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THE SONGS OF HENRY RUSSELL 133
" To the West! " was another well-known song of Henry Russell's, but the two most popular of all his songs were "There's a good time coming, boys" and "Cheer, boys, cheer!" Once when he was singing "There's a good time coming, boys" at a concert in aid of the potters at Hanley, Staffs, a man in the gallery rose and shouted, " Muster Russell, can you fix the toime ?"—a question rather upsetting to the singer's gravity. It is said that over 400,000 copies of this song have been sold.
It had a tremendous vogue, so much so that it was even pressed into service as a hymn, and was actually used, with the alteration of the word "boys" into "yet," in George Dawson's Chapel in Birmingham, where every Sunday the following words were bawled out lustily by the congregation :—
There's a good time coming yet,
A good time coming ; We may not live to see the day, But earth shall glisten in the ray
Of the good time coming.
"Cheer, boys, cheer" was even more popular still. It was once spoken of by a writer in the Daily Telegraph as an "anthem of optimism," and the description will serve well enough. It is said to have been sung by the soldiers when embarking for the Crimea, when the effect of |
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