Show STORY STOR Y OF A WAR sona the man who composed Compo the music for of I 1 we are coming coining rather father abraham tho the man who composed the music for Whit tiers song we are coming father abraham three hundred thousand strong is ia an old and somewhat decrepit piano tuner who caries carries on his business near windom finn his name is A IL irving one day soon after Lincol ns call for more men irving t then a young man was on his way t to 0 De defiance defranc flanc 0 from fort wayne for the purpose of singing sin ging at a political and loyal meeting j he had considerable reputation as a j W composer poser and singer and the republicans had asked him to come and help them on the way he read the poem which had just been published irving studied it formulated a tune hummed it and got the rhythm and that evening at the defiance meeting he sang mg the song for the first fl time when he had finished and the last echoes had died away men mounted their chairs chaira with wild en enthusiasm thusia swung their hats and broke loose in cheers that rang with feeling he eang it agan again and again and they would scarcely let him rest mt the next night he sang the song at fort wayne and again aroused the same enthusiasm he wrote out cut the music and sent it to the publisher who had handled what he had composed with instructions to publish it on his hig usual terms of royalty it was published and inside of a month more than 40 copies had been sold in a few days the publisher failed and irving never received a dollar for the music innate new york sun SUIL |