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STORIES OF
tions in all number nearly sixty, among them being 'Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching/ 'Just before the Battle, Mother,' ' The Vacant Chair,' and many others that will be recalled by all veteran soldiers." Dr. Root was born in 1820 and died in 1896.
In the course of a sympathetic article in the "Chicago Tribune" at the end of 1887 the writer speaks feelingly of the songs of two and three decades ago. How many of the popular songs, he inquires, can the old folk of the day recall ? How many of the melodies that thrilled them in the days of their hot youth have found an abiding place in their memory ? The evolu-tion of the popular song presents a striking illustration of the survival of the unfittest. The great sentimental ditty of the ante-war period was undoubtedly "Ben Bolt." The untimely death of something lovable and beautiful was the usual theme of the song of sentiment in those days, though it varied occasionally in order to picture the heart havoc caused by the separation of slave lovers. "Ben Bolt," written by Dr. Thomas Dunn English, was an enormous success all over the country, and was as well known in England as America. It received a new lease through Du Maurier's " Trilby" in 1895. The music was adapted to the poem by
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