Notes and Remarks [excerpt]

     No Catholic needs to be informed that the hymn sung at President McKinley’s funeral was written by Cardinal Newman; but it is not so well known that another hymn, “Come to Jesus,” which was also a favorite with the late President, was written by Father Faber. According to the testimony of one of his friends, Mr. McKinley knew this hymn by heart, and was often heard humming it through when alone in his library. The London Tablet calls attention to yet another interesting circumstance. “When the band of a French man-of-war played the ‘Marseillaise’ out of respect to the passing of President McKinley’s coffin, few people, perhaps, knew or remembered that they were hearing church music. Yet such was the case. Not so very long ago the manuscript of L’Esther, an oratorio composed by a choir-master of the Cathedral of St. Omer in the seventeenth century, was found to contain, note for note, the music of the national air.”