The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 30, 1906, Page 10

(19 WILL & JOMN DOWN ? HE slespy little village of Bas hampton, Long Island. is at pres- convulsed by an agitation which has made itself felt In varying degrees of force throughout the entire cou This egitetion has been aroused by recent plan to tear down the old ge talized by John Howarl Payne in his world-famous song In or- der to 2dd to the butlding room of the Episcopal C The 1 ent ch ouse has become sur- rounded with sentiment for the resi- dents of the village and thé summer visitors, and the thought ing ®o precious an old srousing much discussion out of East Hampton “Home, Sweet Home,” the most pop- asier song ever written at any time or in any language, needs » word of comment But the life of its gifted author is far too little known. o can tell the circumstances under h it was written? And how many ar with the strange, jed career of John of demolish- landmark is both in and here wright, critic, actor, c & man with a gift for things military and things dra- matic; & wit, & student, a friend of Gllen races as well as of all the dis- stinguished men of his day; & partisen of In@lans, & comrade of neutral Princes, a companion of great actors &nd writers of all lands, a traveler, a worker, a dreamer and the tenderest, Xin soul that ever was loved In iife or mourned in death; there are few men cut on his pattern—the pattern of gey, gentle, handsome, gifted Howard Payne. On February 24, 1808, when he was 15, he went on the stage, making his firet appearance as young Norval at the Park Theater. He played for some time in America, being knowe by a title he had geined during his early critical work, “The American Juvenile Wonder,” and then went to London, where he acted with Miss O'Neill and otfier well-known players end did some brillignt work He not only hed a rare gift in this @irection, but he had in his youth ex- traordinary beauty of & vivid mebile character, and he possessed as well the personelity and fire that go with the swenuine poetic temperament. Although fhe 4id brilliant work upon stage. it was in bis play-writing that his chief diplomatist, & Mistinction was gained during his itwenty years in London. Some of his \plays reached fine drematic heights, jand & few of th remain celebrated fto this day. Notable among them all is “Brutus, or the Fali of Tarquin™ f#n which Bdmund Kesn, Edwin For- ‘rest and many other eminent actors jmade grest successes. “Charles II, or the Merry Monarch,” was a great fa- worite with Charles Kemble, “Therese, or the Orphan of Geneva,” had a long popularity and “Clair, the Maid of Mi- Han” (originally known as “Angloletta”) was renowned for two reasons, both use Mme. Tree, Ellen Tree's sister, e a great hit in it and because Payne incorporated in It his great so: “Home, Sweet Home.” The words sprang inte Payne's hilhd but the melody was d to him by a Sicilian r Henry Bishop, the com- poser of all the music of “Clalr,” made use of. P e's own story of finding this melody is as follows: “I first heard the air in Italy. One beautiful morning as I w stroliing ulone mid some 4 ttul scenery my fttention was arrested by .the sweet roice of a peasant girl who was car- rying a basket laden with flowers and This h vegetables. trilied out w plaintive air she 50 much eweetne: end simplicity that the melody at on: caught my fancy. I accosted her, and efter & few moments' conversation I asked for the name of the song, which she could not give me. But ing a slight knowledge of music myself, I re- quested her to repeat the air, which she did, while I jotted down the notes ee best 1 could. It was this air that ‘Home, Sweet suggested the chords of Home," both of which I sent to Bishop it the u-olwnmlm.:m of ‘Clair’ for Mr. Bishop hap- pened to know the air perfectly well end sdapted the music to the words.” The success of this song is known in every pation. It has had a more uni- versal circulation then any other in the world. In less than a year after it appeared the London publishers sold more than 100,000 copies. Nevertheless $t'4s a curious fact that Payne never was given credit for it mor a royalty upon it. He never even received a pre- sentation copy of the song. In 1842 he was appointed Consul to Tunis, end the same year was made colonel on the staff of Major General Amron Ward of the Fourth division of infantry of the militia of the State of e New York. In February of the follow- ing