Newspapers / The Rocky Mount Record … / Feb. 13, 1908, edition 1 / Page 2
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OUR PATRIOTIC SONGS We Are Not as Familiar With Them as We Should Be. FEW OF US KNOW THE WORDS How Many Americans, For Instance, Can Recite "The Stcr Gpanc|!ed Ban ner" cr "My Country, 'Tis cf Thee?" "Dixie" and "Maryland, My Mary land." Proud as they are of their nation, it Is a strange fact that Americans are not so familiar with their country's patriotic airs as are the people of the foreign lands. Even when they are stirred to the point of singing by bands they find it hard to recollect the words. And it is doubtful whether many are aware of the bits of history attached to some of the land's patriotic airs. Take "The Star Spangled Banner," for instance. How much can you sing of that song? Yet, if any can be called the national anthem, this is the one. Of course it is unfair to ourselves to say that we cannot sing it, but it must be admitted that we don't know it as generally as we should. Its author, Francis Scott Key, now lies in a cemetery at Frederick, Md., where an American flag is always waving over his grave. Key wrote the song after an experience he had while a prisoner aboard a British war vessel. While he was aboard the boat Fort McHenry, the sole protection of Bal timore, was bombar\ .1. and the song tells of his satisfaction at finding the flag of his country still waving upon the dawn of the succeeding morning. It is a hymn which all Americans can join in singing, because it breathes the spirit of the w r hole land and has not one suggestion of sectionalism in it Next as a national song comes "America," sometimes known as "My Country, 'Tis of Thee." Objection is frequently raised against this because the tune was not original. It is the property of the British empire as much as it is of the United States, and when it is heard from afar one cannot tell whether the band wants to feel the in spiration that is in the words of "America" or in "God Save the King." The words of the song "My Country, Us of Thee," were written by Samuel Francis Smith. The song was first simg at a Sunday school celebration of the Fourth of July at the Park Street drarch in Boston. It is an interesting fact that one of the little boys who helped to sing "America" for the first of the Ocean," w-hicli has something like an echo of "Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean." The tune of "Yankee Doodle" is a good 0~0, and we all iike to whistle or hum it, but the words unfortunately are not very good and, furthermore, it has been said did not mean a great deal at the time they were written. At any rate, it has not the solemn grandeur that "The Star Spangled Banner" holds. The origin of "Yankee Doodle" is shrouded in the mystery cf a score of conflicting tales. . It is generally agreed, however, that the tui_e came from England, and the words were in vented by the British so'" to le sung in deri ii ; troops who on the II during the Frei id. I Twenty years latei the rebel 3 pa triots played "Yankee Doodle" at the battle of Lexingtoi, and it 1 me the first national SG United States. Philadelphia has eon; '.deiuble Inter est in "Hail Coimnl la." It wi ten by Joseph Hopkinson of this city, although the ail * a German w he . ~ chestra in New York. Hoi".ln. wrote the words at was threatenr-r 7 - " T and for a long whik- ii wan the iiiost popular of-our patriotic songs. As for section; 1 sq which have mighty good tunes, a ca. e in point being 4 T : " M " was the battle hymn of the . eracy, Lincoln L it ii and cn the y r " asked a band to il •Dixie," however, was y. 11. before the tended for tli£ ates. It was wr"' iel D. En Bryant's rnin".Lrclt ' ant's sh ■w ure se mett to write a n... which/ \ "Dixie" was the re.n .a Its adaptation nearly two years later as the war song of the south was an accident. Mrs. John Wood wv.s ap pearing at the New Orleans Varieties then J of the rising tide of war a zouave drill was intro luced inl chestra I. . for the r. n "Dixie." The war cloud burs ..week, and from New Orleans "Dixie" epread all over the south. Attl •Fanny J. Crof by, *wrote a song for "Dixie" which was strongly Union in sentiment, but the other side had pre-empted the air. Then it w r as that the north took up Brown's Body," which was first gat on by a Boston company, and later |Ers. Julia Ward Ilowe wrote to this tone "The Battle Hymn of the Repub lic." Another popular is real ly'an old German one. It had been &in America for many years as a le for the old college song "Lau rK'or IToratius,"1 T oratius," but It is now univer sally Associated with "Maryland, My Maryland." This song was considered by James Rn ell Lowell to be the best poem produced by the civil war, and Mr. Lowell could not have been partial to its sentiments. It was written by James Ryder Randall, a Marylander. At the outbreak of hostilities Mr. Ran dall was teaching in a small college in Louisiana. When he heard the news of the riots in the streets of Baltimore in April, ISGI, he was fired by the in telligence and angry because his na tive state did not forsake the Union. Under these circumstances he wrote the poem. It was first published in the New Orleans Delta and copied in all the southern papers and, of course, be came very popular among Maryland secessionists. One of these. Miss Jen nie Cary, suggested adapting it to the air of the familiar college song. Miss Cary was In Virginia just after the first battle of Bull Run. She and a party of friends were serenaded at Fairfax Court House by the Washing ton Light artillery of New Orleans. Miss Cary responded by singing "Ma ryland. My Maryland."