CHAPTER XVI 

 Songs of Other Days 



IN this **01d Days on the Farm" volume T have 

 already referred at some length to the singing 

 school, and the old organ in the farmhouse par- 

 lour. Of course, music was not confined alone to 

 these on the old-time farm. It might not be amiss 

 to set down something of the songs of that period. 

 These were not so numerous as in this day of popu- 

 lar concerts and gramophones but they lasted 

 longer. At country festive occasions — then, often- 

 times, between the dances, it was not unusual for 

 some sweet-voiced maid or lusty-throated young 

 farmer to sing a song, and without an accompani- 

 ment, too. The old folks, in particular, enjoyed 

 that part of an evening's gaiety. 



In the '60 's and 70 's this Canada of ours was 

 flooded with American war songs. Some of these 

 were "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground," "The 

 Faded Coat of Blue," "Just Before the Battle, 

 Mother," "The Vacant Chair" and others that 

 had drifted northward, were often sung in Cana- 

 dian homes. The annual visit of the circus usu- 

 ally left behind, as an aftermath, a song or two 

 right from Old New York. The plantation melo- 



233 



