THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 / / 
 
 tX^A-ivf L?
 
 -A. T H: IE IR, KiE 
 
 "ALL PLEASK SOUND!"
 
 t* f ft* 
 
 m K* H \ w 
 
 father mm and Jm |p lofts. 
 
 <M A\f W A|| 
 
 V J J J 
 
 A HISTORY 
 
 OLD FOLKS' CONCERTS, 
 
 COMPRISING AN 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR, 
 
 AND SKETCHES OF MANY HUMOROUS SCENES AND INCIDENTS, WHICH 
 
 HAVE TRANSPIRED IN A CONCERT-GIVINO EXPERIENCE OF 
 
 TWELVE YEARS IN AMERICA ANT) ENGLAND. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 1868.
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 
 
 ROBERT KEMP, 
 In the Clerk's office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 IlOCKWELL & ROLL I ITS, PlilHTERS, 
 
 122 Wnshinirton Street, H.isfnn.
 
 Mf- 
 
 K3Z/, 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IT is a great undertaking to write even a small book. 
 Every one has an object in placing himself before the public 
 in print. What my object is, will gradually develop itself at 
 I proceed with my story. I was always ambitious. Not an 
 office within the gift of the American people has been at 
 times above my aspirations. My tastes have varied, some- 
 times with the weather, sometimes with my business suc- 
 cesses and reverses, but, generally speaking, had I been 
 nominated. for any political position, I should have thrown 
 aside every consideration of personal reputation, and blindly 
 accepted for the good of the Republic. But I must say it 
 was never one of my early ambitions to make a book. 
 
 The reader will, of course, desire to know when the mor- 
 tal coil which contains such an ardent and self-sacrificing 
 nature was first flung from the ship of time, and where it 
 dropped. It landed on Cape Cod the home of brave, 
 sturdy hearts, and sand perhaps a hundred years ago 
 perhaps less ; at least, long enough ago to enable me to be- 
 come acquainted with the manners, customs, and personal 
 appearance of those but a generation removed from the 
 Mayflower's precious cargo. I hope the reader will consider 
 the question of time an unimportant one ; the period of my 
 birth has always been kept a matter of profound secrecy, and 
 only those who have attended the "Old Folks' Concerts" 
 
 3
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 have an approximate idea of my venerable appearance and 
 precise age. 
 
 In political matters I have held many different opinions. 
 Living through so many years, with changes frequently oc- 
 curring in the aspects of the country's institutions, I of course 
 changed with the times ; but I venture to say that within the 
 past hundred years of my life I have not done more, in that 
 respect, than many, whom the people have preferred before 
 me, have accomplished in ten years. I wish now that my 
 political opinions had undergone more frequent revolutions. 
 I think, if they had, I should by this time be at least a Mem- 
 ber of Congress. 
 
 My. lot has been a different one from what my early, and 
 even later, aspirations mai'ked out. However unromantic it 
 may seem, reader, I am a shoe-dealer. " Everybody suited 
 at No. 261 Hanover Street," is my motto. This, however, is 
 not mentioned as an advertisement. I would scorn to harbor 
 such an intention in a publication which, I hope, will be 
 purely of a literary, and not a business, character. But, at 
 the same time, should the reader see fit to drop in at No. 261, 
 he will at all seasons find a good stock, and a detennination 
 on my part to sell. 
 
 My experience as the conductor of more than six thousand 
 Old Folks' Concerts, given in many parts of America, and 
 in England, has enabled me to collect some facts, and 
 to witness many ludicrous incidents, all of which cannot, 
 of course, be mentioned in this volume ; but I will endeavor 
 to write down a few, in my own way, giving a history of an 
 enterprise which, I take just pride in saying, was originated 
 by me. I do not ask you to " pity the sorrows of a poor old 
 man " because there have been many weak imitations of the 
 "Old Folks' Concerts." The imitators got the worst of it, 
 at least, so evei-ybody said. The entertainments could not 
 be copyrighted, any more than the report of a cannon could
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 be ; consequently, numerous " original Father Kemps " have 
 imposed themselves upon the credulous public, many of 
 whom, as I hear, have excelled in drinking whiskey, cheat- 
 ing landlords, and showing that they were "fathers" of 
 mischief and dishonesty as well as conductors of choirs 
 which sung religious music. Such evils are, in my case, not 
 the penalties of greatness, but the results of success. There- 
 fore, when I am introduced to a person who invites me to 
 join him in a drink, declaring he shouldn't have known me 
 again, I had so changed since we last met in private, I con- 
 clude, after refusing his invitation, that some of my venerable 
 imitators have "smiled "with him, after the Concert given 
 by the " original Father Kemp and his troupe of Old Folks." 
 One of my objects in giving this volume to the public is to 
 let them know that the original F. K. is at No. 261 Hanover 
 Street, and that he neither drinks with the acquaintances of 
 his hoary-headed namesakes, nor satisfies the demands of 
 their creditors. 
 
 This book will contain a history of the " Old Folks' Con- 
 certs " which originated in the vicinity of Boston, and in the 
 course of twelve years obtained a world-wide reputation. 
 Some of the incidents narrated may seem silly, as they 
 doubtlessly are ; and if the reader wishes to find fault be- 
 cause they are in print, let him console himself that I know 
 of hundreds of others, far more silly, which happened in my 
 experience. 
 
 I am under great obligations to the Pilgrim Fathers for 
 landing so near Cape Cod. I thank them heartily. Had 
 they gone farther South, their descendants would have 
 dressed differently, sung different psalm-tunes, I might have 
 been somebody else, and, consequently, " Father Kemp" 
 would never have had a chance in the world. Everything 
 has happened just right for me, and it is hoped the Pilgrims 
 will not suffer from anything that has occurred. In thus
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 speaking of the Plymouth Pilgrims, no slight is intended to 
 the Puritans of the Massachusetts colony, many of whose 
 descendants were members of my choir. 
 
 After so many years of active contact with the world, it is 
 a grateful privilege to have a place where rest and quiet can 
 be found, and where one can meet his friends, and feel, in his 
 old age, that he may repay them for years of kindness, if 
 they do as he desires. Such are my thoughts, when I con- 
 template the cheap rates at which my goods are held ; and 
 friends, I am confident, appreciate my motives in laboring so 
 assiduously for their advantage. Notwithstanding the publi- 
 cation of this book, they will still, as heretofore, find me at 
 No. 261 Hanover Street. 
 
 FATHER KEMP. 
 
 Boston, March, 1868.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Little Seafaring Experience Change of Occupation and Mode 
 of Living Farm in Reading Agricultural Experience 
 Fancy Farming, and How Much it Costs The Hen-Fever 
 Profits on Apples, Potatoes, and Squashes The Origin of the 
 Old Folks' Concerts My Neighbors " . 11 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Music in the Early Puritan Churches The Introduction of Musil 
 Books Contentions between New and Old School Singen 
 Dread of Popish Customs The Introduction of Musica 
 Instruments The Ungodliness of Boston Methodists . , 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 I he First Concerts at Reading and Lynn Scarcity of old Sing- 
 ing Books The Ijirst Tremont Temple Concert Public 
 Curiosity The Eager Crowd The Costumes Champion- 
 Bonnets Who were Represented An Incident The 
 Pres# 27
 
 VIII CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Concerts in the Vicinity of Boston A Good Way of Adver- 
 tisingPleasant Occasions The "Old Folks" Start on their 
 First Tour Incident in Providence Effect of Music upon 
 our Audiences Amusing Incident in New Haven Arrival 
 in New York The Great Crowds Concerts before the School 
 Children How I was Outwitted by a Manager Characteris- 
 tics of Theatrical Managers 35 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 From New York to Philadelphia Incident at a Concert in the 
 Quaker City Experiences in Washington Visit to the 
 President Sunday in Representatives' Hall Visit to the 
 Tomb of Washington Calls on the Heads of Departments 
 Kindness of the Press 44 
 
 QHAPTEE VI. 
 
 The Great Western Tour Mr. Henry C. Jarrett An Indus- 
 trious Company Enthusiasm in Cincinnati Indiana Licenses, 
 and how many of them are necessary to secure Freedom from 
 Arrest The Intelligent but Unfortunate Cow, and other In- 
 teresting Matters 52 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 
 
 A Chapter of Incidents The Incorruptible Mayor A Sharp 
 Landlord Experience in " Egypt " Postage Stamps for 
 Currency A Few Moral Reflections in Regard to the Temper 
 of Showmen
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bailroad Conductors, their Generous Disposition and Kindness of 
 Heart An Incident with a Western Railroad Official Visiting 
 Schools, and Hand-shaking An Occurrence in Vermont . . 68 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 More Experiences in the Public Schools A Connecticut Town 
 Hall Abraham Lincoln Singing in Church on Sundays 
 Instrumental Music in a Pennsylvania Church " Johnny 
 Schmolker " Farewell Concerts to America .... 78 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Incidents of our Departure for England Crossing the Ocean 
 Arrival at Liverpool Our Keception by the Custom-House 
 Officers and Newsboys Preparations for the First Concerts in 
 Liverpool Description of St. George's Hall .... 87 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The First Old Folks' Concert in England Interview with a Daily 
 Newspaper Editor How a Good Notice was secured English 
 Stupidity and English Ignorance Close of the Old Folks' Con- 
 certs in Liverpool and the Vicinity 95 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 London Tts Immense Area and Dense Population The Houses 
 
 of Parliament London Tower 106
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Tower of London It*History and Association . . . . Ill 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Westminster Abbey A Description of the Venerable Pile . . 131 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 How the " Old Folks " " Kept House " in the British Capital The 
 First London Concert How we didn't iippear before the Queen 
 
 Concerts at the Crystal Palace The Queen Mr. Peabody 
 
 Madame Tussaud and Sons British Audiences . . . 140 
 
 . CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Ancient City of Chester The Old lloman Wall, and Roman 
 
 Relics 147 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Brighton, the noted English Watering-place Concerts in the Royal 
 Pavilion My Departure from Brighton, and Arrival In Amer- 
 ica Heorganizafioii of the "Old Folks" Monday Popular 
 Concerts Old Coronation Mrs. Emma J. Nichols A Fa- 
 miliar Talk with the Reader Conclusion 182 
 
 SACUKO SELECTIONS .......... 107 
 
 SECCI.AK SELECTIONS 210
 
 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A Little Seafaring Experience Change of Occupation and Mode of 
 Living Farm in Reading Agricultural Experience Fancy Farm- 
 ing, and how much it Costs The Hen-Fever Profits on Apples, 
 Potatoes, and Squashes The Origin of the Old Folks' Concerts My 
 Neighbors. 
 
 )T has been intimated in the preface that I was 
 born on Cape Cod. That occurrence will ex- 
 plain how, at the age of nine years, I found 
 myself aboard a Cape Cod pinkey boat, which 
 was commanded by my uncle, occupying the 
 position of cook for twelve men. We were bound 
 on a fishing cruise. I felt the dignity of the new 
 office, and was bound to maintain it. I went to 
 work with a will. While the rest of the crew, 
 having got the vessel safely out of the port, were 
 lounging about, with no cares save to smoke their 
 pipes and " chaff," I was in the cabin, busily em- 
 ployed in preparing the first dinner, which I was 
 determined should be a credit to the youthful cook. 
 When we got outside, there was quite a heavy sea 
 
 11
 
 12 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 on, and the roll of the craft of course affected the 
 cooking utensils, which set upon the stove. These 
 were composed of a great pot, teakettle, and 
 bakepan. The fire burned briskly, the teakettle 
 hummed merrily, and I sat before the stove, my 
 face buried in my hands, gazing upon the live coals, 
 which shone out through a crack in the front part 
 of the stove. My thoughts were of the new posi- 
 tion, and what was to become of it. Already I 
 beheld myself, after the manner of my male rela- 
 tives, promoted, one grade after another, until I 
 stood upon the deck of a noble fisherman, as her 
 commander. The moment I did that, the boat gave 
 a sudden lurch, which upset me, and down came 
 the great pot, full of boiling, hissing beans, upon 
 the cabin floor ! 
 
 All know the story of the man who purchased 
 the glass ware, which he heaped before him, and sat 
 contemplating its beauties, and the profits he was 
 to realize from its sale, until he had become a 
 princely merchant, and demanded the hand of the 
 Grand Vizier's daughter in marriage. It was re- 
 fused. He lacked, and down crashed the glass 
 ware, and all his future prospects. Such, I felt, 
 was my position, as with a huge wooden spoon I 
 scooped up the beans from the cabin floor, keeping 
 an eye to windward, lest some of the* mischievous 
 crew should come below and witness my mortifica-
 
 SEAFAJIING EXPERIENCES. 13 
 
 tion. Despite this mishap, the first dinner on 
 board was a success. The beans went back into 
 the pot, and thence into the stomachs of the fisher- 
 men, for which they were originally intended. 
 The tars smacked their lips, praised the beans, the 
 cook, and complimented the cleanliness of the cabin 
 floor, which I had taken the precaution to wash. 
 
 I felt gratified at their praises, and my spirits 
 began to rise, as, after dinner, dish after dish was 
 placed by me upon the shelf, clean and shining. 
 The whole work was completed. I inwardly 
 chuckled at my success, and with the pan full of 
 dishwater mounted the gangway to go on deck 
 and " chuck " the contents overboard. Elation 
 added an extra force to my arm. The dishwater 
 went overboard and so did a dozen knives and 
 forks, which lay in the bottom of the pan, and 
 had escaped my observation. When I saw them 
 disappear beneath the waves, I felt a strong in- 
 clination to follow them. I was reserved however 
 for other mortifications. During the rest of the 
 voyage we operated at meal-time with wooden 
 utensils, whittled out for the occasion, which an- 
 swered for knives and forks. As the ship's lar- 
 der was not overburdened with meats, we were 
 not troubled to any great degree. 
 
 Fishing occupied my attention for three years,
 
 14 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 sometimes at the banks, and sometimes chasing 
 mackerel schools up and down the coast. 
 
 At the age of twenty I was in the boot and shoe 
 business, on Hanover street, Boston, being the jun- 
 ior member of the firm of Mansfield & Kemp, and 
 had made sufficient money, I thought, to take to my- 
 self a wife, who is the lady so often seen in a vener- 
 able cap and dress, occupying quite a prominent 
 position in the Old Folks' Concerts. 
 
 Soon after this I purchased a farm in Heading, 
 determined to enjoy the comforts of rural life, in 
 connection with my city business. I was at this 
 time attacked with a disease which has prevailed 
 to a great extent among my neighbors and friends 
 since my remembrance "Fancy Farming." I 
 grew poor (in pocket) while the fever raged, 
 but was rich in experience after the patient was 
 cured. The malady included everything which 
 follows the purchase of land by a young man 
 who has enough to do without spending his time 
 among the hoes and rakes. One phase was the 
 " hen fever," and I never shall forget the feelings 
 of pride with which I contemplated that flock of 
 chickens, one hundred strong, that fed from my 
 hand one morning before I left for the city. But 
 in their tender years, just before the pin-feathers 
 had disappeared, a cold and violent storm came 
 in the night and with it came that terror of the
 
 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCES. 15 
 
 hen-roost, a skunk. Between the two they made 
 a "good haul." In the morning five forlorn and 
 shivering chicks alone remained to tell the tale of 
 that night of horrors. I concluded from this disas- 
 ter that raising fowls was profitable only in those 
 places not infested by unfavorable natural elements, 
 and animals whose appetites are not commensurate 
 with their bump of destructiveness. 
 
 I was very lucky in raising fruit. My trees 
 were loaded with plump and luscious apples, the 
 profits on which bid fair to heal the wounds to 
 my pride made by the storm and skunk. A 
 man was employed to pick and carefully pack 
 them in barrels, and they were disposed of to Mr. 
 Curtis of Faneuil Hall Market, the total yield 
 being two hundred and twenty five barrels. 
 After all expenses had been met, I counted my 
 profits and found them to be exactly eight cents 
 a barrel. That is the most lucrative agricultural 
 operation I was ever engaged in. 
 
 A fine field of potatoes near the house was my 
 e'special pride, one year. The "rot" did for 
 them what other things had done for the chickens. 
 One morning I left two hundred hills of squashes 
 in my garden ; the hot sun beat down upon them, 
 the bugs got lively and voracious, and when I re- 
 turned at night they were wilted and broken. 
 
 A gooct portion of my time was passed in killing
 
 16 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 caterpillars. It is a pastime edifying to the fancy 
 farmer, for only about one season. A rustic wants 
 variety as well as other persons. If the vermin 
 would change 'their nature, so that the brain might 
 be exercised to invent some new method of destruc- 
 tion, the slaughter might then be contemplated with 
 a certain degree of interest and pleasure; but a 
 caterpillar is the same worm as the seasons come 
 round, and there is but one way of killing him. He 
 is numerous, and requires incessant watching. 
 
 Winter came, and with it the long evenings, when 
 the people in the country, and especially the good 
 people of Reading, depend upon social intercourse 
 for their enjoyment. Like them I loved to be 
 cheered by the company of acquaintances and friends. 
 After a few evenings passed in quiet, and mostly in 
 bed, a thought struck me, from which has originated 
 the "Old Folks' Concerts," which have since become 
 so famous. There were many good singers in Read- 
 ing, which also abounds in good things generally. 
 It is a model New England town, where the inhabi- 
 tants are social, intelligent, and hospitable, and after 
 traversing so many thousand miles of my own and 
 foreign countries I have become convinced that the 
 fortunate day of my life was when I purchased my 
 from of twelve acres in that suburb. But I digress. 
 One evening I invited a few young people (singers) 
 to my residence, to pass an evening in Repeating.
 
 OLD FOLKS' CONCERT. 17 
 
 some of the popular songs of the day, with which 
 we were all familiar. The first experiment was so 
 successful that many evenings were passed in like 
 manner. The voices blended well together, and, 
 more than all, the good sentiment and pleasant as- 
 sociations made all feel that the time was well 
 spent. 
 
 It then occurred to me to revive old memories by 
 singing some of the tunes which strengthened the 
 religious faith of our grandfathers and grandmothers, 
 and had often been the medium through which our 
 sturdy and pious ancestors had lifted their hearts in 
 thankfulness to their Maker, for planting their home 
 in the land of liberty. Accordingly the " country 
 round about" was thoroughly scoured, and every old 
 singing-book which could be procured was brought 
 to my house on the next evening of the " sing." 
 An odd collection they were, many of them being 
 entire strangers to the present generation. Prom- 
 inent among them was the noted Billings and Hoi- 
 den Collection, the others being made up of singing- 
 books of more modern date, which contained old 
 tunes. By paging the principal pieces in the different 
 books, we soon had them readily at our com- 
 mand. These rehearsals attracted much atten- 
 tion in the neighborhood, and, on the evenings set 
 apart for them, the house was crowded with those 
 2
 
 18 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 who came to listen to the performances of the " Old 
 Folks," as our neighbors familiarly called us. 
 
 Before proceeding with the account of the concerts 
 it may be of interest to the reader to learn a few 
 facts concerning the history of church music in New 
 England.
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 Music in the early Puritan Churches The Introduction of Music Books 
 Contentions between New and Old School Singess Dread of Popish 
 Customs The Introduction of Musical Instruments The Ungodli- 
 ness of Boston Methodists. 
 
 N the early Puritan churches of New England 
 but one psalm was sung in the morning, and 
 this was dictated line by line to the congrega- 
 tion. One of the officers of the church usually 
 read the hymns and gave out the tunes. In some 
 parishes other persons performed this duty, for 
 which service the party was excused from paying 
 his poll-tax. In the afternoon, "if there was time," 
 a psalm was sung, and the services were concluded 
 with a prayer and blessing. The first book printed 
 in America was the " Bay Psalm Book," which was 
 compiled, in 1640, by an association of New Eng- 
 land Ministers. Its introduction met with great 
 opposition, as the oldest of the Puritans in America 
 were attached to Ainsworth's version of the Psalms, 
 which they brought with them. The Salem churches 
 used Ainsworth's work until 1667, and the Plym- 
 outh Church until 1692. The Puritan churches 
 of the colonies were much divided in sentiment 
 
 19
 
 20 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 upon questions incident to the subject of music in 
 the sanctuary. The records of the times show that 
 the colonists were much "exercised in their con- 
 sciences " in regard to whether the singing of the 
 Psalms of David with a lively voice was proper 
 under the New Testament dispensation. Whether 
 women as well as men, or men alone, should sing ; 
 whether the "pagans" (the unconverted) should 
 be allowed to sing with the church members. 
 Many thought the old familiar tunes were inspired, 
 and were therefore opposed to the introduction of 
 any new music. Some individuals had scruples 
 about singing in a metre devised by man, and 
 others were puzzled with the question whether it 
 was lawful to read the psalm to be sung in public; 
 worship. The above questions were considered 
 and discussed by the learned divines of the period. 
 For sixty years after many of the earliest churches 
 were gathered in New England not more than ten 
 tunes were used. These were written in the psalm- 
 book or the Bible, and were often repeated once or 
 twice in the services of a single Sabbath. In most 
 cases the psalms were sung in rotation without re- 
 gard to the subject of the discourse. After a time 
 music had been so neglected that no congregation 
 could sing more than five or six tunes. These were 
 Oxford, York, Litchfield, Windsor, St. David's, and 
 Martyr's. In cases where the metre did not suit the
 
 cnuRcn MUSIC. ' 21 
 
 tune, one or two words were omitted to meet the 
 difficulty. During the disputes and contentions of 
 the Puritan churches, the cultivation of music was 
 neglected, the use of notes fell into disrepute, and 
 no two of the singers kept time together. In the 
 quaint language of a writer of the times, Rev. Mr. 
 Walter of Roxbury, " Every melody was tortured 
 and twisted as every unskilful throat saw fit." The 
 singing sounded " like five hundred different tunes 
 roared out at the same time," producing noises " so 
 hideous and disorderly as is bad beyond expres- 
 sion." 
 
 About the year 1700 a reform in church music 
 was begun in Massachusetts, which made slow prog- 
 ress for a time, but an improvement was effected, 
 however, without great opposition in many quarters, 
 The attempts made to reform and improve the 
 music in Puritan churches produced great excite- 
 ment. Some parishes were divided into parties 
 upon the question of singing by "note," or by 
 "rote," and in many towns the parties were so 
 equally divided upon the question that a compromise 
 was made, and half the psalms were sung in the old 
 and half in the new way. According to all ac- 
 counts, the best singing in Massachusetts Colony for 
 a hundred years after its settlement was in the Indian 
 churches. Mr. Eliot translated the psalms into In- 
 dian verse. Copies of this work are extant, but
 
 22 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 not a human being can read them. The Indian 
 church music is described as being excellent "sing- 
 ing of psalms with most ravishing melody." 
 Frequent mention is made by Puritan writers of the 
 K excellent singing of Massachusetts Indians." 
 
 To show the spirit of the times of which I speak, 
 I will quote from a writer in Massachusetts a hun- 
 dred and fifty years ago : " Truly," said he, " I have 
 a great jealousy that if we once begin to sing by 
 note the next thing will be to pray by rule and 
 preach by rule, and then comes Popery ! " 
 
 For many years after the arrival of the Puritans, 
 they cultivated music, but during the contentions 
 and bitterness of party strife upon religious mat- 
 ters, which soon so extensively prevailed, and the 
 witchcraft delusion, the Indian wars, and other evils 
 and troubles of the period, but little attention was 
 paid to harmony of any kind. About the year 
 1700 the clergy began to see with what difficulty 
 and as one of them expresses it, " what great inde- 
 cency," the singing was executed. Some of them 
 thought that singing would have to be wholly omit- 
 ted in public worship, if the art was not revived. 
 
 The pulpit earnestly called for 'a better perform- 
 ance of their songs of praise, and the ablest 
 divines in the colonies joined heart and hand in the 
 reformation. It is at once instructive and amusing 
 to note what opposition the efforts for a musical re-
 
 CHURCH MUSIC. 23 
 
 form encountered. In every parish the reform was 
 opposed with a virulence of feeling and tenacity 
 of attachment to old customs that seem to us at 
 this day almost unaccountable. It may be affirmed 
 that the witchcraft delusion met with less opposition 
 at its introduction than was brought to bear against 
 the singing reform. The deacons wished to retain 
 their office of deaconing off the psalms, and op- 
 posed singing by note. For the curiosity of the 
 reader I will give some of the reasons urged by the 
 musical hawkers of a century and a third ago. 
 These ultra conservatives opposed singing by note, 
 because, "it was a new way, not so melodious as 
 the existing custom." They opposed the innovation 
 because there were so many tunes no one could ever 
 learn them ; they affirmed that the tunes were 
 Popish in their tendency, and would lead to the in- 
 troduction of musical instruments 1 They reasoned 
 that 
 
 " If gowns and cassocks are but rags 
 
 Of Bab'lon's Scarlet Doxy, 
 What is an organ piping psalms 
 But worshipping by Proxy ?" 
 
 But the pulpit stood firm amidst the popular 
 clamors. Such men as the Mathers, EdWardses, 
 Stoddards, Symeses, D wights, Wises, Walters, 
 Thachers, and Princes, fearlessly called for a music- 
 al reform. Many of the discourses of these divines
 
 24 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 are able arguments on the " Reasonableness of Regu- 
 lar Singing." 
 
 Rev. John Tufts, of Newbury, published a mu- 
 sical work, in 1712, entitled, "A very plain and 
 easy introduction to the art of singing psalm tunes, 
 with the cantus or trebles of twenty-eight psalm 
 tunes contrived in such a manner as that the learner 
 may attain the skill of singing them with the great- 
 est ease and speed imaginable. Price sixpence, or 
 five shilliujs per dozen." The work ran through 
 eleven editions, and the number of tunes was in- 
 creased to thirty-seven, all but one in common metre. 
 The number of tunes in these little books was con- 
 sidered enormous. The pages were neatly engraved, 
 and in size to bind with the "Bay Psalm Book." 
 The reform went on steadily, and other musical pub- 
 lications soon appeared. Cotton Mather published a 
 work in 1718, and Rev. Thomas Walter, of Roxbury, 
 edited a work in 1721 , which was the first music print- 
 ed with bass in America. The work of Mr. Walter 
 was recommended by pastors of the congregational 
 churches, in Boston, except Cotton Mather, who 
 had a rival work in the market. 
 
 Until about the year 1770, no native American 
 had attempted to compose and publish a single tune. 
 William Billings, a native of Boston, can claim the 
 distinction of being the pioneer in this work. 
 
 Among the New England Puritans, singing
 
 CHURCH MUSIC. 25 
 
 psalm tunes was always regarded as a devotional 
 act. So great was the reverence in which the few 
 tunes known was held, that the colonists put off their 
 hats, as they would in prayer, whenever they heard 
 one sung, as the English now do when " God save 
 the Queen" is sung. The tunes which the "Old 
 Folks " have given were held too sacred to be used 
 for amusement. 
 
 Many of my readers of the elder generation will 
 remember the excitement occasioned by the intro- 
 duction of musical instruments into the churches of 
 New England. Many parishes were divided and 
 some were actually split by the innovation. It was 
 wittingly said, "that the introduction of the violon- 
 cello and double bass was a base violation of the 
 proprieties of God's House." Meeting-houses in 
 which instruments were used or rejected were known 
 as "Cat-gut," or "Anti-cat-gut churches." Even 
 in our own day, the opposition to musical instru- 
 ments in the sanctuary prevailed at the South and 
 West. When the National Methodist Conference 
 met in Boston, and the delegates from the different 
 sections of the Union were invited by Honorable 
 Benjamin Seaver, then mayor of the city, to 
 Faneuil Hall, to be addressed by Daniel Webster, 
 one of the clergymen, after attending public wor- 
 ship in the Hanover Street Methodist Church, wrote
 
 26 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 home to a Southern denominational journal, that 
 there was no religion among the Methodists of Bos- 
 ton, for they had doors to their pews and organs in 
 their churches.
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 The first Concerts at Reading and Lynn Scarcity of Old Singing Books 
 The First Tremont Temple Concert Public Curiosity The eager 
 Crowd The Costumes Champion-Bonnets Who were Represent- 
 ed An Incident The Press. 
 
 FTER the " dress rehearsals," I determined 
 to appear in public, with my troupe, of 
 whom I had began to feel somewhat proud. 
 I saw that the entertainments pleased the 
 " old folks," who did not belong to the choir. 
 I felt also that a revival of the good music of former 
 times, sung as our ancestors sung it, would be a 
 novel experience to the present generation. Ac- 
 cordingly the evening of Dec. 6, 185- was set apart 
 as the proper time for Father Kemp and his " Old 
 Folks " to make their debut before the public. Extra 
 pains were taken to procure books, and we found it 
 difficult to get a sufficient number. Doubtless 
 more old garrets in Massachusetts were turned 
 topsy-turvy for this purpose than for any object 
 since the settlement of the colony. At the first en- 
 tertainment the Lyceum Hall in Reading was literal- 
 ly packed with what Mr. Jenkins would call a 
 "large and fashionable audience," although a very 
 
 27
 
 28 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 important number of the people present were noted 
 for the scrupulous care which they took to discard 
 everything of a fashionable nature. The timid 
 ones feared a " break down ; " but -not such an one 
 as our parents were wont to indulge in, in their 
 moments of hilarity. Hundreds remained outside 
 the building unable to gain admission, and listened 
 to the music of the " Old Folks ; " and they thought, 
 with the audience, that the voices of the fossils 
 were remarkably fresh. 
 
 The people of Lynn had an awakening upon the 
 subject of old music, and the company, which by 
 this time had become quite well organized, received 
 a cordial invitation to appear in that place. "\Ye 
 stalled in teams for Lynn. A severe snow-storm 
 came on, which rendered it impossible for us to get 
 to the hall. As it has always been my principle 
 never to postpone a concert on account of the 
 weather, the Sagamore House was substituted for 
 the hall, and those Avho heard the performance 
 were anxious for a second trial, under more favor- 
 able auspices. We afterwards appeared in Lynn, 
 with marked success. In the morning after the 
 concert at the hotel we started for home. The 
 roads were drifted and it was intensely cold, the 
 thermometer being for the most of the day twenty de- 
 grees below zero. Several of the ladies were frost- 
 bitten. Shovels were procured to " clear the track,"
 
 CONCERTS IN READING AND LYNN. '29 
 
 and thus we worked our passage back to Reading, 
 where wo arrived at 6 P. M. The distance from 
 Lynn to Reading is ten miles. We were all day on 
 the road. This was my first experience in going 
 abroad to give concerts. Had I then forsaken the 
 business, the facts in the case would have more than 
 justified me in so doing. 
 
 The popular favor with which these unique enter- 
 tainments had met, prompted me to consider the 
 expediency of giving the citizens of Boston an op- 
 portunity to hear them. There was a natural shy- 
 ness on my part, which was shared by my associates, 
 as to the propriety of the undertaking. Having 
 done business in the city for many years, I of 
 course had many acquaintances, who would be in- 
 fluenced by the measure of my success. If I failed 
 in giving satisfaction, I might as well also fail in the 
 shoe business, and hereafter confine my operatiojis 
 to Reading and Lynn, where I was appreciated. 
 But no man, in my vocation, can be completely dis- 
 couraged at one failure. The motto of my custom- 
 ers, in purchasing boots, is, "Try, try again," until 
 they find a pair which fits them ; and I encourage 
 the axiom. Why should it not apply to the con- 
 certs as well? I determined it should. I considered 
 the matter carefully, and the more I considered 
 the better I thought of it. When I had fully con- 
 cluded to make the trial, I was convinced that the
 
 30 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 affair ought to assume the proportions of a demon- 
 stration, a protest of the " Old Folks " against 
 being ignored by their posterity. It was my de- 
 sire to bring to the eye and ear of the citizens of 
 the New England metropolis the customs of the 
 good people of former generations of whose char- 
 acteristics as well as dress and behavior we all had 
 read, but which none had been permitted to observe. 
 To accomplish this there must be extensive labor and 
 research, in which not one but scores of people 
 must engage, and to the ardor with which the young 
 " Old Folks " entered into the enterprise, in attending 
 to the details and preparing for the occasion, is 
 due the success of the first concert in Boston. 
 
 The Tremont Temple was secured, and I told the 
 company we would try one; and if that "took," 
 we M r ould try another. An extra train was char- 
 tejred to run from Reading to Boston, and return after 
 the concert. The singers numbered about fifty 
 ladies and gentlemen. Our friends turned out in 
 round numbers, all dressed in the costume of " old 
 folks," and those who went to the city to sing and 
 sit on the platform were about two hundred. Such 
 a collection of " nondescripts " was never seen in 
 the Temple before. Arrived at the depot, we 
 found a large crowd awaiting our coming. Twelve 
 omnibuses conveyed us to the concert-room, which 
 was packed with an audience, in which curiosity
 
 CURIOSITY AND COSTUMES. 31 
 
 seemed to be the prevailing element. All the tick- 
 ets were disposed of several hours before the time 
 announced for the beginning of the entertainment ; 
 door-keepers had been knocked down, and the 
 crowd held possession of the staircase and lobbies. 
 The public were evidently aroused, and I felt some- 
 what aroused myself when I learned what had been 
 going on. 
 
 As the members of the troupe and their friends 
 slowly filed on to the platform before the immense 
 audience the noise and disturbance ceased, and all 
 were intently engaged in examining the queer, 
 quaint, and curious costumes which covered the 
 apparently venerable forms before them. One lady 
 wore a dress brought to this country more than two 
 hundred years ago, by Major Willard. His daugh- 
 ter, at her marriage, wore it, and three other ladies 
 were afterwards joined in matrimony while wear- 
 ing the same dress. The material was satin dam- 
 ask, very rich and brilliant. Other ladies wore 
 dresses of antique fashion, none of which were less 
 than fifty years old, and several were known to be 
 upwards of two hundred years of age. Most of the 
 gentlemen appeared in knee-breeches, buckles, and 
 cocked hats ; one had a coat which was worn by 
 one of the first governors of Massachusetts ; a hat 
 worn at the battle of Bunker Hill by Lieut. Parker, 
 of Reading, covered the head of another, and tie
 
 32 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 coats, cloaks, etc., were generally venerable, but 
 well preserved. Everything that could not count 
 up a hundred years was considered modern. 
 
 The people in the vicinity of Reading were very 
 kind in making presents of old relics, which were 
 highly valued by us. In the way of bonnets, I be- 
 lieve this first concert at the Temple displayed more 
 material on fewer heads than had ever been seen in 
 the building before. One of my champion bonnets 
 would make a score of modern "Fanchons," "Lam- 
 balles," and "Marie Antoinettes." One of these 
 formerly belonged to a lady in Salem, and has been 
 introduced at all my concerts. When it was first 
 purchased, all the young ladies in the neighborhood 
 sat in judgment upon it, and decided that the owner 
 must carry it w right straight back," as it was too 
 small for the fashion ! She kept it however, in 
 hopes that the fashions might change. This bonnet 
 was as large as a flour-barrel ! 
 
 Among the distinguished persons represented by 
 the troupe were George and Martha Washington, 
 John Hancock, General Putnam, Thomas Jefferson, 
 Daniel Booue, and numerous others equally well 
 known, besides Puritan fathers and mothers. A 
 member of the company appeared in a check worn 
 by one of the Salem witches. The audience were 
 much interested and amused, and evidently awaited 
 the opening chorus with great eagerness. The
 
 AN INCIDENT. 33 
 
 selections comprised a variety of sacred and secular 
 music, the latter being of more modern composition. 
 The orchestra was no mean affair, the most notable 
 object being the big fiddle, of whose venerable owner 
 we shall speak hereafter. "Auld Lang Syne" 
 seemed to put the immense throng in the right hu- 
 mor to enjoy the concert. The " Anthem for Easter," 
 "Greenwich," "Coronation," "Strike the Cymbal," 
 the "Ode on Science," etc., followed in due time, 
 all being received with applause. The concert 
 closed with the singing of " Old Hundred," in which 
 the audience were invited to join. They complied 
 with the request with a hearty good will. Notice 
 was given that the " Old Folks " would soon appear in 
 another concert at the Temple. They did appeal-, 
 and eleven were given in succession with the same 
 eclat that attended the first performance. As an 
 instance of the interest excited among the elder peo- 
 ple to hear the company, I will mention a gentle- 
 man from Brookline, who, after being disappointed 
 in gaining admission to the Temple on three differ- 
 ent evenings, got indignant and entered a complaint 
 at my store, that he had come to the city with his 
 family in a carriage on these occasions, and had 
 found the doors closed and the house full each even- 
 ing. "Now," said he, with righteous indignation 
 flashing from beneath his spectacles, "I am more 
 than seventy years old, but I could manage these 
 
 3
 
 34 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS 
 
 concerts better myself ! " I took care of him and 
 his family after that, notwithstanding the fact that 
 half the tickets he had purchased were spurious. 
 The following is one of the many very kind notices 
 of this entertainment which appeared in the Boston 
 papers, and to whose influence I attribute much of 
 the fame which the " Old Folks " speedily acquired, 
 " Half an hour before the performances of ' Father 
 Kemp's Old Folks' were commenced last night, 
 every inch of room within the Tremont Temple hall 
 was occupied, and hundreds came afterwards. The 
 excellence of this company was attested by this 
 great desire to hear them, and we feel some local 
 pride in chronicling this success, for they merit all 
 the patronage bestowed upon them ; they are capa- 
 ble singers, perform good music, and all of their 
 actions are decorous and appropriate."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Concerts in the Vicinity of Boston A good Way of Advertising Pleas- 
 ant Occasions The "Old Folks" start on their First Tour Incident 
 in Providence Effect of Music upon our Audiences Amusing Inci- 
 dent in New Haven Arrival in New York The Great Crowds Con- 
 certs before the School Children How I was Outwitted by a Man- 
 ager Characteristics of Theatrical Managers. 
 
 fame of the "Old Folks' Concerts "had 
 now spread throughout New England. In- 
 vitations poured in from all quarters for the 
 troupe to appear in not only the cities of 
 this Commonwealth, but in those of the 
 other States. Many of these were accepted, the 
 first being given in those places to which access was 
 easy, and from which the members of the company 
 could return home either on the same evening or the 
 next day. The system of making a liberal display 
 of old folks on the platform was still kept up, the 
 expenses of those who would go in " full dress " for 
 the occasion being borne by me. These first con- 
 certs were given for pleasure, and no thought of 
 benefiting myself pecuniarily by them had been 
 entertained. The bills, as presented to the man- 
 ager, were very large, and the liberal patronage 
 
 35
 
 36 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS, 
 
 alone enabled him to meet them. I did not depend 
 entirely upon the newspapers and board fences for 
 advertising. In addition to those powerful agents, 
 it was my custom to marshal the company, which 
 generally numbered from one to two hundred, and 
 parade them about the streets, to let the people 
 know how venerable and respectable we were. Of 
 course the members were particularly careful about 
 their toilets on these occasions, as they were fre- 
 quently subjected to uncomfortably close inspection. 
 The children always followed us in the greatest glee, 
 the dogs barked, business was suspended, and old 
 men hobbled along beside us, with the light of other 
 days shining in their eyes. Young and middle- 
 aged people smiled or laughed, and the whole 
 neighborhood, wherever we appeared, was in an up- 
 roar, just as we intended it should be. We were 
 amply repaid for these excursions by the looks of 
 curiosity and astonishment and the odd remarks 
 with which we were greeted. Our concerts in the 
 vicinity of Boston were much more enjoyable than 
 many others we have given. The experience was 
 novel and exciting to us, and the singers were 
 accompanied by a crowd of friends who shared the 
 merriment of every ludicrous incident, and when 
 there was a prospect that none would occur to 
 enliven us, the inventive faculties of some of our
 
 INCIDENT IN PROVIDENCE. 37 
 
 own number would be exercised to set the company 
 in a roar. 
 