year he left for Africe. His career in Tunis was as uniqu the rest of his life. He became the I timate and personal friesd of Ahmed Pasha Bey, the King of Tunls, and was adored by the natives of the city. He was recalled in 1845, but return- ed to Africa in 1851. And when they told the Bey that he had reached Tu- nis he “cried out joyfully and sald ‘Let him be made welcome!"” Flags were hung from every window, and the people filled the streets with fes- tivities in his homer. And there in Tunis he died, cared for by a Greek priest, two French Sis- ters of Mercy and some native Moors who loved him. Tunis wept when his eves closed at last, and the Bey inconsolable. % He was buried in a plot of ground overlooking the purple water and the splendid ruins of old Carthage. Our Government erected there a marble siab bearing Chilton's lines: “Sure when thy gentle spirit fled To realms beyond the asure doms, With arms outstretched, God's angels sald: ‘Welcogie to Heaven's “Home, Sweet Home.” ' " Gabriel Harrison says of the poet in connection with the Easth: tage, of which he often sp 3 “One whe has studied the charaeter of John Howard Payne cannot fail to discover in his picture of the old home- stead a deep, unsubsiding love for the old place, as If the spirit of his boy- mpton cot- e hood had come back to awaken mem- ories of a delightful past; indeed, it was here where his earliest inspira- tions were winged, where his eyes were first opened to the beauties of the world, where he first took breath of the broad green flelds; where the waves of tihe sea shore, as they broke their white crests at his young feet, whispered (0o him strange stories of the deep: where he first tried to count HE SILLIES" is & disesse which is most rampant dur- ing the fall and winter months, though an athlete 3 may be afffcted with it at sy time, And the remarkable thing about “the sillies” fu the fact that it has actually aided athletes who are mentslly sub- Ject to 1t to win contests they other- wise might have loat. It you're & college professor addicted to sthletics, 1t you are & lawyer with a fondness for boxing, s post with merely a wisp of hair to protect you from the rude rush of an opposition football lineup, you are almost im- mune from “the cillles. Whyt e 3t the stars, and where, each early morn- ing as he awoke, hope painted new pictures of his imagined future. In- deed, if he was thinking of any one place on earth when he wrote his song of ‘Home, Sweet Home,' it was of ‘the lowly cottage' at Easthampton.” Well, the lowly cottage is shortly to be no more—“Home, Sweet Home,” is Lake i Chrvch., Slwing Cotfage Adjoining to be razed to the ground. At least that is the proposition made by the Episcopal church board in the little village. Tt seems to be a battle royal at any rate, it has the makings of on: the present situation in the guiet Ii tle country town. On one side ai ranged protestors, composed of the greater part of the resident villagers; WO TE HEAWY professors, center of the brain is so well devel- and posts—at least those who - incapable of @& blow or fall o by & force sufficient P; put your entire brain out then you can have any time you miz a8 to the continued to defend the title slways bave AAMED J mm%_mm THEEVES AND 1\ [4 2 w ter he had been nfiM was plainly . from an at ot “the sil- the Corbett fampersment, h 3&::32?:-; daian't on the other hand stands the church board, consisting of the Rev. Oscar Treder, rector of 8t. Luka's, and his v‘::trr‘ :'M this Is the polat on which r $ uke’s Church stands on the lot adjoining that holding “Home, Sweet Home.” It istheonly {scopal church in the place and 18 by no means large A Corper of Ehe Tangdled Garden . enough to .flll t:a needs of m.b nrl‘th. especially in the summer, when . place {8 packed with visitors. As in moat amall towns, the reator is obliged al ends meet in a very e_and inconvenient man- ner. His church—toe small for his needs, is In one place; his parish house, w inadequate, is In another, 2 his rectory is in a third. ”m‘lnr a long time Mr. Treder has of an enlarged and improved church, with & reotory and parish house next door to it—an arrangement which would make his duties mueh rlunm.r to himaself and more satis- actory to his parishieners, For three years he has been working hard rals- ing the money to buy the land adioin- ing the church plat. At last he haa succeeded. The long wished for ground has been purchased—'Home, Bwest