File:Famous American songs (1906) (14766635182).jpg

Identifier: famousamericanso00kobbrich (find matches)
Title: Famous American songs
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Kobbé, Gustav, 1857-1918
Subjects: Songs, English -- History and criticism National songs -- United States
Publisher: New York, T. Y. Crowell & co
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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humble neighbors but forgotten by theworld at large, lay dying in a little clap-board hut on the outskirts of Mount 59 jTamoug american ^ongg Vernon, Ohio. Forty-five years before,he had written and composed the songwhich at that moment, under the blazeof electroliers, was being played forthe delectation of men and women anyone of whom carelessly would spendfor an evenings amusement more thanhe might have had to live on for a year.The old minstrel was Daniel DecaturEmmett, sometimes called for shortDan Decate, but more generallyknown among the few stage veteranswho remembered him at all as OldDan Emmett. After Emmetts death some oneasked, Does it pay to be famous?and pointed to his poverty as a nega-tive answer. Yet the old minstrel wascontent. He had his hut, which wasscrupulously clean; a garden patch andsome chickens. A few years before hedied that eminently practical charity,the Actors Fund of America, learnedof his whereabouts and granted hima small stipend. Occasionally he re-60
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DANIEL DECATUR EMMETT ceived requests accompanied by re-mittances for his autograph or manu-script copies of Dixie. Moreover,like many people of the stage (al-though this may surprise those whoseacquaintance with it is merely casual),he was deeply religious. Often he couldbe seen sitting in the sun outside hisdoor and reading his large copy of theBible. Among the many manuscriptswhich he left was a set of prayers ap-parently of his own authorship. Oneof them was a grace before meals. Itsappropriateness to his own humble cir-cumstances is one of the most touch-ing examples of unconscious pathos Iknow of. It does not, after the usualmanner of such prayers, thank theLord for his bounty, but for thisfrugal meal, and all other meals Thouhast permitted me to enjoy during mypast existence. There surely was aspirit of resignation as rare as it waspathetic!Emmett wrote Dixie while he was 6i a member of the famous Bryants Min-strels which he had joined in 1857. Hewas known already as the compos

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