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What and WhereIs Dixie Land?(The Mentor)“Why do they call it Dixie Land or Dixie’s Land?”The original Dixie Land was a small strip of Manhattan Island— New York City, no less. Th6 ancient spelling was doubtless Dixy and the negroes sang of Dixy’s Land. Daniel Decatur Emmett wrote the ballad “Dixie” in 1859 and it was a popular song north and south.The closest we can come to the truth with such information as is available is that the South adopted the name of Dixie because of its instant love for Dan Emmett'sverses, and that Dan Emmett,* »probably wholly ignorant of the Manhattan Dixy, had picked up his music and the suggestion for his verses in the South which understood them. He made the Negro sing for a more or less mythical land of milk and honey which, naturally enough, he believed to be in the South.enough work for all Dixyrs slaves. I Being a black-face minstrel his Consequently idleness prevailed | source of entertainment material amongst them and they enjoyed it. * came from the true Negro and theHe seems to have fed them' well not so much for humane as fortrue Negro was to'be found on the plantation.business reasons. What with little Emmett was a student. Unques-work and plenty of {pod it is notitionably he heard the plantation at all surprising that the Negroes hands singing the. songs of theirWas on Manhattan The most tenable hypothesis goes back to the Manhattan Dixy. Dixy flourished in Manhattan about the year 1800. He had invested largely in slaves and became slave poor. Presently, pressed by creditors and failing to find a desirably high market for his negroes, he sold them at such prices as he could get and to whomever would buy.In his relatively small acreage on Manhattan Island there was notshould have loved Dixy’s land.But when the Negroes were sold south they were put to work. Ah, but that was vastly different! Muph work, and food only if you earned it! Wish they were • in Dixy? Rather! “Ole times dar am not forgotten.”Dan Emmett, actor and song writer and originator of the minstrel show as it is known among American institutions, “composed” Dixie in 1859 after an extended barnstorming tour of the South.While at the Fair TryBuilt theiiii ■milMe wavfathers amongst which must* have been the lament for Dixy’s lard where work was scarce and foot! abundant. It is fair to presume that the tune which Emmett evolved was frankly based upon the Negro melody; but Emmett desired musical tempo amenable to dancing.• It is probable, too, -that the words sung by the Negroes were all impromptu; that there was no greater continuity to the verses as sung by the slaves than there it to the innumerable stanzas of so^many other Negro ballads. Emmett made a “story” of his linesand logically enough located the moumed-for land in the sunny south. He was a showman, not a historian. And he was a very great showman.Covered the CountryThe song was first sung in 1859 by Emmett in Bryant’s minstrels in New York and was of that un-defmable phenomena known by us as “an instantaneous hit.” Within a year the entire country was singing it, but such was the bitterness of the slave controversy that its life in the disEension-tom north was brief, whereas it was forever grappled to the heart of the south whose scenes it glorified and whose sentiment it reflected.Twenty-two versions of the song have appeared. The tune has survived but the words have had a rough voyage. Without exception the deviations from Emmett’s original lines have been for the worse. General Albert Pike, at the outbreak of the war, tried to launch a substitute version, but apparently even . the hottest blood in the south repudiated the debauch oi what was a natural inspiration— Emmett’s unrivaled masterpiece.“BESSERABIAN GOLF” POPULAR WITH SOUSA. REVERSES USUAL GAMECLEVELAND, 0. — Lieutenanl Commander John Philip Sousa, the world’s foremost wielder of the baton, is an adept at “Bessernbiar golf.”“Besserabian” has never beer recognized by' the dictionary publishers, but according to Sousa, i.i.f..t..t..t..i..r.t.j .»-«VTTTTTTTTTvTtTtTTtvyTTTTParrFresh Fruit's and1 Lot Purchases. 1SpecialFree Eating Sam) Welcpme to Make to Service, Quality| North Side Square
Newspaper Details
Greensburg Daily News
Greensburg, Indiana, US
Thu, Oct 06, 1927
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
University O.
MI, USA 25 May 2019
Other Publications Near Greensburg, Indiana
Greensburg Review
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Greensburg News
Greensburg Daily News and Greensburg Daily Review