 I was soon prevailed upon by offers from the 
 West and South to visit the large cities in those 
 sections. My agent was a young collegian, whose 
 education and intelligence prepared the influential 
 people whom he met, as he travelled before us, to 
 give us a kind reception. The first route marked 
 out was from Reading to Washington, to stop 
 and give concerts at each prominent place on the 
 road. The company numbered forty-seven singers, 
 the ornamental portion who had previously 
 figured in our entertainments being, of course, left 
 behind. 
 
 When we appeared in Providence, Howard Hall 
 was packed to its fullest extent. The company 
 passed on to the stage and opened with " Auld Lang 
 Syne," which was followed by the "Easter An- 
 them." The tune had scarcely been finished, when 
 a venerable, white-haired gentleman, in the middle 
 of the audience, tossed his hat in the air and shout- 
 ed, "I knew it! I knew it! Every word of it!" 
 Of course the attention of the whole house was 
 directed to him ; but he could not be pacified. He 
 talked loudly of the old times, which the old cos- 
 tumes and old tunes had brought vividly before him. 
 Amusing as the incident might seem, there were 
 more tears shed than smiles provoked by it. He
 
 38 FATHER KEMP AND BIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 became so much excited, that his son was compelled 
 to remove him, almost by force, from the audience. 
 I believe there was not a person present who would 
 not have gladly gone away if the old man could 
 have remained. 
 
 I have often stood upon the platform, while con- 
 ducting the choir, and watched the effect of some 
 of the stirring old anthems upon the audience. 
 While the. young people would laugh and whisper 
 together as if criticising our odd costumes, the tears 
 were trickling down the furrowed cheeks of those 
 who were living over again their moments of youth- 
 ful enjoyment. 
 
 After the first concert in New Haven, Mr. Daniel 
 Foss, who operated the " big fiddle," was the hero 
 of an adventure, which, at the time, occasioned 
 much merriment among the troupe. On returning 
 to the hotel, a lady of some note, who lived there at 
 the time, inquired of Mrs. Kemp, "where that old 
 man was who played the big fiddle ? " She " desired 
 to see him, as she had something for him." Mr. 
 Foss was introduced in his every-day garments. 
 The contrast was so great that the lady said, " He is 
 not the gentleman. I want to see that old man." 
 Mrs. Kemp assured her that the " old man " stood 
 in her presence. She was still incredulous, and evi- 
 dently begun to regard such " deception " upon a 
 lady of her standing, as an imposition. Other mem-
 
 ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK. 39 
 
 bers of the troupe came forward and agreed with 
 Mrs. Kemp's statements. Still being in doubt, she 
 invited him to her apartments and presented him 
 with an elegant basket of fruit and wines, which he 
 gracefully accepted, and returned the next morning 
 in costume to thank her for the present. Mr. Foss 
 is, to this day, reluctantly compelled to admit, that, 
 had he fiddled without the aid of artistic embellish- 
 ment to his person, he and his friends would never 
 have enjoyed that splendid repast. 
 
 We left New Haven quite early on the morning 
 after our last concert, in order to arrive in New York 
 and do a little advertising before nightfall. The 
 first concert was to be given at the Broadway Tab- 
 ernacle. Our agent had procured a dozen fine 
 teams, the horses being gayly decked with plumes. 
 Of course we could not expect to " take " Gotham 
 in any way except by " assault." So in full uniform, 
 conspicuously seated in the carriages, we rode about 
 the streets, and at once became the " observed of all 
 observers." The urchins numbered, I should think, 
 several millions, and their demonstration of wel- 
 come in the shape of snowballs, etc., was one which 
 could alone be made by the juveniles of a great 
 city. They followed us to the hotel, and filled the 
 space in front, while we were alighting from the 
 vehicles. A friend suggested that at the concert we 
 should have to employ many policemen; but I
 
 40 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 assured him this whole crowd would not be there. 
 So it proved. New York is a very large place, and 
 is generally supposed to admire the new rather than 
 the old. But the Gothamites did not slight the "Old 
 Folks." At the first enter! aimnent the Broadway 
 Tabernacle was packed, and the enthusiasm among 
 the descendants of the Knickerbockers for the per- 
 formances of the sons and daughters of the Puri- 
 tans was even more marked than I had anticipated. 
 
 While in New York the company was invited to 
 attend one of Thalberg's concerts, which he gave 
 before the public schools. He was then at the 
 height of his success in America. There was some- 
 thing of a contrast between the efforts of the emi- 
 nent and accomplished pianist and the homely, 
 straightforward performances of the " Old Folks ; " 
 but I am inclined to believe that the children would 
 have voted en masse for Father Kemp, had they been 
 asked to signify their choice of the two portions of 
 the entertainment. 
 
 I was afterwards waited on by the Board of Edu- 
 cation, who desired the "Old Folks" to attend one 
 of the noon concerts given before the children at 
 Niblo's Garden. I was never backward in seizins: 
 
 O 
 
 upon an opportunity to appear in public where the 
 juveniles were assembled, for they rank among my 
 stanchest supporters. Many a parent has been in- 
 duced to listen to our entertainments through the
 
 OUTWITTED BY A MANAGER. 41 
 
 marvellous stories of odd costumes, big bonnets 
 and fiddles, and good music, narrated by the children 
 of the public schools before which we sung. I at 
 once accepted the invitation of the Board, impressed 
 the importance of the occasion upon the company, 
 purchased a full supply of white kid gloves, and, at 
 the head of the troupe, in full costume, the "big 
 fiddle " forming a sort of shield to the " Old Folks," 
 marched along Broadway towards the Garden. 
 When we arrived at the door, we met an obsta- 
 cle in the shape of some one interested in the estab- 
 lishment, who refused to permit us to enter the 
 house. The member of the Board explained and 
 expostulated, but the Teuton was inexorable, and 
 declared that "Fader Kemps cannot enters dish 
 deatre mit his old folks for an advertisement. De 
 shildrens goes hum and says, ' Vat have we here 
 like Fader Kemps and his company? Nodings, 
 nodings.' So deir faders, deir mudders, deir kin- 
 dreds all goes to see Fader Kemps and hear dem 
 sing, and I can stay here mit my deatre all alone if 
 I like. I understands his dittle game, and know 
 sumdings about management. No, sir; Fader 
 Kemps and his troupe goes into my deatre wen dey 
 pays, and not before. I vish you a very goot 
 mornings." 
 
 I concluded the old fellow did know " sumdings 
 about management," and beat a hasty retreat, fol-
 
 42 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 lowed by my troupe. Such treatment may seem 
 unjust and uncharitable ; but I looked upon it as the 
 natural result of the schooling which my Dutch 
 friend had received. It is said that everything is 
 fair in love and war, and it should be added, the- 
 atrical management, also. Although I have no 
 reason to complain of bad treatment from theatre 
 managers, my experience as a " showman " convinced 
 me that in their business few advantages are given, 
 and many taken. But there is one thing which 
 should be mentioned to their honor. The members 
 of no profession are more ready to aid an unfortu- 
 nate brother. Let his theatre be destroyed by fire ; 
 there is immediately a general " volunteering " of 
 lessees of other establishments, and of actors and 
 musicians, for a benefit. If a dull season depletes 
 his purse, no sooner is it known than his rivals are 
 proffering him generous assistance. Such humane 
 characteristics go far to redeem other less commend- 
 able traits. They have many difficulties to en- 
 counter, and many of those with whom they are 
 compelled to deal are a "sharp set." Is it any 
 wonder that they become sharp from habit and 
 association ? 
 
 The incident above narrated "got into the papers," 
 and greater attention was drawn to the " Old Folks " 
 than would have been had we sung in the theatre.
 
 MUSICAL CONCERT. 43 
 
 Hud we made a second application, we might per- 
 haps have been graciously received. 
 
 While in New York we gave a concert in the 
 Academy of Music, which was attended by upwards 
 of six thousand persons. The proceeds were de- 
 voted to a charitable object. In bidding farewell, 
 to resume my tour South, I had every reason to feel 
 highly gratified with the first series of concerts in 
 the Empire City.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 
 
 From New York to Philadelphia Incident at a Concert in the Quaker 
 City Experiences in Washington Visit to the President Sunday 
 in Representatives' Hall Visit to the Tomb of Washington Calls 
 on the Heads of Departments Kindness of the Press. 
 
 ILLIAMSBURG was the first town taken 
 after New York, and we captured it just 
 as the children were leaving the public 
 schools. A crowded audience greeted us 
 there. At Brooklyn, Henry Ward Beech- 
 er's church was secured ; and, previous to the con- 
 cert, we took a couple of hours to examine the city, 
 in full costume ; and the inhabitants took occasion 
 to examine the new-comers, who appeared in such 
 old garbs. We gave several concerts in the vicinity, 
 and left for Philadelphia. 
 
 The City of Brotherly Love gave us a character- 
 istic welcome. The Quakers turned out in goodly 
 numbers, and crowded Dr. Jaynes's new hall, then 
 the largest in the State of Pennsylvania. Another 
 of the laughable incidents continually occurring 
 happened here, the venerable old man with the "big 
 
 44
 
 INCIDENT IN THE QUAKER CITY. 45 
 
 fiddle '' again being the hero. During intermission 
 it was the custom of the members of the troupe to 
 mingle with the audience, who were greatly inter- 
 ested in examining the costumes. Mr. Foss re- 
 mained upon the platform, evidently guarding his 
 instrument. A very aged lady approached him, 
 and, without any ceremony, entered into conversa- 
 tion with him. She said she had been in General 
 Washington's family, and could very well remember 
 how they all looked. Mr. Foss joined with her in 
 bringing up reminiscences of which he had heard, 
 and with which she was familiar. Suddenly she 
 asked, "Do you remember the Dark Day?" This 
 was a " poser." After a little hesitation he observed 
 that she could undoubtedly remember that occur- 
 rence much better than he could. "But can't you 
 remember anything about it?" she asked; "I can 
 remember it about as well as if it had been only 
 yesterday." The ancient musician acknowledged 
 .that his memory was very treacherous, and he had 
 no distinct recollection of the anomaly. "May 1 
 ask your age, sir?" "Forty-three." "Well, I 
 should say as much ! " exclaimed the old lady, quite 
 tartly. "It is no longer a wonder that you don't 
 remember that great dark day ! " 
 
 From Philadelphia we went to Washington, where 
 we gave several concerts. Our experience at the 
 National Capitol was of a somewhat curious and
 
 46 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 trying description. Congress was in session, and 
 every house was full. We dined at one table, or 
 rather sat around it until we were ashamed to sit 
 longer, and then went abroad and finished dinner on 
 a beefsteak. Our trunks were at another house ; we 
 slept at still another, and received friends who visit- 
 ed us on the sidewalk. Mr. Buchanan was then 
 President, and of course, we honored him with a 
 visit. Surrounding the " Old Public Functionary," 
 we sang a patriotic air or two, with which he seemed 
 delighted. That did not, however, prevent him 
 from maintaining the position that States had not 
 the right to secede, but, if they did, force could not 
 be used to keep them in the Union. 
 
 On Sunday we sang at the religious services in the 
 New Representatives' Hall. The room was crowd- 
 ed, and the preacher evidently wondered how he 
 had become so suddenly popular. We sat in the 
 Reporters' Gallery, and he had not been informed 
 of our presence. When we " struck up " the " An- 
 tiieni for Easter " he turned his head round with a 
 startled air, which would have been amusing had it 
 not been for the solemn character of the occasion. 
 That occurrence, and the presence of an unusually 
 large audience, completely nonplussed him, and his 
 sermon proved the folly of any one but a man pe- 
 culiarly gifted, attempting to preach without notes. 
 The discourse consisted mainly of "brothers and
 
 EXPERIENCES IN WASHINGTON. 47 
 
 sisters," "friends," and "you, the unconverted;" 
 and I really felt relieved when he sat down, and we 
 prepared to sing the closing tune. 
 
 Accompanied by a numerous party, we visited 
 the tomb of Washington, at Mount Vernou. 
 
 Standing around the vault, with uncovered heads, 
 the " Old Folks " sang, 
 
 " Why do we mourn departed friends ? " 
 
 The associations that clustered around the spot 
 made the scene a very impressive one, and will al- 
 ways be vividly remembered by those who were pres- 
 ent on the occasion. Returning, we stopped at one 
 of the forts on the Potomac, and sung some patri- 
 otic airs to the soldiers quartered there. 
 
 During our stay in Washington, we visited the 
 heads of departments, in costume. The Secretary of 
 State greeted us cordially, and we were urged to give 
 him a specimen of our old New England vocalism. 
 We did not wish to do anything foreign to propriety 
 in such a place, and therefore complied with his 
 request. The Secretary of the Treasury showed us 
 great hospitality, and, without drawing upon his 
 funds, we favored him with a few selections. The 
 reader will understand that we were not over-anxious 
 to sing in these " irregular places," and did not com- 
 ply without much urging. We had Ml we wished 
 to attend to between sunset and ten o'clock. At
 
 48 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 the War Department both battle hymns and 
 tunes of a pacific nature were indulged in. The 
 Secretary smiled grimly during each performance, 
 but did not signify which he preferred. The Sec- 
 retary of the Navy of course preferred nautical 
 songs ; but as that department is generally behind 
 the times, we sung nothing more modern than " A 
 Life on the Ocean Wave," " On Jordan's Stormy 
 Banks," etc., which seemed to gratify him, as he 
 asked us to come k again, knowing, of course, that 
 our engagements would prevent us from complying 
 with his request. At the Patent Office they in- 
 quired if they shouldn't " put us through " the es- 
 tablishment, so that imitations might be prevented. 
 We declined, but experience has since proved that 
 if the use of Father Kemp's name could have been 
 retained exclusively by the originator of the nom de 
 plume it would have " put money in his purse." 
 The only fault I have to find with Washington was, 
 as Artemus would say, its "muchness." An extra 
 pair of legs is wanted for every one who is to travel 
 there. We received many invitations from public 
 dignitaries and did not wish to refuse. Consequent- 
 ly, during a week's visit, we were constantly on the 
 move, and when the order to "pack" was issued, the 
 members of the troupe obeyed with more than their 
 usual alacrity* 
 Leaving Washington, we gave concerts in Balti-
 
 KINDNESS OF THE PltESS. 49 
 
 more, Philadelphia, and other cities on our way home. 
 Hundreds of incidents of this homeward trip might 
 be mentioned, but the reader can by this time im- 
 agine the ludicrous character of some of them. The 
 press everywhere received us with the greatest favor, 
 and to the editorial fraternity I was, in this first tour, 
 indebted for many kind words which were not ex- 
 pected, and which aided materially in the success of 
 the enterprise. As an instance of the manner in 
 which we were "noticed," the following from an 
 Albany newspaper is published, 
 
 " An immense audience gathered in Albany Hall 
 to see the ' Old Folks ' and listen to the concert ; and, 
 altogether, it was about as satisfactory an exhibition 
 and entertainment as has been enjoyed by our 
 people for a long time. They came, they said, to 
 show the costumes worn, and sing the hymns sung 
 by their fathers and grandfathers, mothers and 
 grandmothers, in the good old days ; both of which 
 they did. The costumes, we doubt not, were as 
 they said, some of them actually handed down from 
 a hundred or two years past, and others exact 
 transcripts of the earlier fashions. By their consid- 
 eration in passing through the aisles among the 
 audience, a near view of their quaint costumes was 
 had, which, we doubt not, occasioned much astonish- 
 ment in the crowd at the want of good taste in the 
 earlier days in the matter of dress. Half a century
 
 50 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 hence, however, when present fashions get old, and 
 comparisons are in order, it may be a question 
 which age exhibited the most taste. The oyster- 
 shell bonnet may be looked upon as liable to the 
 same objections of taste as the dredge-bucket 
 bonnet of earlier days now is. 
 
 " The hymns, such as were and are yet popular in 
 church choirs, were given with great spirit and 
 effect; considerably more, we apprehend, aided by 
 the fine instrumentation, than our forefathers were 
 in the habit of rendering them. To see such pro- 
 fane innovations as the fiddle, the flute, the horn, 
 the trombone, introduced into a concert of sacred 
 music, which we were asked to imagine was being 
 given by our great grandmothers and grandfathers, 
 was a terrible assault upon the imagination, which 
 nothing but the excellent effect of these profane 
 additions could reconcile us to. We thought if our 
 fathers did not have or did not tolerate such aids to 
 their worship, they ought to have done so, and we 
 permitted the imagination to conceive that having 
 revisited the pale glimpses of gas-light to revel in 
 the melodies of olden times, they had. brought back 
 with them a better judgment in connection with 
 their excellent melodies. The devil has had the 
 best music and the best instruments for a long time ; 
 and, if our church-leaders of modern days would 
 gather a hint from the effect of this instrumentation
 
 KINDNESS OF THE PRESS. 51 
 
 in making church music popular, they might turn 
 ' the most effective weapons of Satan against him, 
 and make a large stride towards the overthrow of 
 his kingdom. Seldom, we apprehend, have our 
 people had an opportunity of hearing this church 
 music rendered with such inspiring effect and such 
 an elevating influence ; and if all those in the im- 
 mense crowd who could sing had accepted the 
 invitation of the leader, and joined in ' Coronation ' 
 and 'Old Hundred,' it would have been a 'sing' 
 which would have been remembered for many a 
 day, and with good effect." 
 
 The following, from a Rochester journal, will 
 indicate the character of our audiences, 
 
 "Father Kemp, with his accomplished band of 
 singers, gave another of his peculiar and highly 
 pleasing entertainments on Saturday evening, 
 one of the most attractive we have ever listened to. 
 The audience was made up largely of the elite of 
 the city ; clergymen, physicians, lawyers, mer- 
 chants, besides a goodly number of the more indis- 
 pensable and therefore better class, the common 
 people; all, apparently, electrified, from the com- 
 mencement to the close, with the novel appearance 
 of the troupe, and their harmonious chords in the 
 singing of the ancient songs and anthems which 
 were so popular in the times of our great grand- 
 fathers."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The great Western Tour Mr. Henry C. Jarrett An Industrious Com- 
 pany Enthusiasm in Cincinnati Indiana Licenses, and how many 
 of them are necessary to secure Freedom from Arrest The Intelligent 
 but Unfortunate Cow, and other Interesting Matters. 
 
 FTER the completion of the first tour, 'I 
 passed the summer quietly in Reading. 
 When the hot weather was over, I made prep- 
 arations to visit the great West and give con- 
 certs with the troupe of " Old Folks." I had 
 received many cordial invitations from that quarter, 
 and all assured me of a warm welcome. I was fortu- 
 nate at this time in securing the services, as agent, of 
 Mr. Henry C. Jarrett, a gentleman who has since be- 
 come widely known as one of the most sagacious and 
 enterprising theatrical managers in the country. He 
 possesses rare abilities for organization, and proved, 
 in my experience with him, the "right man in the 
 right place." I am indebted to his trials and suffer- 
 ings, in arranging the details for our appearance at 
 various places, for many moments of comparative 
 ease and quiet. His zeal and ingenuity knew no 
 bounds ; and he could generally see a clear sky 
 
 52
 
 MR. HENRY C. JAItRETT. 53 
 
 * 
 
 ahead, whether we were stuck in the inud or blinded 
 by darkness. 
 
 We left home on the 20th of September, with 
 the intention of giving concerts in the principal 
 cities and towns on our way. The tour lasted seven 
 months, and during the whole period a concert was 
 given every evening ', Sundays excepted. Frequent- 
 ly we gave two concerts on the same night, one' 
 to begin at 6^ , and close at 8 o'clock; and the 
 other to begin at 9, and close at 10i. This was 
 done only in those places where the halls were too 
 small to accommodate all who desired to attend 
 them. The company on these occasions were, as a 
 general rule, not sorry when "Old Hundred" was 
 given for the second and last time. Mr. Jarrett 
 would also frequently arrange for a mid-day concert, 
 where the distance between the principal towns was 
 not too long to prevent. By stopping over one 
 train we could give a concert and general satisfaction 
 to large audiences in some country village, take the 
 next train, and arrive at our destination in time to 
 appear in the evening. This vigorous management 
 kept us well in harness, our voices and instruments 
 in tune, and prevented our pockets from being 
 depleted. 
 
 In Cincinnati we sang in ten concerts, and then 
 took the company to Louisville, having engaged 
 passage on the splendid steamer "Jacob Strader."
 
 54 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 I made a bargain with the agent of the boat to stop 
 at Madison, on the way down, long enough to give 
 a concert. We left Cincinnati on a beautiful morn- 
 ing. Thousands of people covered the banks of 
 the river, while the windows of the houses in the 
 vicinity were crowded with ladies, waving handker- 
 chiefs, and making other demonstrations of sorrow 
 or gladness (I never was fully convinced which) at 
 our departure. As the steamer moved away from 
 the wharf, we sang " Sweet Home," and several 
 patriotic airs, which were loudly cheered. We 
 arrived at Madison at 8 P. M., amid the roaring of 
 cannon and a grand display of fireworks, with 
 which the citizens had chosen to welcome us, as if 
 we were a company of brigadier-generals, fresh 
 from some gory field. The hall at Madison was 
 packed, much to the disappointment of the hun- 
 dreds who came with us on the steamer, under 
 promise of a free pass to the entertainment. They 
 got their free passes, but certainly it was not my 
 fault if they could not get into the hall. I could 
 not stop to sympathize with them, as the audience 
 were impatiently awaiting our appearance. 
 
 After the concert the steamer conveyed us to 
 Louisville, arriving there early the next morning. 
 In that city we remained a week, giving eight con- 
 certs, and then started for Evansville, Ind., where 
 we appeared in entertainments with considerable
 
 INDIANA LICENSES. 55 
 
 success. Our experiences in Indiana were of a very 
 peculiar and trying nature ; and our sojourn among 
 the Hoosiers revealed traits in petty officials which 
 it is hoped have, by the present time, been obliter- 
 ated by the migration of civilized beings to those 
 parts. Provisions had not been made for our ac- 
 commodation at the hotel in Evansville ; and, when 
 the steamer landed us, the landlord had but one 
 room, which he said was rather small for forty per- 
 sons. So it proved, but to the best of my recollec- 
 tion, we did as well as we could under the circum- 
 stances. In the morning after my arrival I was 
 told that licenses for my entertainments must be 
 purchased. I procured them, one from the State 
 and one from the town. When the concert had be- 
 gun, I was called out, and the performance was sus- 
 pended for some time. The people on the stage 
 wondered, and the audience wondered what the 
 trouble was ; and so did I, until a person whom 
 darkness prevented me from recognizing informed 
 me I must pay a license for Agriculture ! 
 
 "I don't know who Mr. Agriculture is," I re- 
 plied, "and I cannot satisfy his demand. I have 
 already purchased two licenses." 
 
 "That don't make no odds, mister, you can 
 give me five dollars or go to jail. I've got the offi- 
 cer here to take you if you resist." 
 
 I was too indignant to pay the five dollars, and
 
 56 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 too far from home to go to jail ; but the audience 
 were getting impatient and uproarious, and there 
 was no choice. So I gave him the money, with the 
 determination that " Agriculture " should some day 
 pay it back to me. But I must confess, " Agricul- 
 ture " always got the best of me. 
 
 This is but one of scores of similar incidents that 
 happened in this section which could be mentioned 
 if space allowed. 
 
 If any one who reads this has ever experienced 
 the effects of a rain-storm in Indiana, he will know 
 how to sympathize with me when I inform him that 
 I have been through one and been compelled to meet 
 and overcome its attendant horrors. The mud 
 reigned supreme, and swallowed up almost every- 
 thing but our determination to wade through it. 
 Our agent had secured by telegraph the old court- 
 house in one of the interior towns which we were to 
 visit. He had never seen it, if he had, we should 
 surely not have been announced to appear there. 
 The people of the county must have been unusually 
 mild and respectable, as the sequel will prove. So 
 secure was the house of justice, that not even a 
 lock was placed upon the door. We arrived in 
 town about an hour previous to the time for be- 
 ginning the concert, and when I saw the person who 
 had 'charge of the edifice, he informed me that "he
 
 THE INTELLIGENT COW. 57 
 
 didn't hardly think the court-room would be 'zactly 
 fit for the reception of company that eveninV 
 
 "Why so?" I asked, in amazement. 
 
 " Why so? Wai, I reckon you won't ask when I 
 tell you." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " You see, Neighbor Daggett, as lives in that yaller 
 house yonder, lost one of his best keows durin' the 
 storm, 'bout a month ago ; the river riz durin' that 
 storm amazingly, an' we begun to think we should 
 hev to git eout of these parts, and go onto the high 
 land afore long." 
 
 " But, my dear sir, what has that to do with the 
 court-house or the concert ? You see it is almost 
 time for commencement." 
 
 "Wai, I wuz goin' to say, Deacon Daggett's 
 keows, they got kinder restless and broke down 
 the bars and all got eout of the pen. One was 
 found up here in a mud-slough almost drowndid, 
 and another strayed way down here to the heater 
 piece, and " 
 
 " Confound the cows and the heater piece ! " 
 
 "Be patient, stranger, be patient ! The speckled 
 keow never come back ; but the deacon is pretty 
 well to do, and he could afford to lose her ; but he's 
 had a sort of mania on the subject since, and has 
 been tryin' to find eout what become of that keow.
 
 58 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 'Twan't the wuth of the keow though, but the old 
 gentleman's curiosity." 
 
 w My dear friend, please omit details, and come 
 to the nub at once ! ' ? 
 
 " That's what I'm at. Wai, you see " (here he 
 changed his tobacco quid to the other side of his 
 mouth), "when I opened the door this morning, 
 there lay that speckled keow rite before the judge's 
 seat, on the floor. The poor critter must hev suf- 
 fered, and had banged round considerable. You 
 see the storm was about a month ago, and it don't 
 smell very agreeable jest now. I don't think it's a 
 proper place to take ladies anyhow. I was goiii' to 
 take my wife, but hev concluded I shan't. I reckon 
 the fellers won't mind it though. The door slammed 
 tew, evidently, and shet her in. Daggett allus said 
 that speckled keow was the most knowin' critter he 
 ever see ; but it 'pears her knowledge was at last 
 the death of her." 
 
 I stopped to hear no more philosophical remarks. 
 I was satisfied I could not give a concert in the 
 court-house, and I went to work to do the best I 
 could. I despatched my aids as a general would at 
 the critical moment of a battle ; and, in half an hour, 
 the bells of the village were ringing, and a crier was 
 shouting that "The Old Folks' Concert will be 
 given at the hotel instead of the court-house." The 
 room at the "tavern" was very small, about the size
 
 THE LICENSE MEN. 59 
 
 to accommodate my company, and there were no 
 seats ; " standing room only," being the order of 
 the evening. Nevertheless, the cash was taken at 
 the outer door, and the entertainment paid pretty 
 well for us. I beat time with my baton, mount- 
 ed on a flour barrel. 
 
 The next morning we were to leave town, but I 
 was earnestly urged to give another concert before 
 our departure. At last I consented. The court- 
 house was cleansed, the bells rung again, and the 
 people were informed by crier that we should ap- 
 pear on that evening in the place lately occupied by 
 the dead cow. Notwithstanding unpleasant re- 
 membrances, .the house was crowded. When we 
 were all ready to leave the next morning, up stepped 
 one of the K license men," and demanded his fee, 
 which I paid. Before -we started, I was obliged to 
 pay still another, and then I learned that more " offi- 
 cers " were looking for me, but I could not be found. 
 
 So much for the small towns of Indiana.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A Chapter of Incidents The Incorruptible Mayor A Sharp Landlord 
 Experience in "Egypt" Postage Stamps for Currency A few 
 Moral Reflections in Regard to the Temper of Showmen. 
 
 >T is unnecessary for the reader to follow the 
 " Old Folks " from place to place, in order to 
 learn of what transpired during our visit to the 
 Western States. I propose, in this chapter, to 
 relate a few incidents which occurred while we 
 were accomplishing the journey ; and one of them 
 I must mention before we -get out of Indiana ; for 
 there, in the commonwealth noted for its alacrity 
 in unmarrying people, I encountered more difficul- 
 ties than in all the rest of the States combined. 
 Indiana, as a State, is all right. Her sons did 
 nobly in the war, and she has become one of the 
 most noted sisters in the Union, on account of the 
 industry, enterprise, and intelligence of her leading 
 citizens ; yet I cannot conscientiously recommend 
 her as a fertile field for the showman, whether his 
 intentions be benevolent or pecuniary. After I left 
 Evansville I found that " Agriculture " still haunted 
 
 60
 
 WESTERN MAYORS PROLIFIC. 61 
 
 me, and I discovered that he was one of the com- 
 ponent parts of the State, of whom (or which) I 
 should not be rid until I crossed her borders. In 
 one of the w small towns " another occurrence tran- 
 spired which both amused and vexed me. I always 
 believed in "management," and when I told the 
 mayor of " his native village " that I should be 
 happy to extend the courtesies of the box-office to 
 him, he winked knowingly, and said, "All right; 
 never mind about the license," just what I thought 
 he would say. " How many tickets would you like, 
 sir ? " " Wai, my family is not very large for these 
 parts, only twelve, below the average; but 
 they would all like to go and hear the ' Old Folks.' " 
 " A small family, indeed, sir," I replied ; " in 
 Massachusetts we frequently count up twenty in 
 one household." (I referred to hotels, of course.) 
 " Why, you don't say so ! Wai, I declare ! I've 
 allers hearn say that the Pilgrim Fathers were an 
 industrious set ; but, plague me, I didn't think they 
 were so numerous up there ! Hev some whiskey ? 
 It's new, but potent." 
 
 His eye rested upon a demijohn in the corner of 
 his "office" (he was a carpenter by trade), which 
 looked as if it had been used more frequently than 
 any of the tools which were lying loosely about. 
 
 I excused myself from imbibing, and left the 
 " City Hall " to make arrangements for the concert.
 
 62 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 After the entertainment I received a note, which 
 informed me that the Mayor desired to see me 
 "across the way." I went "across the way," and 
 found him in a beer saloon, where, I learned, he 
 passed most of his time. He was a little "boozy ;" 
 and, when he arose to address me, he with difficulty 
 steadied himself. 
 
 "Sir," said he, "as the Mayor of this village, I 
 demand the five dollars' license required for Agri- 
 culture." 
 
 " Why, my dear sir, you said the license was all 
 right, if I would pass your family." 
 
 " Sir ! I cannot be bought ! Pay, or go to jail ! 
 Your ' Old Folks' Concert ' is a d d humbug ! Pay 
 your license, or go to -jail ! " 
 
 "Come over to the hall, my friend, and I will 
 settle with you." 
 
 He came over. -> 
 
 I then stated the facts of the case to my company, 
 and asked them if they would go to jail with me. 
 They all volunteered, with one voice. 
 
 " But, s-s-sir, our jail is not big enough to accom- 
 modate you all ! " said he, as he tried to collect his 
 wits; "I can take only the principal offenders." 
 
 " We must all go, or none," I replied, with diffi- 
 culty restraining my risibilities. 
 
 " Kemp," said he, after trying to bring his eyes 
 to bear steadily upon rne, "Kemp, you are a good
 
 HOW TO DRAW A CROWD. 63 
 
 fellow and a Christian ; your " Old Folks " sing pious 
 tunes, and they should be rewarded for it ; give me 
 a dollar, and I will release you from arrest." 
 
 I gave him the dollar, and watched his retreating 
 form until the door of the saloon again shut him 
 from sight. 
 
 When we arrived in one of the towns of the 
 West, where the German element predominated, I 
 found that the hall where we were announced to 
 appear contained, no seats; there were no means of 
 warming the room, no stage, and no facilities for 
 lighting. Here was a "regular fix," indeed. I 
 at once secured the Methodist Episcopal Church for 
 my concert, and sent a big colored crier about the 
 streets to announce the fact ; but he did not speak 
 a word so that it could be understood. However, 
 the people learned that there was some unusual 
 commotion, and began to inquire the cause. The 
 result was, the church was filled ; whereas the hall, 
 had that been occupied, might not have been half 
 full. When I requested the bill of the landlord 
 of the " tavern," the next morning, I found that he 
 made charges for thirty people, whereas my com- 
 pany consisted of but twenty-five. 
 
 " How is this ? " I inquired. " Please subtract the 
 bill of five persons from this, and I will pay it." 
 
 " Not if I knowsh mineself," said the old Dutch-
 
 64 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 man, with imperturbable coolness, as he puffed 
 away at his meerschaum. 
 
 " Why not ? I have only twenty-five people with 
 me." 
 
 " Look at your bills, Mishter Kemps. It hangs 
 up dare agin de walls. 'Fader Kemps and his 
 company of Old Folks, consisting of dthirty per- 
 formers.' ' 
 
 " Well, but thirty performers have not eaten your 
 corn bread and bacon." 
 
 " Dat makesh no dthifferensh mit us. Ve under- 
 stands you, and hev been hombogged too moosh by 
 showmans. If you advertise dthirty you pays for 
 dthirty, venever you shtops mit me." 
 
 I was more amused than incensed at the old 
 fellow's meanness. I had struck a new vein, and I 
 thought I could do no better than to pay for my 
 experience. So he receipted my bill for " dthirty " 
 people. 
 
 While travelling through Southern Illinois, which 
 is familiarly known as " Egypt," we stopped in one 
 town which bore such a hard reputation that we al- 
 most feared for our safety ; and, had it not been for 
 Mr. Jarrett's courage, we should surely have skipped 
 the place. It was a decidedly shy-looking town, 
 and I did not see an honest face in the whole audi- 
 ence. The vocalists executed the " tremulo " witn- 
 out much difficulty, and evidently regarded their
 
 EXPERIENCES IN EGYPT. 65 
 
 auditors as so many hungry wolves, ready to pounce 
 upon them and capture their baggage. People at the 
 East can scarcely imagine what a hard " Egyptian " 
 town is. None of their laws or law officers are re- 
 spected, reading and writing rank among the lost 
 arts, and a church-goer is looked upon as a danger- 
 ous member of the community. We dared not re- 
 main in town over night, and had made arrange- 
 ments to take the midnight train for another place 
 nearer the borders of civilization. After the con- 
 cert, we were travelling along the muddy road be- 
 tween the hall and the depot, enveloped in Egyptian 
 darkness ; many of the troupe doubtless expected 
 an assault from a band of ruffians, and were keeping 
 their eyes open for any emergency. I stepped up- 
 on a hoop, which flew up and struck me in the 
 throat. I must confess I was startled, and think 
 the word " garroter ! " escaped my lips. This little 
 incident brought the company at once to their 
 senses, and they made the "welkin ring" with their 
 merry laughter at my expense. I believe the whole 
 troupe were heartily ashamed of the fears which they 
 entertained of the inhabitants of that terrible town . I 
 was determined to have no trouble there, and gave 
 orders to take everything offered at the doors for ad- 
 mission fee, bogus money, garden sauce, dried ap- 
 ples, or any other commodity. When the receipts 
 5
 
 66 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 were examined, about fifty counterfeit half dollars 
 were among the favors bestowed upon us. 
 
 My experience with postage-stamps at the begin- 
 ning of the war was a losing game with me. In 
 some places, nearly two" hundred dollars' worth of 
 .this adhesive currency would be taken. Most of 
 the stamps were enclosed in a small envelope, and 
 marked "25 cts." An examination frequently dis- 
 closed only one stamp, and that, in many cases, had 
 previously travelled hundreds of miles on a letter, 
 and been removed for the purpose of cheating old 
 people. 
 
 The cultivation of an even temper and a humane 
 disposition is absolutely necessary to the happiness 
 of a showman. Sometimes instances occur where 
 expletives, and, perhaps, profane words, can alone 
 give relief. " Swearing by rule " cannot be indulged 
 in by the experienced showman. The occasions 
 which require the use of forcible language are so 
 numerous and unexpected, that," Darn it," "I vow," 
 "I van," "Blast your picture," etc., even if used 
 sparingly, would soon become stale ; therefore I 
 adopted the rule to look charitably upon the short- 
 comings of those who ignored my rights to proper 
 respect and treatment, and never swore at them, but 
 passed on -to the next town. In all places, even 
 those where the enthusiasm for the " Old Folks " was 
 greatest, there were always persons who regarded
 
 MORAL REFLECTIONS. 67 
 
 Father Kemp as a sort of public gold mine, which 
 they had a perfect right to operate upon, and, if 
 possible, exhaust. If these gentlemen have made 
 anything out of the director of the " Old Folks' 
 Concerts," his worst wish for them is that they will 
 enjoy it as much as he did the sport of seeing them 
 make it. So farewell, license officer, farewell old 
 Dutch landlord, farewell, village mayor ! Your 
 world is a small one, but you unquestionably make 
 more out of it than any other three men who enjoy 
 the same privileges that you do.
 
 CHAPTER vrn. 
 
 Railroad Conductors, their generous Disposition and Kindness of Heart 
 An Incident with a Western Railroad Official Visiting Schools, and 
 Hand-shaking An Occurrence in Vermont. 
 
 CANNOT follow further the history of the 
 " Old Folks' Concerts," without mentioning a 
 very worthy class whom I frequently met, and 
 with whom I have passed many pleasant hours, 
 railroad conductors. A more genial, gener- 
 ous, and whole-souled set of men does not travel by 
 steam. They have many obstacles to contend with, 
 in the shape of Jeremy Diddlers of both sexes ; 
 bogus free passes ; bouncing boys and girls, reduced 
 to half price ; importunities of nervous and hyster- 
 ical females, who are afraid they will be left at the 
 wrong station; large travelling companies, whose 
 managers never pay unless compelled to ; and many 
 other minor but not less irritating combinations. I 
 have no fault to find with their treatment of the 
 "Old Folks." Conductors witn whom I have dealt 
 will acknowledge that I always paid full fare for the 
 troupe when their orders did not allow them to take 
 half; and half-fare has been gladly given when 
 
 68
 
 A TRUE DEADHEAD. 69 
 
 arrangements, satisfactory to both parties, could not 
 be made for my company to accept the hospitalities 
 of the road. The latter compliment has always 
 been courteously received by me, whenever offered, 
 but I have not been over-burdenecl with invitations 
 of that sort. That, however, is not the fault of the 
 conductors. 
 
 One experience which I had is, perhaps, worth 
 relating. During the seven months' western tour, 
 while giving a concert in a large city, a tall, lank, 
 overgrown young man, about nineteen years of age, 
 presented himself at the door, representing himself 
 as the son of Conductor , of the Rail- 
 road, and desired to pass in upon that recommenda- 
 tion. His appearance was anything but prepossess- 
 ing. He could not, however, prevent the six feet 
 at nineteen, the long stride, round shoulders, 
 drawling speech, and awkward locomotion. Ap- 
 pearances were against him ; but he passed in. The 
 troupe were to ride about a hundred miles with his 
 father the next day. I saw no more of the youth, 
 but kept his physiognomy in mind. The next 
 morning we were seated in the cars, ani moving 
 rapidly towards our destination. The conductor 
 entered, and accosted me with a gruff " Hollo ! how 
 many people have you got? Tickets, sir!" I 
 looked at him. The son was a "chip of the old 
 block ! "
 
 70 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD POLKS. 
 
 "Well," I replied, "I haven't exactly got the 
 tickets ; of course we can make some arrangement 
 for my two dozen of passengers?" 
 
 "Don't know about that, sir, against the rules, 
 must obey orders ! " 
 
 " Suppose," said I, " you pass on and collect your 
 fares, and then return to me, when you will have 
 more leisure. In the mean time I will count up." 
 
 " Very well ; count up ; " and he passed on. 
 
 My "counting up" consisted in cudgelling my 
 brain as to where I should strike the weak spot in 
 this imperious official. When he again passed 
 through the car I made the assault myself. As he 
 came by me I moved along in the seat, and said, 
 with "one of my most winning smiles , v " Sit down, 
 my friend ! " Of course he expected a settlement, 
 and that was what I wanted. But I begun in a 
 different way from what he anticipated. " I met a 
 sou of yours last night, Mr. ," I said, per- 
 suasively, and, I firmly believe, insinuatingly. 
 
 " Ah ! which one ? Abimelech or Ezekiel ? " 
 
 "Abimelech, I think, the tallest one." I ven- 
 tured thifc much. I guessed at the name, and felt 
 it to be impossible for him to have a taller boy than 
 the one who visited my concert. 
 
 " Oh, yes ; that was Abimelech. He spoke of 
 the concert, but said nothing about meeting you." 
 
 " He was probably carried away with the music ;
 
 GETTING AROUND A CONDUCTOR. 71 
 
 but, if you should ask him, you would find that he 
 knew Father Kemp." 
 
 "Well, I dare say." 
 
 "That boy," I remarked, "has many striking 
 points in his personal appearance. His head is a 
 noble one." 
 
 "Do you know, Mr. Kemp, that is what every- 
 body says ? " he asked, his whole countenance light- 
 ing up. 
 
 "Undoubtedly. Fathers, however, are apt to be 
 blinded to the superiority of their children. That 
 son of yours has a glorious future before him. I 
 knew you at once, from his striking resemblance to 
 his parent." 
 
 " Ah ! Everybody says he looks like his father." 
 
 " He does indeed, a father ought to be proud 
 of such a son." 
 
 "And indeed I am." 
 
 " That boy ought never to have his quick and 
 sensitive mind subjected to the drudgery of a com- 
 monplace calling, a trade, or a position where 
 muscle and not intellect is required." 
 
 " That is what I have been thinking of. What 
 do you think he is best fitted for ? " 
 
 "Science, the law, or medicine ; or, if his disposi- 
 tion is of a devout nature, the ministry. I have 
 met thousands of these professional men during my 
 travels ; I watch them ; I note their cast of coun-
 
 72 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 tenance, and require no one to inform me upon 
 their characteristics. I do not pretend to be a 
 Lavater ; but there are some traits of character, 
 which are written indelibly in a man's face, and 
 experience has made them plain to me." 
 
 Two of my troupe were sitting behind me. 
 
 " What is the old coon driving at ? " I heard one 
 ask. 
 
 " We shan't see the point till we get to our des- 
 tination," replied his companion. "See if old daddy 
 draws his calfskin." 
 
 "Then you really think," resumed the conductor, 
 " that Abimelech has great gifts ? " 
 
 "Unquestionably. They are stamped on his 
 massive brow, in his searching eye, firm mouth, and 
 in fact all over his finely shaped head. Has Pro- 
 fessor Fowler or any noted phrenologist ever 
 examined his bumps ? As for myself I am a great 
 believer in phrenology. Had it not been for that 
 remarkable science I might have been at this time 
 walking the deck of a fisherman or keeping a shoe 
 store." 
 
 "I think there is something in it myself, and 
 have often been exercised about the matter. I will 
 have Abimelech's bumps examined." 
 
 Here the cars stopped at a way station, and the 
 conductor left me and attended to his duties. I 
 drew a long breath, looked at the table of distances,
 
 A GENEROUS DISPOSITION. 73 
 
 and found th:it thirty of the hundred miles were 
 completed ! I almost dreaded his return, although 
 by this time I felt sure of a " compromise." 
 
 He again appeared and voluntarily took his seat 
 beside me. " That boy," said he, "is marvellously 
 given to studying up things. In matters of history, 
 such as the Revolution, the war of 1812, and the 
 landing of the Pilgrims, he is a good deal better 
 posted than I am." 
 
 " I don't doubt it. I presume he could give me 
 information upon the history of my native State, 
 Massachusetts." 
 
 "Just as likely as not." 
 
 " Speaking of Massachusetts, reminds me that I 
 have a home there in the immediate neighborhood 
 of where the bloody battles occurred> which sounded 
 the knell of British tyranny in America. If you 
 ever visit that State, by all means bring that boy 
 with you. Nothing could please me more than to 
 reciprocate your kindness (this was greatly empha- 
 sized) by devoting a day or even a week to you. 
 I would show you where the first shots were fired in 
 State Street ; I would follow the road where Paul 
 Revere took his midnight ride to awaken the 
 patriots that they might be prepared for the enemy ; 
 visit Lexington Common, and ascend with you 
 to the top of Bunker Hill Monument, which
 
 74 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 looks down upon the spot where Warren fell I 
 would " 
 
 Just as I said "fell" the cars again stopped, 
 and the conductor darted out to attend to the pas- 
 sengers who were leaving and taking the train. 
 He soon returned, and I continued my discourse in 
 the same strain. " / feel grateful for your cour- 
 tesy ," said I, " and, independently of that, my 
 interest in your son prompts me to offer you hospi- 
 talities which it is not my custom to present to 
 a stranger." 
 
 " I calculate to come to Massachusetts next sum- 
 mer, and I think I shall take Abimelech with me." 
 
 " If you do, by all means visit Father Kemp at 
 Reading. I shall be there leading a quiet life, with 
 nothing to do except to treat my friends hand- 
 somely, and devote my time to their enjoyment." 
 
 Twenty miles more accomplished. 
 
 The stops during the last fifty miles were more 
 frequent than they had been during the ride. His 
 duties were therefore more varied. He often ap- 
 peared to me, and, on each occasion, I either 
 reminded him of his son's intellectual countenance, 
 and how much he looked like his father, or spoke 
 of the pleasant days we were to pass in visiting the 
 scenes of the old Revolutionary fights. 
 
 Before we completed our journey, he had confi- 
 dentially informed me upon many important points
 
 AN INCIDENT WITH A WESTERN OFFICIAL. 75 
 
 in his family history, and I had told him many 
 things in my own experience, dwelling particularly 
 upon the kindness and consideration shown me by 
 conductors. I think he enjoyed that ride, for when 
 the " Old Folks " alighted at the place of their des- 
 tination, he had forgotten all about the fares. He 
 grasped me warmly by the hand, and gave me a 
 pump-handle shake, evidently regarding me as one 
 who had done him a great favor. I pump-handled 
 him in return, for I knew he had done me one. As 
 the cars moved off, I stood upon the platform, my 
 countenance, as I imagined, wreathed in smiles, 
 waving a graceful adieu to the generous conductor. 
 The last words I heard from him, as he caught the 
 guard, and swung his long body upon the steps of 
 the car were, "Abimelech and I will see you next 
 summer." 
 
 I have no apology to make to the reader for the 
 foregoing confession. ' No one but a showman can 
 appreciate the embarrassing situation in which I 
 was placed. 
 
 * My experience with the schools was often a very 
 curious one. In most of the places which I visited 
 the rules in regard to permitting children to attend 
 any kind of performance were very stringent, and I 
 often found it difficult to get a hearing. On these 
 occasions I set aside my native modesty, and let 
 boldness do what ingenuity could not accomplish.
 
 76 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 I have frequently taken a carriage to go the rounds 
 of the schools, when the fact would become known 
 to some committee man, and he would take another 
 and follow immediately after, with the intention to 
 stop my proceedings. My plan was generally to 
 enter unceremoniously, and excuse myself to the 
 teacher, tell her who I was, and ask if she would 
 like tickets to my entertainments. They were never 
 refused. I then began to talk to the children, while 
 she stood tremblingly by, and evidently desiring to 
 tell me that I was violating the rules of the com- 
 mittee. If one ventured to remind me of the fact, 
 she was confidentially informed that the committee 
 were "all right." 
 
 Once, in a rural district of Vermont, I encoun- 
 tered a formidable obstacle, which almost unfitted 
 me for the duties I was to perform. I entered the 
 school-room, and apologized by saying I supposed I 
 was to step into the entry. I held out my hand, 
 which the teacher did not grasp. I always shook hands 
 with school-mistresses, and have probably done more 
 in that line than any other man in the country. She 
 drew back, and blushingly said she had a bad humor, 
 and I might not like to shake hands with her. I as- 
 sured her it would be a pleasure. But she still de- 
 murred. The urchins (about sixtj^ of them) were 
 looking with eyes and mouths wide open upon this 
 unceremonious interruption of their studies and mis-
 
 AN OCCURRENCE IN VERMONT. 77 
 
 chief. Suddenly a little bright-eyed chub in the 
 middle row called out, 
 
 " Don't you do it, mister ; the school-ma'am has 
 got the itch ! " 
 
 The effect of the warning can be better imagined 
 than described. I think that youngster had to " take 
 it" after I was gone. I should not have narrated 
 this story, which is true in every particular, had I 
 not lately seen, in many first-class newspapers, an 
 advertisement headed " Itch ! Itch ! Itch ! Scratch ! 
 Scratch ! Scratch ! " There is, therefore, no impro- 
 priety in it, according to the public press. Should 
 this meet the eye of the above-named teacher, the 
 fact that the papers look upon the disease as a pub- 
 lic calamity may serve as a balm for her wounded 
 feelings, and make her regret that she whipped the 
 boy for speaking "out loud" in school.
 
 CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 More Experiences in the Public Schools A Connecticut Town Hall 
 
 
 
 Abraham Lincoln Singing in Church on Sundays Instrumental 
 Music in a Pennsylvania Church "Johnny Schmolker" Farewell 
 Concerts to America. 
 
 I visited Philadelphia, it was estimated 
 that there were about ninety-two thousand 
 children attending the public schools. I 
 called on a member of the Board of Educa- 
 tion, and told him I wanted to do a favor to 
 the younger generation, and therefore desired very 
 much that they should all have an opportunity to see 
 and hear the "Old Folks." To accomplish an object 
 at once so benevolent and important, I had deter- 
 mined, after due deliberation, to reduce the price of 
 admission to a concert, for the children, to fifteen 
 cents. The cost of giving my performances was enor- 
 mous ; but, in making the sacrifice, I felt that I was 
 doing a favor for which I should feel justified, even 
 if my expenses should be greater than the receipts. 
 The member with whom I was dealing was a law- 
 yer by profession. He listened to my "eloquent" 
 address, and, after assuring me that he duly appre- 
 
 78
 
 EXPERIENCE IN SCHOOLS. 79 
 
 ciated my self-sacrificing disposition, fixed his eye 
 upon me with a knowing, quizzical look, and said, 
 
 "My good Father Kemp, ninety-two thousand 
 fifteen-cent pieces is a good deal of money." 
 
 I felt the force of his remark, and began to be 
 afraid I should not see the money. But I argued 
 the case with him, dwelling mainly upon the point 
 that it would not be creditable in Philadelphia to 
 form an exception to all the other cities of the Union 
 which I had visited. Before we parted I believed I 
 had made an impression, a fact which was at last 
 verified. For, before I left Philadelphia, the school 
 children attended the concerts, and our treasury 
 showed the receipt of nearly ninety-two thousand 
 fifteen cents. 
 
 Attempts to secure proper halls in some of the 
 rural districts were sometimes fruitless, and the ef- 
 forts often gave rise to very amusing incidents. At 
 a village in Connecticut, once, I called on the select- 
 men, and desired the use of the town hall. Two of 
 them readily consented, but the third one, who felt 
 great responsibility in the matter, could not " con- 
 scientiously " agree to the proposition. I explained 
 to him my object in coming to the village, which 
 was to give the natives a great treat, to show them 
 how our forefathers and mothers dressed, and sung 
 the good old tunes. He looked solemn and wise,
 
 80 FATB.ER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 but could not understand what kind of a perform- 
 ance was intended. 
 
 " We have a good town hall," said he, " and if it 
 is a sarMs that you have got, I cannot conscien- 
 tiously consent to let you have it. I don't want any 
 horses in there ! " 
 
 I commiserated his clouded mental vision, and* 
 stopped argument. After passing an hour with him, 
 in which time I detailed all the plans of the entertain- 
 ment, he reluctantly gave his consent to the use of 
 the hall. I plastered over his " conscience " with 
 tickets for himself and family before he had con- 
 sented to let the "good town hall." 
 
 While in Connecticut, it was my good fortune to 
 meet Abraham Lincoln, who was then on a lecturing 
 tour in that State. Of course I had at that time no 
 idea of his future elevation to the Presidency, and 
 my remembrance of him, as I remarked to a friend, 
 when I heard of his nomination, was that he was 
 " one of the most entertaining men I ever knew." 
 He had an anecdote to illustrate every point which 
 was brought up in conversation, and I passed, in the 
 cars and at the hotels, many pleasant hours in his 
 company. His lectures were political, and, of 
 course, attracted principally the male portion of the 
 inhabitants, and, as we frequently "performed" in 
 the same place, he jocosely proposed to "swap" 
 audiences once in a while, as he was tired of speak-
 
 SINGING IN CHURCH. 81 
 
 ing to so many heads not covered bybonnets. I 
 was much impressed with his peculiar power, but 
 did not then anticipate that he would develop quali- 
 ties which would place him among the wisest states- 
 men and foremost humanitarians of the age. 
 
 In New Bedford, once, we remained over Sun- 
 day, and the K Old Folks " were invited to sing in the 
 evening at the church of my friend, Kev. Mark 
 Trafton, as a part of the service. The intention 
 was not to have the fact become generally known ; 
 but it did ; and such a crowd I The house was 
 packed long before the time of commencement, and 
 it is believed not a pew-owner got into the building. 
 The audience was evidently composed mostly of 
 those who had never been to church before. My 
 choir sung one tune. When it was concluded, the 
 " most enthusiastic applause," as the theatrical crit- 
 ics say, followed ; the spectators (not worshippers) 
 clapped hands and stamped feet, while the " peanut 
 brigade " in the galleries whistled and hooted with 
 double their usual zeal. The situation was painful 
 and ridiculous. After a few vain attempts to calm the 
 storm, the minister dismissed the congregation, and 
 the " Old Folks " were ever afterwards found " at 
 home " on Sunday evenings. 
 
 Not long before the occurrence above narrated, I 
 had an experience with some Pennsylvania deacons, 
 which reminded me of the early struggles to intro- 
 6
 
 82 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 duce instrumental music in churches, mentioned in 
 Chapter II. We had received an invitation to sing 
 at a Sunday service, and had accepted. One or 
 two of the deacons had not been consulted ; and, 
 whether from imagined slight of their important 
 position, or from conscientious scruples, objected to 
 our entering the house. They were the weakest 
 party, but a compromise was effected by which we 
 were not to defame the singers' seats, and the choir 
 and orchestra were stationed in the broad aisle. 
 Some of the congregation had not learned of the ar- 
 rangement, and I noticed looks of holy horror over- 
 shadowing many countenances turned towards us. 
 These were mainly directed to the orchestra, and 
 especially the big fiddle. At the first sound of the 
 violins and wind instruments, some of these gazers 
 started as if the last trump had summoned them. It 
 was absolutely amusing to note the terror depicted 
 upon the faces of the worthy brethren and sisters, 
 whose catechism excluded fiddles, trombones, and 
 organs from the Lord's house. A venerable lady, 
 in whose very step indignation triumphed, arose, 
 and moved out of the church. She was followed by 
 another, and then a whole " pew full " joined in the 
 retreat. The disaffected deacons caught the fever, 
 lifted up their hands in holy horror, and, like so 
 many Aminidab Sleeks, looked from their eyes, as if 
 they would speak it, "You are all going to the
 
 FAREWELL CONCERTS. 83 
 
 devil ! " and left the desecrated building. When 
 the tune was finished, about a third of the congre- 
 gation had gone. 
 
 I afterwards heard that there had been a row in 
 that church. 
 
 The laughable song called "Johnny Schmolker," 
 which has obtained such a wide popularity, was first 
 sung in public by the "Old Folks." It was given to 
 me by a student in Middletown, Connecticut, with 
 the agreement that it should not be published. It 
 was published, however, without my consent, and 
 somebody must have made considerable money out 
 of its sale. 
 
 I have, in the preceding chapters, narrated sev- 
 eral incidents without regard to date. The remain- 
 der of this chapter will be devoted to the last few 
 weeks of the seven months' tour, when I gave a 
 series of " farewell concerts " previous to the depart- 
 ure of the " Old Folks " for Europe. For that tour I 
 had made unusual preparations, having procured 
 new dresses, patterned after the old fashion, for our 
 appearance in Liverpool.- These were also worn 
 during the series of " farewells," a word, by the 
 way, much abused b}^ actors, and other profession- 
 als, who do exceedingly well in making a dozen 
 "last appearances." Our farewell in Baltimore 
 occurred during the exciting times of 1860-'61. The 
 programme was interspersed with patriotic airs,
 
 84 PATH Kit KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 and it was thought proper, in view of the exigencies 
 of the times, to give them "The Star Spangled 
 Banner," written by a Baltimorean, as a specimen of 
 good composition. I was a little startled by the 
 storm it raised. People shouted, tossed their hats 
 in the air, ladies waved their handkerchiefs, while 
 others hissed and yelled with pure secession rage. 
 When the first verse was finished, there was a fresh 
 outburst, which, having subsided, was followed by 
 hisses. These were speedily drowned, and thus the 
 uproar continued. The strength of the opposition 
 was great, but the loyal element seemed to pre- 
 dominate. Many left the hall. The whole of this 
 patriotic air was repeated three times, " Go home, 
 
 you Yankees ! " " Stick to your Psalm tunes !" 
 
 " Nigger-Worshippers ! " etc., etc., mingled with ap- 
 plause greeting us from all parts of the house. The 
 Pennsylvania church affair sank into insignificance 
 beside this demonstration. 
 
 At one "farewell" in Baltimore, a Christmas- 
 tree, covered with hundreds of cheap but tempting 
 trinkets, was erected in -the hall ; and it was an- 
 nounced that all the children in the city should have 
 a present by which to remember Father Kemp. 
 Live rabbits, turtle-doves, and " such small deer," 
 were included in the list ; but our accomplished 
 agent had the numbers so arranged that these harm- 
 less pets should not fall into bad hands. Many
 
 FAREWELL CONCERTS IN AMERICA. 85 
 
 bushels of toys were in the ante-room, in case of 
 emergency, and the excitement among both old and 
 young, to obtain a souvenir of Father Kemp, was 
 intense. As the numbers were called off, much 
 merriment was occasioned. "No. 290," up steps 
 a small urchin. " Ah, my boy ; there's a toy fiddle 
 for you ! To be sure, the neck is snapped off; but 
 then, you know, it's something, just to remember 
 good old Father Kemp by. No. 166. A doll, 
 nearly the size of life. I regret to observe, young 
 lady, that one eye is gone, but it's all the same to 
 the doll. No. 957 ; a jumping-jack." A venera- 
 ble gentleman in the middle of the house comes 
 forward and receives his reward. Old ladies fre- 
 quently asked for a token to remember me by. I 
 freely gave them all I had, in the shape of anything 
 that cost from one cent to several dollars, though 
 the former gifts were more profusely distributed than 
 the latter. In leaving Baltimore I felt assured that 
 whatever opinion the adults might entertain of me, 
 the children were all in favor of Father Kemp. 
 
 The " farewells " were continued on the route from 
 Baltimore to Boston, and the company were never 
 received with greater favor than when they appeared 
 on these occasions. The last concert took place in 
 Tremont Temple, and was attended by an audience 
 which filled every part of the house. I could but 
 feel gratified that, after so many years of concert-
 
 8G FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 izing, we should come back to the very place where 
 we were really first brought before the public, and 
 receive such a cordial welcome, and witness so 
 much satisfaction as was expressed by those in 
 attendance. The visit to England was a hazardous 
 experiment, the company being the largest troupe 
 of Americans that ever crossed the Atlantic. I did 
 not expect the same friendly consideration in the 
 land of John Bull that had always been vouchsafed 
 in America, where the public, always quick and 
 appreciative, caught at once the spirit of the enter- 
 prise, and patronized it most liberally. The inci- 
 dents and the tricks (if they may be so called) 
 narrated in the preceding chapters only serve to 
 show what a manager is liable to encounter ; and, if 
 the reader considers that I have been addicted to 
 sharp practice, he may be assured that the boot and 
 shoe business does not call for the exercise of any 
 such trifling irregularities. If, therefore, he is in 
 doubt upon the question whether or not I am an 
 honest man, let him call at No. 216 Hanover street, 
 and satisfy himself. But I was bidding a series of 
 farewells to America. Let us say good-by for a 
 while, and pass on to the next chapter.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Incidents of our Departure for England Crossing the Ocean Arrival 
 at Liverpool Our Reception by the Custom-House Officers and News- 
 boys Preparations for the first Concerts in Liverpool Description of 
 St. George's Hall. 
 
 VOYAGE across the Atlantic in mid-winter 
 is anything but a desirable experience. 
 Many have a quiet way of disposing of their 
 tune while crossing the ocean, by retiring 
 as soon as they get aboard, and arising in 
 about a fortnight, that is, when they reach the other 
 side. On the morning of the 9th of January, 
 1861, the "Old Folks," numbering thirty members, 
 were shipped aboard the steamer " Canada," at East 
 Boston, bound for England. It was a cold and 
 clear day, but the wharf was crowded with friends, 
 parting with whom causes the same emotions the 
 world over. Some shed tears ; and, I must confess, 
 I felt more like it myself than I did like smiling. 
 Standing on the steamer's deck, I believe the 
 perilous nature of my enterprise presented itself 
 more forcibly than ever before. I assembled the 
 company of w Old Folks," just before the vessel was 
 
 87
 
 88 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 ready to start, and, inviting those around us to join, 
 we sang; together "Auld Lang Syne." The ma- 
 chinery was put in motion, the farewells were 
 hastily taken for the twentieth time, "Blue Peter" 
 came down, and the stars and stripes went up ; and 
 we moved out among the shipping, down past 
 the forts ; and, at the entrance of the harbor, 
 dropp'ed the pilot. On we went again ; the prom- 
 inent objects in the city faded in the distance, and 
 we were fairly out to sea. The flags were taken in, 
 and the ship was prepared for a rougher ocean life. 
 Part of the first day was passed quite pleasantly, 
 only a few being obliged to remain in their berths. 
 Soon, however, the wind changed, and we enjoyed 
 " chops " (not mutton) , which had the effect to sat- 
 isfy the appetites of a large number, at least, they 
 did not appear at the table. 
 
 On the 12th we neared Cape Race, where we ex- 
 pected to encounter rough weather, and were not 
 disappointed. The storm-king was abroad during 
 the whole night. The ship rolled heavily, and rode 
 on waves mountain high. The wind howled as I 
 never heard it howl before. The captain was on 
 deck all night, but in the morning the danger was 
 considered over. During the height of the storm 
 there occurred one of those scenes whose disagreeable 
 nature cannot be imagined except by those who have 
 witnessed them. Our experience had a ludicrous
 
 CROSSING THE OCEAN. 89 
 
 side. About four o'clock in the morning a heavy 
 sea struck the larboard side of the ship. The con- 
 cussion seemed like striking against a rock. Some 
 of the passengers were thrown out of their berths ; 
 crockery smashed and rattled; women screamed, 
 and men were pale with affright. Some who had 
 never prayed before knelt in supplication. In the 
 midst of this I heard one of our male singers 
 call out to a friend, "Annie, can you swim?" 
 We were in mid ocean, a thousand miles from 
 land. 
 
 The effect was so startling that many who were 
 prostrating themselves on their knees crawled into 
 their state-rooms. He followed the question by 
 offering a reward for the man who wrote " A Life 
 on the Ocean Wave," and other like expressions, 
 which turned the whole scene in his neighborhood 
 into one of the most ridiculous nature. An " Old 
 Folks' concert" had been arranged for one evening, 
 but the heavy sea which upset the crockery also up- 
 set our calculations in that matter. For once my 
 entertainment was postponed on account of the 
 weather ; but, as it was a charity affair, I do not 
 class the circumstance among my regular opera- 
 tions. The incidents of ocean voyages have been 
 often penned, and I cannot add anything interesting 
 to the fund of general information upon the subject. 
 We had our share of their roughness, without much
 
 90 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 of their pleasure. At last we came in sight of land, 
 and on Monday, January 21st, we were steering 
 along the Irish Channel in a calm sea, and under 
 bright sunshine. At 6 P. M. we dropped anchor in 
 the Mersey, opposite Liverpool, the great shipping 
 emporium of the world. 
 
 Getting through the custom-house was attended 
 with the usual incidents. Our names were taken, 
 and luggage examined chiefly for spirits and to- 
 bacco. I assured the official that the "Old Folks" 
 were all cold-water men, and none of them used 
 tobacco ; he must recollect that he was dealing 
 with Americans of a past generation, with whose 
 habits the British people ought to be well ac- 
 quainted, as they had frequently visited them. "Let 
 the ' Old Folks ' pass," was the only answer to my 
 remark. Once on shore, we were besieged by news- 
 boys. Mr. Jarrett had been in Liverpool a week, 
 endeavoring to stir up the town to the fact that 
 Father Kemp and his company would arrive on the 
 next steamer. The newsboys were the first to profit 
 by the intelligence, for they greeted us with, " 'Ere's 
 yer Liverpool Post and Mercury, all about the 
 ' Old Folks ' ! "" I purchased several numbers of the 
 various journals, expecting to find something flatter- 
 ing to send to my transatlantic friends. Diligent 
 search revealed nothing about the " Old Folks," the 
 only place where they were mentioned being in the
 
 ARRIVAL AT LIVERPOOL. 91 
 
 advertisements inserted by Mr. Jarrett . " O you 
 little rogue ! " said I. The urchin danced away and 
 shouted, "Hi, Jimmy, look at the old buffer's hat ! 
 See them wimmin with balloons on!" meaning 
 their hoops. That was a very pleasant greeting 
 from young John Bull to begin with. On our way 
 to the hotel we stopped to witness one of those pup- 
 pet-shows so common in European cities, " Punch 
 and Judy." Of course we were much amused, and 
 that formed the first " sight " which we enjoyed in 
 the tour of observation we had now begun. We 
 arrived at the Victoria Hotel at 7 p. M., where diu- 
 ner in a separate room awaited us. The waiters 
 were neatly dressed, and with white satin ties about 
 their necks, and evidently regarded us with mingled 
 feelings of awe, curiosity, and respect. We were 
 very hungry, but there was nothing on the table, 
 and the body of waiters moved about in slow and 
 measured tread. The edibles at last came gradually 
 along, and we enjoyed an excellent dinner, which 
 was completed at about 10 p. M. This hotel is a 
 very good one, and was at that time very popular 
 with Americans visiting Liverpool. I suggested to 
 the landlord, however, that the Yankees were very 
 impatient, and it was the fashion among the old 
 folks of New England to see their " vittles " on the 
 tables when they sat down. He took the hint, and
 
 92 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 three hours were not habitually passed in dining* 
 after that. 
 
 The next morning I went to work in good ear- 
 nest. I was three thousand miles from home, with 
 one of the largest concert companies in the world. 
 We were unknown, and had got to meet and con- 
 quer that peculiar prejudice which every true Eng- 
 lishman entertains against everything foreign, and 
 especially American. The mutterings which pre- 
 ceded actual hostilities in 1861 were heard, and 
 the secessionists had already captured the cotton 
 merchants of Liverpool, and held them prisoners. 
 Hatred of the North and everything Northern in- - 
 creased, and the "Old Folks " were identified with 
 that section. My first business was to get the ear 
 of the editors ; but I found that a much harder task 
 than I had anticipated. Mr. Jarrett had almost ex- 
 hausted his ingenuity in that line, and said a new 
 hand was demanded. The knights of the quill were 
 very shy, and evidently took great pride in maintain- 
 ing a calm, mysterious air, while I explained my mis- 
 sion, and in doing nothing afterwards to assist me in 
 fulfilling it. While going the rounds to visit the edi- 
 tors, a coal-cart driver, dressed in costume, exactly 
 like my concert rig, attracted my attention, the 
 same three-cape coat, bell-top hat, and knee-breeches 
 which I was to show the people. Many of the 
 women also wore bonnets which looked nearly as
 
 ST. GEORGE'S JIALL. 93 
 
 * 
 large as my " champion." My heart almost sank 
 
 within me. My intention in matters of dress was 
 to be behind the times. 
 
 St. George's Hall had been secured for our first 
 appearance. This is the finest building in Liver- 
 pool, and one of the finest in the world. The posi- 
 tion occupied by it is the most commanding in the 
 city, being on a platform on the brow of a hill. It 
 once formed part of a heath, used as the vantage 
 ground, from which the town was besieged in the 
 civil war between the Cavaliers and Roundheads. The 
 structure, with its seen surrounding dependencies, 
 stands upon upwards of three and a half acres of land, 
 and in its erection more than four hundred thousand 
 cubic feet of stone were used. The building was begun 
 in 1842, and about twelve years were occupied in 
 its completion. It was designed by Harvey Lons- 
 dale Elms, and the style is Grecian Anglicized. The 
 extreme dimensions are : length five hundred feet by 
 one hundred and seventy-five in width ; height in 
 centre one hundred and twelve feet, at south front 
 ninety-five feet, and the actual body of the building 
 from north to south is four- hundred and seventy feet 
 long by one hundred and sixty wide. The great hall 
 is capable of seating twenty-five hundred persons, 
 and is lighted by means of ten magnificent gasiliers 
 suspended from the room, each weighing about 
 three-quarters of a ton. One of the largest organs
 
 94 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 in the world occupies a prominent position , and or- 
 gan concerts at low prices of admission have been 
 frequently given there since 1855. The cost of the 
 edifice was about 230,000. 
 
 The next day after our arrival we had a rehearsal 
 in the hall, and made every preparation possible to 
 have the first concert in England a grand affair.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The first Old Folks' Concert in England Interview with a Daily News- 
 paper Editor How a good Notice was secured English Stupidity and 
 English Ignorance Close of the Old Folks' Concerts in Liverpool and 
 the Vicinity. 
 
 FTEE we had rehearsed sufficiently long to 
 get the ** hang " of the immense hall, I passed 
 the time in attending to the details for the first 
 concert. That evening we visited in a body 
 one of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Paul's entertain- 
 ments, which are justly popular both in England and 
 America. The preparations for the first appearance 
 were many and trying. One of the duties was to pre- 
 sent every American whom I could find with a ticket 
 to the entertainment. I had already disposed of sev- 
 eral hundreds on the steamer Canada, and, with those 
 slipped into the hands of the officers who examined 
 our trunks, which, by the way, expedited their per- 
 formance amazingly, the complimentaries to the 
 press, etc., about three thousand passes were given 
 away. 1 was determined to have a grand rush on 
 the opening night, and my object was secured. 
 When we appeared before the audience, we opened 
 
 95
 
 96 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 our mouths to a crowded audience. I have never, 
 even in America, witnessed more genuine enthusi- 
 asm at an "Old Folks' Concert." I am not vain 
 enough to attribute this to the English element in 
 the auditory, but verily believe, if my eye could 
 have rested upon them individually, it would have 
 found most of them wondering what it was all about. 
 The American and other " dead heads,"' as they are 
 familiarly called, were evidently determined not to 
 permit an indifferent feeling in regard to the singing 
 of the " Old Folks " to obtain, and the way they ap- 
 plauded was most gratifying to me, and correspond- 
 ingly astonishing to the " Britishers." As we sang 
 the last tune, I felt that the public were all right, 
 but how about the newspapers ? I had my eye upon 
 a burly, red-faced fellow, who represented one of 
 the papers, and I frequently saw, or imagined I saw, 
 during the entertainment, looks of disgust overspread 
 his beer-redolent face, as some commonplace piece 
 would elicit enthusiastic applause. He evidently 
 endeavored to ascertain where the " clique " who ad- 
 mired such trash were seated, for he turned his head 
 nervously, and often furiously about, and his gaze was 
 both searching and defiant. I told Mr. Jarrett that 
 the " old fellow " was displeased, and he must be seen 
 before I slept. I therefore ordered one of the 
 " .flies," made something like a chaise, only they use 
 boards for a boot instead of leather, as we do, and,
 
 AN INTERVIEW WITH AN EDITOR. 97 
 
 as near as I could judge, most of the harness was 
 under the horse's belly. I was driven to the news- 
 paper office, and, I assure the reader, I felt a little 
 exercised as I mounted the long, dark stairs and 
 groped my way along to the editorial room. I was 
 worried about the construction which would be put 
 upon this new phase of Yankee assurance and 
 "cheek." I rapped at the door, and a gruff " come 
 in ! " was the result. I entered, and there sat the 
 editor, of colossal proportions, at his desk, busily en- 
 gaged in writing. As I noticed the spiteful slashes 
 and dashes which his pen made upon the sheet, I 
 felt that every one was a stab at my pocket and rep- 
 utation. I truly believed he was giving the concert 
 " fits." I approached the autocrat, hat in hand, and, 
 with my knees knocking together, and my body 
 trembling all over like an aspen, told him I was 
 "Father Kemp," of the " Old Folks." He contin- 
 ued writing, and, without looking up, said, 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "I have come, sir," said I, "to give you some 
 ideas, and to get some suggestions from you in re- 
 gard to my concert." 
 
 " Horrible ! Horrible ! Horrible ! " roared the 
 burly Briton. 
 
 If a park of artillery had opened upon me, I do 
 not believe I should have felt and exhibited greater 
 terror. He kept on with his writing, and did not
 
 98 FATHER KEMP AND ffIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 deign to even look at me. A glance of disgust, in- 
 dignation, or scorn, would have been soothing. 
 While I stood there the vision of thirty people, three 
 thousand miles from home, dependent upon me, 
 came up before my eyes. I saw the smiles of sat- 
 isfaction which rested upon their faces at the close 
 of the concert turned to looks of sorrow and disap- 
 pointment, at the breakfast-table to-morrow, the 
 doors of the hall closed against me, and my English 
 trip turned into a Liverpool fiasco. I began to feel 
 the injustice of his criticism, and, nerving myself 
 to the task, took a chair, uninvited, and sat down, 
 with a coolness which I believe I had never exhib- 
 ited before. He looked up in amazement, dropped 
 his pen, and drew back in his chair. We took a 
 good " square " survey of each other, which occupied 
 about a half a minute. At last I spoke, not harshly, 
 but respectfully, 
 
 " Sir, what is the matter with my concert?" 
 
 " You can never sing sacred and secular music at 
 the same entertainment, and prosper in "England, 
 never, sir, never ! " 
 
 " But were not the sacred and secular selections 
 both good?" 
 
 " That makes no difference. There is the estab- 
 lished custom ; you cannot come here and overthrow 
 the usages of the English people." 
 
 "Nothing could be farther from my desire, my
 
 A GOOD NOTICE SECURED. 99 
 
 dear sir. I have every respect for the customs and 
 usages of the English people. They are a noble 
 race. It is my boast that I sprung from English 
 stock ; but that has nothing to do with the concert. 
 While the Prince of Wales was in America we sang 
 before him, and he applauded applauded us, sir, 
 and his approbation was equally divided between 
 the sacred and the secular pieces." 
 
