^miih^onxctrt 35TT:stituiioTT ^ibratr^. YYui/vC^A,., H....C O./vv tLs. l\.(xjd^ o| tks... r k ' 1 ^iVft, ^> ^ & It* m^mi t* ftt CURlUQl4.IV£3 US KASSUXStUEVmiRS TRAVELER PUYING THE "ARKANSAWTRAVELER" Squatter -Why stranger fve been trying four years to git the turn of that nine, come nght in ' Johnny take the horse and feed him I We |ii npthe best Com cate you can puke ' Sally make up the best bed ' He Vun play the tumof that tune: come nght m and playit all through stranger. You km lodge withusa month free of charge. But however that might have been, a local artist, Edward Washburn by name, once liv- ing at Dardanelle, Arkansas, was so much impressed with the story that he took it into his head, about 1845-50, to paint the origi- nals of the prints here copied. As he then lived with the family of Mr. Dodge in Little Rock, he made the children pose for his sketches. Mr. G. E. Dodge was tlie boy in the ash-hopper, «and we had great times," says he, now fifty years after, « posing for his figures of the squatter's children. I was con- stantly with him in his studio, and in fact felt that I was helping to paint the picture. The picture representing (The Turn of the Tune ) was an afterthought. The boy in the ash-hopper gets down from his perch and takes the stranger's horse. The children as- sume different attitudes. But we never cele- brated the completion of the second paint- ing as we had that of the first. Poor Wash- burn sickened and died, and the unfinished work stood upon the easel until it was stowed away. His executor afterward had it finished by some one else, and then the two began to make their appearance in the form of cheap prints.)) Another picture, by another painter, which hung in the Arkansas Building at the Centen- nial Exhibition at Philadelphia, had been worked up from photographs of Mr. Dodge, his brothers and sisters, lent to the painter by the boy in the ash-hopper. The tune has a strong flavor of the cotton- field « hoe-down,)> but I have obtained no sat- isfactory information as to its origin. Mr. Benham is sure that it was not composed by Colonel Faulkner, and has heard, perhaps to the surprise of musical antiquaries, that it was either written by Jose Tasso, a famous violin-player who died in Kentucky some years ago, or produced by him from an old Italian melody. When we come to investigate this relation of Tasso to « The Arkansas Trav- eler)) the whole question becomes confused by repeated assertions that Tasso not only com- posed the music, but was himself the original of the myth, leaving Faulkner out of the question altogether. In fact, common opinion on the Ohio River awards the authorship to Tasso hardly less positively than on the lower Mississippi the authorship is given exclusively to Faulkner; and it would not be a popular task to try to convince the « old-timers )) of Maysville, Point Pleasant, and Gallipolis that Faulkner, of whom they never heard, or any one else except their oft-quoted favorite, had anything to do 712 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE. with the origin of the myth. Their recollec- tions make it certain that Tasso was well known along the river as a concert and dance player when the tune came into vogue. Robert Clarke, the publisher, heard him play it at John Walker's brew-house in Cincinnati in 1841 or 1842, and he told Richard R. Rey- nolds and Albert Crell, who played with him at a ball at the Burnet House on New Year's night in 1849, that he himself was the author of music and story. Mr. Curry, who used to play the flute to him when he was ill, heard him repeat the statement about 1850; but Tasso's grandson, Mr. F. G. Spinning, does not think that his grandfather ever traveled in Arkansas, and it may be doubted whether the jocose performer, who from dramatic ne- cessity was led to make himself the hero of the story, ever claimed the authorship with- out winking one eye. Whether he could equal Faulkner at the dialogue or not, he seems to have brought dowTi the house with the tune in a way to outdo all competitors; and one anecdote after another connects him with it in the days of the glory of Mississippi steamboats and when Colt's revolvers first came down the river. One after another, these tales vouch for a fame so attractive that the listener is half willing to give up Faulkner and let Tasso walk off with the honors. Yet the latter, who spoke broken English until the day of his death in Covington, Ken- tucky in 1887, was born in the city of Mexico, of Italian parents, was educated in France, and was, it is said, a pupil of Berlioz; so that - it may be questioned whether, even if, as al- .; leged, he came to Ohio in the thirties, he ' could have so steeped himself in the spirit of the American West as to produce the story. The investigation might lead us much further, but it is doubtful if more facts gathered about the fable would add to its interest. It really matters little where the ((Trav- eler )» was born, whether in Yell County or in the Boston Mountains; whether, as Mr. Dodge asserts, it originated with Faulkner and his friends, or came from the humor of Tasso. Like all true creations of fancy, it eludes def- inite description and defies criticism, while the notes of the tune sound a gay disregard of boards of immigration and State statistics. H. C. Mercer. JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE. RECOLLECTIONS AND UNPUBLISHED LETTERS. BY THE AUTHOR OF ((HOME REMINISCENCES OF JOHN RANDOLPH.)) the year 1817 Mr. Francis W. Gilmer of Albemarle, one of the most accomplished scholars that Virginia has produced, published a small volume in which he gave sketches of sev- eral of the great orators of the day, among them John Randolph of Roanoke. A copy of this book was presented by the author to Mr. Randolph, who acknowledged the receipt of it in a long letter, which is now presented to the public for the first time; but in order that the reader may properly appreciate it, it is necessary to give first an extract from the book concerning Mr. Randolph's style of ora- tory. Mr. Gilmer wrote : The first time that I ever felt the spell of eloquence was when a boy standing in the gallery of the Capitol in the year 1808. It was on the floor of that House I saw rise a gentle- man who in every quality of his person, his voice, his mind, his character, is a phenome- non among men. ... He has so long spoken in parables that he now thinks in them. An- titheses, jests, beautiful conceits, with a striking turn and point of expression, flow from his lips with the same natural ease, and often with singular felicity of expression, as regular series of arguments foUoAV each other in the deduc- tion of logical thinkers. His invective, which is always piquant, is frequently adorned with the beautiful metaphors of Burke, and ani- mated by bursts of passion worthy of Chatham. Popular opinion has ordained Mr. Randolph the most eloquent speaker now in America. It has been objected to this gentleman that his speeches are desultory and unconnected. It is true ; but how far that may be a fault is another question. We are accustomed m America to look upon the bar as furnishin-' the best and nearly the only models of good speaking. In legal discussions a logical metli- od, accurate arrangement, and close concate- nation of arguments are essential, because the mode of reasoning is altogether artificial and the principles on which we rely positive and conventional. Not so in parliamentary debate . There questions are considered on prmeiples of general policy and justice ; and the topics -.M'K ■>i%^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 646 727 1 # *^l m 1 1 <»,fe ■*S«w«, X^ I'^Trf - 1^ * ' ij' ^ v*-'? f 11 .^^.^''^^^ ^^^ ki