AMERICA’S BATTLE SONG.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7917, 11 August 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

AMERICA’S BATTLE SONG.

WHAT IS UNCLE SAM’S NATIONAL ANTHEM?

This sounds an easy question to answer, .but it is not qa easy as it looks. J America lias several anthems which, she sings with almost equal regularity, anu •upon which she confers almost equal honour,, and if a plebiscite of the American people were taken it isl not at all certain which they would choose. Some years ago the chief of the Music Division in the Library of Congress made what he considered an exhaustive investigation into this very point, and! his conclusion was that “Dixie” came first, “ Yankee Doodle” second, and the “Star-Spangled Banner” third. The last hi reported to appear in fourteen different versions. / THE “ STAR-SPANGLED BANNER.” | However, it was the “Star-Spangled Banner” which was played at the Opera on the night of America’s entrance into the war, and as that was a supreme occasion, and the playing of the tune by the orchestra roused the audience to , .a white heat of enthusiasm, probably . that fact is as conclusive as any other., Though “Dixie” is universally popular j with our American friends, yet it is realty a song of the Southern States, and was sung exclusively by the Confederates in the Civil War. That fact would count against it as a National Anthem. • ! By reason of its splendid dignity and lofty tone, the famous Battle Hymn of ( tlie Republic, set to the tune of “John ( Brown’s Body,” is regaidled by many' cultured Americans, including Mr. j Roosevelt, as the real National Anthem ; of America, but one dares wager that . when the Yankee regiments get on the “ route march” the words fchqv will sing ' to 'tlie fn.mouM lold tune will be the original ones, and not the gplendlid hymn of Mr.*. Julia Ward Howe, for John Brown’s body is still marching on in the cause of Freedom and his countrymen are following its trail. “MY COUNTRY, ’TIS OF THEE.” Tn adition to those already mentioned, there are “ Hail Columbia” and “My Country, ’tis of Thee,” 'but, as the latter is sung to the same tune as our own National Anthem, that fact will certainly militate against it if American troops come to France. Tho | Yankees will certainly want something ' we haven’t got, for to carrv coaik to Newcastle is not one of their weak- j nesses. j Besides its popularity and suitability , for the National Anthem of a republic, 1 the “Star-Spangled Banner” is one of the oldest of American anthems, having been born in 1812, during the lalst war , with Britain. When the British bom- J balded Baltimore, a young lawyer Francis, Scott Key—seeing thie iStari ’ and Stripes floating over the fortress, I was inspired to write the great song, I and in a few months it was upon every j lip throughout the States.