 I saw I had made a home-thrust, and the old fel- 
 low began to scratch his head and look a little un- 
 easy. Without giving him an opportunity to reply, 
 I continued, 
 
 "We have come here on a tour of pleasure, ob- 
 servation, and study. We came as friends, and do 
 not wish to be treated as public enemies. We de- 
 sire a little attention. The queen's son had that, at 
 least, from us ; it is in your power to reciprocate." 
 
 The countenance of the " Island mastiff, " which 
 had been gradually softening, now was made radiant 
 with a friendly smile, and his cheeks shone like the 
 sunny half of two Baldwin apples. He blandly 
 asked, 
 
 " Have you any notices ? " 
 " I have, sir ; thousands of them." 
 " Will you furnish me with one of your best ? " 
 "I will, with pleasure, immediately." 
 I bowed myself out of his presence, almost too 
 happy to restrain my emotion. Back to the hotel,
 
 100 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 and back again to the office, was the work of but a 
 few minutes. When I returned I left upon his table 
 several " first-rate notices " from the American news- 
 papers, and again took my departure. The next 
 morning the following appeared in his journal, 
 
 " THE OLD FOLKS' CONCERT TROUPE. The first 
 performance of Father Kemp's Old Folks' Concert 
 Troupe in England took place last evening at St. 
 George's Hall, which was filled by a highly respect- 
 able and delighted audience. The entertainment is 
 really of a very novel and at the same time most 
 pleasing character. There is an originality about 
 the whole affair, together with a display of musical 
 talent, which renders it quite charming. The Troupe 
 comprises thirty ladies and gentlemen, not 'old 
 folks,' by the way, but youthful instrumentalists and 
 vocalists of considerable ability. They are styled ( old 
 folks,' not from the fact of their being patriarchs of 
 threescore years and ten, but from the style of dress 
 in which they appear, old court suits of the time 
 of Charles II. and costumes of subsequent dates, 
 clown to the close of the last century. Some of the 
 ladies' dresses were made so long as two hundred 
 years since ; the costumes generally presented a strik- 
 ing contrast to those in fashion at the present day. 
 The ladies wore towering combs, puffed hair, short- 
 waisted dresses with very narrow skirts, and bonnets
 
 STYLE OF DRESS. 101 
 
 large enough for two or three heads. One lady 
 looked out from an enormous bonnet, the materials of 
 which would be sufficient for some three or four dozen 
 of the diminutive articles worn as bonnets in these 
 days. The dress of the gentlemen was no less pecu- 
 liar. They appeared in the extravagant bell-top and 
 three-cornered hats, excessively short unmention- 
 ables with corresponding long straps, hats with next 
 to no brim, coats nearly all skirts, powdered hair, 
 ruffles, and the gorgeous full dress of the period of 
 George I. and II. The music generally is of an un- 
 pretending, simple character, but it is not the less 
 beautiful. In fact, the purpose with which the en- 
 tire programme has been framed is to exhibit the 
 style of music in popular favor in the Old Ameri- 
 can day. The style in which this music was sung is 
 deserving of all the praise that can be bestowed upon 
 it. The instrumentalists played well in tune, kept 
 their place, and most effectively so. The vocaliza- 
 tion was magnificent. Never have we heard voices 
 more beautifully or equally blended; the effect they 
 produced was truly charming. The vocalists are 
 evidently 'picked voices? and their rendering of the 
 harmonized pieces was faultless, the attention to 
 'light and shade,' so frequently neglected, imparting 
 a beauty to their singing which must be heard to be 
 appreciated. During the interval between the first 
 and second parts of the concert the performers prom-
 
 102 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 enaded the avenues between the seats in the body of 
 the hall, in order that the audience might have a 
 nearer view of their antiquated habiliments. This 
 afforded considerable satisfaction, not unmixed 
 with amusement, as the frequent peals of laughter 
 testified, especially to the fair sex, who regarded 
 with especial interest the gigantic bonnet referred to, 
 the excessively anti-crinoline skirted dresses, and the 
 peculiarly quaint head-dresses of the ladies. One of 
 the latter wore a dress stated to be two hundred and 
 five years old, and had been a wedding dress for 
 many parties. A coat worn by one of the gentlemen 
 was said to be two hundred years old, and his hat 
 looked as if it had done service at the battle of Bun- 
 ker's Hill. We should not omit to state that while 
 these dresses were looked upon with much interest, 
 the wearers of them were warmly applauded as they 
 made the circuit of the hall." 
 
 I have nothing to add to the above. I feared to 
 go and thank the old fellow for his kind notice, 
 which was printed on all the bills afterwards used in 
 England. I was very handsomely treated in Liver- 
 pool, and remained there eight days, sometimes giv- 
 ing three concerts per day. After our concert at St. 
 George's Hall, one evening we gave an entertain- 
 ment to the workingmen, which began at 10 p. M.
 
 CONCERTS IN LIVERPOOL. 103 
 
 The crowd was very great, the price of tickets rang- 
 ing from two to twenty-five cents. 
 
 I endeavored while in Liverpool to cultivate the 
 acquaintance of my old friends, the school-children. 
 Having hunted one whole day, I at last found a man 
 who kept a beer saloon, who had some authority in 
 the matter, and told him my story ; but no explana- 
 tion could make him understand that we would sing 
 to the juveniles free of expense. 
 
 "The children," said he, "know quite enough 
 now ; but how long does your lecture last ? Won't 
 you take some wine ? " 
 
 This closed the conversation. I thought such a 
 pig-headed fellow could not be a good judge of 
 wine, so I declined. Very few children attended 
 my concerts in Liverpool, as the reader may judge. 
 
 As another instance of English stupidity, I will 
 mention an occurrence, one of many, which indi- 
 cated the more than Egyptian (Illinois) darkness 
 against which I was obliged to contend in enlight- 
 ened Albion. A well-dressed man, with whom I 
 was conversing, said he had a cousin living in Amer- 
 ica, whom he desired very much to hear from. He 
 then astounded me with the question, 
 
 " How large a town is this America? " 
 
 I looked at him until assured that he was in ear- 
 nest, and then replied that it was a very large place. 
 He afterwards informed me that his cousin lived
 
 104 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 where the steamer went into America, and presumed 
 I might find him when I went back. I took his ad- 
 dress. The above is similar to other incidents 
 which, as I have before stated, were every day oc- 
 curring. There is not so much ignorance concern- 
 ing this country there now. The great rebellion 
 made the United States known among a class which 
 had before scarcely been aware of their existence. 
 An Englishman, as a general rule, is one of the 
 most self-satisfied of men. If he is learned, he is 
 satisfied with his kind of information ; if ignorant, 
 he is content with his ignorance. 
 
 I might write another chapter upon my Liverpool 
 experience, but the reader will doubtless think, with 
 me, that I have dwelt upon the subject long enough. 
 I met many friends there, and was more favorably 
 impressed with the city than I had anticipated I 
 should be. A description of the magnificent docks, 
 and some of the buildings might prove interest- 
 ing, but I leave them to other hands. After " do- 
 ing " Liverpool, we visited many places around the 
 city, and then took the North-western Railroad train 
 for London, distant more than two hundred miles.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 London Its immense Area and dense Population The Houses of Par- 
 liament London Tower. 
 
 FOUND London a pretty large place, and 
 when viewing its vast proportions for the first 
 time, and watching the busy throng hurrying 
 and jostling against each other, I wondered if 
 they had any attention to spare for the " Old 
 Folks." I believe I never felt so small and insignifi- 
 cant in my life as when iny eyes first rested upon 
 the immense masses of building material which con- 
 stitute this great city. London is not at a stand-still, 
 either. The city is rapidly growing, new buildings 
 being yearly erected, so that what were pasture 
 lands and wheat fields a few years ago are now 
 handsome streets. Just imagine that you are at the 
 west side of the city, riding on top of an omnibus, 
 going east; you pass dwelling-houses, shops, 
 churches, hotels, factories of various kinds, great 
 buildings for public and private use, banks, offices, 
 railroad stations, riding ten miles before you get 
 into the open country again. Or, if you were on 
 the north side, going south, you would ride five 
 
 105
 
 106 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 miles before coming to the river Thames ; crossing 
 that, over one of the magnificent bridges, you could 
 ride three miles further with houses all the way, be- 
 fore reaching an open field. 
 
 London covers an area ten miles square, and three 
 and a half millions of people live here, more in 
 number than the inhabitants of Maine, New Hamp- 
 shire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, put 
 together ! More than three hundred thousand cat- 
 tle, fifty thousand calves, nearly three million sheep 
 and lambs, fifty thousand pigs, are consumed here 
 every year, besides all the wheat, corn, potatoes, veg- 
 etables, fish, chickens, turkeys, butter, cheese, and 
 milk. There are about forty thousand tailors engaged 
 in making clothes, and about fifty thousand women 
 and girls making dresses. There are thirty-five thou- 
 sand boot and shoe makers. The stores contain goods 
 from all countries, from China, India, Japan, Rus- 
 sia, Egypt, South America, and the United States. 
 Vessels are coming and going from all parts of the 
 world. There is no end of railroad trains, some 
 railroads running over the tops of the houses on great 
 bridges, built of bricks and stone, and as you glide 
 along you can look down into the houses and see 
 what the people are going to have for dinner. You 
 look down upon the busy throngs in the streets; 
 you are up so high that you are on a level with the 
 belfries of the churches. And there are railroads
 
 THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 107 
 
 also which run under ground for miles, passing 
 under houses where the cooks are getting dinner 
 over your head. 
 
 The Houses of Parliament are among the most 
 magnificent buildings in the world, and few have cost 
 more money than they. As you sail down the river 
 Thames, you see rising above the tops of the houses 
 two tall towers, one three hundred and twenty feet 
 high, and the other three hundred and forty. Besides 
 these there are many spires on the roof, gleaming in 
 the sunshine. The building covers eight acres of 
 ground, or, as that interesting writer, "Carleton," of 
 the "Boston Journal," expresses it, an area larger than 
 a great many corn-fields or potato-fields in New Eng- 
 land. It is built of dark gray stone, very nicely ham- 
 mered, and there are many beautiful figures chiselled 
 in the rock of leaves, vines, lions' heads, and busts of 
 great men famous in history, and many other forms 
 of beauty. If we were to go inside we might travel 
 from noon till sunset through the halls, rooms, and 
 passages. There are eleven large courts, one hun- 
 dred flights of stairs, eleven hundred rooms, and more 
 than two miles of passage-ways. The front, which we 
 gaze upon from the river, is nine hundred and forty 
 feet long., richly decorated with statues of the kings 
 and queens of England. Between the windows are 
 panels of stone cut in beautiful flowers and scroll 
 work, and coats of arms, and at each end rise the
 
 108 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 two great towers. At the west end is the Victoria 
 Tower, eighty feet square and three hundred and forty 
 feet high, with four turrets on the corners, tipped 
 with gold, and golden lances between the turrets. 
 
 When the queen visits Parliament in the royal 
 coach she enters this tower, passes up the royal 
 court between statues of St. George, the patron 
 saint of England, St. Andrew, the patron saint of 
 Scotland, and St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ire- 
 land ; and there also is a statue of herself. It would 
 give you much pleasure to walk beneath this grand 
 archway, rising sixty-five feet over your head, 
 blazing with gold. Here noblemen stand in wait- 
 ing to receive the queen on great occasions, bowing 
 very low as she passes into the rooms prepared for her 
 reception. The tower at the other end of the grgat 
 pile is called the Clock Tower, which has four great 
 white dials, thirty feet in diameter, where the 
 golden hands, fifteen feet in length, point the pass- 
 ing hours. I know not how many bells there are in 
 the belfry, but you hear them sweetly chiming, fill- 
 ing the air with silvery sounds, and when the hour 
 comes round you hear one, louder-toned, deeper, 
 and heavier than all the others, striking slowly and 
 solemnly. In the night, when the roar of the city 
 is hushed a little, it is heard miles and miles away. 
 
 The chamber where the peers of the realm hold 
 their sessions is lighted by six lofty windows, each
 
 THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 109 
 
 pane of glass a portrait of one of the sovereigns of 
 England. Here are paintings in fresco on the walls, 
 one of Edward III. conferring the Order of the 
 Garter on the Black Prince ; another represents the 
 Spirit of Chivalry. There are in the niches of the 
 walls statues of men who laid the foundations of 
 constitutional liberty, such as the people of England 
 and of the United States enjoy to-day ; statues 
 of the barons, who, in a green meadow on the 
 banks of the Thames, twenty miles up stream, in 
 1215, compelled King John to sign the Magna 
 Charta. 
 
 You look up to the roof fretted with gold and see 
 that it is divided into diamonds and squares, with 
 symbols and devices of curious design, with coats 
 of arms and monograms. At one end of the hall is 
 the queen's throne, a chair of gold, and the State 
 chair, which the Prince of Wales occupies when 
 here, and another seat, with a cushion of rich crim- 
 son cloth, which is called the woolsack, the seat 
 of the lord chancellor. When the lords are in 
 session they sit with their hats on, which people of 
 the United States would not call very good man- 
 ners; but then, the lords don't put their feet on the 
 desks higher than their heads, nor spit tobacco-juice 
 on the floor, as it is said some American legislators 
 are in the habit of doing, which is as unmannerly as 
 to sit with one's hat on.
 
 110 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 At the east end of the building is the chamber in 
 which the commons meet. The hall leading to it 
 has a great many paintings on the walls of scenes in 
 English history.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Tower of London Its History and Associations. 
 
 )HE Tower of London is one of the most 
 interesting historical piles in the world. 
 As we descend Tower Hill the walls of the 
 ancient palace rise before us amidst the 
 surrounding mass of more modern build- 
 ings. The Tower is the castle of the old kings 
 and queens of England, and is closely interwoven 
 with the principal events in the history of the 
 government of that nation. It was built by Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror, to provide a shelter for him- 
 self and awe the rebellious Britons. There are 
 six towers in the outer ward, called the Middle 
 ToAver, the Byward Tower, the Traitor's Gate or 
 St. Thomas's Tower, the Cradle Tower, the Well 
 Tower, and the Develin or Iron-gate Tower, and 
 many others within the enclosure, most or all of 
 them associated with some of the prominent scenes in 
 the conflicts which preceded the founding of the form 
 of government which is so acceptable to the Britons 
 at the present time. The smallest division on the 
 first floor is now known as " Queen Elizabeth's Ar- 
 
 111
 
 112 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 mory," a cell being connected with it. It is said 
 that Sir Walter Raleigh, while a prisoner at the 
 Tower, occupied these apartments. The Devereux 
 Tower, in the inner ward, is named for the brave 
 and accomplished Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, 
 the favorite of Elizabeth, afterwards beheaded by 
 her. He was only thirty-four years of age at his 
 death. He was executed privately, on the green 
 within the Tower, in front of the chapel. 
 
 The other towers have been the prisons of dis- 
 tinguished persons, like Queen Anne Boleyn, Lady 
 Jane Grey, etc., confined here previous to their 
 execution. Inscriptions, generally indicating the 
 greatest sorrow, and the expectation of certain 
 death, cover the walls of the different apartments. 
 During the eight centuries which have elapsed 
 since the erection of the Tower, it never sus- 
 tained an attack from a foreign foe, but it has 
 been besieged many times during the civil wars 
 which have shaken England. It has been used 
 as a palace and a prison, and now lives in the 
 past as the guardian of the interesting relics of the 
 contests and tumults of by-gone days. It would oc- 
 cupy hundreds of pages to describe the suits of 
 armor, the crown jewels, and hundreds of other 
 interesting things within its walls. A visit to the 
 Tower brings to mind the history of England more 
 forcibly than any other London experience, with
 
 THE TO WE It OF LONDON. 113 
 
 the exception of a stroll through Westminster Ab- 
 bey, a description of which is reserved for a sepa- 
 rate chapter. 
 
 The following description, compiled from one 
 of the guide-books, which those who enter the 
 Tower are expected to purchase, will doubtless be 
 read with interest, as, besides furnishing a con- 
 densed history of the edifice, it presents a nota- 
 ble example of "highfalutiu" composition, calcu- 
 lated to impress and interest unsophisticated visitors 
 to the British Isles. 
 
 "FIRST PERIOD. 
 
 "During the Norman and early Plantagenet age, 
 history has recorded the names of few captives of 
 note, who were immured within the fortress. One 
 of the most remarkable was the first state prisoner 
 known to have been incarcerated in the Tower of 
 London, Flambard, Bishop of Durham. His ori- 
 gin was humble, but his talents made him so useful 
 to William Rufus in carrying out his oppressive 
 system of taxation, that he raised him to the highest 
 offices in the State. Henry I. imprisoned him on 
 his accession, 1100, to please the people ; but the 
 wily Flambard contrived to escape, and fled to Nor- 
 mandy. Hugh de Burgh was another captive 
 statesman of this period, but of far different order. 
 This great man and faithful minister, was guardian
 
 114 FATHER KEMP AND TIIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 of the king and kingdom during Henry III.'s minor- 
 ity. Those who envied his greatness prejudiced 
 his sovereign against him, and he was cruelly im- 
 prisoned within the Tower dungeons for some time, 
 about 1240. He was subsequently released. 
 
 "SECOND PERIOD. THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 " At this time the tower appears in the lustre of 
 that martial glory which was shed upon our country 
 by the royal warriors, Edward I., Edward HI., and 
 Edward the Black Prince. The national banners 
 which floated over the Tower were c faun'd by con- 
 quest's crimson wing, and the fortress was filled 
 with captive kings and heroes, trophies of Eng- 
 land's valor.' "We especially connect the crested 
 pride of the first Edward with the conquest of 
 Wales, that interesting country upon which we look 
 with a feeling akin to reverence, as the retreat of 
 the early possessors of our beautiful England ; the 
 country whose mountains were once 'vocal with 
 high-born Hoel's harp, and soft Llewellyn's lay.' 
 A tragical instance of the irksomeness of captivity 
 to Cambria's mountain chiefs was given in the at- 
 tempt made by Griffin, the son of the Prince of 
 North Wales, to escape from the Tower. The 
 treacherous rope by which he lowered himself from 
 his turret, broke ; and the unhappy prince was found 
 next morning a mangled corpse beneath. His son,
 
 THE TOWER OF LONDON, 115 
 
 undaunted, soon after did escape, and succeeded to 
 the principality; but only to fall in battle before 
 the victorious Edward, who sent his ivy-crowned 
 head to be fixed over the turret which had proved 
 so fatal to his father. The names of many Welsh 
 chiefs are chronicled as having been captives in the 
 Tower during this period. Morgan David, Llewel- 
 lyn Bren, Madoc Vaghan, and others, some of whom 
 died in captivity. Owen Glendower proved in the 
 reign of Henry IV. (1399) how mighty a spirit still 
 lingered amidst the mountains of Wales. The ex- 
 piring effort for independence appears to have been 
 made by Owen's son, and several chiefs, who were 
 led captive to the Tower by Henry V., then Prince 
 of Wales, after the battle of Usk, 1410. 
 
 "Many a mighty spirit from Scotland, too, chafed 
 within the dismal dungeons of the royal fortress 
 during the fourteenth century, and just previous to 
 its commencement. We must only notice the 
 names of King Baliol, 1297 ; of the noble Wallace, 
 who suffered a cruel imprisonment and terrible 
 death, 1305 ; of the Earls of Ross, of Athol and 
 Monteith ; of King David Bruce, 1346 ; the im- 
 prisonment of John, King of France, of his son, 
 and of many French nobles, and the generous 
 treatment which they received from the noble 
 Edward, the Black Prince. The treaty of Bretigny 
 restored John to his throne in 1360.
 
 116 FATIIEn KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 " Six hundred Jews were incarcerated in these 
 dungeons during Edward III.'s reign for adulter- 
 ating the coin of the realm. The monarch, whose 
 prejudice against them was strong, finally banished 
 all of that nation from England, compelling them to 
 leave behind them their immense wealth, and their 
 libraries, so rich in the treasures of science, which 
 were taken possession of by the monasteries. Roger 
 Bacon owed much of his extraordinary knowledge 
 to the Jews' libraries, especially to the gigantic 
 volumes of the Babylonish Talmud. 
 
 "THIRD PERIOD. 
 
 " The splendor of the fourteenth century passed 
 away, and during the fifteenth a gloomy shroud of 
 darkest deeds enveloped the Tower of London. Ed- 
 ward the Black Prince, the pride and the delight of 
 the nation, was arrested by the hand of death in the 
 glory of his manhood. He left his mourning coun- 
 try fatherless, as sheep without a shepherd ; it be- 
 came the prey of the wolf-like passions of rival 
 factions. When the prince's son, the year after his 
 father's death, succeeded to the crown, he was but a 
 child in age ; and, as if the moral energy of the stock 
 had been exhausted in his high-souled father and his 
 brave grandfather, Richard II. remained always a 
 child in character. His imbecility allowed lawless 
 ambition to rage unchecked ; and the Tower chroni-
 
 THE TOWER OF LONDON. 117 
 
 cles record how dismally it wrought in the sons, 
 and sons' sons of Edward III. They show us the 
 royal cousins wresting the crown from each other, 
 and dooming one the other to dungeons and to 
 assassination; and, even causing the valleys and 
 plains of England to flow with the blood of her 
 bravest sons, and this, to gratify the terrible lust of 
 power. This dark period was appropriately com- 
 menced with the erection on Tower Hill of the fatal 
 scaffold. The first victim whose blood was shed on 
 that spot was Sir Simon Burley. ' A noble knight 
 I found him,' writes Froissart, ' sage and wise.' 
 One of the most accomplished men of his age, he 
 had been selected by the Black Prince as the com- 
 panion of his son (Richard II.) and his only crime 
 was faithfulness to his young sovereign ; an un- 
 pardonable one in the judgment of the king's uncles, 
 the Dukes of York and Gloucester, who, having 
 wrested the power from their royal nephew's hands, 
 wreaked vengeance on all who favored him. Rich- 
 ard's good queen, Anne, pleaded for Sir Simon on 
 her knees with tears, but in vain : he was beheaded 
 in 1388. 
 
 The king's weak government produced a general 
 discontent ; of which, Henry Bolingbroke, son of 
 the famous John of Gaunt, availed himself to win 
 golden opinions, and easily prevailed upon the 
 nation to accept him as their sovereign. The\le-
 
 118 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 serted Richard soon after, in the presence of the 
 chief men of the realm, who were assembled in the 
 great hall of the palace in the Tower, formally 
 delivered up the crown to Bolingbroke, with these 
 words : 'Fair Cousin, Henry, Duke of Lancaster, I 
 give and deliver you this crown, and therewith all 
 the right thereto depending.' (Froissart.) The 
 unhappy king was then conducted to the cells of the 
 Tower, and afterwards to Pomfret Castle in York- 
 shire. A mystery haugs over his death. 
 
 "The year 1406 brought a most interesting young 
 captive to the Tower, James, eldest son of Robert 
 III. King of Scotland. On his way to the court of 
 France to be educated, the royal child was driven 
 by a sea-storm to take refuge on English shores, 
 and he was detained by Henry, and doomed to a 
 captivity which lasted eighteen years. Henry, 
 however, gave him a princely education in his pris- 
 on lodging in the Tower. His genius was brilliant, 
 his thirst for knowledge intense ; and when at 
 length he was restored to his country and his crown, 
 he was distinguished for consummate wisdom and 
 virtue. 
 
 " The next royal prisoner in the fortress was our 
 own amiable and saintly, though weak monarch, 
 Henry VI. 
 
 "The House of Lancaster did not wear their 
 usurped crown in peace. The House of York as-
 
 THE TOWER OF LONDON. 119 
 
 
 
 serted their more just claims ; and the rneek mon- 
 arch would perhaps gladly have yielded to their 
 prior right. 
 
 " ' Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade 
 To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep, 
 Than doth a rich embroider' d canopy 
 To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery ? ' 
 
 777. Pan Henry VI. Act II. Sc. V. 
 
 " But not so Henry's warlike queen, Margaret of 
 Aujou. In 1461, Henry was defeated by the York- 
 ists, and immured in the Tower dungeons. The 
 victory of Margaret at Wakefield, 1470, again seat- 
 ed Henry on the throne and filled the Tower with 
 his enemies. Habited in a robe of purple his nobles 
 led him to the cathedral of St. Paul in triumph ; 
 but he only regained his regal splendors to be shorn 
 of them again in the ensuing year. Edward IV. 
 finally defeated the House of Lancaster at Barnet 
 and Tewkesbury, 1471. Henry was sent back to 
 his prison, and was not long after found dead. His 
 queen pined in a miserable captivity for three years 
 afterwards ; she was then released from the Tower. 
 Henry VI. 's son was killed at Tewkesbury by the 
 brothers of Edward IV., the Dukes of Clarence and 
 Gloucester. Clarence himself was the next victim. 
 Having aroused his brother, Edward IV. 's jealousy, 
 he was imprisoned in the Bowyer Tower and 
 murdered tradition says, drowned in Malmsey
 
 120 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 | 
 
 wine. In 1483, the gay Edward sickened and died. 
 His youthful sons were committed to the care of 
 their uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards 
 Richard III. The royal children were sent to the 
 Tower, and disappeared. Tradition says that they 
 were murdered by Richard's order in the bloody 
 Tower, and buried at the foot of the N. E. staircase 
 in the White Tower. An impenetrable mystery 
 veils their fate. 
 
 Lord Hastings, who opposed the evil course of 
 Richard's murderous ambition, was doomed by him 
 to instant death, on pretence of his approval of 
 Jane Shore's practice of magical arts to Richard's 
 injury. The wicked sentence was executed in front 
 of St. Peter's chapel. The unhappy Jane herself 
 was immured in the Tower dungeons, and was only 
 released to die after years of suffering in extreme 
 poverty. The battle of Bosworth field at length, 
 in 1485, terminated Richard's dark career, and 
 placed his rival Henry, Earl of Richmond, on the 
 throne. Amidst all this darkness we discern glim- 
 merings of a new dawn : in the previous century, 
 the pure fountains of life and truth had been un- 
 sealed through the instrumentality of Wyckliffe. 
 Truth ever shines as a light, and some were attracted 
 by its loveliness ; but many, alas ! found darkness 
 more congenial, and used their every energy to 
 preserve it. Thus, in the year 1401, a law was
 
 THE TOWER OF LONDON. 121 
 
 passed empowering the bishops to imprison any 
 one suspected of heresy. From that time, the cells 
 of the Tower were constantly tenanted by those to 
 whom truth was dearer than this world's liberty and 
 life ; and often were its dismal recesses the scenes 
 of their terrible tortures. Sir John Oldcastle, 
 Lord Cobham, a man no less renowned for his 
 virtues than for his valor, had the honor of being 
 the first person of rank in this country who suffered 
 in this most noble of causes. Henry V. himself 
 had an interview with him in the hope of prevailing 
 upon him to retract his opinions ; but finding even 
 royal rhetoric fail, Henry left him to his clergy, 
 who, after imprisoning him in the Tower, sent him 
 to the stake. He was burnt at St. Giles' in the 
 Fields, 1417. 
 
 "FOURTH PERIOD. THE TUDOR RACE. 
 
 " The hero of Agincourt, Henry V. , left by his 
 early death a young widow, Katheriue, daughter of 
 Charles the Simple, King of France. She after- 
 wards married a Welsh gentleman, Owen Tudor. 
 Henry, Earl of Richmond, Avas the grandson of this 
 pair; hence his claim to be the representative of 
 the house of Lancaster. A claim which the 
 nation's hatred of Richard III. made them the more 
 ready to own. His marriage to the fair Elizabeth 
 of York, Edward IV. 's daughter, thus uniting the
 
 122 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 rival roses, completed the general satisfaction. A 
 short calm ensued ; but it was only a gathering of 
 strength for a mighty conflict of a new order that 
 was about to commence, a struggle between light 
 and darkness, in which the confusion was so chaos- 
 like, that, for a while, it was often difficult to sepa- 
 rate the two to distinguish error from truth. 
 
 "In Henry VII. 's reign the last male of the Plan- 
 tagenets was a captive in the Tower. The young 
 Earl of Warwick was the son of that Duke of 
 Clarence who died in the Bowyer Tower. A vic- 
 tim to Henry's jealousy of the Plantagenets, after 
 spending his life in prison, he was beheaded on 
 Tower Hill, charged with attempting to escape from 
 the fortress with 'Perkin Warbeck,' the name 
 given to a young man who had presented himself 
 before the nation a few years after Henry's acces- 
 sion. He bore a striking resemblance to Edward 
 IV. Highly accomplished and of princely bear- 
 ing, he announced himself to be Richard Duke of 
 York, the younger of the royal princes supposed to 
 have been murdered by Richard III. His claims 
 were favored by the kings of Scotland and France. 
 Henry committed him to the Tower, and caused 
 him to be hung at Tyburn. His whole history is 
 enveloped in mystery. Henry VIII. 's reign may 
 be divided into three periods : the first includes the 
 twenty years of his union with Katherine of Arm-
 
 THE TOWER OF LONDON. 123 
 
 gon, and the asceudeucy over him of the Romish 
 party. Rome was then at the zenith of its perse- 
 cuting spirit. Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Thomas 
 More, who both drank into this deeply, influ- 
 enced Henry ; and the cells of the Tower were 
 filled with those convicted of heresy, the epithet 
 which it is so easy for error to apply to truth. 
 Henry's passion for the Lady Anne Boleyn changed 
 the current of royal opinions ; and we see the mon- 
 arch espousing the cause of the Reformation during 
 the ten succeeding years of Thomas Cromwell's 
 power. The Tower dungeons were again filled; 
 but principally with those who withstood Henry's 
 claim to be head of the church. The most illustri- 
 ous of these was the gifted, the excellent, the 
 beloved, and brilliant Sir Thomas More, Lord 
 Chancellor; and the venerable Fisher, Bishop of 
 Rochester, whose imprisonment at the advanced age 
 of eighty seems to have been very rigorous. He 
 wrote to the secretary, Lord Cromwell : ' I have 
 neither shirt nor sute to wear but that bee ragged 
 
 OO 
 
 and rent so shamefully ; my dyett also, God 
 kuoweth, how slender it is at meny tymes.' The 
 tragical fate of Queen Anne Boleyn is well known. 
 She died in 1536. 
 
 "The Romish party regained an influence over 
 Henry's mind when the capricious monarch with- 
 drew his favor from Cromwell. The Lady Kathe-
 
 124 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 rine Howard, a niece of the powerful Duke of 
 Norfolk, and had inspired the monarch with an ex- 
 treme passion. This unfortunate young lady was 
 brought up by her grandmother, the old Duchess of 
 Norfolk. A young and lovely creature, left in the 
 princely old mansion without companions suited to 
 her exalted rank, Katherine was ruined in early 
 youth by association with the unworthy dependents 
 of the family. When afterwards introduced at 
 court, Henry was fascinated by her maidenly and 
 winning manners. Her portrait by Holbein, at 
 Windsor, represents her as a fair girl with ruby lips 
 and bright-blue eyes. Marillac, the French ambassa- 
 dor, writing to the King of France, describes her as 
 'a young lady of moderate beauty, but of most sweet 
 and sprightly manners.' He mentions Henry's de- 
 votion to her. She wore round her arms the motto 
 'No other will but his.' But no sooner was the 
 unhappy Katherine exalted to be queen, than 
 the accomplishers of her former ruin seemed to 
 hover around her like evil spirits. The opposite 
 faction caught rumors of the sad truth of the errors 
 of her childhood (for she was but fourteen when 
 Derham boasted that she was his wife). Many 
 terrible accusations were made against Katherine 
 since she had been queen. She was arraigned for 
 high treason, and brought to the scaffold in 1542. 
 She died aged twenty. The only proofs offered of
 
 THE TOWER OF LONDON. 125 
 
 her guilt seem to be the confessions of those under 
 the influence of torture on the rack. 
 
 "Two years before, the gifted Cromwell had per- 
 ished on Tower Hill. His father was a blacksmith. 
 Spurning this humble employment, he travelled to 
 Rome ; became Cardinal Wolsey's steward, then his 
 secretary, and a member of parliament. Intro- 
 duced to Henry, whose discernment made him 
 appreciate his exalted talents, he was speedily 
 raised to the highest offices in the kingdom. He 
 was a zealous friend of the Reformation ; caprice 
 and the rising influence of an opposing party made 
 Cromwell's fall more rapid than his rise. He was 
 seized in the council chamber of Westminster on 
 some frivolous charge of treason, committed to the 
 Tower, and beheaded on Tower Hill in the summer 
 of 1540. 
 
 " After his death, no one remained who had power 
 to stem the torrent of persecution of the Reformers 
 as Cromwell ever did. The Tower dungeons were, 
 during the remainder of Henry's reign, filled with 
 learned divines holding reforming views. In 1546, 
 Anne Askew, a lady of cultivated mind and good 
 family, was tortured in the Tower and burnt at 
 Smithfiekl, for having denied, in conversation, the 
 doctrine of transubstantiation. The last of Henry's 
 victims who can be noticed is Margaret, the 
 Countess of Salisbury, the sister of the Earl of
 
 126 FATHER KEMP AND JJIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 Warwick, and daughter of Edward IV. 's brother, 
 the murdered Clarence. This now venerable lady 
 was the mother of Cardinal Pole. Her crime seems 
 to have been her royal blood. When brought to 
 the scaffold on the green before the chapel, she re- 
 fused to lay her head on the block. * So do traitors 
 use to do, and I am no traitor.' A terrible scene 
 ensued, which ended by the headsman dragging the 
 countess by her gray hair to the block. So per- 
 ished the last of the Plantageuets of whole blood ! 
 "The reign of Edward VI. witnessed the death on 
 the scaffold of two of the young king's maternal 
 uncles, Lord Thomas and Lord Edward Seymour, 
 through the machinations of Dudley, afterwards 
 Duke of Northumberland. Lord Edward Seymour, 
 the Protector, gained the name of the ' good Duke 
 of Somerset.' Somerset House was erected by 
 him. 
 
 " Dudley was the son of Henry VII. 's unpopular 
 minister, the lawyer of that name. His insatiable 
 ambition sought to place the wife of his sou, Lord 
 Guildford Dudley on the throne, after the death of 
 Edward VI., 1533. The piety, the excellences, and 
 beauty of Lady Jane Grey had made her the object 
 of the veneration of all parties. She was the great 
 grandmother of Henry VII. through the Suffolk 
 family, and her claim to the throne was founded on 
 a law which Northumberland had induced Edward
 
 THE TOWER OF LONDON. 127 
 
 VI. to make, which set aside the rights of the 
 Princesses Mary and Elizabeth. Mary, on her 
 accession, sentenced the youthful pair to be be- 
 headed ; Lady Jane on the Green, Lord Guildford 
 on Tower Hill. The proposed marriage of Queen 
 Mary to Philip, King of Spain, gave rise to the re- 
 bellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt, which brought many 
 captives to the Tower (those who have left auto- 
 graphs in Queen Elizabeth's Armory amongst them) . 
 The Princess Elizabeth herself was suspected by 
 Mary of being in correspondence with Sir Thomas, 
 and was committed to the Tower, where she was 
 treated with considerable rigor. Mary even forbade 
 the visits of some little children who delighted in 
 bringing the captive princess flowers. Cranmer, 
 Ridley, and Latimer were all imprisoned in the 
 Tower before their martyrdom at Oxford ; and the 
 dungeons were filled with those who suffered for the 
 faith. The most remarkable prisoners during her 
 reign are mentioned in the accounts of the Beau- 
 champ and Devereux Towers. 
 
 " THE FIFTH PERIOD. THE STUARTS. 
 
 " The Tudor race becoming extinct at the close of 
 Elizabeth's brilliant career, the Stuarts succeeded 
 to the throne ; but this line of kings was never in 
 sympathy with the genius of the nation. 
 
 " The convulsions into which society was thrown
 
 128 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 by the country's efforts to free itself from a yoke to 
 which it could not bend, brought many captives to 
 the Tower ; but at length the uugenial rule was 
 rejected, and James II. left England's throne to the 
 possession of his gifted son-in-law, William, Prince 
 of Orange. 
 
 " Sir Walter Raleigh claims our first notice in 
 James I.'s reign. He was committed to the Tower, 
 on suspicion of his being implicated in a plot to 
 place on the throne of England the Lady Arabella 
 Stuart, the niece of Mary, Queen of Scots. This 
 lady was imprisoned for presuming to marry ; made 
 her escape with her husband, was recaptured in 
 Calais roads, and died in 1616 in the Tower, her 
 reason having given way under the pressure of trial. 
 Sir Walter E-aleigh was released from a twelve 
 years' captivity the year of her death ; he was sent 
 to Guiana, in South America, to search for gold 
 mines ; but, failing in this, was on his return re- 
 manded to the Tower, and beheaded 1618, it is 
 said, to please his enemies the Spaniards, whose 
 favor was sought by James, his son Prince Charles 
 being about to be united to the Infanta of Spain. 
 Sir Walter's prowess had too often defeated the 
 Spaniards for them not to rejoice in his ruin. His 
 talents as a warrior, a statesman, and an author 
 were great. Amongst the victims brought to the 
 Tower by the long struggle between Charles and
 
 THE TOWER OF LONDON. 129 
 
 his parliament, we can only mention th6 eminent 
 statesman Thomas Went worth, Earl of Straflbrd, 
 who was sacrificed in the endeavor to stem the tor- 
 rent of popular opinion, which was rushing towards 
 revolution 5 and who was beheaded, to the intense 
 grief of his sovereign, 1641 ; also Archbishop 
 Laud, who was charged with aiding Charles in his 
 unconstitutional measures, with preaching that the 
 king's prerogative was above all law ; and with 
 seeking to introduce popery again into the estab- 
 lished church. The aged prelate died on the 
 scaffold in 1644. During the protectorate of 
 Cromwell the Tower was crowded with persons 
 suspected of favoring the cause of Charles II. ; 
 and, after his restoration, many who had been con- 
 cerned in the death of Charles I . suffered imprison- 
 ment and death. In James II. 's reign the Duke 
 of Monmonth was induced, by the prevailing 
 disaffection, to lay a claim to the throne, which he 
 founded on the plea of the validity of his mother's 
 marriage to his father, Charles II. After being de- 
 feated at the battle of Sedgemoor, 1685, he was 
 captured and brought to the Tower. One fortnight 
 after, he was beheaded on Tower Hill. Seven 
 bishops were imprisoned during this reign in the 
 Tower, for opposing James II. 's attempt to restore 
 popery in England. The Judge Jefferies, the noto- 
 rious abettor of that king's tyranny, on the abdica-
 
 130 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS- 
 
 tion of his* master, was brought to the Tower, and 
 elided his life there in captivity. 
 
