Page:Hold the Fort! (Scheips 1971) low resolution.pdf/32

26 singing Bliss's song. He also contributed several rather unflattering drawings of Moody and Sankey themselves. In one piece Cumming claimed that he heard "the enterprising gamins of the gutter" sing a new version of "Hold the Fort" around the tabernacle every night, and Haskell sketched a gamin so engaged. This latest version, according to Cumming, was:

As the reporter entered the tabernacle one Sunday, according to a Haskell sketch, Dr. Eben Tourjée, the choirmaster, requested "the entire audience to sing 'Hold the Fort for I.A.M. Cumming. Some there were, of course, who were unamused by Cumming and Haskell. One writer, referring to "Hold the Forks," declared that Cumming was "a particularly vicious writer," some of whose "columns were as bitter as a man could write." Another referred to "the sensational and even impious attacks of the enemies of evangelical truth, who treat the revivalists and their labors as objects for caricature and derision." A recent writer finds that Cumming's satires "are funny," although "somewhat unfair."

In 1877 a gift edition of Bliss's song came out as a small book under the title Hold the Fort and inscribed to General W. T. Sherman. On the cover is a gilt angel carrying in one hand a waving banner bearing the title and in the other a crown; the background shows a branch from the tree of life with a serpent intertwined. The book itself consists of the words and music of the song, embellished with many illustrations. The same year a Swedish version, a free translation of "Hold the Fort," came out in Chicago under the title "Hållen Fästet." It begins, "Upp! kamrater, se banaret Fladdrande framgår!" and the chorus runs: Hållen fästet, tills jag kommer,' Jesus manar än: 'Herre, med din nåd wi wilja,' Swarom Frälsaren."

"Hållen Fästet" should not be confused with the song "Hold Fast Till I Come," whose chorus runs: