| Show RE waa ak MIEP icae 1 1 1 4 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON T WAS a scotch political writer who TT more than two centuries ago said in u substance 1 I care not v ho makes a j nations laws lans if I 1 have the making of its ballads but it remained for an american to give real significance to that oft quoted and usually misquoted saying with but few exceptions the fanie fame of the hundreds of our lav lawmakers mikers has scarcely their brief moment on the stage of history but tile the fame of stephen foster has endured for nearly a century and seems likely to endure for centuries to come for he was the man who wrote some 0 of f n nations be best S loved ballads and a new biography of him by john tasker howard honard published by the thou Y crowell company bears the appropriate title of stephen foster americas troubadour considering tile the place which mitch foster and his songs hold in the hearts of his countrymen it Is also appropriate that the birthday of tile the nation should also he his birthday for ile was born on july 4 IS 26 the fiftieth anniversary of 0 the signing of the declaration of antl independence rice and at noon on that day lav lie he was ushered into the world to the tune of hall yankee doodle nail hall to the chier and the star spangled banner li anner placed hy by blaring hands while cannon with ith their noisy salutes the he ground so heavily that some rome were afraid they would disturb the delicate though accustomed operation at the white cottage in tille pa now a district in the city of pittsburgh the reference ence to the accustomed operation Is to the fact that the new member of the foster family was the ninth child horn born to william B and r ellza ilza foster and had stephen been the first rather than the ninth child his wife had borne him william B foster might not have felt as free to absent himself from his home at noon on that ath of july but that does not necessarily mean that such events were too commonplace moD mon place to keep william foster at the side of his wife for he was a prosperous merchant and trader a leading citizen of the community on the banks of the he allegheny river and on t that hat particular occasion an assistant to the mayor major of pittsburgh in the conduct of the independence day celebration a good reason for his absence from the white cottage A part of the celebration was an axce excellent ilent dinner at which 13 toasts in honor of the thirteen original states were given and william foster came second as first vice president of the day following the mayor who drank to the united states of america foster toasted the independence of the united states acquired by the blood and valour of our venerable progenitors to us they bequeathed the dear bought inheritance to our care and protection they consigned it and the most sacred obal obligations a are upon us to transmit the glorious purchase unfettered by power to our innocent and beloved offspring was lie he thinking of his latest offspring of whose coming by this time he must have known under the circumstances the newcomer in the foster household perhaps should have been given a name in keeping with nith the importance of that day tor for it was one of the most significant independence pen dence days in our history to in that it saw the death of two former presidents thomas jefferson and jolin john adams A month later a relative writing to the little boys older sister charlotte charlott foster asked now how does the little hero for I 1 prophecy he will be one being born on so great and eventful a day you certainly ought to call him jefferson or adams and no other name cut but his mother thought otherwise she named him stephen collins tor for the son eon of a neighbor and childhood friend of hers a little boy who ho had died just before her son SOD was born the youngest member of a large family stephen was both petted and spoiled but he seems never to have been very well understood by the other fosters his aptitude for music came into evidence early when he was two he would place his sisters guitar on the floor and bending over it pick out harmonies from its strings when he was seven he was taken into a music store by one of his brothers there he saw a flageolet picked it up and was wag playing a tune upon it before tits his brother realized what he be was doing at the age of thirteen stephen was taken by his older brother william to towanda pa so he could attend athens academy at eloga point not far away but the boy was homesick at athens and spent much of his time with his brother at towanda attending the towanda academy as well as the one at eloga point ile ce was not a particularly apt student and about the only importance there Is to this period in his career Is that during this time he be composed his first music the eloga waltz arranged for or four lutes flutes and ritten britten for the commencement exercises at athens upon which occasion stephen played the leading part himself while three other students played the remaining parts in 1811 1841 18 11 stephen entered jefferson college at canonsburg Canons burg pa 18 miles from his home at pittsburgh and stayed in this institution just seven days then overcome by homesickness he be left col college lere never again to seek a formal education A year later he composed the music for his first song open thy lattice love a poem written by george P morris which had bad appeared in a supplement to the new mirror it was issued as a a two page song without title page with this athla heading on the first page OPEN THY LATTICE LOVE composed for and dedicated to miss susan E pentland of pittsburgh by L a roster foster lines from the new mirror says his biographer poor stephen the publisher failed to print his name correctly on his bis very first perhaps it was prophetic of the long list of misfortunes that were to be hla his throughout Us his career it was during this period that the first negro minstrel shows began to appear on the american scone and pittsburgh seems beema to have bare enjoyed lit its share bhare of them roster foster found the songs of the current minstrel shows chows crude vulgar ditties that struck the popular fancy but which nevert no be 1 ay iy ahr N COLLINS FOSTER 0 WANNEE rl E 6 za MT V W M I 1 A A 9 y r ay 4 V 0 PI MEMORIAL T 0 0 stepi IF ti Q FOSTER T I 1 A FIRST paged or I 1 N D I 1 al VY COLE COLD GROUND V less were lyrics and songs that in spite of their vulgarity arity actually represented something bitely american stephen made ot of this class of music a literature that Is well worth preserving he brought artistry and sincerity to a medium that before his entry had reeked of the alley and the barroom the gayest of them all Is 0 susanna I 1 written when stephen was a blithe young blade of nineteen ile he had a half dozen boon companions youths of tits his own age who met regularly twice a week to sing at stephens home they 