 " Two more convulsive efforts were made by the 
 rejected race in 1715, and in 1745, when that un- 
 happy family made their expiring effort to recover 
 the forfeited kingdom. This last struggle once 
 more stained Tower Hill with blood. As Sir Simon 
 Burley's was the first, so let us trust that the names 
 of Balmerino, of Kilmarnock, and of Lovat will be 
 the last recorded as having perished on that sad 
 spot. These three Scotch lords were beheaded on 
 Tower Hill, in 1746, for favoring the pretensions of 
 the Prince Charles Edward, grandson of James II."
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Westminster Abbey A Description of the Venerable Pile. 
 
 VISITORS to Westminster Abbey, as well as to 
 the other noted historical buildings of Eng- 
 land, are furnished with a guide, at a small 
 price, which gives a fund of information 
 upon all objects coming under the eye. The 
 entrance to the Abbey is at the "Poets' Corner." 
 The fifth page of the Guide contains the follow- 
 ing notice, 
 
 "NOTICE. 
 
 " ADMISSION. 
 
 "Hours of admission, from 10 A. M. until 4 P. M. ; 
 and, in the summer months, until 6 P. M. The 
 Poets' Corner, the Nave, and North Transept, are 
 free at all times. To the Chapels Admission, 
 Sixpence each person. The Chapels of St. Bene- 
 dict and St. Erasmus are not shown. The tombs 
 in the Ambulatory, through which the visitor is 
 conducted to the several Chapels, are unnoticed by 
 
 131
 
 132 FATllKR KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 the guides. The Chapels are not shown during the 
 hours of Divine Service, between 10 and 11 A. M., 
 and 3 and 4 p. M. The Cloisters are open, free, 
 during the hours of Divine Service." 
 
 From the Guide before-named the following par- 
 agraphs descriptive of the Abbey are taken. The 
 painted lights in the numerous windows, represent- 
 ing various scriptural subjects, royal, armorial 
 bearings, etc., are marvellously fine specimens of 
 art. One which particularly impressed me was the 
 gorgeous South or Marigold Window. In the 
 centre is the word "JEHOVAH," surrounded by 
 angels ; and in the circle of surrounding lights are 
 thirty-two subjects illustrative of the principal inci- 
 dents, miracles, and events in the life and sufferings 
 of the Redeemer. In the twelve lower lights are 
 subjects from the Old Testament history. 
 
 The writer in the Guide says, 
 
 " Westminster Abbey may, not inaptly, be called 
 the pantheon of the glory of Britain, for it is its 
 monuments and remains which render the Abbey so 
 precious to Englishmen and the whole civilized 
 world. Here lie nearly all our kings, queens, and 
 princes, from Edward the Confessor to George H. 
 At the mention of the very name, what a crowd of 
 thoughts rush upon the mind ! Here kings and 
 sculptors, princes and poets, philosophers and war-
 
 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 133 
 
 riors, aged men and budding youth, the vulgar 
 great and the author of imperishable strains, have 
 silently mouldered into dust ; and enduring marble 
 embalms their memory. Here the rival statesmen 
 are at peace, and the tongue of the orator is mute ; 
 here, side by side, rest the crowned head and the 
 chancellor, the archbishop and the actor, the philan- 
 thropist and the naval hero, the divine and the 
 physician, the queen and the actress. Here the 
 Roman Catholic magnate has celebrated mass with 
 more than Eastern splendor ; and here the Puritan 
 has poured forth his fervent but lowly exhortation. 
 Here the dread sentence of excommunication has 
 been launched forth in all its terrors ; and here the 
 first English Bible issued from the press. Here the 
 magnificence and pomp of the regal coronation have 
 followed the solemn and beautiful burial-service for 
 the dead ; and here the pealing organ and the swell- 
 ing choir, reverberating through the lofty gray- 
 grown aisles, attunes the mind to solemn thoughts 
 and sobriety of demeanor. 
 
 " This truly noble specimen of Gothic architecture 
 was originally founded in the seventh century, by 
 Sebert, King of the East Saxons, in the year 610 ; 
 but, being afterwards destroyed by the Danes, it 
 was rebuilt by King Edgar, in 958. Edward the 
 Confessor again rebuilt and enlarged the Abbey in 
 1245, and commenced building the present church,
 
 134 FATHER KKMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 which was continued by Edward I. as far as the 
 extremity of the choir ; the nave and east part were 
 erected in succeeding reigns, but the most remark- 
 able addition made to it was the Chapel of Henry VII. , 
 which, though in itself an architectural gem une- 
 qualled in England, does not harmonize with the 
 original design. 
 
 "In the general plunder of monasteries "and 
 church property, which distinguished the reign of 
 Henry VIH. , Westminster Abbey suffered severely ; 
 but it was treated still worse by the Puritans, in the 
 great civil war, it being used as barracks for the 
 soldiers of Parliament, who wantonly destroyed and 
 mutilated many of the tombs and monuments that 
 adorned the various chapels ; the altars in the 
 chapels to the saints were thrown down, the images 
 broken, and the rich stained windows shattered into 
 fragments. The restoration of this great national 
 edifice was intrusted to Sir Christopher Wren, who 
 performed his task with such ability that the building 
 was greatly improved, both in solidity of structure 
 and majesty of effect, he having added the two 
 towers at the west end. 
 
 'These towers,' says the poet Gray, 'are after 
 the designs by Sir Christopher Wren, ^ who also 
 made drawings of a spire of twelve sides, which is 
 to be built hereafter. Neither this master nor the 
 great Inigo Jones are at all to be admired in their
 
 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 135 
 
 imitations of the Gothic styles. This front of the 
 Abbey has no detached columns, or other pierced 
 works of carving, to which the true Gothic owes its 
 lightness ; and there is, besides, a mixture of mod- 
 ern ornaments entirely inconsistent with this mode 
 of building; such as the broken scroll pediments 
 supported by consoles, with masks and festoons, 
 over the ward apertures, designed for the cornices 
 over the great door, etc. In all the flank views of 
 the edifice the two towers seem to unite, and appear 
 as one square, low, and heavy steeple.' 
 
 " During the progress of this re-edification, several 
 curious and ancient monuments were brought to 
 light, which may still be seen ; amongst others, 
 the mosaic pavement, executed under the direction 
 of Richard de Ware, Abbot of Westminster, in 
 1360, now in front of the altar in the choir. 
 
 "The best view of the interior is obtained from 
 the great western door. The body of the church 
 presents an impressive appearance, the whole design 
 of the edifice being at once opened to the view of 
 the spectator, with its lofty roof, beautifully disposed 
 lights and long arcade of columns. These pillars 
 terminate towards the east in a sweep, thereby 
 inclosing the Chapel of Edward the Confessor in a 
 kind of semicircle, and excluding all the rest. On 
 the arches of the pillars are galleries of double 
 columns, fifteen feet wide, covering the side aisles,
 
 136 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 and lighted by a middle range of windows, over 
 which there is an upper range of larger windows ; 
 by these, and the under range, with the four capital 
 windows, the whole fabric is so admirably lighted 
 that the spectator is never incommoded by darkness, 
 nor dazzled by glare. 
 
 " The coronation of all the kings and queens of 
 England has taken place in the Abbey ; and even 
 when a monarch had been crowned previously in 
 another place, as in the case of Henry III., whose 
 coronation took place at Gloucester, it was thought 
 proper to have the ceremony again gone through at 
 Westminster, in the presence of the nobles and the 
 chief ecclesiastical dignitaries of the land, the arch- 
 bishop always officiating in the august ceremonial. 
 
 " The solemn offices of crowning and enthroning 
 the sovereigns of England takes place in the centre 
 of the sacrarium, and beneath the lantern is erected 
 the throne at which the peers do homage. When 
 the crowns are put on, the peers and peeresses put 
 on their coronets, and a signal is given from the top 
 of the Abbey for the Tower guns to fire at the same 
 instant. 
 
 "Henry VII.'s Chapel, which adjoins the east 
 end of the Abbey Church, and communicates with 
 the Ambulatory by a flight of several steps, was 
 erected by the monarch whose name it bears, as the 
 place of sepulture for himself and the royal blood
 
 OBJECTS OF INTEREST. 137 
 
 of England ; and, till the reign of Charles I. , no 
 person but those of royal blood was suffered to be 
 interred there. It was commenced in 1503, the 
 first stone having been laid by John Islip, Abbot of 
 Westminster, in the presence of that monarch, and 
 completed in 1512 ; and is one of the most exquisite 
 specimens of florid Gothic in the world. The exte- 
 rior is adorned with fourteen octagonal towers, 
 jutting from the building in different angles, and 
 ornamented with a profusion of sculpture. Its cost 
 is said to have been 14,000, equal to 200,000 of 
 our present money. During a period of eleven 
 years (from 1809 to 1822) the exterior of this 
 superb chapel underwent a complete restoration, 
 under the superintendence of the late James Wyatt, 
 Esq., at a cost of about 40,000, supplied by a 
 parliamentary grant. 
 
 "In the nave of the chapel are installed, with 
 great ceremony, the knights of the most honorable 
 Order of the Bath ; which order was revived in the 
 reign of George I., in 1725. In their stalls are 
 placed brass plates of their arms ; over them hang 
 their banners, swords, and helmets. Under the 
 stalls are seats for the esquires; each knight has 
 three, whose arms are engraved on brass plates. 
 The stalls are of brown wainscot, with Gothic cano- 
 pies, most beautifully carved, as are the seats, with 
 strange devices. The pavement is of black and
 
 138 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 white marble, laid at the expense of t)r. Killigrew, 
 once the Prebendary of the Abbey. 
 
 "The principal object of admiration liere, both 
 for its antiquity and its workmanship, is the mag- 
 nificent tomb of Henry VII. and Elizabeth his 
 queen, the last of the house of York who wore the 
 English crown, executed by the celebrated Pietro 
 Torrigiano, between the years 1512 and 1518. The 
 surrounding screen, which, is wholly of brass and 
 copper, is one of the most elaborate specimens of 
 the art of founding, in open work, that exists. It 
 is ornamented with many devices alluding to his 
 family and alliances ; such as portcullises denoting 
 his relation to the Beauforts by his mother's side ; 
 roses, twisted and crowned, in memory of the union 
 of the two houses of Lancaster and York ; and, at 
 each end, a crown in a bush, referring to the crown 
 of Richard III. , found in a hawthorn, near Bosworth 
 Field, where that famous battle was fought. 
 
 "In a fine vault, under Henry VH.'s Chapel, is 
 the burying-place of the royal family, erected by 
 George H., but not now used. 
 
 "Besides the church, many of the ancient ap- 
 pendages of the Abbey still exist, ^he Cloisters 
 of the foundation remain nearly entire, and are 
 filled with monuments, many of which are of great 
 interest. They are built in a quadrangular form,
 
 FIRST PRINTING PRESS. 139 
 
 with piazzas toward the court, in which several 
 of the prebendaries have houses. 
 
 "The entrance into the Chapter-house (built in 
 1250) is on one side of the Cloisters, through a 
 Gothic portal, the mouldings of which are exquisitely 
 carved. By consent of the abbot, in 1377 the 
 commons of Great Britain first held their parlia- 
 ments in this place, the crown undertaking the 
 repairs. Here they sat till 1547, when Edward VI. 
 granted them the Chapel of St. Stephen. 
 
 "Not far from the Abbey stood the Sanctuary, the 
 place of refuge granted in former times to criminals 
 of certain denominations. The church belonging to 
 it was in the form of a cross. It is supposed to 
 have been the work of the Confessor. Within its 
 precincts was born Edward V. ; and here his un- 
 happy mother took refuge with her younger son 
 Richard, to secure him from his cruel uncle, who 
 had already possession of his elder brother. 
 
 " To the west of the Sanctuary stood the Eleemos- 
 ynary, or Almonry, where the alms of the Abbey 
 were distributed. But it is still more remarkable 
 for having been the place where the first printing- 
 press ever known in England was erected. It was 
 in 1474, when William Caxton, encouraged by 'the 
 great ' and probably learned Thomas Milling, then 
 Abbot, produced 'The Game and Play of the 
 Chesse,' the first book ever printed in England."
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 How the "Old Folks" "kept house" in the British Capital The First 
 London Concert How we didn't appear before the Queen Concerts 
 at the Crystal Palace The Queen Mr. Peabody Madame Tussaud 
 and Sons British Audiences. 
 
 HAVE become so much interested in reviewing 
 the sights in the Tower and Westminster Ab- 
 bey, that a return to so modern an affair as the 
 " Old Folks' " concerts seems a decidedly tame 
 occupation. Our arrival in London did not 
 occasion any great excitement. The lords and la- 
 dies, with their liveried footmen, drove by us as if 
 we were of the common herd, and cabmen, and 
 drivers of other vehicles, did not stop to note the 
 presence of the venerable troupe from the New 
 World. We had concluded that our stay in Lon- 
 don should be attended with as little unnecessary 
 expense as possible, and a house stocked with a gen- 
 erous larder and four servants had been secured for 
 our reception. The mansion was on Green Street, 
 near Hyde Park. The four servants each had a 
 special duty to perform ; but the experiment was a 
 failure. They could not feed us ; and the ladies of 
 
 140
 
 FIRST CONCERT IN LONDON. 141 
 
 the company took the reins, or rather, the pudding- 
 sticks, into their own hands, and we soon enjoyed 
 wholesome New England fare. After a month's ex- 
 perience it was concluded that we could do better 
 by the troupe individually looking out for them- 
 selves ; and, during the rest of our stay, we got 
 along quite comfortably, though a frequent com- 
 parison of notes and bills of fare revealed the fact 
 that the best food in London is not eaten at the 
 hotels. 
 
 Our first concert was given at St. James' Hall. 
 It was full of enthusiastic friends, but the treasury 
 was not overburdened with receipts. The fleas were 
 quite numerous in the hall ; but a long intermission 
 was taken, so that we had plenty of time to destroy 
 them, when they were caught. 
 
 One of the first objects to be secured was to 
 appear before the queen. I had seen enough of Eng- 
 lish disposition to know that should the " Old Folks " 
 do that, and have it announced on their bills, a great 
 point would be gained. With that purpose in view 
 I called on Hon. George M. Dallas, the United 
 States Minister, told him who the " Old Folks " 
 were, and desired his assistance. He assured me 
 that he would aid us all that was in his power. Satin 
 tickets of admission to the concert at St. James' Hall 
 were printed and distributed at one of the queen's 
 levees, and all seemed to be going on swimmingly,
 
 142 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 when the death of the Duchess of Kent was an- 
 nounc.ed, and the court went into mourning for six 
 weeks. This disappointment was somewhat allevi- 
 ated by an invitation from the President of the Crys- 
 tal Palace Association, who desired the troupe to 
 sing in that spacious building, he paying our fares, 
 and furnishing us with a good English dinner. The 
 proposition was accepted, and the splendid concert- 
 room at the side of the palace was crowded long 
 before the time of beginning. The concert was 
 given, and we received another invitation to appear ; 
 which I consented to do for the sum of $100 per 
 hour. We sang there several times afterwards at 
 those rates, but the manager thought that an hour 
 at a time was as long as any one ought to listen to 
 our beautiful music. Our costumes caused much 
 comment among visitors to the palace, and had I 
 been of a vain disposition I should have felt very 
 proud to see myself the recipient of so much atten- 
 tion. By giving afternoon concerts at the palace, 
 and evening entertainments at St. James' Hall, 
 though we did not grow rich, we were enabled to 
 gain sufficient means to "live on the country." 
 
 The sale of books, containing all our sacred and 
 secular songs, also netted quite a handsome sum, 
 the receipts at the Crystal Palace for the pamphlet 
 often being quite as large as the money paid us for 
 the concert. I adopted a bold method of advertising
 
 THE QUEEN. 143 
 
 in the English capital. Twelve men were employed, 
 who were sandwiched between two boards, ; one 
 upon the back and one upon the breast, and they 
 walked about the streets, one after the other. The 
 " notice " upon the boards was : " Father Kemp's 
 Old Folks sing at St. James' Hall every night." 
 These persons travelled about all day, and were 
 paid twenty-five cents, which they considered good 
 wages. 
 
 While in London we saw many sights besides 
 those already mentioned, and which the reader may 
 rightly judge were of a very interesting character. 
 "We had frequent opportunities to see the queen, 
 who had not then gone into retirement on account 
 of the death of Prince Albert. She was a fine-look- 
 ing lady. The turnouts in which she appeared 
 were of course magnificent. In her stable were two 
 hundred horses, besides many ponies for the use of 
 the little princes and princesses. The state carriage 
 is a gorgeous vehicle, which cost 27,000, and is 
 used only on great state occasions, when it is drawn 
 by eight beautiful cream-colored horses. 
 
 I called on Mr. George Peabody, the American 
 banker and philanthropist, and transacted my finan- 
 cial business with him. He is a safe man to deal 
 with. 
 
 One very interesting exhibition in London was 
 that of Madame Tnssaud & Sons, in Portman Square,
 
 144 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 of nearly four hundred wax figures, and many inter- 
 esting relics of historical characters. Madame Tus- 
 saud knew how to advertise her " wax-figgers." In 
 the title-page of the catalogue was the bait at which 
 every Englishman was expected to bite, and doubt- 
 less the flunkeys (all Englishmen, however, are not 
 flunkeys) considered those names a sufficient guar- 
 anty of the excellence of the "show." The an- 
 nouncement read : "Patronized by His Royal High- 
 ness, Prince Albert, and the Royal Family ; the 
 Ex-Queen of the French ; Maria Christina, Ex-Queen 
 of Spain ; Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Bra- 
 bant ; His Grace, the late Duke of Wellington, etc. ; 
 by their late Majesties, Louis XVI., Maria Antoi- 
 nette, Louis XVIII., Charles X.," etc., etc. The 
 exhibition was first opened at the Palais Royal, 
 Paris, in 1772, and appeared in London in 1802. I 
 tried to get a similar string of titles to affix to my 
 pamphlet, and at one time seriously thought of 
 appending to it : Patronized by the Millionnaires of 
 Reading ; the Dukes of Gloucester and Marblehead ; 
 the Shoe-makers of Lynn f the Mayor of Hull ; 
 Daniel Pratt, the great American Traveller, and 
 George Washington Mellen, his rival candidate for 
 the Presidency ; the Sons of the Pilgrims and the 
 Knickerbockers ; Lo, the poor Indian ; John Smith, 
 Pocahontas, and other transatlantic notables ; and 
 perhaps I should, could I have secured permission.
 
 BRITISH AUDIENCES. 145 
 
 The figures are numbered, and a brief sketch of each 
 personage is given in the book. In that of Prince 
 Frederick William of Prussia, husband of Queen 
 Victoria's daughter, is this statement: "His Royal 
 Highness having been honored with the hand of the 
 
 O O 
 
 Princess Royal of England, received the highest 
 mark of approbation that could be conferred on 
 mortal." 
 
 Notwithstanding my inability to make a flourish 
 of trumpets in regard to the distinguished persons 
 who had visited the "Old Folks," I had no fault to 
 find with my patronage in London, as I did not 
 expect to make money there. We sang in various 
 places, and always with good success, so far as 
 applause was concerned. At the Royal Surrey 
 Gardens, we appeared at one end of the hall, while 
 at the other the beer-drinkers and smokers enjoyed 
 their luxuries together with the music. The rest 
 of my London experience can be "better imagined 
 than described." There is one peculiarity about 
 concert-giving in "perfidious Albion," which should 
 be mentioned for the benefit of those who may go 
 there hereafter with the expectation of making 
 money : They are liable to perform before a very 
 large and enthusiastic audience, and get themselves 
 into a fever of excitement with the belief that the 
 treasury is as full, in proportion, as the house. 
 Let them take warning from me, when I tell them 
 10
 
 146 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLT) FOLKS. 
 
 that, frequently five hundred people will scarcely 
 yield five hundred pennies to the treasury of the 
 expectant showman. I never saw any one in Eng- 
 land who would not take whatever was offered 
 him in the way of a complimentary ticket, or any- 
 thing else complimentary. There are many people 
 there, I am aware, who are free from this asper- 
 sion, but they did not, as a general rule, attend 
 my concerts, that is, judging by the receipts on 
 many occasions. Aware of the peculiar traits of 
 the inhabitants, I could not do otherwise than gratify 
 their desires, and, consequently, the audiences at 
 my concerts were frequently composed of the jolliest 
 lot of "dead-heads" that ever figured at an enter- 
 tainment. But I do not begrudge the anxiety I 
 experienced on that account. They at least learned 
 something ; and when I have taught an Englishman 
 anything, I feel as if I were entitled to some public 
 praise for having accomplished the feat.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Ancient City of Chester The old Roman Wall, and Roman Relics. 
 
 of the, most interesting places which we 
 visited in England was the city of Chester, a 
 brief mention of whose history will prove 
 far more interesting to the reader than any- 
 thing I can write concerning the perform- 
 ances of the " Old Folks." I am indebted for most 
 of the facts in relation to this remarkable city to 
 Roberts's Chester Guide, revised by John Hinklin, 
 editor of the " Chester Courant." The city is situated 
 on the river Dee, and should be visited by all 
 Americans who visit England^for pleasure and infor- 
 mation. 
 
 "There are but few places, if indeed there are 
 any, which can present such varied attractions to 
 the antiquary as this remarkable and ancient city. 
 It is rich in memorable incidents and associations. 
 It has a history chronicled not only in books, but in 
 its walls, towers, rows, and venerable remains. 
 "The origin of Chester is of very remote date. 
 
 No definite conclusion has been reached respecting 
 
 147
 
 148 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 the exact time of its foundation. Various hypothe- 
 ses have been started, some of them grotesque and 
 ridiculous enough, but its origin is lost in those 
 mists of antiquity where history fades into fable. 
 
 " It is quite clear, as an authenticated matter of 
 fact, that Chester was in very early possession of the 
 Romans. It was the head-quarters of the 20th 
 Legion, which, we find, came into Britain before 
 the year 61 ; for it had a share in the defeat of 
 Boadicea by Suetonius. After that important vic- 
 tory, this mighty and intrepid people marched 
 onward towards North "Wales, and established their 
 authority in Cheshire. 
 
 " Scattered through the city have been discovered 
 many vestiges of their power, which enable us to 
 trace their history with considerable distinctness. 
 Wherever they planted their settlements, they left 
 permanent records of their greatness and skill. 
 Many of these mem.orials have been discovered, in 
 various parts of the old city ; and through the in- 
 telligent and zealous investigations of the Chester 
 Archaeological Society, these antiquities are now 
 made tributary to the instruction of the inhabitants 
 respecting the history of their own locality. 
 
 " Not only to the antiquarian, however, is Chester 
 interesting ; there is scarcely any order of mind or 
 taste but may here find its gratification. Its noble 
 arched bridge, venerable cathedral and churches,
 
 THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHESTER. 149 
 
 unique rows, and ancient walls encompassing the 
 city, with a considerable number and variety of 
 relics, all combine to make Chester an attractive 
 place of resort. It is the metropolis of the county 
 palatine of that name, and is pleasantly situated 
 above the river Dee, on a rising ground. Its names 
 have been various. Its Roman name was Deva, un- 
 doubtedly, because of its being situated on the river 
 Dee. Then Cestrise, from Castrum, ' camp ; ' and 
 Castrmn Legionis, ' the Camp of the Legion.' Its 
 British names were Caer Lleon, 'the Camp of the 
 Legion ; ' and Caer Lleon Vawr, or Ddyfrdwy, 
 ' the Camp of the Great Legion on the Dee.' 
 
 " During the brilliant lieutenancy of Julius Agri- 
 cola, A.D. 85, it became a Roman colony; and the 
 place was called from them and from its situation, 
 Colonia Devana. This is clearly demonstrated by 
 a coin of Septimus Geta, sou of Severus, which had 
 this inscription : 
 
 'Col. Devana, Leg. xx. Victrix.' 
 
 " For two or three centuries after this date, Chester 
 appears to have continued undisturbed in the power 
 of the Romans ; during which period f it was a cen- 
 tre of operations while conquest was being produced ; 
 a centre of civilization and commercial intercourse 
 when the dominion of the empire was established. 
 The actual form of the city, its division by streets
 
 150 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLK'S. 
 
 into four quarters, exhibits the arrangement which 
 the Romans established in their camp, and which 
 they naturally transferred to the cities which took 
 the place of their military stations. Traces of tho 
 work of that wonderful people still remain on our 
 walls, and on the rocky brows which surround them ; 
 and excite the attention, and reward the diligence 
 of the antiquarian. Those pigs of lead, the produce 
 of Roman industry, which are first mentioned, in 
 " Camden's Britannia," as being found in the neigh- 
 borhood of Chester, and two of which have recently 
 been discovered, are memorials of the early period 
 at which the mineral wealth of this district was 
 known, and of the commerce to which it gave rise.' 
 It is a fact, clearly established by history, that to 
 the Romans we are greatly indebted for the intro- 
 duction of a much higher order of civilization than 
 that which they found existing when they took pos- 
 session of the country. They were the pioneers of 
 social and religious progress. Previous to the Ro- 
 man invasion the inhabitants were unacquainted 
 with the laws and arts of civilized life, painted 
 their bodies, despised the institution of marriage, 
 clothed themselves in skins, knew very little 
 of agriculture, were furious in disposition, and 
 cruel in their religious superstitions. We find that 
 the practice of human sacrifices was veiy general 
 amongst them, and in every respect their social and
 
 THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHESTER. 151 
 
 moral condition rude and barbarous in the extreme. 
 So wedded were they to their idolatrous worship 
 and cruel rites, that the Romans, after their con- 
 quest, found it necessary to abolish their religion by 
 penal statutes ; an exercise of power which was not 
 usual with these tolerating conquerors. About the 
 year 50, the Emperor Claudius Caesar subdued the 
 greater part of Britain, and received the submission 
 of several of the British states who inhabited the 
 south-east part of the island. The other Britons, 
 under the command of Caractacus, still maintained 
 an obstinate resistance, and the Romans made little 
 progress against them until Ostorius Scapula was 
 sent over, in the year 50, to command their armies. 
 This renowned general found the country in a state 
 of great excitement and dissatisfaction, but speedily 
 advanced the Roman conquests over the Britons ; 
 defeated Caractacus in a great battle, took him 
 prisoner, and sent him to Rome, where his mag- 
 nanimous behavior procured him better treatment 
 than those conquerors usually bestowed on native 
 princes. He pardoned Caractacus and his family, 
 and commanded that their chains should immediately 
 be taken off. 
 
 " Holinshed is of opinion that Ostorius Scapula was 
 the founder of Chester, and the reasons he adduces 
 are certainly very plausible. He says : ' It is not 
 unlike that it miglit be first built by P. Ostorius
 
 152 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 Scapula, who, as we find, after he had subdued 
 Caractacus, King of the Ordonices, that inhabited 
 the countries now called Lancashire, Cheshire, and 
 Salopshire, built in those parts, and among the 
 Silures, certeiue places of defense, for the better 
 harbrough of his men of warre, and keeping downe 
 of such Britaines as were still readie to move re- 
 bellion.' 
 
 "Passing over the space of a few years, we find 
 Julius Agricola completing the conquest of this isl- 
 and. Such was his formidable power and skilful 
 policy in governing the people, that we are told they 
 soon became reconciled to the supremacy of the 
 Eoman arms and language. He quelled their ani- 
 mosity to the Roman yoke, and certainly did very 
 much for the progress of the people in civilization, 
 knowledge, and the arts of peace. 
 
 "There is perhaps no place in the kingdom that can 
 boast of so many monuments of Roman skill and in- 
 genuity as Chester ; but as these will be described in 
 detail as we proceed, we need not specify them here. 
 
 " About the year 448 the Romans withdrew from 
 the island, after having been masters of the most 
 considerable part of its territory for nearly four 
 centuries, and left the Britons to arm for their own 
 defence. No sooner, however, had the Romans 
 withdrawn their troops, than the Scots and Picts in- 
 vaded the country with their terrible forces, and 
 
 V
 
 THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHESTER. 153 
 
 spread devastation and ruin along the line of their 
 march. These vindictive and rapacious barbarians, 
 fired with the lust of conquest, made a pitiless on- 
 slaught upon the property and lives of the peo- 
 ple. The unhappy Britons petitioned, without 
 effect, for the interposition of Rome, which had de- 
 clared its resolution forever to abandon them. The 
 British ambassadors were entrusted with a letter to 
 the legate at Rome, pathetically stating their peri- 
 lous dilemma, and invoking their immediate aid. 
 
 " The intestine commotions which were then shak- 
 ing the Roman empire to its centre prevented the 
 masters of the then world from affording the timely 
 aid sought at their hands. 
 
 "Despairing of any reinforcement from Rome, the 
 Britons now invoked the aid of the Saxons, who 
 promptly complied with the invitation, and under 
 Hengist and Horsa, two Saxon chiefs, who were 
 also brothers, wrested Chester from the hands of 
 the invaders. The Saxons, perceiving the weakness 
 of their degenerate allies, soon began to entertain 
 the project of conquering them, and seizing the 
 country as their spoil. During the conflict which 
 ensued between the Britons and the Saxons, who 
 from allies became masters, Chester w r as frequently 
 taken and retaken, and suffered severely in various 
 sieges. Ultimately, the Aborigines were totally 
 subjugated under the mightier sway of Saxon arms.
 
 154 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 w ln 607 Ethelfred, King of Northutnbria, waged 
 a sanguinary battle with the Britons under the walls 
 of Chester, whom he defeated. 
 
 " It is recorded that he came to avenge the quarrel 
 of St. Augustine, whose metropolitan jurisdiction 
 the British monks refused to admit. Augustine is 
 said to have denounced against them the vengeance 
 of Heaven, for this reason, three years previously. 
 
 "Sammes, in his Antiquities of Britain, gives an 
 interesting statement of this celebrated battle : 
 'Edelfrid, the strongest King of the English, hav- 
 ing gathered together a great army about the city 
 of Chester, he made a great slaughter of that 
 nation ; but when he was going to give the onset, 
 he espied priests and others, who were come thither 
 to entreat God for the success of the army, standing 
 apart in a place of advantage ; he asked who they 
 were, and for what purpose they had met there? 
 When Edelfrid had understood the cause of their 
 coming, he said, "If, therefore, they cry unto their 
 God against us, certainly they, although they bear 
 no arms, fight against us, who prosecute us by their 
 prayers." ' 
 
 " The victory was not destined, however, to be an 
 abiding one. The supremacy of Ethelfrid over the 
 Britons was not long in duration. History tells us 
 that a few years after he had achieved his conquest,
 
 ANCIENT HISTORY OF CHESTER. If) 5 
 
 the united forces of Broeiiiail and three other Brit- 
 ish princes rescued from his hands the possession 
 of Chester, and put his armies to flight. In 613 the 
 Britons assembled in Chester aud elected Cadwon 
 their king, who reigned with great honor for twenty- 
 two years. 
 
 " From this period to the close of the Heptarchy, 
 we have but very scanty materials respecting the 
 history of Chester. The Britons appear to have 
 retained possession of it until about the year 828, 
 when it was finally taken by Egbert, during the 
 reign of the British prince Mervyn and his wife 
 Esylht. 
 
 "In a few years afterwards (894 or 895) the city 
 underwent a heavy calamity, from its invasion by 
 Harold, King of the Danes, Mancolin, King of the 
 Scots, and another confederate prince, who are said 
 to have encamped on Hoole Heath, near Chester, 
 and, after a long siege, reduced the city. These 
 predatory pirates were soon after attacked and con- 
 quered by Alfred, who utterly routed them from the 
 military defences in which they had embosomed 
 themselves, and destroyed all the cattle and corn of 
 the district. 
 
 " After the evacuation of the city by the Danes, it 
 remained in ruins until about the year 908, when it 
 was restored by Ethelred, the first Earl of Mercia, 
 and Ethelfleda, his wife, who, it is said, enlarged it
 
 156 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 to double the extent of the Roman town. Sir Peter 
 Leycester says that ' Ethelred and his countess re- 
 stored Caerleon, that is Legecestria, now called 
 Chester, after it was destroyed by the Danes, and 
 enclosed it with new walls, and made it nigh such 
 two as it was before ; so that the castle that was 
 sometime by the water without the walls, is now in 
 the town within the walls.' All the narratives 
 which have been handed down to us of this celebrated 
 woman represent her as possessed of incomparable 
 talent, great enterprise, and pure mind. She em- 
 ployed the great power and opportunity she possessed 
 with admirable wisdom, and made them subservient 
 to acts of munificence and piety. She died at Tarn- 
 worth in 922, whence her body was translated to 
 Gloucester. Leycester gives a lengthy record of her 
 good deeds, which prepares us for the fact that her 
 loss was deeply and universally regretted throughout 
 the whole kingdom. 
 
 " The security of Chester against the Danish in- 
 vaders was ultimately effected by the victories of 
 Edmund, in and about 942, after which it was oc- 
 casionally honored by the residence of the Saxon 
 sovereigns. Pennant says, King Edgar made this 
 one of the stations in his annual circumnavigation 
 of his dominions. About the year 973 he visited 
 Chester, attended by his court, and received the 
 homage of his vassal kings. It is said that one clay,
 
 ANCIENT HISTORY OF CHESTER. 157 
 
 entering his barge, he assumed the helm, and made 
 his eight tributary princes row him from the palace, 
 which stood in the field at Handbridge, opposite the 
 castle (and which still bears his name) , up the river 
 Dee, as far as the monastery of St. John's. In the 
 following century Chester was possessed by the 
 Earls of Mercia, until the Norman Conquest in 10t56. 
 The tyranny, violence, and bloodshed which marked 
 the course of William the Conqueror met with de- 
 termined resistance in various parts of the country ; 
 but in the course of six or seven years he utterly 
 crushed all opposition, and became absolute master 
 of the island. He introduced into England the feu- 
 dal system, 'with its military aristocracy, its pride, 
 its splendor, and its iron dominion. The impor- 
 tance of Chester as a military station was' shown by 
 its being assigned as a fief to one of the chief leaders 
 in the Norman army, and on his death by its being 
 given to the nephew of the duke himself, under 
 whom it was invested with privileges which raised 
 it almost to the rank of a separate principality. Un- 
 der Hugh, the first Earl of Chester, and his imme- 
 diate successors, we may suppose that most of those 
 castles were built, which form objects of antiquarian 
 research in the neighborhood, but which are melan- 
 choly records of the state of society at the time, 
 since they were evidently built to protect the fron- 
 tiers from the continued invasions of the Welsh.
 
 158 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 Some of them still remain, and, from their extent 
 and magnificence, appear to have been the resi- 
 dences of the earls themselves. Many more have 
 perished, and can only be traced by the banks which 
 mark the outline of their plan. These were proba- 
 bly of an inferior description, and are rather to be 
 considered as guard-houses for the protection of 
 some particular pass, than as regular fortresses. 
 There are traces of this kind at Doddleston, at Pul- 
 ford, at Aldford, at Holt, at Shotwick, besides the 
 larger and more distinguished holds atBeeston, Hal- 
 ton, Chester, and Hawarden; and probably few 
 years passed but that some inroad of the Welsh 
 carried fire and slaughter to the very gates of Ches- 
 ter, and swept the cattle and produce from the 
 fields.'* 
 
 " For many years previous to the Norman Con- 
 quest Chester was governed by dukes or earls ; but 
 William, perceiving the danger of entrusting so large 
 a territory in the hands of any one of his barons, cur- 
 tailed the provinces within narrower limits, and 
 thereby crippled the power which had often proved 
 dangerous to the throne, and at the same time aug- 
 mented his own, by having a larger number of gifts 
 and emoluments to bestow on his followers. In the 
 first instance William gave Chester to Gherbodus, 
 
 * Rev. Chancellor Raikos' Introductory Lecture before the Chester 
 Archaeological Society.
 
 ANCIENT HISTORY OP CHESTER. 159 
 
 a noble Fleming, who, having obtained permission 
 of the king to visit Flanders for the transaction of 
 some private business, there fell into the hands of his 
 enemies, and was obliged to resign the earldom to 
 Hugh Lupus, the nephew of the Conqueror, who 
 was appointed in his stead. The earldom was now 
 erected into a palatinate. Camden says, 'William 
 the 1st created Hugh, surnamed Lupus, the first 
 Earl of Chester and Count Palatine, and gave unto 
 him and his heirs all the county, to be holden as 
 freely by the sword as the king himself held Eng- 
 land by his crown.' 
 
 " By reason of this grant the Earls of Chester were 
 invested with sovereign jurisdiction, and held their 
 own parliaments. It is supposed that Lupus was 
 invested with his new dignity at Chester by William 
 himself, when he was present there in person in 1069. 
 
 "The Earls of Chester continued to exercise their 
 local sovereignty for about one hundred and sixty 
 years. They held that sovereignty, it is true, as 
 the representatives of the paramount sovereignty 
 of the King of England, and as owing allegiance to 
 him in all things ; but so far as the government of 
 the Palatinate was concerned, their rule, though 
 nominally mediate, was actually absolute, for the 
 king does not appear to have thwarted their juris- 
 diction, or in any way to have exerted his supreme 
 authority, beyond retaining a mint at Chester.
 
