Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1861-02-07

should have seen him in his glory, especially in
the full tide of one of the "luguing tunes"
His forces marshacd on each side of him. he
would bend his little finger, now this way, now
that way, throwing his voice into the bass and
into the treble alternately, as If rolling vol
umc Of song on each side out Of his own mex
haustible nature. 1t seemed, sometimes, as if
all the other voices were touched of by his,
like row of gas lights breaking out in long
lines of splendor by the touch of single fam
beau. Especially when they sang, as they very
often did, the l22d Psalm, proper metre,
"How pleased and blest was J.
To hear the people cry'
you should have Witnessed the strophes and
the anti-strophes, sometimes in Jets and jerks,
sometimes in billows, which the bass rolled
forth and the treble rolled back again. and then
the three living sides of the quadrangle would
all take up anew and bring down in one tre-
mendous crash of harmony,-Peter Belts, as
the central figure swaying with the inspiration,
riding on the whirlwind and directing the storm.
"'Twere worth ten years of peaceful life,
One glance ut their array"
On the left the chorister were the picked young
men, the flower of the Oxford farms on his
right the girls, in neat white dresses, and in
long continuous rows, beginning away at the
south side of the church and extending to the
north, and then making right angle and COM
ing up snug to the right shoulder of Peter Bet
tis,-all ruddy and smiling as the roses of June.
Without much abuse of metaphor, YOU might
call these two quadrangIlar sides the two wings
on which Peter Belts scared into tn, empyrean
of the celestial symphonies.
The choir was a unit, and the Oxford parish
was in its palmlest prosperity. l am compelled,
however, as an impartial historian, to record
the fact that even now there was small speck
! in the horizon. There were two other choris-
tcrs-Tmothy Case and Jesse O. Whitney,
who sat with the bass. Timothy Case never
liked Peter Belts, Notwithstanding Peters
popularity in Oxford and vicinity. Though
Peter Belts would carry by storm the whole
congregation, Timothy Case always stood out
and muttered some sulky criticism upon the
singing. 1t fell to him as the second chorister
to take the lead in Peters Absence when he
would try to outdo his rival, especially in sing
ing treble, by which means he got the name of
"Squeaking Time But he was not without
his influence in the parish, for he married a
cousin of Farmer Scrapewers wife, and some
thought him the better singer of the two. |
cannot pretend to balance the claim of the two
gentlemen.
Such was the state of affairs when the sing
ing school opened. A Mr.. Solomon Hunting
ton. who had taught singing with immense sue
cess in the neighboring town of Grandville,
came to Oxford. "What do we want a singing
school for?" asked several, "when the singing
is as perfect now as it can be" Not so, how
ever, thought the Cases and the Scrapewels.
Not 50 thought the young people who attended
the Grandville concert. Not so thought sever
al who met at the Oxford Mansion house to
hear Mr.. Solomon Huntington sing and play on
, his bass vo lie was a porlly, sociable gen.
tleman, who had seen the world, He had great
compass of voice. and when he played on his
violin, and represented thunder storm, con-
; flngration, the judgment day, the battle Of Ira
falgar, and several other catasrophes, they were
) constrained TO acknowledge that music had not
: reached its grand diapsaon in Peter Belts.
l The school opened in the center school house
. 1t was crammed Peter Belts was there witt
the three vocal sides of his quadrangle. limo
! thy Case was there. The Scrapewells wert
there The elite of the village was there in re
f served seats. All the singers in town cam,
t hither, bells jingling, boys and girls laughing
, and frolicking. After the school got tairl,
n launched and organized, Mr.. Solomon Hunting
- ton had good many criticisms to make. III
t told them that half of them swallowed tn
+ music down their throats without letting
Il come out at all. "Fill your chests and opel
e your mouths, and not squeeze your mouths ~
J. as if you were going to whistle Yankee Doodl
y instead OF singing praises to the Lord thus
e And he would fill his lungs, and open wide hi
h mouth, and pour out a thunderous volume O
II sound and roll it and quaver it and shade
1t into sparkling scintlations, and throw them a
i over the school room like sparks from a smithy
C anvil. Then he would show off the opposit
method by way of contrast and rdicule. ii
/ would compress his lips and chest, and grur
out some cultural sounds, or whine throug
lhnt 0l,,. W.
l. rious developments followed. 1t was soon ev
r dent that there two opinions about opening tn
d mouth. Some kept their mouths shut close
is than ever; these were mostly the older singer
lie Others extended their jaws to a most astonisl
ing capacity | had never noticed but VIII,
IS Peter Bettis opened his mouth sufficiently dul
20 ing his uliShing administration but now yo
x could hardly see the motion of his lips .
S, the other hand the more Peter Belts shut h
a mouth the more Timothy Case and Jesse {
l. Whitney opened theirs. The question was di
d. cussed at parties and sleghrides. Mercy BE
he It's said that when she saw the Scrapewell cir
< sing she could think Of nothing but trap doc
ir She would not open her mouth as if she WI
lie going to swallow the uniyerse-not she.
he the next party Emily Scrapewel in one of Il
,p lawful pauscs' in conversation, accosted Mere
y, Belts on the opposite side of the room, inqui
I'd ed for her health and said she understood tn
OF she had been threatened with the jaw.
was an injudicious remark, though it raised
mt general litter at Mercy's expense. There WI
g division among the singers, however, and
IS could not be helped. Mercy rejoined that 81
h, "would rather die of lockjaw than have her ia
n dislocated in yelping Watts hymns Aft
to the two parties had got thoroughly formed,
r. often amused myself with looking over Il
tic school room during the singing, and among Il
,c- odd iancies that came into my head. | re
nd resented to myself the Oxford singing scho
II, overtaken by some sudden judgment and tur
ks ed into petrifactions, or, like Lots wife, in
no salimctions; some with their mouths wide ope
nd some with their lips screwed together; and
Ter wondered what the geologists would make
he il he dug them up or quarried them out
nd some future age, and whether from this sing
ed fact he could thread back the history of 0
le- singng-schoo and Of its divisions into I
wo trap door and lock jaw party. What would
M make of the preserved fact? Would he n
ne, say that one part was gasping tor BREATH
Ter would he not say they were trying TO eat {
of others? Would he ever suspect the .rutl
1t and hence may we not infer the uncertainty
ne most of these antediuyan speculationsP IN
al however, by the way.
he The singing school had not proceeded far |
BIZ fore it was deemed necessary to effect col
for plete reorganization of the choir in the churt
yer Mr.. Solomon Huntington said it was impos
in ble to sing with the singers strung from one c
ter of the meeting house to the other. They m,