ly the
organ-grinder struck up another tune.

"Well, I do declare," cried the Senator, delighted, "if it isn't
another domestic melody!"

It was "Independence Day."

"Why, it warms my heart," he said, as a flush spread over his fine
countenance.

The organ-grinder received any quantity of _baiocchi_, which so
encouraged him that he tried another--"Old Virginny."

"That's better yet," said the Senator. "But how on airth did this
man manage to get hold of these tunes?"

Then came others. They were all American: "Old Folks at Home,"
"Nelly Ely," "Suwannee Ribber," "Jordan," "Dan Tucker," "Jim Crow."

The Senator was certainly most demonstrative, but all the others
were equally affected.

Those native airs; the dashing, the reckless, the roaringly-humorous,
the obstreperously jolly--they show one part of the many-sided
American character.

Not yet has justice been done to the nigger song. It is not a
nigger song. It is an American melody. Leaving out those which have
been stolen from Italian Operas, how many there are which are truly
American in their extravagance, their broad humor, their glorious
and uproarious jollity! The words are trash. The melodies are every
thing.

These melodies touched the hearts of the listeners. American life
rose before them as they listened.--American life--free, boundless,
exuberant, broadly-developing, self-asserting, gaining its
characteristics from the boundless extent of its home--a continental
life of limitless variety. As mournful as the Scotch; as reckless as
the Irish; as solemnly patriotic as the English.

"Listen!" cried the Senator, in wild excitement.

It was "Hail Columbia."

"The Pincian Hill," said the Senator, with deep solemnity, "is
glorified from this time forth and for evermore. It has gained a
new charm. The Voice of Freedom hath made itself heard!"

The others, though less demonstrative, were no less delighted. Then
came another, better yet. "The Star-Spangled Banner."

"There!" cried the Senator, "is our true national anthem--the
commemoration of national triumph; the grand upsoaring of the
victorious American Eagle as it wings its everlasting flight
through the blue empyrean away up to the eternal stars!"

He burst into tears; the others respected his emotion.

Then he wiped his eyes and looked ashamed of himself--quite
uselessly--for it is a mistake to suppose that tears are unmanly.
Unmanly! The manliest of men may sometimes shed tears out of