Homage to Winner

Almost anybody who can whistle knows Listen to the Mocking Bird, the song that asks "Oh where! Oh where! is my little dog gone?" and What Is Home Without a Mother? Almost nobody knows the name of the author of any of them. It so happens that the same man wrote all three, and 112 more besides. His name was Septimus Winner, he was born no years ago last week (May 11) and some Philadelphia antiquarians took that occasion to issue a little monograph,* largely documented by Winner's diary, to bring one of the nation's notable old songsmiths back into the nation's memory.

James Madison was still living, New York State was about to abolish slavery, passenger railroads were about to be realized when Septimus Winner was born in Philadelphia in 1827. Joseph Winner, his father, made violins and Septimus studied music almost from the cradle. "Sep" got out of the Philadelphia High School at 20, began to give lessons on the banjo, guitar and violin, and married a watchman's daughter named Hannah Guyer. He played at balls and parades, was a member of the Philadelphia Brass Band. Hit by the hard times, he wrote in his diary: "Delightful out of funds, came to the conclusion to go to the poorhouse . . . didn't like it much and concluded I'd come home, got back about 5 o'clock, found home to be the better place." When Philadelphia's Forty-Niners sailed down the Delaware in the Susan Owens, "Sep" tootled encouragingly in the band that saw them off. In spite of the city's cholera plague that year and the Great Fire of the next, "Sep" Winner began to prosper, was able to open a music shop and publishing house. At 23 he wrote his first important song, How Sweet Are the Roses, under the name of Alice Hawthorne. He followed it with such lyrics as What Is Home Without a Mother?, Rebecca at the Well, Motherless Kate, There Is Wealth for Honest Labor.

"Sep" got the idea for his most famous song from "Whistling Dick," a Negro beggar who used to strum his guitar and whistle like a bird. But shortly after it was published in 1855 Winner sold his copyright on Listen to the Mocking Bird for $5. Lee & Walker, the purchasers, made a fortune. The song sold over 20,000,000 copies, was a favorite of Edward VII as a boy. Lincoln said: "It is as sincere and sweet as the laughter of a little girl at play." Many an ante-bellum baby was named after Hally, the fictitious girl over whom the song moons:

I'm dreaming now of Hally, sweet Hally, sweet Hally,

I'm dreaming now of Hally,

For the thought of her is one that never dies.

She's sleeping in the valley, the valley, the valley,

She's sleeping in the valley,

And the mocking bird is singing where

she lies.

(Refrain)

Listen to the mocking bird, Listen to the mocking bird, The mocking bird is singing o'er her grave;

Listen to the mocking bird, Listen to the mocking bird, Still singing where the weeping willows wave.

Winner was almost as successful with his I Am Dreaming of the Loved Ones and The Detacher's Dog ("Oh where! Oh where! ish mine little dog gone?"). During the Civil War another song almost undid him. Lincoln removed General McClellan from command of the Army of the Potomac for being over cautious. Popular sentiment favored McClellan's reinstatement, caused "Sep" Winner to write Give Us Back Our Old Commander: Little Mac, the People's Pride. Copies of the song were confiscated; Winner was almost jailed for treason, but the song swept through the whole Union Army. In spite of the interdict, Julia Mortimer sang it in Ford's Theatre in Washington. Give Us Back Our Old Commander was used as a campaign song when McClellan ran for President against Lincoln in 1864, used again, with the name changed, when Grant was considering a third term in 1880.

Septimus Winner was a plain man who, on the side, wrote blank verse for which he had no talent, worried discreetly over his drunken father. He was also responsible for 200 texts on how to play instruments, 2,000 piano and violin arrangements. His brother Joseph determined to write song hits too, resoundingly succeeded once with Little Brown Jug, Don't I Love Thee. As Septimus was more prolific, so was his end more picturesque. On a fine November day in 1902 he attended the dedication of a new building for his alma mater, the old High School, shook hands with President Roosevelt, the principal speaker, made a speech himself, went home and died.

* THE MOCKING BIRD -- Charles Eugene Claghorn--Magee Press ($1.50).

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