 160 FATHER KEMP AND 77/,sr OLD FOLKS. 
 
 "After the death of the seventh Earl, in 1237, 
 Henry the Third united the earldom to the crown ; 
 he afterwards conferred it upon his eldest son, 
 Prince Edward, about A.D. 1245, who, two years 
 after this, received the homage of his military ton- 
 ants at Chester. From that period to the present 
 the title of Earl of Chester has been vested in the 
 eldest son of the reigning sovereign, and is now 
 held by His Royal Highness, Albert, Prince of 
 Wales. 
 
 "In 1255 Llewellyn ap Gryffid, Prince of Wales, 
 provoked by the cruel injuries his subjects had re- 
 ceived from Geffrey Langley, Lieutenant of the 
 County under Prince Edward, carried fire and sword 
 to the gates of Chester. In 1257 Henry the Third 
 summoned his nobility and bishops to attend, with 
 their vassals, at Chester, in order to invade Wales ; 
 and in 1275 Edward the First appointed the city as 
 the place for Llewellyn to do him homage, whose 
 refusal ended with the ruin of himself and his prin- 
 cipality ; for in 1300 Edward of Carnarvon here re- 
 ceived the final acknowledgment of the Welsh to 
 the sovereignty of England ; and in a few years 
 afterwards, Llewellyn was brought hither a prisoner 
 from Flint Castle. Richard the Second visited this 
 his favorite city in 1397, and in 1399 he was brought 
 a prisoner from Flint Castle to the castle of Chester,
 
 THE ANCIENI CITY OF CHESTER. 1G1 
 
 which Bolingbroke, afterwards Henry the Fourth, 
 had seized. 
 
 " In Owen Glendovver's wars this city was a place 
 d'armes for the English troops in the expeditious 
 against the Welsh, who, ever tenacious of their in- 
 dependence, were as unwilling to submit to the Nor- 
 man as the Saxon yoke. 
 
 " In 1459 Henry the Sixth, with Queen Margaret 
 and her son Edward, visited Chester, and bestowed 
 little silver swans on the Cheshire gentlemen who 
 espoused her cause. 
 
 " It appears that Henry the Seventh and his queen 
 also visited Chester in 1493. In 1554 George 
 Marsh, the pious martyr, was publicly burnt at 
 Boughton, for his steadfast adherence to the Prot- 
 estant faith. In the year 1617 the city was hon- 
 ored with the presence of James the First, when 
 Edward Button, the then mayor, presented the 
 king with a gilt cup containing one hundred jaco- 
 buses of gold. 
 
 " From this time no event of any great importance 
 appears to have transpired, until the city was in- 
 volved in the calamities of a siege, in consequence 
 of its loyalty to Charles the First. The city stood 
 the siege for some months ; but the inhabitants at 
 last, reduced to the extremity of famine, so that 
 they were compelled to eat horses, dogs, cats, and 
 
 other animals, abandoned their resistance, made 
 11
 
 1G2 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 honorable terms of capitulation, and yielded the 
 city on February the 3d, 1645-6. 
 
 " Chester was, probably , in the time of the Romans, 
 or earlier, a thriving port. The Saxon nav}' was 
 stationed here, and it was also the seat of the Mer- 
 cian kings. About the time of the conquest the 
 imports and exports appear to have been considera- 
 ble. But as an illustration of the times we may 
 mention, that one article of the latter was slaves, 
 obtained, it is conjectured, from the captives which 
 were made in the frequent wars with the Welsh. 
 It is quite clear that Chester was, in ancient days, a 
 busy and flourishing port, because of the perfectly 
 navigable condition of the Dee. All the early 
 writers of its history unite in bearing testimony to 
 this point. It may here be mentioned, as a curious 
 and interesting fact, that some centuries ago, Flook- 
 ersbrook was covered with water, and that a deep 
 and broad channel flowed through Mollington, Stan- 
 ney, and that direction, which emptied itself into 
 the estuary now called the Mersey. Holinshed, 
 after tracing minutely the course of the Dee through 
 Flookersbrook up to Stanney, distinctly states that 
 it f sendeth foorth one arrue by Stannic Poole, and 
 the Parke side into Merseie arme,' etc. Speed dis- 
 tinctly marks out this course in his map; and it. is 
 still more broadly defined in an old Dutch map, of 
 a much earlier date, printed at Rotterdam.
 
 THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHESTER. 163 
 
 "In consequence of the uncertain and imperfect 
 state of the river, the once thriving commerce of 
 this ancient port has dwindled into comparative in- 
 significance, and Liverpool has reaped the advan- 
 tage. Spirited efforts have latterly been made to 
 improve the navigation and port of Chester. 
 
 " The first charter granted to the city was by the 
 first Ranulph, also styled Kanulph le Meschin, third 
 Earl of Chester, who died in 1128. It grants to 
 his tenants demesne of Chester, that none but they 
 or their heirs shall buy or sell merchandise, brought 
 to the city by sea or land, except at the fairs h olden 
 at the nativity of St. John the Baptist, and on the 
 feast of St. Michael; and is directed thus Ranul. 
 com. Cestrae. constabulario. dupifero justiciar. vice- 
 corn, baron, militibus bullivis et omnibus servienti- 
 bus suis prsesentibus et futuris, salutem ; Sciatis, 
 etc. ; and so makes a large grant to the city, and war- 
 rants the same strongly against his heirs, and ap- 
 points forfeitures upon all that shall withstand. The 
 charter, which is without date, is witnessed by 
 Domino Hugone, Abbate Cestria? : Domino Hugciie 
 le Orebi, tune, justiciar; Warren de Veruon, etc., 
 etc. It was confirmed by the other two Earls Ran- 
 ulphs, and also by Earl John, w r ho strictly prohib- 
 ited all buying and selling except as aforesaid, with 
 other additions. King John and Henry the Second 
 also established it, with the addition of some further
 
 164 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 privileges. Henry the Third granted three charters, 
 in the first of which he recites, that he hath seen 
 the former charters of the earls, and doth grant and 
 confirm domesticis hominibus Cestr. etc., that none 
 shall buy or sell merchandise in the city, but citi- 
 zens, except in the fairs, etc., sub pcena 10. 
 
 "It was at this time that, so far as we can ascer- 
 tain, the first mayor was created.* In the 26th 
 year of Henry's reign, Sir Walter Lyunet was the 
 first who was invested with civic honors and author- 
 ity. The mayoralty of Chester is, therefore, a very 
 ancient one, only fifty-eight years younger, we be- 
 lieve, than that of London. 
 
 " In 1300 Edward the First confirmed the former 
 charter of his father, Henry the Third ; and by the 
 same charter gave the city of Chester, with the ap- 
 purtenances, liberties, and freedoms, to the citizens 
 of Chester and their heirs, to be holdeu of him and 
 his heirs forever, paying yearly 100. He granted 
 them also the election of coroners and pleas of the 
 crown, and that the citizens shall have sock, sack, 
 toll, theme, infaugtheof, outfangtheof, and to be 
 free throughout all the land and dominion of toll, 
 passage, etc. 
 
 " Many other charters follow, and other matters 
 connected with the government of the city. 
 
 "Richard the Second, in 1347, 'for the further- 
 
 * Ormerod's Cheshire, page 173.
 
 ANCIENT HISTORY OF CHESTER. 1G5 
 
 ance of justice and better execution thereof, grants 
 unto his subjects, raaiors, sheriffs, and commonality 
 of the said city, to hold their courts ; and limited 
 what processes they may award iu actions, personal 
 felonies, appeals, process of uttagary, as at the com- 
 mon law ; ' and since then the sessions of the peace 
 have continued to be held down to the present time. 
 
 " Henry Seventh, ' in consideration that through 
 the decay of the haven and river, by many burstings 
 forth, was become sandy and impassable, as before, 
 for merchandise,' remitteth 80 annually of the fee 
 farm rent. And the said King Henry Seventh 
 granteth that the city of Chester and the suburbs, 
 towns, and hamlets thereof, the castle excepted, 
 should be a county of itself, by the name of the 
 county of Chester. 
 
 "Henry the Eighth sent letters in parchment 
 under his privy seal to the Mayor of Chester, charg- 
 ing that the citizens should not be pressed unto the 
 war, but remain within the city for the defence 
 thereof. He also, by letters patent, discharged the 
 city from being a sanctuary for malefactors, which 
 was by proclamation removed to Stafford. In the 
 thirty-second year of the same reign the city ob- 
 tained the privilege of returning two burgesses as 
 its representatives iu the English Parliament. 
 
 "Altars, Roman pavements, pigs of lead, coins, 
 and other precious relics of former times, have been
 
 1G6 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 discovered in various places in the city and neigh- 
 borhood, some of them within a very recent pe- 
 riod. 
 
 " On a projecting rock in Handbridge, situated at 
 the south end of the bridge, is a sculptured figure 
 of Minerva, with her symbol, the owl. Time has 
 very much obliterated and defaced this ancient sculp- 
 ture, called Edgar's Cave, which is doubtless of 
 Roman date. Close to the figure is a great hole in 
 the rock ; and the field in which it is situated is 
 known by the name of Edgar's field to the present 
 day. 
 
 "In the year 1653 an altar, supposed to have been 
 dedicated to Jupiter, was dug up in Poregate Street, 
 and which is preserved among the Arundelian mar- 
 bles at Oxford. 
 
 "In April, 1850, whilst excavating for a drain on 
 the premises belonging to Mr. Wynne, carpenter, 
 on the east side of Bridge Street, adjoining the 
 Feathers Lane, a portion of a tile flooring, of me- 
 diaeval construction, was discovered, in a remarka- 
 bly good state of preservation. This floor was made 
 the subject of a lecture by Mr. Harrison, architect, 
 which is embodied in the reports published by the 
 Chester Archaeological Society. Large squarfc Ro- 
 man tiles of red clay are frequently found in remov- 
 ing old buildings, and breaking up the pavements, 
 in Chester. Many of these are stamped with the
 
 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 167 
 
 inscription of the 20th Legion, LEG. xx. vv., and 
 others are marked, LEG. vv. CE. 
 
 "These tiles were manufactured by the soldiers of 
 the legion, who were accomplished masons, being 
 trained to use the pickaxe, spade, and trowel, as 
 well as military arms. In times of peace they were 
 employed in building houses and public edifices, 
 constructing roads, and tilling the fields. To them 
 ' we are indebted for nearly all the inscriptions dis- 
 covered in this country, which abound in .the districts 
 where they were regularly quartered or employed 
 on public works, and are comparatively scarce in 
 other localities.' 
 
 "A great number of coins have been found at 
 various times within the walls of Chester, of Ves- 
 pasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Fl. Val. Constantius, and 
 other Roman emperors, some in brass, and others in 
 silver. A very fine gold coin of Faustina the elder, 
 wife of Antonius Pius, was found a few years ago 
 near the castle ; and in 1826 a very beautiful gold 
 coin was dug up in a field at the east end of Captain 
 Wrench's house, which is in the possession of Cap- 
 tain Wrench. On the obverse is the head of Nero, 
 with his title, NERO CLESAR AVGVSTVS, and on the 
 reverse is a figure in a sitting posture, and the 
 legend SAL vs. 
 
 " Whilst excavating a drain in Grosvenor Street, 
 in 1828, several coins were found, some of which
 
 103 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 were in very good preservation, especially one of 
 Trajan and another of Geta. A lamp made of lead, 
 and an ivory stylus were also dug up at the same 
 time. In the same year was found, near the new 
 church of St. Bridget, a small altar, without any 
 inscription to assist the antiquarian in ascertaining 
 anything respecting its dedication. Within the space 
 of a few inches from the altar was found a brass 
 medal, on which the figure of the god Neptune is 
 clearly delineated, with his trident, and a ship with 
 her sails. The legend on it is NEPTVNVS ; on the 
 reverse is Hercules with his club, and a female 
 figure by his side, and around is the inscription 
 
 HERCVLES ET PALLAS. 
 
 "A short time ago a small votive altar was found 
 by W. Ayrton, Esq., at Boughton, near the spot 
 where an altar dedicated to the Nymphs was dis- 
 covered. 
 
 " The inscription has been interpreted thus, 
 
 " ' GENO. AVEBNI. IVL. QVINTILIANVS.' 
 
 ' ' Julius Quintilianus to the Genius of Avernus.' 
 
 "Examples of dedication to genii are very numer- 
 ous ; the belief that they presided over the welfare 
 of cities, families, and individuals was part of the 
 religious system of the Romans. It was generally 
 believed that eveiy individual had two genii, the 
 one good, the other bad. With reference to the
 
 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 169 
 
 particular inscription to the genius Avernus, Mr. 
 Roach Smith says, 'that he finds no other mention ; 
 but the locality in which the altar was found con- 
 firms the literal interpretation that the genius of the 
 well-known lake in Carpania is here to be under- 
 stood as addressed by Julius Quiutiliaiius. The 
 waters of the lake were much used by the Romans 
 in magical rites, as the classical reader will be re- 
 minded by the line in Virgil's description of the 
 incantation scene, preparatory to Dido's death, 
 
 " ' Sparserat et latices simulates fontis Averni.' 
 
 "A short time ago there was found in Common 
 Hall Street, embedded in a thick wall several feet 
 under ground, a singular block or pig of lead. 
 
 " Unfortunately the inscription has only been par- 
 tially preserved, inasmuch as it presents a different 
 reading from others which have been discovered, 
 and which Camden mentions as being very general 
 in Cheshire ; but those which he records as having 
 come under his notice had inscribed on them, 
 
 " ' IHP . DOMIT . AVG . GER . DE . CEANG.' 
 
 " These pigs of lead appear to have been paid as 
 tribute by the Britons to their Roman masters, 'the 
 harsh exaction of which was one of the causes of 
 the insurrection.' 
 
 " A great quantity of the red Samian, and other
 
 170 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 kinds of pottery, have been discovered within the 
 walls of Chester, which are supposed to have been 
 of foreign origin. 
 
 " But small portions of the original Roman wall 
 of Chester now exist, although undoubted vestiges 
 of that ancient work are easily discernible. The 
 present wall, no doubt, stands on the original foun- 
 dation. The Roman pavement has been often dis- 
 covered at the depth of a few feet below the modern 
 road, in the principal streets, which, in all proba- 
 bility, run in the same direction as those of the 
 Roman city. During the last few years, many re- 
 markable antiquities have been discovered in making 
 excavations for new buildings ; and, among such 
 remains, a fine Roman altar, bearing a Greek in- 
 scription, has excited great interest and speculation. 
 
 " The Chester walls are the only perfect specimen 
 of this order of ancient fortification now to be met 
 with in England. There is nothing, perhaps, which 
 impresses a stranger more forcibly, or sooner at- 
 tracts his interest and curiosity, than these em- 
 battled memorials of the olden time." 
 
 The following is their condensed history, 
 
 " Ancient Roman Walls, city of Chester, varying 
 from twelve to forty feet in height ; built A. D. 61. 
 A public promenade of nearly two miles around the 
 city. A. D. 73, Harms, King of the Britons, 
 extended the walls. A. D. 607, the Britons de-
 
 THE WALLS OF CHESTER. 171 
 
 feated under the walls. A. D. 907, the walls 
 rebuilt by the daughter of Alfred the Great. 
 A. D. 1224, an assessment for repairing the walls. 
 A. D. 1399, Henry of Lancaster mustered his 
 troops under these walls. A. D. 1645, the par- 
 liamentary forces made a breach in the walls. 
 These walls have two towers and four gates ; viz. : 
 Water Tower, an addition was built to it in 
 1322 ; Phoenix Tower, Charles the First stood 
 on it and saw his army defeated in 1645 ; Eastgate, 
 rebuilt 1769 ; Northgate, rebuilt 1808 ; Watergate, 
 rebuilt 1778 ; Bridegate, rebuilt 1782. 
 
 "In King's 'Yale Koyal' it is stated that they 
 were first built by Marius, King of the Britons, 
 A. D. 73. Leland and Selden, both authors of 
 credit, attribute to the Romans the foundation of 
 Chester. According to Geoffry of Monmbuth, 
 Higden, Bradshaw the monk, and Stowe, it is of an 
 origin more ancient than Rome itself, and was only 
 re-edified by the legionaries ; but, in support of 
 their assertions, the aforesaid writers, all of whom 
 delight in the marvellous, give no other authority 
 save vague tradition. On the other hand, the walls 
 of Chester, at this hour, bear witness to the truth 
 of Leland and Selden's account of their origin. 
 
 " They are built of soft freestone^ and command 
 extensive and beautiful prospects. The view from 
 the Northgate, with the Welsh Hills in the distance,
 
 172 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 is universally admired. The walls are a mile and 
 three-quarters and one hundred and twenty-one 
 yards in circumference, and are kept in repair by 
 the corporation. 
 
 "Very curious are the old arcades, which are as 
 interesting to the antiquarian as they are convenient 
 for a quiet lounge to ladies and others engaged in 
 shopping. They occupy the greatest part of both 
 sides of Eastgate Street, and the upper parts of 
 both sides of Watergate Street and Bridge Street. 
 Those in Northgate Street are more irregular ; only 
 one side, commonly called Shoemakers' Row, being 
 used as a regular thoroughfare. Their appearance, 
 both interior and exterior, is extremely singular. 
 They form a gallery, occupying the front floor of 
 each house, parallel with the streets below, and are 
 approached by flights of steps, placed at convenient 
 distances, in addition to those by which they are 
 entered and quitted at each end. The passenger 
 walks over the shops on a level with the street, and 
 under the first floor of the dwelling-houses ; and 
 thus two lines of shops are erected in one front. 
 The rows are kept in excellent repair, and form the 
 chief promenade of the citizens. To strangers they 
 cannot fail to prove an object of curiosity. The 
 shops in the rows are generally considered the best 
 situations for retail traders ; but those on the south- 
 ern side of Eastgate Street and the eastern side of
 
 THE ROWS OF CHESTER. 173 
 
 Bridge Street, have a decided preference. Shops 
 let here at high rents, and are in never failing re- 
 quest; and there are no parts of the city which 
 have undergone such rapid or extensive improve- 
 ments. 
 
 " In the sixteenth century the rows appear not to 
 have exceeded six feet in height and ten in width, 
 with clumsy wooden rails towards the street ; and 
 large oaken pillars, supporting transverse beams 
 and brackets, on which rested the houses overhead, 
 formed of wood and plaster, so far overhanging the 
 street that in some places the upper floors of oppo- 
 site houses nearly met. Nearly the whole of the 
 buildings of this description are now taken down ; 
 and, in rebuilding, care has been taken to raise and 
 widen the rows, and to place iron railings towards 
 the street in place of the wooden posts formerly 
 used. The shops in the rows present a very differ- 
 ent appearance to that of about sixty years ago ; 
 then, as Hemingway says, ' the fronts were all open 
 to the row in two or three compartments, according 
 to their size ; and at night were closed by large 
 hanging shutters, fixed on hinges, and fastened in 
 the daytime by hooks to the ceiling of the row.' 
 At present these rows are ' capable of supplying all 
 the real demands of convenience and the artificial 
 calls of luxury, mental and corporeal, presenting a
 
 174 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 cluster of drapers, clothiers, jewellers, booksellers, 
 etc., as respectable as the kingdom can produce.'* 
 The origin and cause of the rows has furnished 
 matter for much curious investigation; and many 
 conflicting conjectures have been propounded re- 
 specting them. The subject is involved in much 
 obscurity ; and, in the absence of any positive data, 
 we are not able to take higher ground than the 
 probabilities of the case. It has been alleged that 
 they were originally used as places of defence, from 
 whence to annoy and repulse the assaults of the 
 enemy, who might gain entrance into the streets 
 beneath by surprising the gates, during those remote 
 ages when Chester was subject to the sudden incur- 
 sions of the Welsh. But against this opinion it 
 may be urged, that in no one of their attacks upon 
 this city did the Welsh ever force their way within 
 the gates or walls ; so that these latter, being proved 
 by experience to be a sufficient bulwark against our 
 foes, there existed no necessity for the erection of 
 any further defences. There is irrefragable evi- 
 dence that the form of the city is Roman, and that 
 the walls were the work of that people ; and the 
 same reasons which justify these conclusions are not 
 less cogent for presuming that the construction of 
 the streets is Roman also. Pennant appears to 
 have arrived at this conclusion. He says: ' These 
 
 * Hemingway's " History of Chester."
 
 THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHESTER. 175 
 
 rows appear to me to have been the same with the 
 ancient vestibules, and to have been a form of build- 
 ing preserved from the time that the city was 
 possessed by the Romans. They were built before 
 the doors, midway between the streets and the 
 houses, and were the places where dependents 
 waited for the coming out of their patrons, and 
 under which they might walk away the tedious 
 minutes of expectation. Plautus, in the 3d Act 
 of his Mostella, describes both their station and use. 
 The shops beneath the rows were the Cryptae and 
 Apothecse, magazines for the various necessaries of 
 the owners of the houses.' 
 
 " Ormerod says that some of these crypts exhibit 
 specimens of vaulting equal to the cloisters of our 
 Cathedral. 
 
 "Camden, in describing Chester, says, 'The 
 houses are very fair built, and along the chief 
 streets are galleries or walking-places they call 
 rows, having shops on both sides, through which a 
 man may walk dry from one end to the other.' And 
 Shukeley, in his 'Itinerary,' in 1724, says, 'The 
 rows or piazzas are singular through the whole 
 town, giving shelter to foot people. I fancied it a 
 remain of the Roman porticos.'' 
 
 "In the oldest histories, descriptive of the city in 
 some form or other, the elevated rows and the shops 
 beneath are recognized.
 
 176 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 "Tacitus, 'in describing the process by which 
 Roman manners diffused themselves throughout 
 Britain, and gradually completed the subjugation 
 of the country, speaks of the natives of Britain as 
 acquiring a taste for the two leading features in 
 Roman civilization, "Portions and Balnea," the 
 portico, in which they were delighted to stroll and 
 sun themselves ; and the baths, which were their 
 national luxury. Pie mentions these, and we can- 
 not but be struck by the coincidence with things 
 with which we are all familiar, the rows of our 
 ancient city, and the Hypocaust, which is still 
 shown as the Roman bath. We are hereby led to 
 infer that the mode of construction which gives the 
 character to our city originated in Roman habits.' * 
 
 " At the corner of the east of Bridge Street and 
 the west of Eastgate Street, and near to the Cross, 
 there was formerly a small stone building, forming 
 a basin at the top, called the Conduit, to which 
 water was formerly brought into the city from St. 
 Giles's well at Boughton, and thence conveyed to 
 different parts of the city. 
 
 " The Cross used formerly to be the scene of the 
 barbarous sport of bull-baiting, of which the follow- 
 ing satirical sketch is given in an old History of 
 Chester, 
 
 " ' The Cross is famous for being the annual scene 
 
 * Rev. Chancellor Raikes.
 
 THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHESTER. 177 
 
 of exhibition of that polite play called a bull-bait, 
 where four or five of these horned heroes are attend- 
 ed by several hundred lovers of that rational amuse- 
 ment. Till within a few years, the dramatis persona 
 of this elegant scene included even magistracy it- 
 self, the mayor and corporation attending in their 
 official habiliments at the Pentice windows, not only 
 to countenance the diversions of the ring, but to 
 participate in a sight of its enjoyments. A procla- 
 mation was also made by the crier of the court, 
 with all the gravity and solemnity of an oration 
 before a Romish sacrifice, the elegant composition 
 of which ran thus : " Oyez! Oyez! OijezI If any 
 man stands within twenty yards of the bull-ring, 
 let him take what comes.'' After which followed 
 the usual public ejaculations for "the safety of the 
 king and the mayor of the city ; " when the beauties 
 of the scene commenced, and the dogs immediately 
 fell to. Here a prayer for his worship was not 
 unseasonable, as even the ermined cloak was no 
 security against the carcasses of dead animals, with 
 which spectators, without distinction, were occasion- 
 ally saluted. 
 
 . " ' We shall not attempt a description of the 
 tender offices practised, at such times, on so noble a 
 creature. One, however, we cannot omit mention- 
 ing. In 1787, an unfortunate animal, smarting 
 
 under his wounds and fatigue, was very naturally 
 12
 
 178 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 induced to lie down; the argument made use of, in 
 this situation, however, as naturally induced him to 
 get up; his humane followers hitting upon the 
 ingenious expedient of setting fire to some straw 
 under his body, when, it is hardly necessary to add, 
 " the wretched animal heaved forth such groans as 
 stretched his leathern coat almost to bursting." 
 This circumstance of the fire was, however, no bad 
 satire (emblematically considered) on the transac- 
 tions of the day ; the whole being little better than 
 a " burning shame." 
 
 ' The late Dr. Cowper is said to have had the 
 merit, when mayor, of putting a stop to the at- 
 tendance of the corporate body on these days ; and 
 Mr. Alderman Brodhurst, in his mayoralty, made a 
 laudable but ineffectual effort to suppress a relic of 
 barbarism " more honored in the breach than in the 
 observance" ' 
 
 "The citizens of Chester appear to have been 
 early distinguished for a love of theatricals. From 
 a MS. entitled ' Certayne collections of aunchiante 
 times concerninge the aunchiante and famous Citty 
 of Chester,' by Archdeacon Rogers, we learn that 
 in the beginning of the fourteenth century, Randal 
 Higden, a monk of Chester, 'translated the Bible 
 into several partes and plays, so as the common 
 people might lerne the same by theyre playinge. 
 These spectacles, then called the WJiitsun Plays,
 
 WHITSUN PLATS. . 179 
 
 were first performed in 1328, during the mayoralty 
 of Sir John Arneway, at the expense of the city 
 companies ; and, being ' profitable for them, for all 
 both far and near came to see them,' they were re- 
 peated annually on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednes- 
 day, in Whitsun week, for nearly two hundred 
 and fifty years, until 1574, when they were sup- 
 pressed by authority. The theatre for these per- 
 formances was of the original Thespian cast, a four- 
 wheeled scaffold or wagon, whereof the body did 
 serve for the tyring room, and the roof for the 
 stage, whereon the members of the different city 
 companies did ' each man play his part.' The first 
 place of performance was at the Abbey Gate, that 
 'the monks and churche might have the first sighte, 
 and then the stage was drawne to the High Crosse 
 before the Mayor and Aldermen, and soe from 
 streete to streete ; and, when one pageant was 
 ended, another came in the place thereof, till all 
 that were appoynted for the daye were ended.' 
 Each company had its own peculiar parts allotted 
 to its members to perform in the Whitsun Plays, 
 of which a list is given in the above quoted MS. 
 
 " In addition to the Whitsun Plays, the citizens 
 were anciently entertained with processional pag- 
 eants by the different companies, which latter appear 
 to have survived the suppression of the former for 
 many years. They were suppressed for some time
 
 180 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 by the party in power during the Commonwealth, 
 but revived with great splendor at the Restoration. 
 
 "The pageants were abolished by order of the 
 Corporation in 1678. 
 
 "No circumstance,' says the old history from 
 which we have already quoted, 'can evince the 
 strange mutations to which things are liable, more 
 than this place, which was originally a chapel dedi- 
 cated to St. Nicholas, and devoted to religion; af- 
 terwards a common hall devoted to justice ; next a 
 warehouse devoted to trade; and now a playhouse 
 devoted to amusement.' 
 
 " The present writer has to note another change : 
 the ' playhouse ' has become a Music HALL, hand- 
 some and commodious. 
 
 "Previous to the Roman conquests, the Britons 
 were accustomed to celebrate the rites of Druid- 
 ism ; but as it was the custom of the Romans to 
 carry into the lands they conquered not only their 
 civil polity, but also their religion, the gods of the 
 Pantheon became consequently the gods of our an- 
 cestors. Near the existing memorials of Druid ical 
 superstition there arose the majestic fanes of a more 
 polished mythology. At Bath there is said to have 
 been a temple dedicated to Minerva, while on the 
 site now occupied by the splendid cathedral of St. 
 Paul there was a temple to Diana. It appears, from 
 a passage in King's 'Vale Royal,' there was a tradi-
 
 THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHESTER. 181 
 
 tion generally accepted in his day, that on the pres- 
 ent site of Chester Cathedral was a temple dedicated 
 to Apollo, during the period that the city was in- 
 habited by the Legionaries."
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Brighton, the noted English Watering-place Concerts in the Royal 
 Pavilion My Departure from Brighton, and Arrival in America 
 Reorganization of the "Old Folks" Monday Popular Concerts 
 Old Coronation Mrs. Emma J. Nichols A Familiar Talk with the 
 Reader Conclusion. 
 
 foregoing chapters have been devoted 
 to descriptions which I have thought would 
 be more interesting to the general reader 
 than anything I could write concerning my 
 enterprise, or the success with which the 
 company met. The last active operations of the 
 troupe, thus far mentioned, were in London, from 
 which city we departed for Brighton, the famous 
 English watering-place. 
 
 In 1750, this city was only a small fishing-village, 
 and owes its rise, in the first instance, to being the 
 chosen residence of George IV. when Prince of 
 Wales. It is in the county of Sussex, on the 
 English channel, fifty miles south of London, and 
 is built between and on the two slopes of a range 
 of chalk-hills. It has a sea-front of three miles in 
 length, with a pavement and carriage-road of great 
 width, flanked by houses of a superior class, ren- 
 
 182
 
 THE ROYAL PAVILION. 183 
 
 dering it, undoubtedly, the finest marine promenade 
 in the kingdom. 
 
 The climate of Brighton is very salubrious, which 
 has rendered it a famous place for the education 
 of the English youths, upwards of two hundred 
 and fifty schools being established there. 
 
 It has public charitable, scientific, and literary 
 societies ; and although there are no public build- 
 ings of great beauty, the Royal Pavilion, erected 
 by George IV. deserves especial mention, from its 
 unique and fantastic appearance. In the banquet- 
 ing hall of this edifice we gave concerts. This was 
 sixty feet long by forty-two wide, and forty-five 
 high. Every room in the building is gorgeously 
 decorated in Eastern style. The whole suite, at 
 the time of our visit, was used for balls, assemblies, 
 etc. For a dressing-room, we occupied what was 
 once the sleeping-apartment of King George. The 
 palace was purchased by Queen Victoria ; but she 
 did not like Brighton as a watering-place. The 
 Pavilion was, at the time of which I write, owned 
 by the town of Brighton. 
 
 The royal stabling, also owned by the town, is 
 one of the most magnificent piles ever erected for 
 such a purpose in Europe. It has the form of an 
 octagon without, and a circle within, and is lighted by 
 a glazed dome, of a diameter only twenty feet less 
 than that of the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
 
 184 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 The old parish church, which stands on the sum- 
 mit of a hill, was formerly used as a sea beacon. 
 There are now about forty churches in Brighton. 
 
 The sea-wall, which protects, the whole eastern 
 part of the town, is sixty feet in height, and has a 
 terrace raised fifteen feet from the beach. 
 
 There is a chalybeate spring near the town, and 
 the German waters are successfully imitated at the 
 Spa. 
 
 Every one who has had experience with watering- 
 places can sympathize with me when I inform them, 
 that Brighton, in the matter of high prices, was 
 no exception to the general rule in this country. 
 We were obliged to pay quite as much for what we 
 did not have as for what we did ; and, before I 
 ventured to use a clean towel, while in the act of 
 ablution, I looked cautiously about, to see if some 
 one was not standing ready to demand a penny or 
 two as the price of my extravagance. 
 
 As a result of my experience, I found that 
 Brighton was, indeed, an unprofitable field of spec- 
 ulation ; the " profits " of the concerts really not 
 equalling the sum expended by the troupe for the 
 necessaries of life, which, in that climate, ranked 
 in price with the luxuries of existence. 
 
 Although there were many other places in Eng- 
 land which I desired to visit, I saw that to attempt 
 to continue the tour would be very unwise ; and,
 
 ARRIVAL IN AMERICA. 185 
 
 consequently, proposed to the troupe that we 
 again turn our faces towards Liverpool, and, as soon 
 as expedient, sail for America. 
 
 This proposition did not meet with the favor 
 which I had anticipated ; and after hearing a free 
 expression of opinion, found, for the first time in my 
 life, that the convictions of Father Kemp and his 
 " Old Folks " were directly opposed. The singers 
 were willing to remain, and I was determined not to 
 stay. Consequently I left them at Brighton ; and, 
 after a liberal share of inconveniences generally 
 suffered by travellers, again arrived in good old 
 Boston, and took the first train for Reading. 
 
 The fact of my arrival home without the troupe 
 led to inquiry, and the facts in the case were 
 readily furnished to those who, as I thought, had a 
 right to know. Like some of my previous perform- 
 ances, this soon "got into the papers," and a 
 correspondent of the " Middlesex Journal " wrote an 
 article, to which I replied in the following letter, 
 which gives, in a condensed form, the main facts of 
 the English tour, some of which have not before 
 been mentioned in this volume, 
 
 " As it has already been announced in your journal 
 that some account of my European adventure should 
 be given to your readers this week, I will venture 
 to send you a brief report of this novel undertaking
 
 186 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 from the commeucment up to the time 1 left the 
 company in the city of Brighton, England ; hoping 
 thereby to correct the impressions made by the 
 curiously formed stories which in these hard times 
 can be so cheaply manufactured and peddled out 
 from house to house and shop to shop. 
 
 " When the subject of going to Europe was 
 brought before the class last December, I asked 
 each member of my company, ' Are you willing to go 
 on the 9th of January, '61, and pay your own fare, 
 fifty dollars each, and take the second cabin ? ' All, 
 with a few exceptions, were ready, and promised to 
 go at that time, and also to pay in one-half, twenty- 
 five dollars each, when the passage was secured, 
 and the remainder about six days before sailing ; 
 which was promptly done by all except six or seven 
 who had not the means, but were supplied by my- 
 self and Mr. Jarrett, my agent, he paying one-half 
 and I the other, for those who could not meet the 
 demand themselves. 
 
 " The 9th -of January came, a fine, clear, cold 
 morning ; and as the hour for sailing drew near, 
 (10 A. M.), the 'Old Folks,' with groups of 
 friends and relations, crowded the cabin and decks 
 of the noble steamship CANADA, to bid adieu to that 
 singular assemblage of vocal and instrumental 
 artists who were doting upon the honor of being the
 
 CONCERTS IN LIVERPOOL, ETC. 187 
 
 first exportation of the kind to the shores of * Noble 
 Old England.' 
 
 "The hour of sailing arrived, the bells rang, word 
 was given to let go the rope, and soon her ponder- 
 ous wheels were in motion, bearing us rapidly out 
 in mid ocean, which soon brought us in contact with 
 heavy seas and fierce winds, which continued their 
 familiar games with us day and night until we had 
 safely lauded on terra firma in the-city of Liverpool, 
 landing in due time to commence a ten days' engage- 
 ment at St. George's Hall. Our opening night, being 
 January 23d, drew together a large assembly and a 
 good paying house, with which we were nightly fa- 
 vored during our stay in that city, clearing over all ex- 
 penses about five hundred dollars. From Liverpool 
 we went direct to London, a distance of two hundred 
 and ten miles, and commenced a series of about 
 forty concerts on the night of February llth, at St. 
 James' Hall, the avails of which (to the everlasting 
 disappointment of the 'Old Folks') replenished 
 our treasury with the little sum amounting to twelve 
 pounds ten shillings only. The next night we took 
 in that great city eleven pounds ; on the third night 
 we took thirteen pounds ; on the fourth night we 
 took ten pounds ; the fifth, seven pounds ; on the 
 sixth day, afternoon and evening, thirty-three 
 pounds ; our average receipts for the five weeks 
 being about twelve pounds per night, which, with
 
 188 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 the afternoon concerts at the hall and Crystal Pal- 
 ace, amounted to little over twenty pounds per day. 
 
 " But this sum was hardly sufficient to pay adver- 
 tising bills in thirty papers, and other necessary 
 charges, which in England are always much larger 
 than similar bills in America. 
 
 "From London we went to Brighton, a city of 
 about eighty thousand inhabitants ; and here our 
 success was about the same as in London, receiving 
 from eight to fifteen pounds per night. On the whole 
 we had, up to the time I left, made no money, our 
 daily expenses quite balancing the receipts. 
 
 "Finding we were not likely to succeed in making 
 anything over expenses, I advised that we turn back 
 and travel towards Liverpool, instead of taking an- 
 other direction, that we could more easily find our 
 way to the United States. But a majority of the 
 company said 'JVo; we are out here for a good 
 time, and if we can get our board we are satisfied.' 
 In view of this state of feeling, I told them I could 
 not and should not stay there. 
 
 "But still I am often asked why I left the company, 
 why I came home so soon, and why I did not stay 
 one or two years, as I intimated when I left Amer- 
 ica ? I would say that I left for several reasons : 
 First, we were making no money, and had no pros- 
 pect of doing better ; second, I left because I did not 
 like the expensive way our business was managed.
 
 REASONS FOR RETURNING HOME, 189 
 
 I left because I was ready to go home, and they were 
 willing to have me. And again, I left because I had 
 accomplished the" great object of my visit to that 
 country, which was (as my agent had published 
 throughout England) for pleasure, observation, and 
 study. 
 
 " I have experienced the pleasure of transporting 
 the largest concert company to England* that had 
 ever crossed the Atlantic, and the exquisite pleasure 
 of bringing back the smallest one. I had had the 
 pleasure of knowing how popular my ' Old Folks' ' 
 company was in that country, and I had the pleasure 
 of reading in the daily journals all the scathing 
 things that could be said about the singing of good 
 old American music. I had the pleasure of going to 
 England, and now have had the pleasure of coming 
 back again as quick as I went. So much for the 
 pleasure of the trip. Our next object was observa- 
 tion. Having had the pleasure to my fill, I soon 
 began to observe that it didn't pay. Ah, no, it did 
 not pay at all ! I then took another observation, and 
 found the soles of my boots thin, my wallet light, 
 and growing worse and worse. I then took the 
 third and last observation, which satisfied me fully 
 that the English thought but little of the American 
 people, or their music, especially the kind of music 
 we sang ; that it would be a long while before we 
 could gain a paying popularity among them. This
 
 190 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 led my attention to the third and last object of our 
 European tour, which was study. This engrossed 
 my whole thoughts. I studied night and day, hav- 
 ing had the pleasure and the observation. I was in 
 a deep study to know how I could best get out of 
 the sad fix I was well into. My study was, how 
 shall I get home. I determined at once to leave 
 with what little cash I had left. 
 
