I was looking a long while for the history of the past for myself, and for these Chants—and now I have found it,

It is not in those paged fables in the libraries, (them I neither accept nor reject,)

It is no more in the legends than in all else,

It is in the present—it is this earth to-day,

It is in Democracy—in this America—the old world also,

It is the life of one man or one woman to-day, the average man of to-day;

It is languages, social customs, literatures, arts,

It is the broad show of artificial things, ships, machinery, politics, creeds, modern improvements, and the interchanges of nations,

All for the average man of to-day.

1. American mouth-songs!

Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong,

The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam,