THE TUNE.
The composer of the music for the “Jewel Hymn"* was George F. Root, then living in Reading, Mass.
* Comparison of the “Jewel Hymn” tune with the old glee of “Johnny Schmoker” gives color to the assertion that Mr. Root caught up and adapted a popular ditty for his Christian melody—as was so often done in Wales, and in the Lutheran and Wesleyan reformations. He baptized the comic fugue, and promoted it from the vaudeville stage to the Sunday School.
A minister returning from Europe on an English steamer visited the steerage, and after some friendly talk proposed a singing service—it something could be started that “everybody” knew—for there were hundreds of emigrants there from nearly every part of Europe.
“It will have to be an American tune, then,” said the steerage-master; “try ‘His jewels.’”
The minister struck out at once with the melody and words,—
When He cometh, when He cometh,
—and scores of the poor half-fare multitude joined voices with him. Many probably recognized the music of the old glee, and some had heard the sweet air played in the church-steeples at home. Other voices chimed in, male and female, catching the air, and sometimes the words—they were so easy and so many times repeated—and the volume of 366 / 316 song increased, till the singing minister stood in the midst of an international concert, the most novel that he ever led.
He tried other songs in similar visits during the rest of the voyage with some success, but the “Jewel Hymn” was the favorite; and by the time port was in sight the whole crowd of emigrants had it by heart.