U3uliy gbemawa JBmerican
VOL. 13 OCTOBER 21, 1910 NO.
"Home, Sweet Home"
That the words of "Home, Sweet
Hoine" were written by "an exile from
home" is easily inferred. John Howard
Payne was in Paris struggling with
disappointments and failures in his
efforts to establish himself as a play
wright translator of plays. In Scribners
for October is begun a series of letters
between Payne and Washington Irving
written at this period and showing
Payne's condition and sorrowful moods.
The letters were discovered in a box of
papers unearthed by the consul at Tunis
at the request of a niece of Payne. They
had been left over as a valueless after
the sale of Payne's effects there. Payne's
letter-books, later secured by his grand
nephew, who edits these letters, give his
side of the correspondence.
Mention is made of "Clari, ' the opera
in which "Home, Sweet Home" appears,
and Irving congratulates his friend on
the success. Sir Heniy Bishop made
the music while Payne was under con
tract to supply plays for Covent
Garden. The music of the song is an
old folk song, arranged by Bishop at
Payne's request,, when an extra song
was needed in one of the scenes. These
15
words, written by the struggling and
lonely man out of his own "Heimweh,"
are probably more generally known to
those who love the English tongue than
any words outside the Bible and this
is more than can be said of any of Irving's
writings.
This letter of Payne's explains itself:
My Dear Irving If I could convey to
you an idea of the pleasure it gave me
to find you still remembered there was
such a being, it would I am sure, be
some recompense for the trouble of
which I have unknowingly been the
cause I am so isolated, and my feelings
are become so distempered by annoy
ance, that these electrical thrills of early
and national association, are at times the
only things that can revive the con
sciousness that I belong to a world and
have my friends and my relations and
my country like other people. I am
unused to any sudden touch of joy and
it o'er comes me."
The letters from Irving also gave
glimpses of what Payne's moods were at
this period, and how his friend strove to
keep him in good heart. Payne had
won a great success as an actor in Amer
ica. But his popularity waned as he
(Continued 6u page 8.)