caught on at once Peo-
pie hummed it on the streets, they
sang it in their homes, ard when the
war broke out the men in gray sang
1T as they rallied round their flag and
marched upon the field Of battle, and
today the remnant of the army in
gray and the last of the army in blue
sing it at their reunions just as thcy
sing the Star-Spang.ed Banner, and
the boys in Khaki sing it OH thei,
marches, and give the old song renew.
ed life, and they'll sing it as long as
the country Of the blue and the gray
stands united as great nntion. Di;ie
did more to salvc the feelings Of the
South and mend the breach between
it and the North than dozen volumes
written for the purpose, or hundred
orators making wonderful speeches
could have done.
When men sing together they sing