Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1883 — “I Wish I Was In Dixie.” [ARTICLE]

“I Wish I Was In Dixie.”

Dan Emmett, says the St. Louis Republican, is almost too old to pick tha banjo any more, and has passed out of sight, but some of the songs he wroto and sang will stay in memory. Emmett will be recollected by some of the old citizens of St. Louis as a musician* and banjo-player connected with Stokes* circus in 1841, when he used to tickl* their ears with the lively strains of “The Other Side of Jordan.” He is the author of “Dixie Land,” which is not a “rebel” ditty, as mahy have supposed. The following are the words of the original song from Emmett’s own manuscript: “I wish I was in the land of ofttton, Ole time dar am not forgotten; In Dixie land whar I was bawn in Arly on a frosty mawnin. “Old missus marry Will de weaber; Will he was a gay deceaber; When he put his arm around her He looked as fierce as a forty-pounder. “His face was sharp as a butcher’s cleaber; But dat didn’t seem a bit t<j greab ’er; Will run away, missus took a decline, 1 Her face was de color ob da baoon rine. “While missus libbed, she libbed in clober, When she died, she died alt ober: How could she act de foolish part, An’ marry a man to broke her heart? “Buckwheat cakes and cawh-moal batter Makes you fat and a littlefatter, Here’s a health to de nex’ ole missns, An’ all de gals as want to kiss us. “Now if ye want to dribe away sorrow, Come and hear dis song to-morrow; Den hoe it down an’ scratch de grabble, To Dixie’s land I’m bound to trabble.” The general chorus tu all the verses i s: “I wish I was in Dixie, hoefay, hooray! In Dixie land We’ll take o*r stand To live an’ die in Dixie; Away, away, away down Sous in Dixie! Away, away, away down Sous in Dixie 1" i There are now between 300 and 400 Christian schools’ in China, containing over 6,000 pupils.