 "Therefore, under these circumstances, I left the 
 troupe at Brighton, as stated by your correspon- 
 dent of last week, and would advise all who wish 
 for similar experiences, to take over a sewing, print- 
 ing, or cracker-machine, or some other American 
 novelty in the shape of an 'Old Folks" concert 
 company, and I will guarantee all the pleasure, 
 observation, and study one's heart or head can 
 hold. "K. KEMP." 
 
 The "Old Folks" did not remain long in England 
 after my departure, and in the course of a few 
 months all had returned home, much wiser, in many 
 respects, than when they left America. 
 
 I was not content to remain idle in musical mat- 
 ters, and the " Old Folks " were again organized for 
 a new campaign, which was begun by entertain- 
 ments under the style of "Monday Popular Con- 
 certs," and were given in the Tremont Temple, 
 Boston, before audiences which crammed the house,
 
 " OLD CORONATION." 191 
 
 filled the stairways and vestibules, and crowded the 
 sidewalk in front. On these occasions we had the 
 assistance of the Boston Brigade Band, and the en- 
 tertainments proved as popular as those given many 
 years before. 
 
 I shall never forget the pleasing emotions expe- 
 rienced by me when I again rapped with my baton 
 before hosts of friends in the Temple, raised it aloft, 
 and said to the company, " All please sound ; " and 
 I do not believe the " sound " was ever so grateful 
 to my ears as on that occasion. 
 
 These concerts were many times repeated, both 
 at the Tremont Temple and in many other halls in 
 various parts of the country occupied by the troupe 
 in previous years, a simple mention of which will 
 here suffice, as the reader is, doubtless, by this time 
 heartily tired of reading descriptions of these occa- 
 sions. Everywhere we went the same cordial greet- 
 ing awaited us, and the fact that the peculiarities of 
 the entertainments had not been forgotten was most 
 clearly illustrated at one of these latter series. It 
 had always been my custom to invite the congrega- 
 tion to join with us when we sang "Coronation." 
 But I generally took occasion to remark, after it 
 was finished, that I noticed " two or three in the 
 audience " who did not sing, and proposed that " we 
 all try it again." (About one in a dozen of the spec- 
 tators joined us, really.) The good old tune was
 
 192 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 generally given several times before all sung. On 
 the evening above referred to (in a town where the 
 congregation had at former concerts "joined " us six 
 or eight times) , I made the same proposition again, 
 when a sharp voice was heard in the back part of 
 the hall : " You carit come that 'ere in this town 
 again, old fellow; you tried it on us ten years ago." 
 I did not insist on the repetition, and we had, in- 
 stead, roars of laughter for several minutes. 
 
 Two very pleasant occasions among my later con- 
 certs were enjoyed through the instrumentality of Dr. 
 S. O. Richardson, of South Reading, who proposed 
 that I should give entertainments for the children 
 of the public schools in Reading, he bearing all the 
 expenses, which his liberality made more than were 
 really necessary. If his " Sherry Wine Bitters " 
 prove to be of as much benefit to the general public 
 as these concerts were to the juveniles, then it can- 
 not be denied that he is doing much good. The 
 doctor sat on the platform with the " Old Folks," 
 but in the amount of pleasure experienced I think 
 he was one of the children. 
 
 Mrs. Emma J. Nichols was my leading soprano 
 for eight years, her husband accompanying the 
 troupe as treasurer. She was a great favorite wher- 
 ever she appeared, and has received many notices 
 from the press, of which any vocalist might well 
 feel proud. She did uot simply sing with the cho-
 
 A FAMILIAR TALK WITH TFIK READER. 193 
 
 rus, but her favorite songs were often interspersed 
 throughout the programme. It is pleasant to record 
 her great success ; but in doing so I do not wish to 
 ignore the worth of others who have participated 
 with me in the unique entertainments known as 
 "Old Folks' Concerts." 
 
 All who have been connected with me have my 
 heartfelt thanks. No company, I believe, ever 
 were so long together with less disagreements and 
 wrangles. They were all ladies and gentlemen, 
 and never lost consciousness of the fact under the 
 most trying and perplexing circumstances. 
 
 Gentle reader, you have perused this volume, 
 and I know opinion as to its merits will be some- 
 what divided. But one thing is certain, if "va- 
 riety is the spice of life," the book has some of this 
 grateful seasoning in its pages. You have followed 
 me from Cape Cod, through a greater portion of 
 the Northern, Middle, and Western States, across 
 the Atlantic, and back again to America, which I 
 propose never again to leave, with an "Old Folks' 
 Concert Troupe." There is but one thing more you 
 can do, follow me to No. 261 Hanover Street, 
 Boston, and let me sell you a pair of boots. If you 
 have been bored in looking over the preceding 
 pages, I will make amends by a reduction on my 
 regular, but low, price per pair. I have taken much 
 
 13
 
 194 FATHER KEMP AND ///.? OLD FOLKS. 
 
 pleasure in giving " Old Folks' concerts," for I 
 thought I was pleasing both old and young ; this 
 conviction controls my present occupation, and as 
 there is nothing so desirable as a good " understand- 
 ing" with all parties, my shelves contain everything 
 from the copper-toed shoe for the creeping picca- 
 niny, to the number twelve of the full-grown man. 
 I hope I am not sordid in these expressions. I 
 always had a great liking for the public, and it was 
 never stronger than now. The admission to my 
 hall is free, and all are cordially invited to come. 
 
 Should I ever again appear in the capacity of con- 
 ductor of an "Old Folks' Concert," do not refuse to 
 patronize me because I rank among those who have 
 written autobiographies ; of which class, I fear, the 
 public have some reason to feel shy. 
 
 Again, do not stay away because you think I have 
 grown rich by becoming an author. I concede, 
 beforehand, that the literary part of my career is a 
 failure, and anticipate more pecuniary embarrass- 
 ment from having been rash enough to pen my 
 experiences, and causing them to be bound in book 
 form, than from any other act of my life. 
 
 If you have any credit to give me, let it be re- 
 served for what }'ou are yet to read. If a man is to 
 become a lawyer, he studies law ; if a physician, he 
 studies medicine ; if a minister, he studies theol- 
 ogy ; if an editor, he practises with the pen and
 
 CONCL USION. 195 
 
 pistol ; and if a musical director, he becomes profi- 
 cient in the arts of music. 
 
 This latter statement has been completely upset 
 by my career ; for, although I have swung my baton 
 before a large choir in upwards of six thousand con- 
 certs, my word upon it, I NEVER KNEW A NOTE or 
 
 MUSIC, AND CANNOT DISTINGUISH A " MINIM " FROM 
 
 A " DEMISEMIQUAVER." I flatter myself, however, 
 that I can beat time with the most accomplished 
 impressario.
 
 SACRED AND SECULAR PIECES 
 
 FATHER KEMP'S OLD FOLKS. 
 
 SACRED SELECTIONS. 
 
 STRIKE THE CYMBAL. 
 
 Strike the cymbal, roll the tymbal, 
 
 Let the trump of triumph sound ; 
 Powerful slinging, headlong bringing. 
 
 Proud Goliath fo the ground. 
 From the river, rejecting quiver, 
 
 Judah's hero takes the stone ; 
 Spread your banners, 
 
 Shout hosanna, battle is the Lord's alone. 
 
 See, advances, with songs and dances, 
 All the band of Israel's daughters ; 
 Catch the sound, ye hills and waters; 
 God of thunder ! rend asunder 
 
 All the power Philistia boasts. 
 What are nations ? what their stations ? 
 
 Israel's God is Lord of hosts. 
 
 What are haughty monarchs now? 
 
 Lo, before Jehovah bow ; 
 
 Pride of princes, strength of kings, 
 
 To the dust Jehovah brings ; 
 
 Praise him, exulting nations, praise ; 
 
 Hosanna. 
 
 197
 
 198 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 THE HILL OF SIGN. 
 
 The hill of Sion yields 
 
 A thousand sacred sweets, 
 Before we reach the heavenly fields, 
 
 Or walk the golden streets. 
 Then let our songs abound, 
 
 And every tear be dry ; 
 We're marching through Immanuel's ground, 
 
 To fairer worlds on high. 
 
 HOW LONG, DEAR SAVIOUR. 
 
 How long, dear Saviour, oh, how long 
 Shall this bright hour delay ; 
 
 Fly swifter round, .ye wheels of time, 
 And bring the welcome day. 
 
 THE DYING CHRISTIAN. 
 
 Vital spark of heavenly flame, 
 Quit, oh quit, this mortal frame ! 
 Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying ! 
 Oh, the pain, the bliss of dying ! 
 
 Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife, 
 And let me languish into life ! 
 Hark ! they whisper, angels say, 
 " Sister spirit, come away ! " 
 
 What is this absorbs me quite, 
 Steals my senses, shuts my sight, 
 Drowns my spirit, draws my breath ? 
 Tell me, my soul, can this be death?
 
 mi': OLD FOLKS' soxas. 
 
 The world recedes, it disappears ; 
 
 Heaven opens on my eyes ! 
 
 My ears with sounds seraphic ring! 
 
 Lend, lend your wings! I mount, I fly, 
 
 O grave, where is thy victory ? 
 
 O death, where is thy sting? 
 
 ETERNAL POWER. 
 
 Eternal power, whose high abode 
 Becomes the grandeur of a God ; 
 Infinite lengths, beyond the bounds 
 Where stars revolve their little rounds. 
 
 COME, MY BELOVED. 
 
 Come, my beloved, haste away, 
 Cut short the hours of thy delay ; 
 Fly, like youthful hart or roe, 
 Over the hills where spices grow. 
 
 WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED. 
 
 While shepherds watched their flocks by night, 
 
 All seated on the ground, 
 The angel of the Lord came down, 
 
 And glory shone around.
 
 200 fATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 BEFORE JEHOVAH'S AWFUL THRONE. 
 
 Before Jehovah's awful throne, 
 
 Ye nations, bow with sacred joy; 
 Know that the Lord is God alone ; 
 
 He can create, and he destroy. 
 
 4 
 His sovereign power, without our aid, 
 
 Made us of clay, and formed us men ; 
 And when, like wandering sheep, we strayed, 
 
 He brought us to his fold again. 
 
 We'll crowd Thy gates with thankful songs, 
 High as the heaven our voices raise ; 
 
 And earth, with her ten thousand tongues, 
 Shall fill Thy courts with sounding praise. 
 
 Wide as the world is Thy command, 
 
 Vast as eternity Thy love ; 
 Firm as a rock Thy truth shall stand, 
 
 When rolling years shall cease to move. 
 
 THE LORD IS RISEN. 
 
 The Loi'd is risen indeed, 
 
 Hallelujah. 
 
 Now is Christ risen from the dead, 
 And become the first fruits of them that slept. 
 
 Hallelujah. 
 And did he rise, did he rise ? 
 
 Hallelujah. 
 Hear, O ye nations, 
 Hear it, O ye dead : 
 He rose, he rose, he rose, 
 He burst the bars of death, 
 And triumphed o'er the grave.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 201 
 
 Then, then, then I rose, 
 
 Then first humanity triumphant passed the crystal 
 
 ports of light, 
 And seized eternal youth. 
 Man, all immortal, hail ! hail ! 
 Heaven all lavish of strange gifts to man, 
 Thine all the glory, man's the boundless bliss. 
 
 COME, SHED ABROAD. 
 
 Come, shed abroad a Saviour's love, 
 And that shall kindle ours, 
 
 Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove, 
 With all thy quickening powers. 
 
 METHINKS I SEE A HEAVENLY HOST. 
 
 Methinks I see a heavenly host 
 
 Of angels on the wing ; 
 Methinks I hear their cheerful notes, 
 
 So merrily they sing, 
 
 " Let all your fears be banished hence ; 
 
 Glad tidings we proclaim, 
 For there's a Saviour born to-day, 
 
 And Jesus is his name." 
 
 HOW VAIN ARE ALL THINGS. 
 
 How vain are all things here below ! 
 
 How false and yet how fair ! 
 Each pleasure hath its poison too, 
 
 And every sweet a snare, 
 Each pleasure hath its poison too, 
 
 And every sweet a snare.
 
 202 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 ALL HAIL! THE POWER OF JESUS' NAME. 
 
 All hail ! the power of Jesus' name ; 
 
 Let angels prostrate fall ; 
 Bring forth the royal diadem, 
 
 And crown him Lord of all, 
 Bring forth the royal diadem, 
 
 And crown him Lord of all, 
 
 Let every kindred, every tribe, 
 
 On this terrestrial ball, 
 To him all majesty ascribe, 
 
 And crown him Lord of all, 
 To him all majesty ascribe, 
 
 And crown him Lord of all. 
 
 DAVID'S LAMENTATION. 
 
 David the king was grieved and moved, 
 He went to his chamber, and wept ! 
 Would to God I had died, O my son, 
 O Absalom, my son, my son ! 
 
 SONS OF ZION. 
 
 Sons of Zion, come before him, 
 Bring the cymbal, bring the harp. 
 High in glory, lo ! he's seated, 
 See the King, he sits in state.
 
 7 '///; OLD FOLKS' soffos. 203 
 
 THE WORKS OF GLORY. 
 
 The works of glory, mighty Lord, 
 That rule the boist'rous sea, 
 
 The sons of courage shall record, 
 Who tempt that dangerous way. 
 
 At Thy command the winds arise, 
 And swell the tow'ring waves ; 
 
 The men, astonished, mount the skies, 
 And sink in gaping graves. 
 
 EARLY, MY GOD. 
 
 Early, my God, without delay, 
 I haste to seek Thy face ; 
 
 My thirsty spirit faints away, 
 Without Thy cheering grace : 
 
 So pilgrims on the scorching sand, 
 
 Beneath a burning sky, 
 Long for a cooling stream at hand,- 
 
 And they must drink or die. 
 
 O THOU, TO WHOM ALL CREATURES BOW. 
 
 O Thou, to whom all creatures bow, 
 
 Within this earthly frame, 
 Through all the world how great art Thou ! 
 
 How glorious is Thy name !
 
 204 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 SPARE US, O LORD! 
 
 Spare us, O Lord ! aloud we cry, 
 Nor let our sun go down at noon ; 
 
 Thy years are one eternal day, 
 And must Thy children die so soon ? 
 
 PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM. 
 
 Praise God from whom all blessings flow; 
 Praise him, all creatures here below ; 
 Praise him, above, ye heavenly host, 
 Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
 
 MY SOUL, THY GREAT CREATOR PRAISE. 
 
 My soul, Thy great Creator praise, 
 When clothed in his celestial rays, 
 He in full majesty appears, 
 And like a robe his glory wears. 
 
 NOW CAN MY SOUL. 
 
 Now can my soul in God rejoice ; 
 I feel my Saviour's cheering voice ; 
 My heart awakes to sing his praise, 
 And longs to join immortal lays. 
 
 Hold me, O Jesus, in thine arms, 
 And cheer me with immortal charms, 
 Till I awake in realms above, 
 Forever to enjoy Thy love.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 205 
 
 BEHOLD THE MORNING SUN. 
 
 Behold the morning sun 
 
 Begins his glorious way ; 
 His beams through all the nations run, 
 
 And life and light convey. 
 
 But where the gospel comes, 
 
 It spreads diviner light, 
 It calls dead sinners from their tombs, 
 
 And gives the blind their sight. 
 
 'TIS BY THY STRENGTH. 
 
 'Tis by Thy strength the mountains stand, 
 
 God of eternal power ; 
 The sea grows calm at Thy command, 
 
 And tempests cease to roar. 
 
 THE LORD DESCENDED. 
 
 The Lord descended from above, 
 And bowed the heavens most high ; 
 
 And underneath his feet he cast 
 The darkness of the sky. 
 
 On cherub and on cherubim 
 
 Full royally he rode ; 
 And on the wings of mighty wind 
 
 Came flying all abroad.
 
 206 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 THE LOKD IS OUR SHEPHERD. 
 
 The Lord is our shepherd, our guardian and guide, 
 Whatever we want, he will kindly provide ; 
 To sheep of his pasture his mercies abound, 
 His care and protection his flock will surround. 
 
 SOUND THE LOUD TIMBREL. 
 
 Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea ; 
 Jehovah has ti'iumphed ; his people are free ; 
 Sing, for the pride of the tyrant is broken ; 
 
 His chariots, his horsemen all splendid and brave ; 
 How vain was their boasting ! the Lord hath but spoken, 
 
 And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave. 
 
 Praise to the Conqueror ; praise to the Lord ; 
 
 His word was our arrow ; his breath was our sword ; 
 
 Who shall return to tell Egypt the story 
 
 Of those she sent forth in the hour of her pride ? 
 The Lord hath looked out from his pillar of glory, 
 
 And all her brave thousands are dashed in the tide. 
 
 FROM ZION'S SACRED MOUNTAIN. 
 
 See, from Zion's sacred mountain, 
 Streams of living water flow ! 
 
 God has opened there a fountain 
 This supplies the plain below. 
 
 They are blessed, they are blessed, 
 Who its sovereign virtue know.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 207 
 
 SAVIOUR, VISIT THY PLANTATION. 
 
 Saviour, visit thy plantation ; 
 
 Grant us, Lord, a gracious rain ; 
 All will come to desolation, 
 
 Unless thou return again. 
 Turn to the Lord and seek redemption, 
 
 Sound the praise of his dear name ; 
 Glory, honor, and salvation, 
 
 Christ, the Lord, is come to reign. 
 
 Keep no longer at a distance, 
 
 Shine upon us from on high ; 
 Lest, for want of thine assistance, 
 
 Every plant will droop and die ; 
 Turn to the Lord, etc. 
 
 JEHOVAH'S PRAISE. 
 
 Jehovah's praise, in high immortal strains, 
 Resound, ye heavens, through all your blissful plains. 
 
 .TREBLE SOLO ANDANTE. 
 
 His glorious power, O radiant sun, display, 
 Far as thy vital beams diffuse the day ; 
 Thou silver moon, arrayed in softer lights, 
 Recount his wonders to the listening nights ; 
 Let all thy glittering train attendant wait, 
 And every star his Maker's name repeat. 
 
 ALLEGRO. 
 
 His glorious power, etc. 
 
 DUET ALLEGRETTO. 
 
 Ye glorious angels tune the raptured lay 
 Through the fair mansions of eternal day ;
 
 208 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 His praise, let all the shining ranks proclaim, 
 And teach the distant worlds your Maker's name. 
 
 CHORUS ALLEGRO MOTTO. 
 
 Bright with the splendor of his dazzling rays, 
 Exalted realms of joy reflect his praise. 
 
 ROCKED IN THE CKADLE. 
 
 Music by J. P. Knight. 
 
 Rocked in the cradle of the deep, 
 I lay me down in peace to sleep ; 
 Secure I rest upon the wave, 
 For thou, O Lord ! hast power to save. 
 I know thou wilt not slight my call, 
 For thou dost mark the sparrow's fall ! 
 And calm and peaceful is my sleep, 
 Rocked in the cradle of the deep. 
 
 And such the trust that still were mine, 
 Though stormy winds swept o'er the brine ; 
 Or, though the tempest's fury breath, 
 Roused me from sleep to wreck or death ; 
 In ocean cave still safe with Thee, . 
 The germ of immortality. 
 And calm, etc. 
 
 From the Haymakers. 
 
 HOW GOOD IS THE GIVER. 
 
 QUINTETTE. 
 
 How good is he, the Giver, 
 Whose mercies fail us never, 
 Whose bounty large is ever 
 Loving and free.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS 1 SONQ8. 209 
 
 From him, the bright sun shineth, 
 Shineth the bright sun, glorious light, 
 And soft as eve cleclineth, 
 Softly declineth, bringing the night. 
 
 His power the season changeth, 
 Summer and Winter, Autumn and Spring, 
 And each, his praise proclaimed! , 
 Ever the bountiful Lord and King. 
 
 For everything he careth, 
 His notice nothing spareth, 
 Not e'en the sparrow falleth 
 Without his kind regard. 
 
 And here his love hath brought us, 
 His goodness here hath taught us 
 That we with one accord, 
 May praise the Lord ; 
 
 Yet learn we a lesson from the falling grass, 
 In the morning it flourished! and groweth up, 
 In the evening it is cut down and withereth ; 
 So in a day our life may be ended ; 
 
 When that time shall come, may we be gathered into the 
 garner of the Most High. 
 Praise the Lord. 
 
 EXHORTATION. 
 
 Now, in the heat of youthful blood, 
 Remember your Creator, God, 
 Behold the months come hast'ning on, 
 When you shall say my joys are gone. 
 
 14
 
 210 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 MILFORD. 
 
 If angels sung a Saviour's birth 
 On that auspicious morn, 
 
 We well may imitate their mirth, 
 Now He again is born. 
 
 LYNNFIELD. 
 
 My God, permit me not to be 
 A stranger to myself and thee ! 
 Amidst ten thousand thoughts I rove, 
 Forgetful of my highest love. 
 Why should my passions mix with earth, 
 And thus debase my heavenly birth ? 
 Why should I cleave to things below, 
 And let my God, my Saviour go ? 
 
 Call me away from flesh and sense ; 
 
 One sov'reign word can call me thence ; 
 
 I would obey the voice divine, 
 
 And all inferior joys resign. 
 
 Be earth with all her scenes withdrawn, 
 
 Let noise and vanity be gone ; 
 
 In secret silence of the mind, 
 
 My heav'n, my heav'n, my heav'n and there, my God, I find. 
 
 TOPSFIELD. 
 
 Lo ! what an entertaining sight 
 
 Are brethren who agree ; 
 Whose hands with cheerful hearts unite, 
 
 In bonds of piety ; 
 When streams of love from Christ the spring, 
 
 Descend to ev'ry soul, 
 And heav'nly peace, with balmy wing. 
 
 Shades and bedews the whole.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONQS. 211 
 
 HALLO WELL. 
 
 As on some lonely building's top 
 The sparrow tells her moan, 
 
 Far from the tents of joy and hope, 
 I sit and grieve alone. 
 
 SOLITUDE. 
 
 My refuge is the God of love ; 
 
 My foes insult and cry, 
 Fly like a tim'rous, trembling dove, 
 
 To distant mountains fly. 
 
 Since I have placed my trust in God, 
 
 A refuge always nigh, 
 Why should I, like a tim'rous bird 
 
 To distant mountains fly ? 
 
 DELIGHT. 
 
 No burning heats by day, 
 
 Nor blasts of evening air, 
 Shall take my health away, 
 
 If God be with me there. 
 Thou art my sun, 
 
 And thou my shade, 
 To guard my head 
 
 By night or noon.
 
 212 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 OH, WHERE SHALL REST BE FOUND? 
 
 Oh, where shall rest be found, 
 
 Rest for the weary soul ? 
 'Twere vain the ocean-depths to sound, 
 
 Or pierce to either pole. 
 
 The world can never give 
 
 The bliss for which we sigh : 
 ir ris not the whole of life to live, 
 
 Nor all of death to die. 
 
 Beyond this vale of tears, 
 
 There is a life above, 
 Unmeasured by the flight of years ; 
 
 And all that life is love. 
 
 Here would we end our quest : 
 
 Alone are found in thee 
 The life of perfect love, the rest 
 
 Of immortality. 
 
 OH CEASE, MY WANDERING SOUL. 
 
 Oh cease, my wandering soul, 
 
 On restless wing to roam ! 
 All this wide world, to either pole, 
 
 Has not for thee a home. 
 
 Behold the ark of God ! 
 
 Behold the open door ! 
 Oh, haste to gain that dear abode, 
 
 And rove, my soul, no more ! 
 
 There, safe them shalt abide ; 
 
 There, sweet shall be thy rest ; 
 And every longing satisfied, 
 
 With full salvation blest.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 218 
 
 PARADISE. 
 
 Now to the shining realms above 
 
 I stretch my hands and glance my eyes ; 
 Oh for the pinions of the dove 
 
 To bear me to the upper skies ; 
 There from the bosom of my God 
 
 Oceans of endless pleasure roll ; 
 There would I fix my last abode, 
 
 And drown the sorrows of iny soul. 
 
 MONTAGUE. 
 
 Ye sons of men, with joy record 
 The various wonders of the Lord, 
 And let his power and goodness sound 
 Through all your tribes the world around. 
 Let the high heavens your songs invite, 
 Those spacious fields of brilliant light, 
 Where sun, and moon, and planets roll, 
 And stars that glow from pole to pole. 
 
 ARCHDALE. 
 
 When God revealed his gracious name, 
 
 And changed my mournful state, 
 My rapture seemed a pleasing dream, 
 
 Thy grace appeared so great ; 
 The world beheld the glorious change, 
 
 And did thy hand confess ; 
 My tongue broke out in unknown strains, 
 
 And sung surprising grace.
 
 214 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 BUCKFIELD. 
 
 When strangers stand and hear me tell 
 What beauties in my Saviour dwell, 
 Where he is gone they fain would know, 
 That they may seek and love him too. 
 
 WHY DO WE MOURN. 
 
 Why do we mourn departing friends, 
 Or shake at death's alarms ? 
 
 'Tis but the voice that Jesus sends 
 To call them to his arms. 
 
 NEW JERUSALEM. 
 
 From the third heaven, where God resides, 
 
 That holy, happy place, 
 The New Jerusalem comes down, 
 
 Adorned with shining grace. 
 
 LORD, DISMISS US. 
 
 Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing ; 
 
 Bid us all depart in peace ; 
 Still' on gospel manna feeding, 
 
 Pure, seraphic love increase. 
 Fill each breast with consolation ; 
 
 Up to thee our hearts we'll raise, 
 Till we reach that blissful station, 
 
 Where we'll give thee nobler praise, 
 And sing hallelujah, to God and the Lamb.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SOXGS. 215 
 
 ANGELS, EVER BRIGHT. 
 
 Angels, ever bright and fair, 
 Take, oh, take me to your care ; 
 Speed to your own courts my flight, 
 Clad in robes of virgin light. 
 
 ETERNAL ARE THY MERCIES. 
 
 Eternal are thy mercies, Lord ; 
 
 Eternal truth attends thy word ; 
 
 Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore, 
 
 Till suns shall rise and set no more.
 
 SECULAR SELECTIONS. 
 
 YANKEE'S EETURN FROM CAMP. 
 
 Father and I went down to camp, 
 
 Along with Captain Gooding, 
 And there we see the men and boys, 
 As thick as hasty pudding. 
 Yankee doodle, keep it up, 
 
 Yankee doodle dandy, 
 Beneath the fig-tree and the vine, 
 Sing Yankee doodle dandy. 
 
 And there we see a swamping gun, 
 
 Large as a log of maple, 
 Upon a deuced little cart, 
 
 A load for father's cattle. 
 Yankee doodle, etc. 
 
 And every time they shoot it off, 
 
 It takes a horn of powder ; 
 It makes a noise like father's gun, 
 
 Except a nation Jouder. 
 Yankee doodle, etc. 
 
 I went as nigh to one myself 
 
 As Siah's underpinning, 
 And father went as nigh again, 
 I thought the deuce was in him. 
 Yankee doodle, etc. 
 
 216
 
 T1IK OLD FOLKS' BONOS. 217 
 
 Cousin Simon grew so bold, 
 
 I thought he would have cocked it ; 
 
 It scared me so, I streaked it off, 
 And hung to father's pocket. 
 Yankee doodle, etc. 
 
 Captain Davis had a gun, 
 
 He kind of clapped his hand on't, 
 And stuck a crooked stabbing-iron 
 . Upon the little end on't. 
 Yankee doodle, etc. 
 
 And there I see a pumpkin-shell 
 
 As big as mother's basin, 
 And every time they touched it off, 
 
 They scampered like the nation. 
 Yankee doodle, etc. 
 
 I see a little barrel, too, 
 
 The heads were made of leather ; 
 They knocked on it with little clubs, 
 
 And called the folks together. 
 Yankee doodle, etc. 
 
 And there was Captain Washington, 
 
 And gentlefolks about him ; 
 They say he's grown so tarnal proud, 
 
 He will not ride without 'em. 
 Yankee doodle, etc. 
 
 He got him on his meeting clothes, 
 
 Upon a slapping stallion, 
 He set the world along in rows, 
 
 In hundreds and in millions. 
 Yankee doodle, etc. 
 
 I see another snarl of men, 
 
 A-digging graves, they told me, 
 So tarnal long, so tarnal deep, 
 
 They 'tended they should hold me. 
 
 Yankee doodle, etc.
 
 218 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 It scared me so I scampered off, 
 Nor stopped, as I remember, 
 
 Nor turned about till I got home, 
 Locked up in mother's chamber. 
 Yankee doodle, etc. 
 
 Yankee doodle, keep it up, 
 
 Yankee doodle dandy, 
 Beneath the fig-tree and the vine, 
 
 Sing Yankee doodle dandy. 
 Yankee doodle, etc. 
 
 THE MANOLA. 
 
 Music composed by Paul Henrion. 
 
 Of Aragon, of bright Castilla 
 Thou, called most fair, in cot or villa,. 
 Come, join us here ; 'neath thy mantilla, 
 
 Why linger thus, hiding thy face ? 
 Dost thou not hear sweet music sounding ? 
 In lively dance light feet are bounding, 
 Gay young Manolas with glance confounding;, 
 
 Sing as they dance, evqr with grace. 
 Come, then, Juanita, come with me, dearest ; 
 
 Quick to the Prado ! each one's in place, 
 Waiting to erown thee, brightest and fairest, 
 
 Queen of the Jota Aragonaise ; 
 Ah !: ah ! ah ! ah ! Waiting to crown thee 
 Brightest and fairest 
 
 Queen of the Jota Aragonaise. 
 
 Dost thou not know what is occurring? 
 How Grenada all Spain is stirring, 
 Sending this way beauties alluring, 
 All their most fair, their dance to grace.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 219 
 
 Come, then, with me, night is advancing, 
 Crowds from Madrid gayly are prancing 
 Out to behold Spain's beauties dancing. 
 None of them all can fill thy place. 
 Come, then, Juanita, etc. 
 
 But all is hushed in thy loved dwelling ; 
 Only the breeze, sobbing and swelling, 
 Wails through the trees, their dead leaves impelling. 
 
 All else is still ; I watch and sigh : 
 When a sweet voice, soft and endearing, 
 Speaks from within accents so cheering ; 
 Soon the fair maiden gayly appearing, 
 
 Answers my call, " Yes, here am I." 
 Place on the Prado, quickly obtaineth 
 
 Fair Juanita, model of grace ; 
 Charming Manola, ever remaineth 
 
 Queen of the Jota Aragonaise. 
 Come, then, Juanita, etc. 
 
 THE CAPTAIN. 
 
 As they marched through the town, with their banners so gay, 
 
 I ran to the window to hear the band play ; 
 
 I peeped through the blind vdry cautiously then, 
 
 Lest the neighbors should say I was looking at the men. 
 
 Oh ! I heard the drums beat and the music so sweet ; 
 
 But my eyes at the time caught a much greater treat : 
 
 The troop was the finest I ever did see, 
 
 And the captain with his whiskers took a sly glance at me. 
 
 When we met at the ball I of course thought twas right 
 To pretend that we never had met before that night ; 
 But he knew me at once, I could see by his glance, 
 And I hung down my head when he asked me to dance. 
 Oh, he sat by my side at the end of the set, 
 And the sweet words he spoke I shall never forgot ;
 
 220 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 For my heart was enlisted and could not get free, 
 
 As the captain with his whiskers took a sly glance at me. 
 
 But he marched from the town and I see him no more, 
 
 Yet I think of him oft, and the whiskers he wove ; 
 
 I dream all the night and I talk all the day 
 
 Of the love of a captain who has gone far away ; 
 
 I remember, with superabundant delight, 
 
 When we met in the street, and we danced all the night, 
 
 And keep in my mind how my heart jumped with glee 
 
 As the captain with his whiskers took a sly glance at me. 
 
 ODE ON SCIENCE. 
 
 OW American Ode. 
 
 The morning sun shines from the east, 
 And spreads his glories to the west ; 
 All nations with his beams are blest, 
 Where'er his radiant light appears. 
 So Science spreads her lucid ray 
 O'er lands that long in darkness lay ; 
 She visits fair Columbia, 
 And sets her sons among the stars. 
 
 Fair Freedom, her attendant, waits 
 To bless the portals of her gates ; 
 To crown the young and rising states 
 With laurels of immortal day. 
 No daring foe, with impious hand, 
 Shall e'er invade our heaven-blest land ; 
 United in a glorious band, 
 We'll shout, " Long live America ! "
 
 THK OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 221 
 
 WHAT'S A' THE STEER KIMMER? 
 
 What's a 1 the steer, kimmer? what's a' the steer? 
 
 Jamie is landed, and soon he will be here ; 
 
 Go lace your bodice blue, lassie, lace your bodice blue, 
 
 Put on your Sunday claithes, and trim your cap anew, 
 
 For I'm light glad o 1 heart, kimmer, right glad o' heart, 
 
 I ha'e a bonny breast-knot, and for his sake I'll wear't ; 
 
 Sin 1 Jamie is come hame we ha'e nae care to fear, 
 
 Bid the neighbors all come down and welcome Jamie here. 
 
 Where's Donald Tod, lassie ? rin fetch him here, 
 
 Bid him bring his pipes, lassie, bid him tune them clear, 
 
 For we'll taste the barley mow, foot it to and fro 5 
 
 Sin' Jamie is come hame we'll gie him hearty cheer. 
 
 And it's what's a' the steer kimmer? what's a' the steer? 
 
 Jamie is landed, and soon he will be here ; 
 
 Bid Allen Ramsey rin, bid him kill a fatted deer, 
 
 Oh, the neighbors little ken how welcome Jamie's here. 
 
 WHEN THE QUIET MOON IS BEAMING. 
 
 Hnsic by J. Schondorf. 
 
 When the quiet moon is beaming 
 
 Over streamlet, vale, and hill, 
 When the weary world lies dreaming, 
 
 All around so calm and still ; 
 Then, my tuneful lyre retaking, 
 
 Oft I stray tlie woods among, 
 While my heart, its silence breaking, 
 
 Pours a flood of grief and song. 
 
 O'er the strings my tears are falling ; 
 
 Ah ! beloved, what'er I see, 
 All my vanished bliss recalling. 
 
 Speaks ofthee, of only thcc.
 
 222 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 Now thou'rt gone, my buried treasure ! 
 
 Now the grass-green earth's thy tomb ; 
 Nought remains of joy and pleasure, 
 
 All is solitude and gloom. 
 
 Now, the glorious sun appearing, 
 
 All night's shadows flee away ; 
 Nature, wakening, warming, cheering, 
 
 With the magic of his ray. 
 Now Hope whispers, cease to sorrow, 
 
 Soon shall cease thy grief, thy pain ; 
 Soon shall dawn a brighter morrow, 
 
 When thou'lt meet thy love again. 
 
 THE TWILIGHT HOUR. 
 
 Composed by G. Bristow. 
 
 At twilight hour I love to steal, 
 
 Unseen, unheard, when none are near, 
 To nurse the pensive pain I feel, 
 
 And shed alone fond memory's tear. 
 At that loved hour sad things arise, 
 
 Of friends by absence made more dear, 
 Fond cherished hopes, long-severed ties 
 
 And blighted feeling cold and drear. 
 
 Then thought reverts to other days, 
 
 Sweet tones arise, loved forms appear, 
 And memory tells of other lays, 
 
 Breathed to fond friendship's listening ear. 
 Yet do I love the twilight hour, 
 
 For thou a soothing balm canst bring, 
 And fancy's sweet and soothing power 
 
 Blunts kindly, memory's poignant sting.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 228 
 
 HOME OF MY HEART. 
 
 I breathe once more my native air, 
 And hail each happy, happy scene, 
 
 That rises round me everywhere, 
 As though I left but yester e'en. 
 
 Oh ! how I love thee, Erin dear ! 
 
 When roaming on a foreign strand, 
 In fancy still my steps were here, 
 
 Home of my heart, my native land. 
 
 I've found the hour so fondly sought, 
 And weep ; but these are joyous tears, 
 
 The rapture of a moment bought 
 By long and weary absent years. 
 Oh ! how I love thee, etc. 
 
 WITHIN A MILE OF EDINBOEO' TOWN. 
 
 'Twas within a mile of Edinboro' town, 
 
 In the rosy time of the year ; 
 Sweet flowers bloomed and the grass was down, 
 
 And each shepherd wooed his dear. 
 Bonny Jocky, blithe and gay, 
 Kissed sweet Jenny making hay ; 
 
 The lassie blushed, and frowning cried, no, no, it will not do, 
 I cannot, cannot, wonnot, wonnot, munnot buckle too. 
 
 Jocky was a wag that never would wed, 
 
 Though long he had followed the lass ; 
 Contented she eai'ned and ate her own bread, 
 
 And merrily turned up the grass. 
 Bonny Jocky, blithe and free, 
 Won her heart right merrily ; 
 
 Yet still she blushed and frowning cried, no, no, it will not do, 
 I cannot, cannot, wonnot, wonnot, munnot buckle too.
 
 224 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 But when he vowed he would make her his bride, 
 
 Though his flocks and herds were not few, 
 She gave him her hand and a kiss beside, 
 
 And vowed she'd forever be true. 
 Bonny Jocky blithe and free, 
 Won her heart right merrily ; 
 
 At church she no more frowning, cried, no, no, it will not do, 
 I cannot, cannot, wonnot, wonuot, munnot buckle too. 
 
 MARSEILLAISE HYMN. 
 
 Ye sons of freedom, wake to glory ; 
 
 Hark ! hark ! what myriads bid you rise ; 
 Your children, wives, and grandsires hoary, 
 
 Behold their tears, and hear their cries ! 
 Shall lawless tyrants, mischief breeding 
 With hireling host, a ruffian band, 
 Affright and desolate the land, 
 While peace and liberty lie bleeding? 
 To arms, to arms, ye brave ! 
 
 The patriot sword unsheath ; 
 March on, all hearts resolved 
 On liberty or death. 
 
