1488 The Cornell Reading-Courses 



cotintry home shall be clean of the " praise that cannot purify," of the 

 passing lilt wherein life's sacred relations are made a joke, of the song 

 that cannot possibly h)ring a sweet home-memor}^ in the after years to 

 the children who have gone out from the home. 



This subject of songs for the home has been discussed in country-life 

 conferences, institutes, extension schools, and at Farmers' Week at the 

 State College of Agriculture. The speakers at these meetings have 

 tried first of all to impress upon their audiences the hold that trashy 

 popular songs have gained in homes. At the close of a recent conference 

 a New York State mother called attention to the March (19 13) issue of 

 the Woman's World, through whose coltmins Mr. George Weston has 

 made a strong appeal to the makers of homes for their support in a demand 

 for better songs. Read what Mr. Weston has to say of trashy songs. It is 

 a just attack, and having read or re-read what we here quote from it, it 

 may be that you will wish to go through the words of the songs that have 

 collected about your organs and pianos so that you may be certain of what 

 really constitutes your home songs. It may be that in these days when 

 there are many worthless new songs in comparison with the few that 

 are worthy, some latest hit entirely foreign to the tone of true home 

 songs may have intruded itself. 



Mr. Weston says: 



Without a doubt it may be accepted that songs have a deep influence upon man- 

 kind. This influence shovdd always be for good. But we sometimes, indeed in these 

 days often, find it working for evil. The latter reflection is aroused by the shocking 

 decline which has recently taken place in American song writing. Think of the tender 

 humanity in that old favorite, My Old Kentucky Home. And then think of such near- 

 filth as Oh You Beautiful Doll and those similar outbursts which stand at the head of 

 our popular songs to-day. Tnily, ' the old order changeth.' 



Let us consider, for a moment, what a wonderful thing is the spread of a popular 

 song. Suppose the president of the nation rises to-daj' and, dealing with a subject 

 of vital influence to our welfare, speaks a few sentences of wisdom. How many would 

 be able to repeat his words a month hence? Would a thousand men have them stored 

 away in memory? But suppose that a catchy popular song is launched, with some 

 such refrain as 



' Polly WoUy used to work 

 But she's too wise now! ' 



In a few short months it will be known by millions. It is interesting to trace the popu- 

 lar song to its lair and to see its effect. 



It is the home which is the final lair of the popiilar song. The piano, the cabinet 

 organ, the talking machine, and every other musical instrument call for the popular 

 song. It needs only a short memory to recollect the time when such a call was answered 

 by songs like Kathleen Mavourneen, Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms, 

 or In Days of Old. Now, however, if your daughter is entertaining a caller they no 

 longer sing such simple songs. Listen and you will hear them shouting: Put Your 

 Arms Around Me Honey, or Cuddle Up Closer, or some similar erotic syncopation. 

 Moreover, it isn't necessarily your daughter's ' steady ' young man who is singing 

 these songs with her. It's any young man. And their only excuse for singing such 

 stuff is that they're the latest popular successes. Songs of romance have changed to 

 lyrics of license, and virtue finds itself assailed in its last retreat. 



Let us go back a long, long way and ask ourselves how people ever started to sing, 

 and why they go on singing. In its purest sense, song is a mode of expression used 



