ELLER'S AMERICAN HYMN.

Naturally the title suggests the authorship of the ode, but fate made
Keller a musician rather than a poet and hymnist, and the honors of the
fine anthem are divided. At the grand performance which created its
reputation, the hymn of Dr. O.W. Holmes was substituted for the
composer's words. This is Keller's first stanza:

Speed our republic, O Father on high!
Lead us in pathways of justice and right,
Rulers, as well as the ruled, one and all,
Girdle with virtue the armor of might.
Hail! three times hail, to our country and flag!
Rulers, as well as the ruled, one and all,
Girdle with virtue the armor of might;
Hail! three times hail, to our country and flag!

"Flag" was the unhappy word at the end of every one of the four stanzas.
To match a short vowel to an orotund concert note for two beats and a
"hold" was impossible. When the great Peace Jubilee of 1872, in Boston,
was projected, Dr. Holmes was applied to, and responded with a lyric
that gave each stanza the rondeau effect designed by the composer, but
replaced the flat final with a climax syllable of breadth and music:

Angel of Peace, thou hast wandered too long!
Spread thy white wings to the sunshine of love!
Come while our voices are blended in song,
Fly to our ark like the storm-beaten dove!
Fly to our ark on the wings of the dove,
Speed o'er the far-sounding billows of song,
Crown'd with thine olive-leaf garland of love,
Angel of Peace, thou hast waited too long!

* * * * *

Angels of Bethlehem, answer the strain!
Hark! a new birth-song is filling the sky!
Loud as the storm-wind that tumbles the main,
Bid the full breath of the organ reply,
Let the loud tempest of voices reply,
Roll its long surge like the earth-shaking main!
Swell the vast song till it mounts to the sky!
Angels of Bethlehem, echo the strain!

But the glory of the _tune_ was Keller's own.

Soon after the close of the war a prize of $500 had been offered by a
committee of American gentlemen for the best "national hymn" (meaning
words and music). Mr. Keller, though a foreigner, was a naturalized
citizen and patriot and entered the lists as a competitor with the zeal
of a native and the ambition of an artist. Sometime in 1866 he finished
and copyrighted the noble anthem that bears his name, and then began the