Show t tho the stay star spangled banner HO WIT wic WAS cou oom COMPOSED rosED AND SET TO musio MUSIC ar i and you knew brangs brands key ikney knew him why he lived but a few feuk doors above my fathers house there were once two brothers john ro ross boss as and phillip barton key phillip I 1 was an officer in the british army dur i ing the revolutionary war while john was w as in that of the united states john lived on pipes creek near taneytown Taney town frederick county md where francis francs i and his sister anna johns only children dren were born there was an exiled scotchman mr bruce said to have been heir to the throne of scotland who had built a mill on pipes creek and j there in the com company panny of this noble old aristocrat frank spent his hia very tery e early ar boyhood the brothers philip an and john were large manly looking fellows but frank and anna were of a much smaller mould annakay anna key was a beautiful little girl with the cheer fullest face and most pleasant smile that I 1 ever savi saw when they moved into town near my fathers fatherly frank was half grown and ready to enter as a law student with roger boger B taney then at the head of the frederick bar roger was a tall gaunt fellow as lean leau j they used to say as a potomac herring and as shrewd as the shrewdest he married bright little anna it was like the union of a hawk with a sky lark but she lived to be the wife of a chief justice of the united State states sand band and I 1 ney pr heard that either repented of their marriage mr taney was a strict catholic and frank an episcopalian not considered very zealous and sharp in his bis profession and much given to dreaming he went to virginia and brought lome home home a wife much larger and taller tallen than himself went to housekeeping on market street and had bad a couple of little children when I 1 left my home in 1809 to seek my fortune in lancaster pennsylvania y you have heard of admiral cock burn who commanded the british fleet the atrocious scoundrel words can never paint the miserable coward and boaster in his bis true colors after his depredations along the eastern shore of maryland there followed the sacking of washington the battle of north point and the attempt of the enemy to take the city of baltimore by water ater as they had failed to do it by land you know all about the bombardment of fort mchenry september 13 1814 I have gone over it again la in fancy hundreds of times an and ill tell you frank key patriotic as he was to hi his s hearts core could not help composing that poem it was forced out of him jush juat think he was a prisoner on the fleet which was anchored two miles from fort mchenry the cites main defence he could watch all the preparations and he knew the danger they foreboded foreboder fore boded through the terrific cannonading canno eanno of that midnight night fight while the sky was lit up with the fiery courses of the flying bombs do you yon he could sleep As the struggle ceased cease dupon upon the coming morning and ancl he looked through the dim twilight for the flag of his country his heart sick with fear and doubt could be he help the grand outburst of that first verbe verse and then as through the mist of the deep the banner loomed dimly in the morning suns first rays he exclaimed i the atar star spangled banner I 1 oh long lonar may it t wave ave oer the land of the free and the tho home of the bravel brave bravo id it w was a s prayer and praise all in one and th there iid aid has haa never been anything like it bince since have ave you heard franc francia a yke yee keys ys poem said baid one olour of our mess coming in one evening aa as we lay scattered aver the green hill near the captains marquee it was a rude cop copy and written in a scrawl which boraas greeley might have mistaken for his own he read it aloud once twice three times until the entire division seemed electrified nied fied by its pathetic eloquence an idea seized ferd durang hunting up an old volume of flute musie music which was in tent he impatiently whistled snatches of tune after tune just as they caught his quick eye one called anacreon in heaven 1 I 1 have played it often for etwas it was in my book that he found it iq struck his fancy and riveted his attention note after note fell from his puck phek puckered ered 11 lips s until with i a lea iea leap and shout about he ex exclaimed calmed boys ive ri hit bit t it 11 I 1 and nitting fitting the tune to the words there rang out for the first time the ifie song of the star spangled banner how the men shouted and clapped for lie lwe never i lver was was wab there a wedding of poet poetry y to music made under such inspiring influences I 1 gottl Gotti gotting ing fag a brief furlough the brothers bang aang it on the stage of the holiday street theatre soom soon after I 1 it t was caught up in the camps and sang around our bivouac fires tires and whistled whist led in the streets and when peace was declared and we w e scattered to our homes carried to thousands of fire sides as the most moat precious relict of the war of 1812 ferdinand durang darang died I 1 do not know where and frank keys bones lie in the cemetery at Frederick fredericktown town but I 1 guess that song will live as long as there is an american boy to sing it nellie eyster in harpers for auy |