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.
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*
WT DACr TARBORO STREET,
• A. KUi3EJ 9 ROCKY MOUNT, N. C.
A Horse Shoeing a Specialty.
« ■. . I*- •r—
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S
Rocky Mount Ins. & R „ o.
R. B. DAVIS, Jr., Sec'ty. R. L. HUFFINES, Gen. .
' * ; C' • ■' r *
abe ■