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74 Youth's Golden Gleam
effort, at the Grand Gala Concert, Saturday evening, September n, 1847, the "Last Night of the Vocalists." The program, as announced in the Daily Commercial Journal^ included these numbers:
The Old Iron City—Prize Song Away down Souf Allegheny Belle
SUSANNA—A new song never before given to the public.
Who it was that escorted Susanna from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh for her casual debut in an ice-cream saloon we can only guess. It may have been M. J. Tichenor, whose name blossomed forth in the caption title of the song when W. C. Peters published it a year later under the heading c Songs of the Sable Harmonists."15 Tichenor was with the Sable Harmonists at the Melodeon in Cincinnati at two separate engagements in the preceding spring. When the Harmonists left for Pittsburgh in the middle of April,16 Tichenor may have taken a copy of the song with him, in accordance with Stephen's letter to Mr. Millet.17
Another of the "several persons" to whom Stephen wrote that he gave manuscript copies of 'Oh! Susanna" may have been Joseph Murphy, also of the Sable Harmonists. Along with "Lou'siana Belle," Murphy may have had "Oh! Susanna" when he journeyed to Pittsburgh after the Cincinnati engagement. This becomes especially plausible when we |
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