Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1881 — His Pay. [ARTICLE]

His Pay.

Will 8. Hays,of Louisville,has made a small fortune by writing songs. Among his popular compositions are “Mollie Darling,” “Norah O’Neal.” and “Evangeline.” But he got no money from the latter, though it gave him a start in business. “Just before the war.” he says, “I was with some young visitors up in Oldham county, Ky. Among them was a beautiful girl who resembled the ideal pictures of Longfellow’s ‘Evangeline’ so closely that I called her by that name. We danced at an out-door frolic, one evening, and soon discovered that four of us could sing together. We tried popular quartettes, and got along so well tbat we became enthusiastic. About 2 o’clock in the morning we started to walk home. The night was as bright as day, with the full moon hanging in the sky, and as we walked we sang. We sat down in a nook to rest, and ‘Evangeline’ began to suggest (fiber songs to sing. ‘l’ll write.you a song,’ said I, ‘if you will promise to sing it before we go home.’ This was agreed to. On the opposite side of the road was a white plank fence. Where we were sitting a party of negroes had been roasting ears of corn, and the charred sticks lay all around. • With them I wrote the first verse of the song on the top plank of the fence, and the notes for four voices on the four planks beneath.. Then we stood off, and sang it. The girls were delighted, and insisted on having a choru-, so I wrote the chorus on the planks. Well, we sang it over and over, and went home singing it. Next morning ‘Evangeline’ came down stairs humming the *l. and asked me to write it out and finish* it. I told her I couldn’t do it alut she might go down and copy it ofl the fence. Bhe took an umbrella and a sheet of paper, and soon came back with words and* music. Then she insisted on having another verse; so I wrote another verse, on condition that I was to have a kiss for it, and she to have the music.” H&ye sent the ccmposition to various music publishers, nut couldn’t sell it,and it was at length made public by the voiice of Campbell, the negro minstrel. Three hundred thousand copies have been sold,but the kiss was the only pay the author has received.