 Oh, liberty ! can man resign thee, 
 Once having felt thy glorious flame ? 
 
 Can tyrants' bolts and bars confine thee, 
 And thus thy noble spirit tame ? 
 
 Too long our country wept, bewailing 
 
 The blood-stained sword our conquerors wield ; 
 But freedom is our sword aud shield, 
 
 And all their arts are unavailing. 
 To arms, etc.
 
 TJJE OLD FOLKS' HONGS. 225 
 
 THE DEAREST SPOT OF EAETH TO ME IS 
 HOME. 
 
 The dearest spot of earth to me 
 
 Is home, sweet home ! 
 The fairy land I long to see 
 
 Is home, sweet home ! 
 Thei-e, how charmed the sense of hearing, 
 There, whei'e love is so endearing ! 
 All the world is not so cheering 
 
 As home, sweet home ! 
 
 I've taught my heart the way to prize 
 
 My home, sweet home ! 
 I've learned to look with lover's eyes 
 
 On home, sweet home ! 
 There, where vows are truly plighted ! 
 There, where hearts are so united ! 
 All the world besides I've slighted 
 
 For home, sweet home. 
 
 GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. 
 
 God save our gracious Queen ; 
 Long live our noble Queen ; 
 God save the Queen ; 
 Send her victorious, 
 Happy and glorious, 
 Long to reign over us ; 
 God save the Queen. 
 
 O Lord, our God, arise, 
 Scatter her enemies, 
 And make them fall ; 
 Confound their politics, 
 Frustrate their knavish tricks, 
 On thee our hopes we fix ; 
 Oh, save us all. 
 15
 
 226 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 Thy choicest gifts in store, 
 On her be pleased to pour, 
 Long may she reign ; 
 May she defend our land, 
 And ever give us cause 
 To sing with heart and voice, 
 God save the Queen. 
 
 SONG OP THE OLD FOLKS. 
 
 Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 
 
 And never brought to mind ; 
 Should auld acquaintance be forgot, 
 
 And songs of auld lang syne ? 
 For auld lang syne we meet to-night, 
 
 For auld lang syne ; 
 To sing the songs our fathers sang 
 
 In days of auld lang syne. 
 
 We've passed through many varied scenes, 
 
 Since youth's unclouded day ; 
 And friends and hopes and happy dreams 
 
 Time's hand hath swept away. 
 And voices that once joined with ours, 
 
 In days of auld lang syne, 
 Are silent now and blend no more 
 
 In songs of auld lang syne. 
 
 Yet ever has the light of song 
 
 Illumed our darkest hours, 
 And cheered us on life's toilsome way, 
 
 And gemmed our path with flowers ; 
 The sacred songs our fathers sang, 
 
 Dear songs of auld lang syne ; 
 The hallowed songs our fathers sang 
 
 In days of auld lang syne.
 
 TUB OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 227 
 
 Here we have met, hero we may part, 
 
 To meet on earth no more ; 
 And we may never sing again 
 
 The cherished songs of yore ; 
 The sacred songs our fathers sang 
 
 In days of auld lang syne ; 
 We may not meet to sing again 
 
 The songs of auld lang syne. 
 
 But when we've crossed the sea of life, 
 
 And reached the heavenly shore, 
 We'll sing the songs our fathers sang, 
 
 Transcending those of yore ; 
 We'll meet to sing diviner strains 
 
 Than those of auld lang syne ; 
 Immortal songs of praise, unknown 
 
 In days of auld lang syne. 
 
 COMIN' THROUGH THE RYE. 
 
 If a body meet a body, 
 
 Comin' through the rye ; 
 If a body kiss a body, 
 
 Need a body cry ? 
 
 Ev'ry lassie has her laddie, 
 
 None they say ha'e I, 
 Yet a' the lads they smile at me, 
 
 When comin' through the rye. 
 
 Among the train, there is a swain, 
 
 I dearly lo'e mysel' ; 
 And what's his name, or where's his hame, 
 
 I dinna choose to tell. 
 Ev'ry lassie, etc.
 
 228 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 If a body meet a body, 
 
 Comin' fra the town ; 
 If a body meet a body, 
 
 Need a body frown ? 
 
 Ev'iy lassie, etc. 
 
 KIDD'S LAMENT. 
 
 You captains bold and brave, hear my cries, hear my cries, 
 You captains bold and brave, hear my cries ; 
 You captains brave and bold, though you seem uncontrolled, 
 Don't for the sake of gold, lose your souls, lose your souls, 
 Don't for the sake of gold lose your souls. 
 
 My name was Robert Kidd, when I sailed, when I sailed, 
 My name was Robert Kidd, God's laws I did forbid, 
 And so wickedly I did, when I sailed, when I sailed, 
 And so wickedly I did when I sailed. 
 
 My parents taught me well, when I sailed, when I sailed, 
 
 To shun the gates of hell, when I sailed, 
 
 I cursed my father dear, and her that did me bear, 
 
 And so wickedly did swear, when I sailed, when I sailed, 
 
 And so wickedly did swear, when I sailed. 
 
 I'd a Bible in my hand, when I sailed, when I sailed, 
 
 But I sunk it in the sand, when I sailed ; 
 
 I made a solemn vow to God I would not bow, 
 
 Nor myself one prayer allow, when I sailed, when I sailed, 
 
 Nor myself one prayer allow, when I sailed. 
 
 I murdered William Moore, as I sailed, as I sailed, 
 
 And left him in his gore, as I sailed, 
 
 And being cruel still, my gunner I did kill, 
 
 And much precious blood did spill, as I sailed, as I sailed, 
 
 And much precious blood did spill, as I sailed.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 229 
 
 I took three ships from France, when I sailed, when I sailed, 
 Likewise three more from Spain, when I sailed, 
 But fourteen more by three, they were too much for me ; 
 I am conquered now, you see, and must die, and must die ; 
 Farewell the raging sea, I must die. 
 
 To Newgate now I'm cast, and must die, and must die, 
 
 At Execution Dock I must die ; 
 
 Come, all you young and old, you're welcome to my gold, 
 
 For by it I've lost my soul, and must die, 
 
 For by it I've lost my soul ; faro you well. 
 
 HOME AGAIN. 
 
 Words and Music by M. S. Pike. 
 
 Home again, home again, from a foreign shore, 
 
 And oh ! it fills my soul with joy 
 To meet my friends once more. 
 
 Here I dropped the parting tear, 
 To cross the ocean's foam ; 
 
 But now I'm once again with those 
 Who kindly greet me home. 
 
 Home again, etc. 
 
 Happy hearts, happy hearts, with mine have laughed in glee, 
 
 But oh ! the friends I loved in youth 
 Seem happier to me ; 
 
 And if my guide should be the fate 
 Which bids me longer roam, 
 
 But death alone can break the tie 
 That binds my heart to home. 
 
 Home again, etc. 
 
 Music sweet, music soft, lingers round the place, 
 
 And oh ! I feel the childhood charm 
 That time cannot efface ; 
 
 Then give me but my homestead roof,
 
 230 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 I'll ask no palace dower ; 
 
 For I can live a happy life 
 With those I love at home. 
 Home again, etc. 
 
 MINNIE CLYDE. 
 
 Oh, long have I sung of sweet Kitty Clyde, 
 
 Who lived at the foot of the hill ; 
 And though that sweet pretty bird has flown, 
 
 Another is living there still. 
 She's blythe and gay as the robins that sing 
 
 On the trees by the old mill-side ; 
 And if ever I loved a girl in my life, 
 
 'Tis the charming sweet Minnie Clyde. 
 Oh, Minnie Clyde, she is my pride, 
 
 And sure I am no jester ; 
 For if ever I loved a girl in my life, 
 
 'Tis Minnie, Kitty Clyde's sister. 
 
 I think her eyes are brighter than Kitty's ; 
 
 The dimple in her chin is deeper, 
 I would be imprisoned the rest of my life 
 
 With Minnie Clyde for my keeper ; 
 In the festive throng she sings a sweet song, 
 
 With the lowly alike is she meek ; 
 Her eyes are the windows of her soul, 
 
 Through which Minnie's heart would speak. 
 Oh, Minnie Clyde, she is my pride, etc. 
 
 Oh, blest are the hearts that live in the cot 
 
 That stands at the foot of the hill ; 
 Oh, sweet are the songs that echo in the glen, 
 
 By the murmur of the moss-covered mill ; 
 The birds all chant their notes to Minnie, 
 
 The angels above have caressed her, 
 But you have the angels, and you have the birds, 
 
 And I'll have Kitty Clyde's sister. 
 Oh, Minnie Clyde, she is my pride, etc.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 231 
 
 STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. 
 
 Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early light, 
 
 What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, 
 Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous 
 
 fight, 
 
 O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming, 
 And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
 Gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there ; 
 Oh, say, does the star-spangled banner yet wave 
 O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave ? 
 
 On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, 
 
 Where the foe's haughty hosts in dread silence reposes, 
 What is that which the breeze o'er the towering sweep, 
 
 As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses ? 
 Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, 
 In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream ; 
 "Tis the star-spangled banner, oh, long may it wave 
 O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave ! 
 
 And where is that band who so vauntingly swore 
 
 That the havoc of war, and the battle's confusion, 
 A home and a country should leave us no more ? 
 
 Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. 
 No refuge could save the hireling and slave, 
 From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave ; 
 And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 
 
 Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand 
 
 Between their loved home and the war's desolation ; 
 Blessed with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land 
 Praise the power that has made and preserved us a nation. 
 Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, 
 And this be our motto, " In God is our Trust ; " 
 And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave 
 O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
 
 232 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 HAIL, COLUMBIA! 
 
 Hail, Columbia, happy land ! 
 Hail, ye heroes, heaven-born band, 
 Who fought and bled in freedom's cause, 
 And when the storm of war was gone, 
 Enjoyed the peace your valor won. 
 Let independence be your boast, 
 Ever mindful what it cost ; 
 Ever grateful for the prize, 
 Let its altar reach the skies. 
 
 Firm, united let us be, 
 
 Rallying round our liberty ! 
 
 As a band of brothers joined, 
 
 Peace and safety we shall find. 
 
 Immortal patriots, rise once more ! 
 Defend your rights, defend your shore ; 
 Let no rude foe, with impious hand, 
 Invade the shrine, where sacred lies, 
 Of toil and blood, the well-earned prize ; 
 While offering peace sincere and just, 
 In Heaven we place a manly trust 
 That truth and justice may prevail, 
 And every scheme of bondage fail. 
 Firm, united, etc. 
 
 Sound, sound the trump of fame, 
 Let Washington's great name 
 Ring through the world with loud applause ! 
 Let every clime, to freedom dear, 
 Listen with a joyful ear ; 
 With equal skill, with steady power, 
 He governs in the fearful hour 
 Of horrid war, or guides with ease 
 The happier time of honest peace. 
 Firm, united, etc.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONOS. 233 
 
 Behold the chief, who now commands, 
 Once more to serve his country, stands, 
 The rock on which the storm will beat ! 
 But armed in virtue, linn and true, 
 His hopes are fixed on Heaven and you ; 
 When hope was sinking in dismay, 
 When gloom obscured Columbia's day, 
 His steady mind, from changes free, 
 Resolved on death or liberty. 
 Firm, united, etc. 
 
 HOME, SWEET HOME. 
 
 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, 
 Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home ; 
 A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, 
 Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met elsewhere. 
 
 Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! 
 
 Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. 
 
 An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain ; 
 Oh ! give me my lowly thatched cottage again ; 
 The birds singing gayly, that came at my call, 
 Oh ! give me that peace of mind, dearer than all. 
 Home, home, etc. 
 
 NOBLE ENGLAND! 
 
 Noble old England ! happiest of lands ; 
 
 A pattern to nations thy green isle still stands ; 
 
 Freedom's proud banner flaunts in the skies, 
 
 Where shouts of victory ever shall rise. 
 
 United in heart, united in hand, 
 
 Blest as a nation, by sea and by land, 
 
 Throughout the world our motto shall be, 
 
 " Health to thy commerce, and friendship to thee ! "
 
 234 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 Brave are thy sons, thy daughters are fair ; 
 Emblems of beauty and valor they are ; 
 Foremost in war the suffering to cheer ; 
 First in oppression the burden to share ; 
 Round thy schools and thy laws, forever divine, 
 May the rose, and the thistle, and shamrock entwine ; 
 Engraven in letters of gold still be seen. 
 " Health to Old England, long live the Queen ! " 
 
 ROBIN RUFF. 
 
 ROBIN. 
 
 If I'd but a thousand a-year, Gaffer Greene, 
 What a man would I be, 
 And what sights would I see, 
 If I'd but a thousand a-year. 
 If I'd but, etc. 
 
 GAFFER GREENE. 
 
 The best wish you could have, 
 Take my word, Robin Ruff, 
 Would scarce find you in bread or in beer ; 
 But be honest and true, 
 And say what would you do, 
 If you had but a thousand a-year, Robin Ruff ? 
 If you had, etc. 
 
 ROBIN. 
 
 I'd do, I scarcely know what, Gaffer Greene, 
 I'd go, faith I hardly know where ; 
 But I'd scatter the chink, 
 And leave others to think, 
 If I had but a thousand a-year, 
 If I had, etc.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONOS. 235 
 
 GAFFER GREENE. 
 
 But when you are aged and gray, Robin Ruff, 
 And the day of your death draweth near, 
 Say what, with your pains, 
 Would you do with your gains, 
 If you then had but a thousand a-year, Robin Ruff P 
 If you had, etc. 
 
 ROBIN. 
 
 I scarcely can tell what you mean, Gaffer Greene, 
 Your questions are always so queer ; 
 But as other folks die, 
 I suppose so must I. 
 
 GAFFER GREENE. 
 
 What, and give up your thousand a-year, Robin 
 Ruff? 
 
 What, and give, etc. 
 
 There's a place that is better than this, Robin Ruff, 
 And I hope in my heart you'll go there, 
 Where the poor man is as great, 
 Though he hath no estate, 
 Ay, as if he'd a thousand a-year, Robin Ruff, 
 
 Ay, as if, etc. 
 
 WHO TREADS THE PATH OF DUTY. 
 
 Who treads the path of duty, 
 
 Nor shrinks when honor calls, 
 
 Deserves the smiles of beauty, 
 
 Nor e'er inglorious falls ; 
 
 His steps the great Osiris leads, 
 
 By gentle paths to gentle deeds, 
 
 And, with glad welcome, greets him here, 
 
 A pilgrim to a brighter sphere.
 
 236 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 Who, in their hearts would cherish, 
 Or rage, or colder hate, 
 Would see another perish, 
 Or triumph o'er his fate ; 
 Not such are found within these walls } 
 Here the soft tear of pity falls, 
 Each other's failings all forgive, 
 And all in peace and concord live. 
 
 EVE'S LAMENTATION. 
 
 Composed by King. 
 
 Must I leave thee, Paradise ? 
 
 Must I leave thee, leave thee, native soil ; 
 
 These happy walks, these walks and shades ? 
 
 Oh, flowers ! that never will in other climate grow, 
 
 Who now shall rear ye to the sun ? 
 
 From thee, from thee, how can I part ? 
 
 Yet must I leave thee, leave thee, Paradise ? 
 
 STAND BY THE FLAG. 
 
 By R. Greene. 
 
 Stand by the flag ! let nothing daunt 
 
 The heart, but guard it well ; 
 In gallant cheer we'll meet the foe, 
 
 And make each charge to tell ; 
 Let Honor, Pride, and Victory's wreath 
 
 Each serve to spread the story 
 Of noble deeds, by British sons, 
 
 Who fought for England's glory.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONQS. 237 
 
 Let not the fame of bygone years 
 
 Be lost, while yet there's blood 
 To brighten up old History's page, 
 
 And make each record good ; 
 But shout, "Britannia rules the wave, 
 
 Victoria rules the land," 
 And she expects each gallant son 
 
 By England's flag to stand ! 
 
 Stand by the flag ! A traitor he 
 
 Who'd slight the sacred trust ; 
 An exile may he ever be, 
 
 Who'd insult at it thrust ! 
 But let the cry from every tongue, 
 
 Resound o'er land and main, 
 " Long live Victoria, England's Queen ! 
 
 Long may Victoria reign ! " 
 
 THE FEMALE AUCTIONEER. 
 
 Well, here I am ; and what of that ? 
 
 Methinks I hear you cry, 
 For I have come, and that is pat, 
 
 To see if you will buy. 
 A female auctioneer I stand, 
 
 But not to seek for pelf, 
 For the only lot I've now on hand, 
 
 Is just to sell myself. 
 And I'm going, going, going, going; 
 
 Who bids who bids for me, 
 For I'm going, going, going, going ; 
 
 Who bids who bids for me. 
 
 Though some may deem me pert or so, 
 
 They deal in idle strife ; 
 For where's the girl, I'd like to know, 
 
 Would not become a wife ?
 
 238 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 Indeed, I really think I should, 
 
 In spite of all alarms ; 
 So, bachelors, pray be so good 
 
 As just take rne to your arms. 
 For I'm going, etc. 
 
 Now, bachelors, my way towards you 
 
 Should not your thoughts mislead ; 
 I've never yet been called a flirt, 
 
 Nor coquette, no, indeed. 
 My heart and hand I offer fair, 
 
 And, if you buy the lot, 
 I vow all Caudling I will spare, 
 
 When Hymen ties the knot. 
 For I'm going, etc. 
 
 GYPSY JANE. 
 
 I'm a merry gypsy maid, 
 
 From my tent in yonder glade ; 
 Selling ballads is my trade, 
 
 Fortunes, too, I tell. 
 For village maids I've comfort bland, 
 
 Of sweethearts who complain ; 
 You've only got to cross the hand 
 
 Of little Gypsy Jane. 
 Tra, la, la, etc. 
 
 With the lark I greet the morn, 
 
 When the dew is on the rye ; 
 With the milkmaid 'neath the thorn, 
 
 Stealthily am I. 
 For her I've tales of house and land, 
 
 Of husbands rich to gain ; 
 She only has to cross the hand 
 
 Of little Gypsy Jane. 
 Tra, la, la, etc.
 
 OLD FOLKS' SOXGS. 289 
 
 " ONLY WAITING." 
 
 Only waiting till the shadows 
 
 Are a little longer grown ; 
 Only waiting till the glimmer 
 
 Of the day's last beam is flown ; 
 Till the night of earth is faded 
 
 From the heart once full of day ; 
 Till the stars of heaven are breaking 
 
 Through the twilight soft and gray. 
 
 Only waiting till the angels 
 
 Open wide the mystic gate, 
 At whose portals I have lingered, 
 
 Weary, poor, and desolate ; 
 Even now I hear their footsteps, 
 
 And their voices far away ; 
 If they call me I am waiting, 
 
 Only waiting to obey. 
 
 Only waiting till the shadows 
 
 Are a little longer grown ; 
 Only waiting till the glimmer 
 
 Of the day's last beam is flown ; 
 Then, far out the gathering darkness 
 
 Holy, deathless stars shall rise, 
 By whose light my soul shall gladly 
 
 Wing its passage to the skies. 
 
 BIED OF BEAUTY. 
 
 Bird of beauty, whose bright plumage 
 Sparkles with a thousand dyes, 
 
 Soft thy notes and gay thy carol, 
 Though stern Winter rules the skies ; 
 
 Soft thy notes and gay thy carol, 
 Though stern Winter rules the skies. 
 La, la, la, etc.
 
 240 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 Cotn'st thou to mean the silence 
 Of my snow-clad home to cheer, 
 
 Dost thou bear a message to me 
 From the friends beloved and dear ? 
 
 Dost thou bear a message to me 
 From the friends beloved and dear P 
 La, la, la, etc. 
 
 Where the southern roses blossom, 
 By the prairie's spreading plain, 
 
 I have listened to thy warbling, 
 Charmed by the magic strain ; 
 
 I have listened to thy warblings, 
 Charmed by the magic strain. 
 
 Welcome, for a leaf, sweet wanderer, 
 Thou hast plucked and borne to me, 
 
 Bearing words of joy and gladness, 
 Mingled with sweet melody ; 
 
 Bearing words of joy and gladness, 
 Mingled with sweet melody. 
 * La, la, la, etc. 
 
 THE COLD-WATER MAN. 
 
 It was an honest fisherman, 
 I knew him passing well, 
 
 And he lived by a little pond 
 Within a little dell. 
 
 A grave and quiet man was he, 
 Who loved his hook and rod ; 
 
 So even ran his line of life 
 His neighboi's thought it odd. 
 
 For science and for books, he said, 
 
 He never had a wish ; 
 No school to him was worth a fig, 
 
 Except a school of fisb.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' soxas. 241 
 
 He ne'er aspired to rank or wealth, 
 
 Nor eared about a name, 
 For though much famed for fish was he, 
 
 He never fished for fame. 
 
 Let others bend their necks at sight 
 
 Of fashion's gilded wheels, 
 He ne'er had learned the art to bob 
 
 For anything but eels ! 
 A cunning fisherman was he, 
 
 His angles all were right ; 
 The smallest nibble at his bait 
 
 Was sure to prove a bite ! 
 
 All day this fisherman would sit 
 
 Upon an ancient log, 
 And gaze into the water, like 
 
 Some sedentary frog ; 
 With all the seeming innocence 
 
 And that unconscious look 
 That other people often wear 
 
 When they intend to hook. 
 
 To charm the fish he never spoke, 
 
 Although his voice was fine, 
 He found the most convenient way 
 
 Was just to drop a line ; 
 And many a gudgeon of the pond, 
 
 If they could speak to-day, 
 Would own with grief this angler had 
 
 A mighty taking way. 
 
 Alas, one day this fisherman 
 
 Had taken too much grog, 
 And being but a landsman, too, 
 
 He couldn't keep the log ; 
 'Twas all in vain, with might and main, 
 
 He strove to reach the shore, 
 Down, down he went, to feed the fish - 
 
 He'd baited oft before. 
 16
 
 242 FATHER KI;MP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 The jury gave their verdict that 
 
 'Twas nothing else but gin 
 Had caused the fisherman to be 
 
 So sadly taken in ; 
 Though one stood out upon a whim, 
 
 And said the angler's slaughter, 
 To be exact about the fact, 
 
 Was clearly gin and water. 
 
 The moral of this mournful tale 
 To all is plain and clear, 
 
 That drinking habits bring a man- 
 Too often to his bier. 
 
 And he who scorns to take the pledge, 
 And keep the promise fast, 
 
 May be, in spite of fate, a stiff 
 Cold water man at last. 
 
 THE OLD CHURCH BELL. 
 
 For full five hundred years I've swung 
 
 In my old gray turret high, 
 And many a different theme I've sung, 
 
 As the time went stealing by. 
 I've pealed the chant of a wedding morn, 
 
 Ere night, I've sadly tolled, 
 To say that the bride was coming love-lorn, 
 
 To sleep in the churchyard mould ; 
 Ding dong, my ceaseless song, 
 Merry and sad, but never long. 
 
 For full five hundi'ed years I've swung 
 
 In my ancient turret high, 
 And many a different theme I've sung 
 
 As the time went stealing by. 
 I've swelled the joy of a country's pride, 
 
 For a victory far off won ;
 
 TJIE OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 243 
 
 Then changed to grief for the brave that died, 
 Ere my mirth had well begun. 
 Ding dong, my ceaseless song, 
 Merry and sad, but never long. 
 
 For full five hundred years I've swung 
 
 In my crumbling turret high ; 
 'Tis time my own death-song were sung, 
 
 And with truth before I die. 
 I never could love the theme they gave 
 
 My tyrannized tongue to tell ; 
 One moment for cradle, the next for gnive, 
 
 They have worn out the old church bell. 
 Ding dong, my changeful song, 
 Farewell now and farewell long. 
 
 PLYMOUTH ROCK. 
 
 'Mid the darkness and gloom of bigotry's night, 
 When terror and sadness and death were in sight, 
 A bright gleam was seen o'er the ocean's dark wave, 
 And the Pilgrims embarked for the land of the brave ; 
 
 For the old rock at Plymouth, 
 
 New England's loved spot, 
 
 Which was washed by the billows, 
 
 The old Plymouth Rock. 
 
 The wild tempest raged, 
 
 'Mid the lightning's red glare, 
 And the roar of the thunder 
 
 Heard awfully there ; 
 The rain fell in torrents, 
 
 And boisterous the wave, 
 But hope was still firm 
 
 In the hearts of the brave, 
 As the old rock at Plymouth, 
 New England's loved spot, etc.
 
 244 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD 1?OLKS. 
 
 But hushed was the thunder, 
 
 The angry waves calmed, 
 The forked lightning ceased, 
 
 And with it the storm ; 
 A silver light gleamed 
 
 O'er the dark rolling wave, 
 And the laud hove in sight, 
 
 'Twas the laud of the brave. 
 'Twas the old rock at Plymouth, etc. 
 
 They all landed safe 
 
 Qn New England's loved spot, 
 That rock of the Pilgrims, 
 
 The old Plymouth Rock. 
 When danger was o'er, 
 
 On the dark mountain wave, 
 Thanksgivings were offered 
 
 By the hearts of the brave. 
 On the old rock at Plymouth, etc. 
 
 AT NIGHT'S LONE HOUR I DREAM OF HOME. 
 
 There was a place in childhood, 
 
 That still seems dear to me, 
 Where oft I've lain in sweet repose, 
 
 Beneath the shady tree. 
 'Twas then, in childhood's happy hours, 
 
 I've sported blithe and gay, 
 And plucked the choicest of the flowers 
 
 That in my pathway lay. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Blow, blow ye gentle winds, 
 
 Wherever I may roam, 
 No spot on earth I love so well 
 
 As my own dear native home.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 245 
 
 How lovely are the vales between 
 
 The fair and distant hills ! 
 All decked in nature's robes of green, 
 
 And sparkling are the rills. 
 How dear, how sweet, those notes to me ! 
 
 The sky, how bi-ight above ! 
 At night's lone hour I dream of thee, 
 
 My own dear home I love. 
 
 Blow, blow, ye gentle winds, etc. 
 
 KING THE BELL SOFTLY. 
 
 Some one has gone from this strange world of ours, 
 No more to gather its thorns with its flowers, 
 No more to linger where sunbeams must fade, 
 Where on all beauty death's fingers are laid. 
 Weary with mingling life's bitter and sweet, 
 Weary with parting and never to meet, 
 Some one has gone to the bright golden shore ; 
 Ring the bell softly, there's crape on the door. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Weary with mingling life's bitter and sweet, 
 Weary with parting and never to meet, 
 Some one has gone to the bright golden shore ; 
 Ring the bell softly, there's crape on the door. 
 
 Some one is resting from sorrow and sin, 
 
 Happy when earth's conflicts enter not in ; 
 
 Joyous as birds, when the morning is bright, 
 
 When the sweet sunbeams have brought us their light ; 
 
 Weary with sowing and never to reap, 
 
 Weaiy with labor and welcoming sleep, 
 
 Some one's departed to Heaven's glad shore ; 
 
 Ring the bell softly, there's crape on the door. 
 
 Weary with mingling life's bitter and sweet, etc.
 
 246 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 Angels are anxiously longing to meet 
 One who walks with them in Heaven's bright street ; 
 Loved ones have whispered that some one is blest, 
 Free from earth's trials, and taking sweet rest. 
 Yes ! there is one more in angelic bliss, 
 One less to church, and one less to kiss, 
 One more departed to Heaven's bright shore ; 
 Ring the bell softly, there's crape on the door. 
 
 Weary with mingling life's bitter and sweet, etc. 
 
 SING ME THE SONG YOU USED TO SING. 
 
 MUSIC BY LESLIE. 
 Published by permission of G. D. Russell & Co. 
 
 Sing me the song you used to sing 
 
 In days when I was young ; 
 'Twill sound more sweetly now to me 
 
 Than all that you have sung ; 
 'Twill call me back to days of joy, 
 
 To happy scenes of yore, 
 When I was but a simple child, 
 When I was but a simple child, 
 
 Upon life's pleasant shore. 
 
 Oh, let the sweet, sweet strains be heard, 
 
 The welcome notes prolong, 
 And happy feelings will be moved 
 
 To echo to thy song. 
 Oh, let the music gently fall 
 
 Upon my waiting ear, 
 And memories will hasten back, 
 And memories will hasten back, 
 
 The sweet refrain to hear.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 247 
 
 'Twill bring to mind my childhood's friends, 
 
 Companions on life's shore ; 
 And memories of gentle ones, 
 
 Who walk earth's path no more. 
 Then let the echo of thy song, 
 
 Come back from far-off land, 
 Like angel voices calling us, 
 Like angel voices calling us, 
 
 To join their happy band. 
 
 HER HEART IS ALL MY OWN. 
 
 Published by permission of G. D. Russell & Co. 
 
 I wandered where the roses red 
 A.sweet and lasting perfume shed ; 
 Where lay the violets peeping through 
 The green grass, with their eyes of blue, 
 While over all, the birds of spring 
 Were softly, sweetly carolling ; 
 Their music fell upon my ear, 
 And warmed my heart with precious cheer. 
 Tra, la, la, etc. 
 
 But redder than the rose's hue, 
 Move azure than the violet's blue, 
 Were cheeks and eyes of one I loved, 
 Who through the valley with rne roved. 
 And sweeter than the robin's song, 
 Her warbling as we passed along, 
 This little maiden by my side, 
 Who smiled the words her lips denied. 
 Tra, la, la, etc. 
 
 As down life's valley, hand in hand, 
 We go to reach life's final strand, 
 Where death's deep ocean gathers up 
 The joys and sorrows of earth's cup,
 
 248 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 Her smile shall every pleasure bless, 
 Her voice will sing our happiness, 
 And though her smiles shall speak alone, 
 I know her heart is all my own. 
 Tra, la, la, etc. 
 
 OFT IN THE STILLY NIGHT. 
 
 Oft in the stilly night, 
 When slumber's chain hath bound me, 
 
 Fond memory brings the light 
 Of other days around me ; 
 The smiles, the tears of boyhood years, 
 
 The words of love then spoken, 
 The eyes that shone now dimmed and gone, 
 The cheerful hearts now broken ! 
 
 Thus in the stilly night, 
 Ere slumber's chain has bound me, 
 
 Sad memory brings the light 
 Of other days around me. 
 
 When I remember all 
 The friends so linked together, 
 
 I've seen around me fall 
 Like leaves in winter weather, 
 I feel like one who treads alone 
 
 Some banquet hall deserted, 
 Whose lights are fled, whose garlands dead, 
 And all but me departed. 
 Thus in the stilly night, 
 Ere slumber's chain has bound me, 
 
 Sad memory brings the light 
 Of other days around me.
 
 TUB OLD FOLKS' SONGS. 249 
 
 WILL YOU COME TO MEET ME, DARLING? 
 
 When my feet have grown too weary 
 
 Farther on to press their way, 
 When rny spirit waits the bidding 
 
 To be severed from its clay, 
 I shall need some hand to guide me 
 
 O'er the dark and flowing tide : 
 Will you come to meet me, darling, 
 
 When I reach the river side ? 
 
 I am here to meet you, darling, % 
 
 I am here to guide you home. 
 
 Will you leave your home of glory, 
 
 In the mansions bright above, 
 And on angel wings float near me, 
 
 Near my heart you used to love ? 
 And all through the darkened valley 
 
 Shall I find you by my side ? 
 Will you come to meet me, darling, 
 
 Will you be my angel guide ? 
 
 I am here to meet you, darling, 
 I am here to guide you home. 
 
 Oh ! I know the love between us 
 
 Death can never take away ; 
 Dearer, brighter, still it groweth, 
 
 Near the closing of the day. 
 Hark ! I hear the heavenly music, 
 
 And an angel whispers, " Come ! 
 I am here to meet you, darling, 
 
 I am here to guide you home." 
 
 I am here to meet you, darling, 
 I am here to guide you home.
 
 250 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 OH, SAY NOT WOMAN'S HEART IS BOUGHT. 
 
 Oh, say not woman's love is bought 
 
 With vain and empty treasure ! 
 Oh, say not woman's heart is caught 
 
 By every idle pleasure ! 
 When first her gentle bosom knows love's flame, 
 
 It wanders never ; 
 
 Deep in her heart the passion. glows, 
 Deep in her heart the passion glows, 
 
 She loves and loves forever ! 
 
 
 
 Oh, say not woman's false as fair, 
 
 That like the bee she ranges, 
 Still seeking flowers more sweet and fair, 
 
 As fickle fancy changes ! 
 Ah, no ! the love that first can warm 
 
 Will leave her bosom never ! 
 No second passion e'er can charm, 
 No second passion e'er can charm, 
 
 She loves and loves forever ! 
 
 ON ROSY WINGS. 
 
 Afraid for me ? 
 
 Secure and ready are my defences ! 
 In this dark hour of night I hover round tlicc, 
 Near approaching, unknown to thee, love ! 
 Ye moaning breezes, around nie playing, 
 
 In pity aid me, in pity aid me. 
 My sigh to him conveying ! 
 
 On rosy wings of love depart, 
 Bearing my heart's sad wailing, 
 
 Visit the prisoner's lonely cell, 
 Console his spirit failing ;
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' soxas. 251 
 
 Let hope's soft whispers 
 
 Wreathing arouud him, 
 Comfort breathing. 
 
 Recall to his fond remembrance 
 
 Sweet visions of our love ; 
 But let no accent reveal to him 
 
 The sorrows, the sorrows, the griefs 
 My heart doth prove. 
 
 Let no accent reveal to him 
 The trials I now prove, 
 
 The sorrows, the sorrows 
 I prove. 
 
 WHEN YOU AND I WERE YOUNG. 
 
 I love to dream of olden days, 
 
 When you and I were young, 
 When happily life's golden rays 
 
 Above our pathway hung ; 
 And though the present brings its joy, 
 
 To gild the passing hours, 
 I dream of days without alloy 
 
 Of spring-time and its flowers, 
 I live again those golden days, 
 
 When you and I were young. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Those golden days, those golden days, 
 When you and I were young ! 
 
 I love to think of those bright hours, 
 Though happy days come now ; 
 
 'Tis well to prize the faded flowers 
 That bloomed on youth's fair brow ; 
 
 How bright the future then appeared ! 
 How sweetly birds then sung,
 
 252 FATHER KEMP AND HIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 When loving fi'iencls our pathway cheered, 
 When you and I were young ! 
 
 I live again those golden days 
 When you and I were young ! 
 
 Those golden days, etc. 
 
 The loved companions of those days 
 
 Have left us, one by one, 
 And some have trod the golden ways 
 
 To realms beyond the sun ; 
 Yet when death's hand shall bring to view 
 
 The scenes that hope has sung, 
 Oh ! may we meet the friends we knew 
 
 When you and I were young ! 
 I live again those golden days, 
 
 When you and I were young. 
 
 Those golden days, etc. 
 
 HUNTING TOWER ; OR, WHEN YE GANG 
 AWA, JAMIE. 
 
 When ye gang awa, Jamie, 
 Far across the sea, laddie, 
 When ye gang to Germanic, 
 What will ye send to me, laddie ? 
 
 I'll send ye a braw new gown, Jeanie, 
 The brawest in the town, lassie, 
 And it shall be o' silk, and gown 
 Wi' Valenciennes set round, lassie. 
 
 That's nae gift ava, Jamie, 
 Silk and gowd and a 1 , laddie, 
 There's ne'er a gown in a' the land 
 I'd like, when ye're awa, laddie.
 
 THE OLD FOLKS' SONQS. 268 
 
 When I come back again, Jeanie, 
 Frae a foreign land, lassie, 
 I'll bring wi' me a gallant gay, 
 To be your ain gude man, lassie. 
 
 Be my gude man, yoursel, Jamie, 
 Marry me yoursel, laddie, 
 And tak me ower to Germanic, 
 Wi' you at hame to dwell, laddie. 
 
 " I dinna ken how that wad do, Jeanie, 
 I dinna ken how that can be, lassie, 
 For I've a wife and bairns three, 
 And I'm no sure how ye'd agree, lassie." 
 
 THE AMERICAN HYMN. 
 
 Published by permission of M. Keller. 
 
 Speed our Republic, O Father on high, 
 Lead us in pathways of justice and right ; 
 
 Rulers as well as the ruled, one and all, 
 Girdle with virtue the armor of might ! 
 
 Hail ! three times hail, to our country and flag ! 
 
 CHOKUS. 
 
 Rulers as well as the ruled, one and all, 
 Girdle with virtue the armor of might ! 
 Hail ! three times hail, to our country and flag ! 
 
 Foremost in battle for Freedom to stand, 
 We rush to arms when aroused by its call ; 
 
 Still as of yore, when George Washington led, 
 Thunders our war cry, We conquer or fall ! 
 
 Hail ! three times hail, to our country and flag !
 
 254 FATHER KEMP AND BIS OLD FOLKS. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Still as of yore, when George Washington led, 
 Thunders our war cry, We conquer or fall ! 
 Hail ! three times hail, to our country and flag f 
 
 Faithful and honest to friend and to foe, 
 
 Willing to die in humanity's cause, 
 Thus we defy all tyrannical power, 
 
 While we contend for our Union and laws ! 
 Hail ! three times hail, to our country and flag ! 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Thus we defy all tyrannical power, 
 While we contend for our Union and laws ! 
 Hail !. three times hail, to our country and flag ! 
 
 Rise up, proud eagle ! rise up to the clouds, 
 Spread thy broad wings o'er this fair Western world ! 
 
 Fling from thy beak our dear banner of old, 
 Show that it still is for freedom unfurled ! 
 
 Hail ! three times hail, to our country and flag ! 
 
 CHOKUS. 
 
 Fling from thy beak our dear banner of old, 
 Show that it still is for freedom unfurled ! 
 Hail ! three times hail, to our country and flag !
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Form L9-32m-8,'58(5876s4)444
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACI1 ITY 
 
 A A 000020894 
 
 ML 
 
 422 
 
 K32f 
 
 OUT-OF-PRINT-BOOKS 
 
 SEARCHED FOR, AND SUPPLIED BY 
 SEVEN BOOKHUNTERS 
 
 OLD CHELSEA STATION, BOX 22.