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FAMOUS SONGS
old hymn has been saved from utter oblivion by the fortunate circumstance of inspiring some modern writer to compose a fresh lyric in place of the crude and often coarse original words. But the oddest part about these rescued and world-wide popular pieces is that in the large majority of cases the authors have written one good piece and nothing more. There is, for instance, that Sunday-school hymn, " There is a Happy Land." Who has ever heard anything of the author, Andrew Young? You may search for his name amongst books of minor verse in vain, and yet for quite half a century Mr. Andrew Young has exercised a far wider influence upon his race than many whom the world considers its benefactors and greatest men. According to a newspaper account in 1889 (when Mr. Young was alive and over eighty years old) the origin of the hymn was occasioned by Mr. Young's hearing a tune played in a drawing-room. It is said that the melody in question was " an old Indian air, which has blended with the music of the woods of the primeval forest." It is just possible that the air had nothing to do with Indians at all. But what matters? It haunted the future author of the children's hymn and possibly, in sheer desperation, Mr. Young sat down and
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