Show By ELMO SCOTT WATSON T WAS VAS a Switch Scotch political writer who more than two vo centuries ago said In substance I 1 care not who makes a L nation s laws If It I have the making of Its ballads but It U remained for tor an American to give real significance to tok and misquoted mis mis- that quoted oft-quoted usually quoted saying quoted saying With but few exceptions exceptions p- p k the fame of the the hundreds hundred of our lawmakers lawmaker has scarcely survived their brief moment on the stage of ofors ors 7 but tout the fame of ot Stephen Foster has lured for nearly a century C and seems likely endure ure for centuries to come For or he e was as asman man who ho ho wrote some of a nations nation's B best best- ed d ballads and a new biography of ot him by byo in 10 o Tasker Howard published by the Thomas Crowell Dowell company bears the appropriate title Stephen Foster Americas America's Troubadour the place which Foster and his gs ge n hold In the hearts of his hla countrymen It also ilso appropriate that the birthday of the theIon theion Ion jn should also he be his birthday For he heOS was OS wason on oa July luly 4 4 O IS the fiftieth anniversary of Of ot the Declaration of ot Independence at noon on that day he was ushered Into world world to the tune of ot Hall flail Columbia 01 11 Yant Van Yan t Doodle II Hall flail all to the Chief and The rhE Star tar angled r. r runner Ranner played hy by Murin hands bile hilI cannon with their noisy salutes shook the theand and so heavily that some flom were afraid they uld disturb the delicate te though accustomed ed ration at the White Cottage In Lawrence Lawrence- Ie le Pa PL now a district In the city nf ot Pitts- Pitts rb The e reference to the accustomed operation to the fact that the new member of the Foster FORter mily was the the ninth child born to William n. n d ElIza Ellia Foster and had Stephen been the thet st st. t t. t rather than the ninth child his wife had me Mm him William B. B Foster Fostr might not have hn haveIt havet It t u as free to absent himself lf fro from his hili home at oft ion on that of July But that does doell not mean that such events were too com com- to keep William Foster at the side of oft i t wife For he was a prosperous merchant id d trader a leading citizen of the community i the banks of the Allegheny river and on that occasion an assistant to the mayor Pittsburgh In the conduct of the Independence ay y celebration a a good reason for his absence om the White Cottage A part of the celebration was an excellent noer naw at which 13 toasts In honor of the Thir en s a Original States were wre given and William oster osier came second as as first vice president of ofie ie e day following the mayor who drank to The sited States Statu of America Foster toasted The impendence dependence d of the United States' States ached ac Ired hed by the blood and val valour our of our venerable genitors To us ns they bequeathed the dear dar ought Inheritance to our care and protection tj el e consigned It 11 and the most sacred obliga out us are ire upon us to transmit the glorious pur pur- hue unfettered by power to our Innocent and loved toyed offspring Was he thinking o of his hili latest whose coming by this time he must w re known known Cader the circumstances the newcomer In the theaster theoster aster oster household perhaps should have been given tube hame In keeping with the Importance e of that l ay 41 7 for It was one of the roost moat significant Inde- Inde days In our history In that it saw the eath of two former Presidents Thomas Presidents Thomas Jeffera Jeffer- Jeffer n u and John Adams A month later a relative to the little boys boy's older sister Charlotte osier oster asked now How does the little Hero or I prophecy he will be one being born on sot BOI so BO t I and eventful a day You certainly ought o 9 call can him Jefferson or Adams and no other Me e. e But his mother thought otherwise other other- wise 1st lae She named him Stephen Collins for tor the thea theion ion a of ot a neighbor and childhood friend of hers bers i little bo boy who had died Just before her son MI u as born The Tie youngest member eo of a large family Steben Ste Ste- hen ben was wai both petted and spoiled but he seems ever w to have ha been very well understood by the her raer Fosters Ills His aptitude for music came Into early When he be was two he would lace MM his sisters sister's guitar on the floor and bending w rev It tt pick out harmonies from Its strings fm en ea he was seven he was taken into a music pro are b by one of his brothers There he saw a picked It up and was wall playing a tune pP pea poa n It U before his brother realized what he was wasI doing e eAt I it At the age of thirteen Stephen was taken by ds J Older brother William to Towanda Pa so L. L b be e could attend Athens academy at Tioga Point not lOt far w away ay But nut the boy lioy was homesick at and spent much of his time with his hist brother at t Towanda attending the Towanda laden as well HII as II the one at Tioga Point He rue u not a particularly apt student and about tte only Importance there Is to this period in n his JJ r Is a that durIn during this time he be composed his I lone r music The Tioga Waltz arranged for