| Show hoiris jacj i 1 4 1 f i i i 1 1 I F H f I 1 p pit en 46 for tj sn john U fl awara j nj ma ayna lanew J immortal Immor lal LI am c liu aw lot ar of pill bif I 1 i by JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN HIS year la Is the centenary of tile tho first singing of john howard paynes Payne fl T nome home sweet home the engl english ish speaking na WM bious are observing tho the anniversary by singing the song in concerts much of tho the rest of the world Is doing theo the same thing for a century the poets have assured us ua that the words are not great for a century conjury tho the musicians have assured us that tho the music Is not great both they the poets and tho the musicians may be right nut but little the world cares during that century these mine words and music have hao become A folk song of the world no other song ever written can be sung by so many people without tho the old aid of printed words and music I 1 have heard Ge foerster rister sing stephen CL a fosters old folks at 1101 home not and seen a northern audience thrill in response to this negro song of the old south I 1 have heard christine nilsson sing AnnieLa annie baurle La urle urte that lovesong love song which belongs not so BO mu much eh to scotland as to all the world I 1 have heard emma nevada sing francis scott keys heys tho the star spangled banner bacher as I 1 am a ninth generation american my feelings may be linage imag i laed iq ed and I 1 have heard adelina patti sing home sweet homec whereat I 1 wept openly and was neither ashamed nor alone in my tears teare the poets and musicians of the next century probably will tell posterity that neither the words cords nor music of home sweet home are great but th the song Is great and it will live and bo be sung as long as aa there are homes aad men wander and homesickness ness 14 grips tho the wand wanderers erom there used to be a story that home sweet home was written by payne on a tattered envelope in a 11 driving rain under a lamp post when he was a ragged and hungry tramp in a foreign land all wrong listen to payne himself 1 11 I first heard the air in italy ong one beautiful morr morning ilni as I 1 was strolling alone amid some delightful scenery my attention was arrested by the sweet voice of a peasant girl U who ho was carrying in 9 a basket laden with flowers and vegetables this plaintive air she trilled with so much sweetness and simplicity that the melody at once caught my fancy I 1 accosted accost edher her and after a few moments conversation I 1 asked her for the name of the song I 1 which she could not give me but having some slight knowledge of must music myself barely enough for the I 1 purpose apse I 1 requested tier her to repeat tile the air which i she did while I 1 jotted down the notes as best I 1 could it was this air that suggested the wor words ds of homo sweet home both of which I 1 sent to bish bishop op at the time I 1 was preparing tho the opera bishop shop happened to know the air yve well and adapted the music to the words payne at the time to which he be ye refers was in parts paris and in comfortable circumstances working on hla his opera clarl ciari the maid hald of milan for which his old friend sir henry bishop the composer wrote the music it Is probable that home sweet homo flome was first sung may 8 1823 it Is believed that miss M tree was the singer the opera wis was produced at ai the covent garden theater london it vik was a distinct success more than copies of the songie song were re sold in the first year tha profit however x V all aa went to the publishers payne had sold the tho opera outright with ith several plays for pounds probably he got adt 80 60 pounds for or home sweet homel home the Tho song we was waa later to the forin in which we know it here to la its orl original kinal form 1 4 mid pleasured pleas plea Urea stires and palaces though we may roam 0 do bo it ever so bumble theres no place like home A charm char from the 1 akles I a a seems seams to hallow us othere a lk i u k uke like the love ofa mother surpassing all other which seek through the world la is neer met with elsewhere theres a spell in the shade where our infancy played even stronger than time and A mors more deep than ahan despair despi kir 1 A an AA exile from home splendor danlea in vain oh give in memy my lowly thatched cottage again the birds and the that came at rny call those who nit named med ma rath pride hosa b baroy amy side etva me them with the innocence dearer than all the joys joy a of the PL palaces laces through which I 1 roam only swell my he hearts rt 4 anguish theres no place like home 6 e at the union college where payne was waa a student for two iwo years there la is quite an elaborate memorial lal to him in the library Is a collection or of payne memorabilia books and pictures including the manuscript of a poem written in college days dayi it contains the germ of 0 the gre great a I 1 s song 0 ng written sixteen years later afif a d drelen land here Is one of the boyhood i poems 1 averse verses s I 1 where bums the loyd lovd he hearth arth brightest teat sheering the social breast where beata beaW the art its humble hopps poss esad where ische is the of qt of meek eyed patience i e born worth more than those a ot gladness which births Mirt hs bright che cheeks Leks adorn t I 1 baure ca ure Is marked by fleet fleetness nesa to those who ever roarn i while grief itself has ar letness sweetness at homel diar dear Hornet 1 y aayne ayne was not an exile from home except t arf an fn t the sense sense that ile he was waa a born bom landerer yan derer he never married an early love affair with a boston belle was broken 0 off ff by pa rental 1 interference he was once in loye love with the 06 widow of the po et shelley alb he was vory far fron from being a shiftless blid of passage and a derl derelict lct on the contrary he was courted and feted during much of his life and ws was the companion and friend of the great john howard payne was born in newyork New York june june D 1701 1791 1 n h A a house toh formerly standing at no 33 pearl street tret fi he was tile the son of william payne of an old massachusetts faro fana lly fly and sarah isaacs of hast hamp tone ton L L daughter of a jew from hamburg paynes father was principal of a school founded at east eak hampton by gov do de witt clinton later the family moved to new york and still later to boston tell john howard wha waa the sixth of nine children nia his writing bent was waa unmistakable irom from tho the first in boston when he be was only twelve years old he wu was editing a weekly paper for children which he called the fly william payne taught his son elocution and was horrified when the boy wanted to go on the stage john wits was sent off forthwith to a new york counting house here he surreptitiously edited a weekly paper the thespian mirror william coleman editor of the new york evening post chanced upon the precocious boy and made arrangements for hird him to go to union college there he started a weekly paper the Pasti pastime mv which was popular among the students the bankruptcy of his father took payne from college to the stage he ha made his debut february 24 1809 at the old park theater now new york as young norval in douglas with an instant and unqualified success after phenomenally successful appearances in boston and baltimore he quarreled with his manager managed and in 1813 at the age of twenty two he sailed for england the first american actor to in vade the british stage 1 in Iii london he ha made warm friends among the literary celebrities of the day his stage work in twenty two parts pais drew clovd crowded ed houses and splendid applause then he broke aroki away from acting to adapt and write plays his best play 1113 brutus rutus was produced in 1818 it has bus been played by all the great act ors since in all he be produced more than fifty plays finally fin an unlucky attempt to manage a theater landed hird him a debtor in fleet prison arlson he pawned his shirt for food and hurried through a translation and adaptation with a success that quickly gained his bis freedom in 1832 paynes health failed and he be came back to america penniless but it was a return n to home sweet home the public 4 made much of him and benefit per for firmance forman mance cea ma do de him whole financially then characteristically payne OhLan titan boned the stage and all i its ts borlis literary work was his ma maln t n in interest te r es t in 1842 he was appointed consul co s 6 1 a at t tunis there he died of fever in 1853 and was buried the lar laet home sweet swee t home of john how howard ard payne Is in the 0 old id oak hill cemetery georgetown D 0 where hla his were interred in 1883 wit with pomp adeee and ceremony by president arthur and dignitaries of the united states ettes government |
