Thomas Ditson, in Boston, marching to the tune as the best means of heaping contempt on the Yankees. But this was changed at Lexington, and it was said that when the British commander was once asked after that how he liked the tune, he answered, "How they did make us dance to it!"

Doodle was a Lancashire word for trifler, and is thus referred to as early as 1622. There is an early version of the words in English, which runs :

"Yankee Doodle came to town

Upon a Kentish pony;

He stuck a feather in his hat,

And called him macaroni."

In other versions the second line runs, "Riding on a pony," and "Upon a little pony." The small plume worn by the militia in the front of their caps was called in derision "macaroni." There is a tradition in England that the original song was directed at Oliver Cromwell himself under the name of Nankee Doodle.

The following are the verses which were sung by our fathers during the Revolution. This version shows in itself marks of evolution; but a portion of it is believed to have been written, it is said by a gentleman of Connecticut, just after the battle of Lexington, and to have been sung by the Americans at Bunker Hill.

Father and I went down to camp
Along with Captain Gooding,

And there we saw the men and boys,
As thick as hasty pudding.

CHORUS.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up, Yankee Doodle Dandy! Mind the music and the step,

And with the gals be handy!

And there we see a thousand men
As rich as Squire David,
And what they wasted every day, -
I wish it had been saved.

The 'lasses they eat up every day

Would keep our house all winter,They have so much that I'll be bound They eat when'er they've a mind to.

And there we see a whopping gun,
As big as a log of maple,
Mounted on a little cart, -
A load for father's cattle.

And every time they fired it off
It took a horn of powder,
And made a noise like father's gun,
Only a nation louder.

I went as near to it

As 'Siah's underpinning; Father went as nigh again,

I thought the devil was in him.

Cousin Simon grew so bold,

I thought he meant to cock it; He scared me so, I streaked it off, And hung to father's pocket.

And Captain Davis had a gun

He kind o' clapped his hand on, And stuck a crooked stabbing-iron Upon the little end on't.

And there I saw a pumpkin shell
As big as mother's basin;
And every time they sent one off,
They scampered like tarnation.

I saw a little bar'el, too,

Its heads were made of leather; They knocked on it with little clubs, To call the folks together.

And there was Captain Washington, With grand folks all about him; They say he's grown so tarnal proud He cannot ride without them.

He had on his meeting-clothes, And rode a slapping stallion, And gave his orders to the men, I guess there was a million.

And then the feathers in his hat,
They were so tarnal fin-ah,
I wanted peskily to get

To hand to my Jemima.

And then they'd fife away like fun, And play on corn-stalk fiddles; And some had ribbons red as blood All wound about their middles.

The troopers, too, would gallop up, And fire right in our faces;

It scared me a'most to death

To see them run such races.

Then I saw a snarl of men

A digging graves, they told me, So tarnal long, so tarnal deep,They allowed they were to hold me.

It scared me so I hooked it off,
Nor stopped, as I remember,
Nor turned about, till I got home,
Locked up in mother's chamber.

While no one, of course, will claim a high standard of excellence for either the

tainly a pleasant one, that our first national song should have been written on ground that was owned by a family among the most patriotic in the entire country. During the revolutionary struggle the Van Rensselaer name was borne by eighteen males, all of whom, save two old men and four boys, bore arms for their country in one or more battles. In the campaign of 1777, Killian Van Rensselaer, eight of his nephews, and three of his sons, served together in the Northern campaign till Burgoyne's surrender.

George P. Morris has sung of the origin of Yankee Doodle as follows:

I.

"I'll drink no tea, by Jove," said he, and threw overboard the cargo.

Then Johnny sent a regiment, big words and looks to bandy,

Whose martial band, when near the land, play'd "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

Yankee Doodle-keep it up-Yankee Doodle Dandy,

"I'll poison with a tax your cup-Yankee Doodle Dandy."

III.

A long war then they had, in which. John was at last defeated,

And "Yankee Doodle" was the march to which his troops retreated; Cute Jonathan to see them fly could not restrain his laughter;

"That tune," says he, "suits to a T; I'll sing it ever after."

Old Johnny's face, to his disgrace, was flushed with beer and brandy,

E'en while he swore he'd drink no more this "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

Yankee Doodle, - ho, ha, he,-Yankee Doodle Dandy;

We kept the tune, but not the tea- - Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Yankee Doodle, - firm and true,- Yankee Doodle Dandy,

Yankee Doodle, Doodle doo, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

"John Bull" is taken from a satire on the Duke of Marlborough, published by Dr. John Arbuthnot in 1712. In it the French are designated as Louis Baboon, the Dutch as Nicholas Frog, and the English as John Bull. Washington Irving says, "The English have embodied their national oddities in the figure of a corpulent old fellow, with a three-cornered hat, red waist-coat, leather breeches, and a stout oaken cudgel, and there is scarcely a being in actual existence more absolutely present to the public mind than that eccentric personage, John Bull."

"Brother Jonathan" is a term derived from Jonathan Trumbull, the colonial governor of Connecticut, noted for his integrity and his common sense. When Washington was once sadly in need of ammunition he called a council of officers, none of whom could offer any suggestion which was practical. "We must then refer the matter to Brother Jonathan," said Washington, alluding to Trumbull, who proposed a way of solving the difficulty. From that day Trumbull was known as "Brother Jonathan," and in due time the name was applied to the whole nation. The governor looked a great deal like the symbolic caricature more familiar to the world. He was tall, gaunt, sharp-featured,

and for full dress wore a swallow-tail coat made in his own household, from his own sheep, and colored with maple bark from his own woodpile. His tight trousers, six inches above his ankles, were of striped linsey woolsey, spun and made by his own family.

It will be interesting here to notice the origin of the term "Uncle Sam," which has become the other personal appellation

for the nation. Among the verses which crept into some of the versions of Yankee Doodle early in the present century was the following:

"Old Uncle Sam came then to change
Some pancakes and some onions
For 'lasses cakes to carry home

To give his wife and young uns."

The "Uncle Sam " here referred to was Samuel Wilson of Troy, New York, a beef inspector during the last war with England. He was very popular among his men, and

was respectfully, but familiarly, called "Uncle Sam." The boxes containing the provisions were shipped to a contractor named Elbert Anderson, and were marked "E. A.-U.S." It is related that a joking workman was asked of what these letters were an abbreviation, and he replied that he did not know the letters U. S. for the United States were then new and not well known - unless they were for

Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam. The joke was kept up, and spread, and afterwards it was said that all packages marked U. S. were for Uncle Sam.1

The recognition of the nationality of Yankee Doodle is well illustrated by an anecdote related by John Quincy Adams. When the ministers plenipotentiary of Great Britain and the United States had nearly concluded their pacific labors at Ghent, the worthy burghers of that city resolved to give an entertainment in their honor, and desired that the national airs of the two treaty-making powers form a part of the programme. The musical director was requested to call upon the American ministers and obtain the music of the national air of the United States. No one knew exactly what to give, and after a consultation Bayard and Gallatin favored Hail Columbia, while Clay, Russell, and Adams were decidedly in favor of Yankee Doodle. The director then asked if either of the gentlemen had the music, and receiving a negative reply, asked if one of them would sing or whistle the air. "I can't," said Mr. Clay; "I never whistled or sung a tune in my life. Perhaps Mr. Bayard can." "Neither can I," replied Mr. Bayard. "Perhaps Mr. Russell can." But each confessed his lack of musical ability. "I have it," exclaimed Mr. Clay, and ringing 1 See Wheeler's Dictionary of the Noted Names of Fiction.