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FAMOUS SONGS
course of his labours he discovered that he had no Sicilian air, and as a Sicilian melody had been announced Sir Henry thought he would invent^one. The result was the now well-known air of' Home, Sweet Home/ which he arranged to the verses of Howard Payne. Pirates were in the field as now, and believing the air to be Sicilian and non-copyright, they commenced issuing the song in a cheaper form, but Messrs. Goulding, D'Almaine and Co., brought actions against the offenders and won the day on the sworn evidence of Sir Henry Bishop, who de-clared himself to be the inventor of the same." This should decide the matter for all time.
To return to Payne. After the success of " Clari" affairs seemed to have gone badly with him, for in the year 1832 we find him in New York having a " benefit" got up for him at the Park Theatre to start him afresh. He then subsisted on the income derived from journal-istic work until he was appointed Consul at Tunis, but he soon lost this appointment owing to the change of government, and he once more contributed to the Press. However, some good friends used their influence and, in consideration of the fact that he was the first American dramatist who had made any name at all, Payne was eventually reinstated at Tunis. But he
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