"The cultural vandals, who cannot create but can only destroy, scent another victory."

Stephen Foster, before his descent into poverty, portrayed with much southern iconography by William Sharp

Mark Steyn has chosen as his song of the week Beautiful Dreamer by Stephen Foster. Nark gives us an historical account of Foster's life and songs written by him. However, Mark also tells us this:

On this Columbus Day weekend, Christopher Columbus is close to being entirely obliterated from American life, and the barbarians have galloped on to newer targets for their rage. I mentioned yesterday how sad I was to see that in his home town a memorial to America's first great songwriter is to be dismantled and removed. Stephen Foster's songs were uniquely popular on both sides of the Civil War, but he seems less likely to survive the cold Civil War of 21st century America. And so the cultural vandals, who cannot create but can only destroy, scent another victory.

Read the whole thing here.