Now,  if  there  ever  existed  in  our  beloved  land  a  man  who
fully  appreciated  the  wondrous  power  of  music  it  was  Stephen
Collins  Foster,  whose  life  and  whose  melodies  form  the  subject
of  this  sketch.  But  who  was  Foster?  many  may  ask.  "A
rose  by  any  other  name  would  smell  as  sweet."  Very  true;
and  the  genius  who  first  penned  this  saying  would  be  one  of  the
world's  greatest  luminaries  even  if  his  name  were  not  William


Foster's  Negro  Melodies  265

Shakespeare.  The  same  may  be  said  of  Homer,  Dante,
Milton,  and  all  the  great  poets  of  the  world's  history.  Indeed
we  may  repeat  it  of  Mozart,  Beethoven,  Handel,  Gounod,  and
all  the  musical  geniuses  of  the  world  whose  works  give  man  a
foretaste  of  celestial  bliss.
Nevertheless  there  have  been  poets  and  musicians  in  the
world  who  are  practically  nameless  and  yet  their  verses  and
their  melodies  have  stirred  the  hearts  of  millions,  and  their
songs  will  be  sung  for  centuries  by  countless  thousands  who
perhaps  never  knew  a  line  of  Shakespeare  as  such,  and  never
heard  of  Homer  or  Dante,  Wagner  or  Verdi.
It  may  possibly  be  news  to  some  of  my  listeners  to  hear  that
amongst  the  ballad  writers  of  the  country,  nay  amongst  those
of  the  whole  English  speaking  world,  there  is  not  one  who  has
written  so  large  a  number  of  beautiful  heart  touching  songs  as
Stephen  Collins  Foster.
Foster's  songs  and  melodies  will  live  as  long  as  the  Eng-
lish language  is  spoken,  and  will  make  hearts  throb  with
emotion  centuries  after  more  pretentious  writers  shall  have
been  forgotten.  It  is  with  music  as  with  poetry.  It  is
harder  in  a  certain  sense  to  write  a  simple  melody  with  simple
words  than  to  compose  a  libretto  with  complicated  harmonies.
