COLUMBIA, THE GEM OF THE OCEAN. O Columbia! the gem of the ocean, Thy mandates make heroes assemble When war winged its wide desolation, 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, May the wreaths they have won never wither May the service united ne'er sever, But they to their colors prove true, 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 |