flutes an and 1 written for the commencement Jr es at Athens upon which occasion Ste Ste- eth phea other the D Played the leading part himself while three In Ia br ISU 1841 students S played the remaining parts II et t C p. p StePhen entered Jefferson college I Kt Canonsburg t Pa ra- 18 m miles es from his hili home at u gh and stayed In this institution Just justh h leTea let ft days aj aa Then overcome overcome by homesickness college never again to seek Beek a formal caU t o lor H hi A year later he ne composed the music Poem i J rat 1 8 song ng Open Love teem Thy Lattice a Doe eared i n by y Geor George e P. P Morris which had hadn hadIt It n a n supplement to the New Mirror Ite Rea issued l aa as a two-page two song long without title with this Is heading on the first page paie OPE OPEN TIDY THY LATTICE LOVE Composed for and dedicated to Miss Susan SUlan E E. E Pentland Of Ot Pittsburgh by L. L o. o Foster Fosternes Lines nes from the from the New ew Mirror l laher Sa or fl faU failed hI bla ed bl biographer r Tour Poor r Stephen the pub- pub to print his name correctly on his hili t nit nit t of I K It was prophetic of the f es that were to be hu his huIt M bl hia s JU career 1 It Ifa Rea ring r ng thIs period that the first ce negro ro e tad sad ru VIS san to aPP appear ar on the American bar i s of W Pittsburgh seems to have nave enjoyed Ita its urea nt t them em Foster found the songs Dongs of ot the a act the tt ahn hows vs crude vulgar Ditties that Popular fancy but which 7 EPHEN Ft FOSTER STER ii RIVER a X 1 lt Q t. t w. j j wf mUrL- mUrL n s r t f At t 1 f. f 1 S r 1 5 o. o I IJ 1 j oj f t t li I 1 l i w 1 jM J Pt j r 7 w A T 01 o L 01 r l T f if fo t 1 r fH f- f ki H r r-I r f f f V t t r j. j I f ICa r. r 1 t x r t MEMORIAL TO 1 I i ft xyr L 1 j h- h t 11 C O JI i 1 k e FOSTER Sia Si- Si v. v a 1 i t t i s i PITTS PITT BURG r J. J a rs 1 av xue 1 t h t r f. f III IIIi f tN st I d tL t kiJ X f N FIRST PAGES S IN oe DE COLD COLDS COLD GROUND GROUNDless UNDu less were lyrics and songs Bongs that In spite of ot their vulgarity actually represented something definitely definitely dell dell- American Stephen made of this class of ot music a literature that Is well worth preserving he be he bro brought artistry and sincerity to a medium that before his entry had reeked of the alley and the barroom The gayest of ot them all Is O 0 Susanna I I written written written writ writ- ten when Stephen was a blithe young blade of or nineteen lie He had a half dozen boon companions youths of his own age who met regularly twice a week to sing at Stephens Stephen's home They Ther brought their banjos and guitars with them and called themselves Knights of the Square Table It was for this group that Stephen wrote many of his finest and earliest songs Including Louisiana Louisi ana Belle Uncle Ned and O 0 Susanna I I 1 The latter was Immediately taken up by all the minstrel min rain sho shows vs of which t there ere were a great number then on the road It also became the marching song and the campfire song song of the Forty on their way to the fields of California For 0 0 Susanna I 1 Foster received an event which determined his bis career for tor him Imagine my delight In receiving In cash I Ibe he be wrote later Though this song long was not successful successful successful suc suc- yet the two 50 bills I received for It had the effect of starting me Die on my present vocation Of all the popular songs that had bad their birth birthon on American soil In Fosters Foster's time his were the only ones that lived The others were sung for fora a year or or two and forgotten Curiously enough Stephen Imagined that his songs would be forgotten for for- 9 gotten as quickly as 8 the others It never seemed to occur to him that they might have hae the seeds of Immortality In them Proof of this was to be found in his willingness after receiving 1600 1000 In royalties for one of his songs In six years to sell the copyright for tor In the belief that Its day was nearly spent and It would not be likely to bring In more than that So he presented O 0 Susanna I 1 and Old Uncle Ned to W W. C a c. Peters a friend of the family who was In the music publishing business and wh who proceeded to tomake tomake tomake make out of them Fosters Foster's Indifference to what became of his songs led to their being copyrighted by other persons Even In the case of Old Folks at Home a song which became world-famous world and which Mr Howard believes has bas been ben printed more often than either Home Sweet Home or Annie Laurie Laurl he authorized for a small consideration consideration con the publication under the name of E B. B P. P Christy who headed the Christy minstrels Morrison Foster has related how his brother came to him with a letter from I B. B P. P Christy asking the composer to write a song for him to sing before It was published Morrison told Stephen not to do It unless Christy paid him A form of agreement was drawn up and the paper was sent to Christy Afterward when the song had become Lecome closely associated with Christy's name and had been copyrighted with his name as author and composer composer com con poser Stephen wrote to Christy to permit him to claim It as his own He Ile wrote humbly On receipt of