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 belle uncle ned and 0 Sus susanna annal 1 the latter was immediately taken up by all the minstrel shows of which there were a great number then on the road it also became the marching song and the campi campiere campf lre song of the forty biners on their way to the gold fields of california for 0 susanna foster received an event which determined his career for him imagine my delight in receiving in cash I 1 he wrote later though this song was not successful cess ful bet et the two 50 30 bills I 1 received tor for it had bad the effect of starting me on my present vocation of all the popular songs that had their birth on american soil in fosters time his were the only ones that lived the others were sung for a year or two and forgotten curiously enough stephen imagined that his songs would be forgotten as quickly as the others it never seemed to occur to him that they might ba hae bae e the seeds of immortality in them proof of this was to be found in his willingness after receiving 1000 in royalties for one of his songs in six years to sell the copyright for in the belief that its day was nearly spent and it would not be likely to bring in more than that so he presented 0 Sus susanna annal 1 ond and old uncle ned to W C peters a friend of tile the family who was in the music publishing business and who proceeded to make out of them fosters 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 and which mr howard believes has been printed more often than either home sweet home or annie lau baurle ale he authorized for a small consideration the publication under the name of E P christy who headed the christy minstrels morrison Morr lson foster has related how tits his brother come came to him with a letter from B E P christy asking the composer to write a song for him to sing before it was published morrison orrison SI 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 nhen the song had become closely associated alth with christas Chri name and had been copyrighted with its his name as author and composer stephen wrote to christy to permit him to claim it as his own he wrote humbly on receipt of your free consent to tills this proposition I 1 will if you with wish willingly refund you the money which you paid nie me on that song though it may have been sent me for other considerations than the one in question and I 1 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 1 find I 1 cannot write at nil all unless I 1 write tor for public approbation and get credit for or what I 1 write although stephen had told christy that he could accomplish little so long lone as old folks at home stared him in the face with another mans name on it and although he expressed the hope that the tha singer would appreciate an authors feelings in the case there Is a no record of a reply from christy and it was a long long time before posters fosters name appeared on the song although morrison Morr lson foster said stephen received for the song be confessed to a friend in new york that he got from 10 to 15 for his songs from christy but that he received two cents a copy for the copies of the first edition which was soon exhausted adelena patti and christine nilsson helped to make the song popular by singing it in their concerts the story has often been told of how the suwannee river a small stream in florida which stephen never saw BOW or even knew of came to e 4 yf t 10 p A t 4 t e III ORIGINAL COVER DESIGN 01 OF A POPULAR FOSTER SONG all photographs from howards stephen fos FOB ter americas troubadour courtesy thorna thomas Y crowell company be immortalized in the old folks folka at home his brother morrison Morr lson roster foster told it first in his biography of stephen that the composer wanted the name of some southern river two syllables in length rejecting both pedee and yazoo which morrison Morr lson suggested then the latter took down an atlas and suwannee was found it exactly the brother reports stephen as saying and continues ue ile left the office as was big custom abruptly without saying another word and I 1 resumed my work although mr howard admits the ring of authenticity he doubts the exactness of the account of the incident as here set down we know from stephens workbook he says that pedee was probably not morrisons Morri sons suggestion but rather stephens first idea one with which he was dissatisfied the decade 1850 to was nas to be stephen fosters headey in 1830 1850 he was married to jane mcdowell in 1852 1832 he ha wrote massas Mas sag in the cold cold ground began efforts to have himself acknowledged as the rightful author ot of old folks at home and with his wife took that memorable steamboat trip to new orleans the rich fruit of which was to be the song my old kentucky home copyrighted in 1833 what claim the state of kentucky may have upon this song mr air howard discusses at length stephen had cousins living in the beautiful mansion known as federal hall in bardstown Bards town and that ho he visited them there Is certain beyond that howard honnard Is not willing to go the house was recently purchased by the state and made a foster shrine however although lie be was to write literally hundreds more of songs this marvelous marve piece with its haunting goodnight good night line was never to be surpassed by stephen fosters newest biographer treats the subject of his marriage cautiously declaring that jane doubtless put up with a great deal of nonsense non sensa and that it would have required a saint to become the perfect wife for stephen foster but it seems that jane had some irritating ways such as talking during concerts which must have been exasperating indeed to her sensitive husband mr air howard thinks it probable that she nagged him they had a child marlon marion but the dreamy stephen may not have hare been very good at family life his efficient wife subsequently learned to make her own living as a telegrapher they lived for a few years with stephens stephen family in pittsburgh then moved to new york where the composer yielded more and more to strong drink jane left him only because she aha had bad to earn her living and when he be died the she and morrison Morr lson hastened to new york together stephen colllns collins poster foster died on january 13 1864 still a young mau man and he died almost unrecognized a patient in a charity hospital bellevue in new york city in the pocket of hla his clothes they found a small purse containing just 38 cents and a slip of paper with five penciled words on it they were dear friends and gentle hearts no doubt this was to hae bae been the title or of an unwritten song but whatever its intent the phrase describes quite perfectly the dear friend and gentle heart who added old folks at home and a dozen other immortal songs to the worlds world spiritual riches thus the end of the sad saga of americas Amerl caa troubadour 0 by union |
