Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-07-05
SOUTHLAND STORIES
Larry CAN'T Gives Some Interesting
ReCOlleCtiORS.
TELLS or THE MEN OF OTHER DAYS
A Romance in the Life Of John How
ard Paine, Given by One Who Was
Personally Intimate With the FAM
Gus Author Of Home Sweet Home.
For The Yorkville Enquirer.

For The Yorkville Enquirer.
It has been universally conceded tina,
the sweetest words in the English
tongue are Home. Love, Mother" an6
the unanimous verdict Of the music
loving world is that the sweetest and
most heart-appealing song ever COM
posed is Home, Sweet Home" The
music and words of this old song
chime and blend SO harmoniously and
the song is so pathetically true that
it appeals to and penetrates the no.
bier and higher instincts in every hu-
man heart
While other songs, some written by
world famous poets, have been cast
aside for newer creations, Home.
Sweet Home" is today as popular a
melody as when first given by its au-
thor to an enraptured world. Nothing
has ever been or ever will be produced
to take it's place 1t is the Alpha and
Omega Of melodies on that one sub
ject and will endure so long as the
of abode.
Home, Sweet Home" has been
translated into every tongue and has
| even invaded the desert and the dark
est wilderness. Travellers have heard
it sung by Arabs in the Sahara desert,
those migratory people whose hcmes
and horse-hair tents are shifted from
oasis to oasis us their needs demand.
And yet these descendants OF Ishmael
love even their tents as home. STAN
ley, in one of his letters to the New
York Herald wrote that he heard in
darkest Africa, band of naked saw
ages in their gutterai voices, chanting
Home, Sweet Home" that was intro
duced by o burthen bearer of their
tribe for a party OF ome-sick Ameri-
can explorers. These black savagcs
live in huts constructed Of brush or
grass and yet those novels were to
them O. home. The EsquimauX, 1t is
said, has long introduced this song in
his winter ice-burrow, for the foul
cave is to him Home, Sweet Home. "
It would appear that the Turk, with
his harem, would be one race that
would have q s.urfeit of home, but
this American song is one Of the most
popular airs in TurkCT.
Josh Billings wrole that the most
arrant coward. aid fight to protect
his home, but he never heard of a fell
low shouldering a musket in defense
Of a boarding house This witticlsm
carries with it a mine of wisdom and
truth. To abide in palace belonging
to another and from which you can be
elected at the Whim Of the owner, is
not like having a home of your own.
1t matters not how humble that habi-
tation may be there is no place like
home. From the smallest insect to the
wild beast, instinct teaches it to first
construct a home TO which it can retire
for rest and safety. 1t is the one small
part on earth over which the occupant
has sole ownership. The ant burrows
home in the earth and the tiger, lion
and all wild BEASTS have their lair or
cave. But that den is home.
The first written laws ever framed
were by English barons beneath the
wide spreading shade Of giant oak;
and the first declaration was made
that a mans home was his castle, and
that it was ever sacred from invasion
except by consent Of the owner. And
with the first settlement Of America
this declaration was imported with
the colonists and no law is more
firmly implanted In the minds Of our
people today. a plutocrat. with gild-
cd chambers in a palace hotel is an
object Of commiserution when COM
pared with an humble working man,
living in q cottage Of his own and
where love and conlentment abide.
John Howard Paine. whose brain
and gifted and almost inspired pen
gave Home Sweet Home" to the
world, never had Il home. and his song
was Il tlirgc for that which he him.
self lacked and so ardently longed
for. That song WAS piteous wall
of a home -hungcring heart-a wish
that was destined never to be realized,
for he died in Tuns. in Algeria. in an
alien land and among strangers, ut
terly pennilcss. lie had only his PIT
iful and uncertain salary as American
| consul to SubSiSt upon. Years aiter
his remains were brought home ana Il
handsome monument erected TO per-
petuate his memory.
! Like Robert Burns who died IN
poverty and want. John Howard Paine
asked for bread and they gave him q
stone" But this homeless wanderer
and whose song has touched anu
softened SO many hundreds of mil
lions of hearts and touching and in
spring the noblcst and holiest in
stincts in the human mind, has founc
at last a Horne Sweet Home but
it is not on this earth.
There is Il little romance connected
with John Howard Paine seldom
found out of fiction. | have talked
with those who knew and loved him
as will be seen before this sketcf
ends.