Wherever he has gone he has reached the popular heart.

Here in the United States he has quickened the pulse beats of four generations.

But this master creator of a country's only native songs has invariably here at home been apologized for as a sort of 'cornfield musician,' a mere banjo strummer, a hanger-on at barrooms where minstrel quartets rendered his songs and sent the hat round.

The reflection will react upon his country; it will not detract from the real Foster when the constructive critic appears to write his brief and unfortunate life.

I am not contending that he was a genius of the highest rank, although he had the distinction that great genius nearly always achieves, of creating a school that produced many imitators and established a place apart for itself in the world's estimation.