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Show A TENDER WAR SONG. "THE VACANT CHAIR" lit POPULAR POPU-LAR AC-AIN. ralhatle Clrcamatanrea Allen line the Writing of ThU llcatt-Sllrrln War llallail Kartell ot Henry 8. VTuhbnrn. lbs Author. Sf, r B shall meet but W ," Bta' ti'TlKil X vacant chair, ttWe-J-S Jj We shall linger to 1 caresa him Vollikkj When we breathe jj Qj our evening "rfrrh ' ' prajcr ' Ml 1 On the 25th day ' ' of July 1S43, there as born In the beautiful colonial homo ot his parents In Worcester, Mas., John Wlllam (Irout n boy whose thort life endeared him to nil who knew him and whose death In the de-tense de-tense of his country gao rlso to ono of the tenderest and moat beautiful ot alt the melodies of war Noting Clrout grew to manhood a years In the city of Worcester and from the very beginning begin-ning of the war he waa eager to volun tccr but waa kept from doing ao at first by the pleading of hla ptrcnta, who felt that ho was too young to begin such service nnd who felt that the war would be brief Hut aa tho call for troops becomo moro urgent they gavo their consent, nnd when tho Massachusetts Massa-chusetts Fifteenth regiment waa organ-lied organ-lied young (Irout beenmo n member of It and received the commission ot second sec-ond lieutenant of company I), a rare honor for ono eo young to bear Hut he waa well vetaed In military tnctlca and rapablo of filling the position better bet-ter than man far older men could have filled It. and ho waa ono ot the youngest. If not tho youngest, commis sioned officer In tha Union army, not yet having reached hla nineteenth year. Boon after Ita organization young Clrout' regiment wa ordered to Pootsvlllc Md , nnd on the Slat of October, 1801, ho lost his llto at tho conflict of Haifa DIufT. after dlsplnj-Ing dlsplnj-Ing the moat remnrkabto calmness and courago In Becking to repulse the enemy ene-my One writer ha said In hla account ac-count of the conflict "Tho coolness, Bcir-posscaalnn and courage ot Ueul. Clrout were noticed by hla comrades with aatontshment and greatly stimulated stimu-lated tho courago ot others. When tho day wna lost, and they were forced to retreat to tho river, ho seemed to be utterly regardless of himself In his desire de-sire to havo tho wounded conveyed to tho opposite shore. To ht honor let It ever be remembered that he crossed the stream In safety with a boatload of tufforora nnd seeing thorn safely landed, land-ed, returned to render llko nsslitanco to othcrt, and continued to da to until un-til he waa obliged to plunge Into the stream to save hla own life He had reached tho middle of the river whan ho exclaimed to a comrade at hit tide "Tell company D I could have reached the shore, but I am shot and mutt sink," and he disappeared from sight Several week later hla luwlv wna re. covered and placed In Itural cemetery, Worcester, and a splendid monument erected over It Young Orout wut a frequent nnd ever welcome visitor at the home of Henry 8 Washburn, of Worcester and the young soldier nnd Mr Washburn son wen Intimate friends nnd companion When the nowa ot the young lieutenants death reached Worcester It created great sor row In many home and caused Mr Washburn to write "The Vacant Chair" Speaking ot the song, Mr Washburn aaya "My writing of The Vacant Chair' wa entirely unpremeditated unpremed-itated It grew out of tho Interest I took In Clrout aa a promising young officer the Intimate companion of my ton Deploring deeply hit death at the I1 very threshold ot a military career, and knowing that he would be minted so tenderly at the ftreslr'e and table of hla family, on the approaching Thanks 'B"nTOS"rBBBjaiaBtgBj giving day I wrett as If ht had been' my boy, anl because I could not help It Muting upon the milter In a retired re-tired walk a thort dlttance from my residence, I Jotted down the worda aa they came t tee and copying them aa they now sttad with hardly a verbal alteration I gave tho verses to the Worcetter Sey bearing only my Initials, Ini-tials, 'H B. V ' I had no thought ot tho poen attaining the popularity It has enJoyeJ" The poem came to the notlco of the lato deorgt P Root who set It to mu ale, and very soon It was being sing by many etap fire nnd In thousands of homes It would be Impossible to estimate the number of copies of It that hnve been told but aa haa been tha caae with teme other lmmentely popular popu-lar aongt, (hit very large sale brought no pecunliry profit to tho author ot 'The Vactat chair becViao of hit failure to copyright It Indeed he did not receive even the credit due him for writing the song slnro It was published pub-lished ovtr the Initials of hla namt only and when set to mutlc by Mr. rtoot It appeared without Mr Waah-burn's Waah-burn's nmse so that In many hornet In which the tnng war sung nnd loved tht real name of the author Is not known Indeed, In lome Instance Mr Hoot bat received credit for both the muato and tho worda. Mr Waibburn now In hla 55th year. Is a resident of the beautiful Ilrookllnt district ot Ilostnn The plcturo given ot him was taken on the sixtieth anniversary anni-versary ol hla marriage in November last, Mr. Washburn and his wife sitting for their photographs on that day It waa not until three or four yrara ago that Mr 'Wathburn published hit poema In book form IIKNIIY 8 WA81IDUIIN |