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COLUMBIA, THE GEM OF THE OCEAN.

O Columbia! the gem of the ocean,
The home of the brave and the free;
The shrine of each patriot's devotion,
A world offers homage to thee.

Thy mandates make heroes assemble
When Liberty's form stands in view,
Thy banners make tyranny tremble
When borne by the red, white, and blue,
When borne by the red, white, and blue,
When borne by the red, white, and blue,
Thy banners make tyranny tremble
When borne by the red, white, and blue.

When war winged its wide desolation,
And threaten'd the land to deform;
The ark then of Freedom's foundation,
Columbia, rode safe through the storm:
With her garlands of vict'ry around her,
When so proudly she bore her brave crew,
With her flag proudly floating before her,
The boast of the red, white, and blue,

The boast of the red, white, and blue,

The boast of the red, white, and blue,

With her flag proudly floating before her,

The boast of the red, white, and blue.

7

7

1845

The winecup, the winecup bring hither,
And fill you it true to the brim;

May the wreaths they have won never wither
Nor the star of their glory grow dim.

May the service united ne'er sever,

But they to their colors prove true,
The Army and Navy forever,
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue,
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue,
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue,
The Army and Navy forever,

Three cheers for the red, white, and blue.

Thomas à Becket.

This splendid song, as popular, perhaps, as any of America's patriotic hymns, was written in 1843 by a young actor named Thomas à Becket. He was engaged at that time at the Chestnut Street Theater, in Philadelphia. He was waited upon by a Mr. D. T. Shaw, an acquaintance, who was also an actor, with the request that he would write him a song for his benefit night. Mr. Shaw had been trying to write one for himself, but had made a sad failure of it. He produced some patriotic lines, and asked Mr. À Becket's opinion on them; he found them ungrammatical and so deficient in measure as to be totally unfit to be set to music. They went to the house of a mutual friend, and there À Becket wrote the two first verses in pencil, and sitting

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