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INTRODUCTION |
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T H I S work is the practical proof of some fifteen years' agreeable labour in the fields of lyric literature and song lore. These histories, as far as possible accurate, of all the world's most famous and popular songs and ballads, have been gathered from all sorts of available sources, books, magazines, and newspapers, and living representatives and friends of deceased writers. Many of the particulars as to origin, authorship, and outcome of several of the ballads and pieces here appear in print for the first time; while nothing has been set down without due investigation and confirmation of the veracity of the various details and statements. Tracing the history of a favourite song, though interest-ing and enchanting, is no easy task. You may have to turn over a score books without gain-ing any reliable knowledge whatever. You cannot take a song and run it to earth, so to speak; the truth must slowly accumulate and grow. In writing these Stories of Famous Songs I have consulted every possible authority, every likely workâbiographies, histories, re-
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