Norwich bulletin., 1921-07-20
ODD INCIDENTS IN AMERICAN
 HISTORY
HISTORY

It was on October 21. 1708, that Sam ue. Francis Smith, the author of our na- tlonal hymn, America, was born in New l ton Center Mass. When he was A years of age, at a Fourth Of July ceIe- bration, the stirring words, My Coun- 1 try. lis of Thee." were first heard III public.
 When the hymn America was written this nation had it's principal root in aa English heredity, and the ode reaacts it's ancestral influence. S,nce then ocr gates have been wide open to the na- tiCus of the earth to came and enter int9 it's uDbuilding.
 In tue Independence Day anniversary in the old Park Street Church, in Bos- ton, when America was first sung, there were less than thirteen million people in 1 taa United States. To-Day there is 6 i tfcreign nation within the American na- | ton that is three times larger than the entire American Republic as embodied i in our national anthem.
 i When Smith was only Ii years cid, and while pupil in the old Elliot school, in Boston, he began 10 write verse. He was graduated, from liar yard in 1929 in the class of Oliver Wen | del Holmes and James Freeman Clarke. i It was three years later that he wrote America when studying for the ministry at Andover college.
 William c. Woodbridge had brought from Germany several books used in Ger man schools, containing words and mu- sics and left them with Lowell Mason MT. Mason devoted much time to teach ing music to Sunday school children. He placed the German music in the hands of Dr. Smith, asking him to translate !an.-thing he thought worthy, or, if he . +o i-L, that might please him.
 II was one gloomy day in February. E1832 that Dr. Smith, in looklng over these books. came across the air now known In this country as America, and also used in England to the words of God Save the King. Noticing that the i words in German were patriotic, Smith proceeded to compose lines to the tune. ALr. Mason was pleased with them and Ithe hymn was first sung at the children s celebration of the anniversary If inde- Ipendence held in the old Park Street church, in Boston.
 The patriotic words of the song at this occasion. inspired the hearers, and they were taken up by the American people and sung from the Atlantic to the Mis- sissippi, which was then the western boundary of the American nation Two years later it's author was ordained into ; the Baptist ministry at Waterville, Me and at one of the Harvard reunions Dr
 Oliver Wendell Holmes read these lines
 3ovialIy: And there's nice youngssar of excel lent pith,
 Fate tried to conceal him by naming
 him Smith,
 But he chanted song for the brave and the free,
 Just read on his medal, My Country
 'Tis of Thee.'"
 e Dr. Smith was eight years T protes l sor of languages at Colby University T anG then removed to Newton Center
 which was his home thereafter, wher,
 he was for some years pastor of tE, o Baptist church. He was long editc- 0 = the Christian Review, and in the inter est of missionary work travelled almos : all parts of the world. Next to Americ;
 perhaps his best known sacred song i
 the great missionary hymn, The Mcrnin; X Light Is Breaking. He died at S7 year n of age.
 e In 1908 the anniversary of the birtl
 of the author of America was cele
 brated. At one of these festivals Ed h ward Hale Brush, an eminent Americai o musical scholar, said of the air to whic] America is sung It's God Save the Kin,
 has gone through series of develop
 ments and can be traced back severa centuries, but in it's present form is no7 q credited to Henry Carey, an English tt man, who is supposed to have wr.ttei r. the music and composed or adapted th
 words between 1735 and 174O."
 An English writer, E. J. Adair r'iiz i, Gerald, says: "The melody Of Ged Say = the Queen, under, it's German title, la Y for more than century been the stat -o anthem for Prussia. It was carly i
 1790 that the Holstein clergyman, TIeln
 rick Harries wrote in honor of Chfistia 'e VII, of Denmark, national hymn i II eight stanzas to the melody Gf the Eng ,e fish God Save Great George" n. (Tomorrow-Visit of the Hunsaris
 Exile.)