—Philadelphia Press. I RESTAURANT TIPS. The Much Vexed Question From the Waiter's Point of View. > "I know by the way you nod your head you think It's pretty hard on the public. Suppose every waiter here got a regular salary, with no chance for extras. Do you suppose he'd be jump ing hurdles for a lot of fussy people, all kicking about better things than they get at home? Do you think he'd present the glad smile to those he'd like to choke, • break his neck making everybody comfortable and then listen to their hard luck stories or more pain ful jokes? No, sir; he'd serve the stuff just as he got it from the kitchen. He wouldn't go back and fight for tidbits and extra hot food. He'd be in no hurry to serve any one and pile up work for himself. The customer would wait because the waiter wouldn't, and probably he'd never come back, and that's where the owner would lose." "It must take great ingenuity to make the system pay," I mused. "It does," said Joseph. "The stupid waiter starves. Do you know that In order to hold good waiters the cheap hash slinging joints have to pay high er wages than the swell restaurants? There's not the opportunity for tips in the cheap places, and the waiter must follow opportunity like a bird of prey. He simply has to be clever enough to get tips, and he has no social standing to make him bashful. There are two methods—one is to get them spontaneously, the other to force them out. Most people tip only because they're ashamed not to. I make out Jbeljtcr aiW»i£tlttfirst jfcethorh especially in a place iikeThis, most or our patrons are regulars. It isn't the reg ular who does the complaining. He knows and saves the exertion. "With strangers it's a gamble. It may be a little party, and the things they order gladden your heart with an ticipation. You try to be a gentleman with the service, and then at the finish you got nothing—or maybe a dime. You can't complain; you'd be discharg ed. But there are ways. You can't blame a Waiter who is bunkoed If he administers a rebuke in a dignified way, such as, 'Ah, sir, you've forgot ten a dime of your change,' or he can call his helper and without a word point to the coin for him to remove."— Robert Sloss in Harper's Weekly. Persevere. I h " ; often heard people in mature life say, "If I had only kept on as I had begun, if I had only persisted in carrying out my ambition, I might have amounted to something and been infinitely happier." Multitudes of people have led mis erable lives of regret, with thwarter: ambitious constantly torturing the: ly because in a moment of wer. ness and discouragement they turi back. If there is any time a pen v.?:2C.s nerve, grit and stamina it ■ : tempted to turn back, when il' coward voice w-ithin says: "Don't . - see how foolish it is for you to : to do this thing? You have not t jy* non g or the strength. How foe ••a orifice years of comfort and pj urs at home among the people v love you for the sake of doing w w have undertaken! It is be t: to turn 1 ;in: ; knowledge f- n ,r- fpi ; e than to go on and sacrifice mn d." Whatever you do or h heavy the burden. Co not lay it dov. i a time. No matter how r dar. the way or how heavy the heart, wai in in the "blue" depression or the dis :ent has passed before taking any decided step.—Success Magazine. Customs of the Street. In crowded city streets, especially in Lev/lon and Paris, when a driver is hal'od by another driver ahead of him he throws up his hand or his whip per r as a warning man lack of him. Thus warned, The next driver checks his team and then holds I's hand or his whip as a warning to ■ man iback of him. Thus tncie n.ight be seen-going up one after an other in a line stretching back hand:-, or whips to the number of half a dozen or more as the drivers were successive ly lifted or slowed down by the blo.-«.- ade in front. So of drivers of ho-.e drawn vehicles whose drivers comae..- ly sit high where their hands or whl:> ■ can be seen above their heads. ihh> signaling is done somewhat differently by the drivers of automobiles, who sit low. So in such circumstances what the automobile driver does to signal to the man back of him that he is held up is to stretch his arm out outside of his vehicle horizontally to the right. Washington Poet The Rocky Mount Record, Thursday, February 13, 1908. Make Life's Journey Easy By Riding In A Made From The Best Material By The Most Skilled Workmen. Rose Buggies Are I Durability, 1 * f Comfort and 1 Appearance We have pleased thousands, let us please you by selling you a ROSE BUGGY at moderate cost * WT DACr TARBORO STREET, • A. KUi3EJ 9 ROCKY MOUNT, N. C. A Horse Shoeing a Specialty. « ■. . I*- •r— --■ * —■ ■IIIBIIBMIIII i ■ ri—mTirmmnm N lllllil | r i "i>l——mu I • / '' . Rent. r V" .J- !> rv? £8 $ We ofler for sale two five room cottages, conveui ' 1: cated and good as new upon the payment on each liUi wO w i. o per month for five years. Not a cent of interest chai 0 -erred payments. A splendid chance to secure a home ■ • v ■ -ms. Call and see us. We have some bargains in ru 1 ' , im proved and vacant. Our office is headquarter: .: . ~2 in the-best companies. We are giving spec- o the collection of rents. Put your property in om 1 >ou will be pleased. . . » . S Rocky Mount Ins. & R „ o. R. B. DAVIS, Jr., Sec'ty. R. L. HUFFINES, Gen. . ' * ; C' • ■' r * abe ■
The Rocky Mount Record (Rocky Mount, N.C.)
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Feb. 13, 1908, edition 1
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