Six Acres of Irishmen
After Bliss published "Hold the Fort" in sheet music, he brought it out as one of the numbers in Gospel Songs, which he published in 1874.[52] Meanwhile, in 1873, Sankey had taken it abroad when he and Moody carried the gospel to the mother country with perhaps little to go on other than faith, hope, and charity. Edgar J. Goodspeed states that they went to London upon the invitation of three English sponsors, two of whom died before the evangelists reached their destination.[53] On the other hand, The New York Times reports that "Moody and Sankey were sent to England by Mr. Barnum as a . . . speculation."[54] In any case, their revivalistic sweep through England, Scotland, and Ireland, lasting into the summer of 1875, is famous in the annals of evangelism. Indeed, it has been said that they were "the instruments in a religious awakening comparable only to that under the preaching of Wesley and Whitefield."[55] In 1875, in London alone, according to one report, they held 285 meetings that were attended "by fully 2,500,000 people," but perhaps 1,500,000 Londoners is a better estimate, for Bernard A. Weisberger says that "the attendance figures were not exactly marvels of statistical accuracy."[56]
Wherever they went, whether to Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast, or London, "Hold the Fort" was immensely popular. A Glasgow commentator, seeking to explain the popularity of "Hold the Fort" and of other songs in Sankey's repertory, said of Sankey's music that only
a small portion of it has any claim to originality. Much of it is so Scottish and Irish in its construction that to our people familiar with such music, it is sometimes difficult to realize that what we hear is sacred song. Usually short turns and strains remind us irresistibly of something we know, but cannot recall. In some of the melodies the effect is more marked. Who does not feel the sweetness of Irish melody in "Sweet by-and-by" . . . and the thorough Scottish ring in such songs as "Hold the Fort," "Sweet Hour of Prayer" . . . and many others. It takes us by surprise to hear gospel truth wafted in the strains of our national music; but is it not possible that this may be the true though unexpected reason why these simple songs have found such a direct and wonderful entrance to the Scottish heart?[57]
The same critic observed that Sankey used his organ or harmonium "as a mere accessory" and sometimes completely drowned it out with his voice,[58] which a friend once described as "a high baritone of exceptional volume, purity and sympathy."[59] To Edgar Johnson Goodspeed, however, David's harp itself was "the prototype" of Sankey's harmonium.[60]
