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INTRODUCTION
miniscences, and collections of songs—and have done my utmost to make the information absolutely authentic and trustworthy. I have, during the period I have had the work in hand, referred to many hundred sources, and have left no possible or probable clue untouched in order to make the history and origin of our best known and most beloved songs complete. To give a list of the writers and the works and the papers, manuscript and printed, that I have laid under contribution, would be to fill pages; but throughout the different chapters I mention most of the authorities to whom I may have been mostly indebted, and to all I tender my thanks : to the writers—known and unknown—and to many friendly correspondents who have assisted me in my searches and in the compilation of my facts.
Of course there are dozens of songs-familiar friends to hundreds of people—that will not be found in this volume. If there is no history of any moment connected with the com-position of any particular song, it is impossible to tell one. Now and then I have made passing reference to some famous production whose origin lies buried in obscurity, but for the most part I have confined myself to the pleasure of relating the stories of such lays and lyrics as
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