PREFACE.

     In offering my first little production to the public, I am well aware that many superstitious, prejudiced, and perhaps many good, conscientious well-meaning christians will have serious objections to the "Airs" to which my poetry is set. My object in my selection of tunes, is to kill the degrading influence of those comic Negro Songs, which are too common among our people, and change the flow of those sweet melodies into more appropriate and useful channels; and I charitably hope that my good intentions may easily be seen, and duly appreciated; and that my little book may find its way and lodging place in every house and family in the land of the free and the home of the brave.