"PATRIOTIC AND EASY"

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13802, 20 November 1942, Page 6

"PATRIOTIC AND EASY"

THE NATIONAL ANTHEM "You ask, what was that song they sang at the opening? That's God Save the King? You thought it was •Sweet Land of Liberty?* So it is. You Yankees took it from us and put new words to it. Hard to get new music, isn't it? We have a fine song up here—"o Canada!' —but most of us don't know the words, and those that do don't know the music, and most people don't know both, so the song generally fades away after a line or so. Then there's another, 'The Maple Leaf.' You may have heard it. It runs: 'The Maple Leaf, the Maple Leaf, for ever,' and it goes on like that for ever. But 'God Save the King' is the best. It's so darned patriotic, and it's easy. Once you get it going you can fairly shout it. . . . 'Send him vic-torious, hap-pee and glo-rious,' eh, what? .... The only bother is it's hard to start. At the close of our meetings the chairman always says, 'Will someone please start 'God Save the King.' There's a long silence. Then some man hidden in the audience starts, away down in his throat, "G-o-d!' He gets no takers. Another one a little way off and a little higher, beings 'G-o-d . . .' then two or three more *G-o-d,' till all of a sudden, you never tcnow how, out they come. "God save our—' and they're off."—Professor Stephen Leacock, in his latest book of humorous sketches.