The memoirs of Will H. Hays (1955)

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WABASH COLLEGE, 1896-I9OO 41 ye, livin' in this counthry is like thryin' to read th' Lives iv the Saints at a meetin' iv th' Clanna-Gael." Looking at America, Mr. Dooley saw the "crownin' wurruk iv our civilization— th' cash raygister." As a fellow commentator put it: "Most useful of all, Mr. Dooley supplied the softening solvent of humor to the American atmosphere in times of acute controversy." We need such men! Mr. Dooley was so popular that cartoons were drawn and songs were written about him. The chorus of the best-known song ran like this: Oh, Mister Dooley, Oh, Mister Dooley, The Greatest Man this country ever knew. Both diplomatic and democratic Oh, Mr. Dooley— ooley—ooley—iley— 00. One of our college parodies substituted for the last two lines the profound couplet: He warmed his nightie on anthracitie, Oh Mr. Dooley— ooley—ooley—iley— 00. In another field often taken as a good index of the public mind, the nineties have been called the flowering time of the American drama. The best plays went on the road far and wide. It is recorded of Julia Marlowe that "she burst on the students of Harvard College like each one's personal dream." At the same time minstrel shows were extremely popular, and Uncle Tom's Cabin, with Eliza and the bloodhounds, was still playing across the country. As for music, Mark Sullivan notes four characteristic phenomena. Our indigenous Negro melodies had not yet been jostled by ragtime and other variations. Classical music had been tremendously stimulated by the performances at the World's Fair, and fine symphony orchestras were fast developing. Paul Dresser, the Hoosier composer of "On the Banks of the Wabash," had something of the Stephen Foster spirit. And John Philip Sousa, the "March King," not only wrote the most typical music the country had produced, but with "The Washington Post March" moved America's feet to a new dance beat. The "two-step" swept the country. We were all keen to learn it! All these things contributed to the mood of the nineties. On the domestic side, the nineties still witnessed plenty of independence and many of the home industries that had been so common in pioneer days; but changes were coming steadily, even in the small towns and on the farms. Butchering on individual Indiana farms was fading out as packing houses came in; the burning of wood for fuel was going out as the use of coal increased. But plenty of farmers' wives in Indiana were still almost independent of canneries; preserving was a household rite that followed the seasons,