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STORIES OF
are wofully commonplace; the grand American hymn has yet to be written, and fame and for-tune await poet and musician alike who shall step into the breach to sing their country's glories. Up to the year 1812," Yankee Doodle," with its ridiculous refrain:
" Yankee doodle, keep it up, Yankee doodle dandy; Mind the music and the step, And with the girls be handy."
was the only national song our cousins had.
The " Star-Spangled Banner" would appear to have been more or less of an inspiration. One account says that in the war of 1812 Francis Key was taken prisoner by the British, and that during the attack on Fort McHenry, which he was compelled to witness, he composed the now famous verses. But it is also said that at the time they were written, Key was not held as a prisoner on board the British Fleet under Admiral Cockburn, as has been generally sup-posed ; but that he had visited it under a flag of truce to obtain the release of a friend cap-tured by the enemy, and was unable to return to Baltimore until the day following the attack upon Fort McHenry. He thus became a spec-tator of the midnight siege, and in the morn-
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