your free consent to this proposition I will If you wish willingly refund you the money which you paid me on that song though It may have been sent me for other considerations considerations' than the one In question and I promise In addition to write you an opening chorus In my best style free of charge and In any other way to advance your Interests hereafter I find I cannot write at all unless I write for public approbation approbation ap ap- probation and get credit for what I write Although Stephen Stephens had bad told Christy that he could accomplish little so long as Old Folks at Home stared him in the face with another mans man's name on it and and although he expressed the hope that the singer would appreciate an authors author's feelings In the case there Is no record of a reply from Christy and it was a long long longtime longtime longtime time before Fosters Foster's name Dame appeared on the song Bong Althou Although h Morrison Foster said Stephen received for the song be confessed to a friend In New York that he be got rot from 10 to 15 U for his bis songs from Christy but that he received two cents a copy for the copies coples of the first edition which was soon exhausted Adelina PattI and Christine helped to make the song popular by singing it In their concerts The story has often been told told of how bow the Suwannee river a small stream la in Florida which Stephen never SAW or even knew of of came to I ti 1 1 1 1 to t 1 I Ij f. f ot I j k i l Jf to i J I 1 jo l t a J r t f J i tt j ta t J I tOI fr f 1 tr V f Tl ll slat neal f iY rj r j M i 1 J It 1 ORIGINAL COVER COVER DESIGN OF A 1 POPULAR FOSTER TER SONG All photographs photograph from Howards Howard's Stephen Stephn Fo Fo Fe ter Americas America's Troubadour courtesy Thoma Thomas Y V Crowell company 4 J be Immortalized in the Old Folks at Home Dome His Hla brother Morrison Foster told it first In his hll biography of Stephen that Stephen that the composer wanted wanted the name of or some southern river two syllables In length rejecting both Pedee Perlee and Yazoo which I Morrison suggested Then the latter took down downan an atlas and Suwannee was found It exactly the brother as saying and continues lie He left the office as II was his custom abruptly without saying another word I and I resumed I my work Although Mr Howard admits the ring of au an- he doubts the exactness of the account of the Incident as 81 here set down We know from Stephens Stephen's workbook he says that Pedee Pede was probably not Morrisons Morrison's suggestion but rather Stephens Stephen's first idea one one with which he was dissatisfied The decade 1850 1550 to 1800 1860 was to be Stephen Fosters Foster's In 1850 he was married to Jane McDowell In 1852 2 he wrote Massas In the I Cold Cold Ground began efforts to have himself him self sell acknowledged as the rightful author of Old Folks at Home and with his wife took took that memorable steamboat trip to New Orleans the rich fruit of which was to be the song My Old Kentucky Home copyrighted In 1853 1553 W What at claim the state of Kentucky may have upon this song Mr Howard discusses at length Stephen I had cousins living In the beautiful mansion n I known as 88 Federal Hall In Bardstown and that be he visited them there Is certain Beyond that Howard Is not willing to go The house was recently recently re re- Gently purchased by the state and made a Foster Foster Fos Fos- ter shrine However although he was to write literally hundreds more of songs this marvelous piece with Its haunting good night line was wal never to be surpassed by Stephen Fosters Foster's newest biographer treats the subject of his marriage cautiously declaring that Jane doubtless put up with a great deal of nonsense and that It would have required a saint to become become be be- I come the perfect wife for Stephen Stphen Foster But Dut It seems that Jane had some irritating ways su such h as talking during concerts which must have bave I been exasperating Indeed to her sensitive hus bus band Mr Howard thinks It probable that she nagged him They bad had a child Marlon Marion but the dreamy Stephen may not hue have been very good goodat at family life Ute His JIls efficient wife subsequently learned to make her own living as a telegrapher They lived for a few years with Stephens Stephen's family In Pittsburgh then moved to New York where the composer yielded m more more re and more mor to strong drink Jane left him only because she had to earn her living and when he be died she he and Morrison hastened to New York together Stephen Collins Foster died on January 13 1804 1864 still a young man man and and be he died almost unrecognized a patient In a charity hospital Bellevue in New York City In ID the pocket of his bis clothes they found a small purse containing Just 33 88 cents and a slip of paper with five penciled words on It They were Dear friends and gentle hearts No doubt this was to have been the title of an unwritten song but whatever Its intent the phrase describes quite perfectly the dear friend and gentle heart beart who added Old Folks at Home and a dozen other immortal son songs to the worlds world's spiritual riches Thus the end of the sad lAd sa saga a of Americas Troubadour O C br bJ N p pr r Union |