Home," is the property of the church. It was bought from Samus! Muylford, whose family has lived thera,for a good many years. The land is com- posed of three acres, the two back lots being utterly valueless, and the price pald was $15,000. But the thought that “Home, Sweet Home,” may be destroyed is arousing indignation on-all sides, Mr. Treder is besat with protests. The local paper, the Star, is flooded with letters gesting every sort of use te which to put the cottage; in fact, Basthampton is convulsed. Mrs. Donald, an artist House Wik Its who frequents the village s aaxious te have the cottage turned Mato a museum and petained as a national jandmark. So !s Miss Sands, aad se are Mr. and Mrs. Butler. Samuel Skidmore suggesta that the house be remodelad and Itself Dde turned Into a rectory for Mr. Treder. A man In Water Mill wants it moved down the high read to his grounds as & curiesity. The aditer of a boys' maga- sine in the West is anxious te have his young readers support it as & his- torical museum. Everybody has a dif- ferent plan to effer, but no one seems to be forthcoming with another $15,000 such as Mr., Treder has been ralsing with se much difficulty during the last three years. One of the mest ardent protestors is Albert Lang. He has ‘written several very able subjeet and Is perhaps t headed of all the “sentimentalists,” as Mr. Treder calls them. Mr. Lang ex- presses indignation over the several acts of vandallsm of which Easthamp- ton has been gullty—the mutilation of the old Clinton Academy, the removal of the Town Hall to a swamp !n the region of the jall, the demolition of a famous old church there and other out- rages against aestheticiem and senti- ment. Mr. Treder speaks of too, but seems to think it curious that after be gullty of them the village should continue so sensitive to its sentimental landmarks. WIE,TE{L?GEEND THE, RING subject to it, but tion has been paid it been so little atten- t, so lightly has medical experts, that to i regarded Ly there is 1y no cal name Tor T That e e il dasenive & cullar physical condition, the result of sn unusual brala formation, as “the "l’:l no doudbt have often heard ul Jackal to tions to JRCAR) 52 FUORR. SATR Ao ARaRp the power AND EDDY HANLON YOST FREQUENTLY SLLY BLOV * S O'Brien are incapable by reason of their mentality of taking ment that a Jeffrles might sdminister la‘:mrlq.lflm-wtlflw.l. co 3 “Perhaps the most remarkable exam- ple of & man being able to withstand punishment is Joe Grimm. “When he was attracting the atten- ;lohn. :t m.:xc'xm.n- some few years ago owing to say regardi this remarkable man: ¢ e the ordinary human being respects. “‘Just as the human pin cushiom of the circus side show can stand up and have pins jabbed inte his anatomy afl day long without feeling any paln, 80, probably, is Mr. Grimm consti- tuted.” " Bob Fitzsimmons has on more them one occasion been “knocked siily,” yet the fighting Instinct was on each ooca~ sion as keen as if he had merely re- ceived a gentle slap on the wrist On the night of November 19, 1394, the night the former heavywelght| champlon’'s partner, Con Rior- dan of Australla, died shortly after indulging In a friendly bout with him, Fits was himself sent to dreamland without realizing It It was an obscure boxer, but a fa- in ether vorite in Syracuse, whers the affalr occurred. who almost ~ out the lanky qde snd who ad knock him silly. erful fellow with wealthy cennec- tions, who had been persuad could hold his own with oo to box four rounds with the them champion. . in the audlence had tal Suspecting he en part In his last boxing contest— Duntee. the local aelebrity, and "the §reatest fighter of his time” faced mahy other In the ring, shook hands and "h:lu:d each other. eard disturbing reports regarding Riordan’s malu‘n. The surgeons were stjll working over him @8 preparations went on for the ses- ond bout. Fitzsimmons was not In a l::?‘d. t;)uh:’ock' another man out—not — o:u- life was hanging In Du-fe._.l Who was trained by “Hobo- ken Tom™ Kelly, had demonstrated that he could gels b g ver a terrific blow with and many an aspiring upstat: had felt its force. ~If he ever loogy Fitz, it's good night for his” wes the prediction of more than one of the Dun- Carefully coached by *“Heboken Tom,"” Dunfee bided his time and finally caught Fitssimmons with his favorite {‘“’“ on the jaw. Fitzsimmons wab- &:t A friendly timekeeper sounded gong. Fitz was led to his corner.