The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-12-20
CITY TOPICS.

Great fakes and cinders Of burned grass fell Ia
q shower upon the city yesterday, upon door
ways, sidewalks and roofs, or waited against
people passing along the street, and were dis
solved at the touch. The burning meadows in
the adjacent country regions send rs these re-
minders of themselves annually. From swamp
regions and Businesses where mans foot has
seldom il ever trod these feathery things are up
lifted with the current of smoke and heat high in
air, and then, caught by the winds, are carried of
only to fall slowly but surely again to the bosom
of their mother earth. One glancing at them
casually may be deceived into the belief that some
huge spiders or insects are dsportiDg themselves
in the air about him, and then, at a nearer ap-
proach, he wonders what indeed this ashenhued
substance can be. He touches tit vanishes,
even as does the attrsctiveness of anything in its
realization.
Reader, did you ever see city in the world, or
in the whole course of your travels. which. about
the hours of 2 or O'Clock on Sunday afternoon,
did not seem the most dreary, desoate place on
earth? During the morning, from daylight to
noon, or an hour later even. the church-goers
throng the streets, and the city wide awake.
But oh +! when all these church goers have gone
home TO dinner-when, in short, nine tenths Of
the population are taking their Sunday afternoon
siesta-could there be anything more dreary than
q ramble over the almost deserted psvements, If
you would avoid six days of melancholy, stay at
home about dinner hours on the seventh.
Fully hundred buzzards were wheeling in ma
jestic circles yesterday around the ex-state House
on Dryades street. 1t seemed II they were ready
to settle upon the rotting carcass of Radicalism;
but, after soaring over the building for fifteen or
twenty minutes. they disappeared in the depths
of heaven.
OF all the senses, that of hearing seems to be
the only one which affords q direct road to the
SOUL Beauty of form and coloring we can per-
ceive with the eye, but can enjoy it only to its
full extent with the aid of association. Bot the
beauty Of music is absolute. 1t may be height
ened by the laws of association, but even with
out them ii can produce its greatest effect. To
appreciate beauty Of form and coloring, educa.
ton and knowledge of causes are to q certain
extent necessary. To understand the sweetness
Of harmony the soul of savage is capable, and
the concord of sweet sounds has an influence in
itself that nothing else possesses. How many
are there over whom it seems to possess an
almost magic power? We know Of men whose
fits of passion can be subdued by the strains of
music, even as David exercised with his harp the
evil spirit from Saul. How often do we see men
listening to some exquisite harmony, Their
whole souls seem enwrapped; they live but in
the music; their faces cloud when it becomes
stormy. and smiles fit over their countenances
when it is cheerful. 1t lifts them above them
selves. They are transplanted to another sphere,
and there live q new life. With this soul
subdung and purifying influence, how appropriate
il is that the divine art should be used in the praise
of that God from whom all good and beautiful
things spring. How eminently at it is that His
creatures should use those voices with which He has
endowed them, TO sing the praises of the Author
or Harmony. BOW right 1t Is that there should
rise constantly from this sin stained earth of ours
q song that tells that mortsls are not yet 30 dead
to righteousness that they can behold the glory
and beauty of the Omnipotent aud remain dumb
that they can keep sullen silence in the presence
of God. But, alas. there is much of this praise
that is not tribute to the Almighty, but is simply
the mimic singing of mock worshipers, the hired
harmony of men and women with the name of
God on their lips and no thought Of God in their
heart, and this brings Us to what we have to say.
There is in this city lamentable lack of real,
hearty, genuine church singing. Not but that
there is plenty of fine church music. Few cities
on the continent can boast of better averge
church music than New Orleans. Witness the
singing in Christ Church on Canal street, in the
Jesuits' Church on Baronne street, in the French
Cathedral, in Trinity Church on jackson street,
where DR.. Beckwith SO long ministered, in the
Synagogue on Rampant street and in the other
fop, ~ tha itv hat 40 "a
singing of trained musicians. who sing for pay
and who in too many instances care little for the
words they. are uttering, so that the notes are
correct, butthe singing of the cong egation Of the
people. In all onr churches may be heard every
Sabbath superb solos, magnificent duets and sol.
emn choruses, all of which are executed by few
people up in the gallery, while the worshipers
below fold their arms and look at each others
clothes, and wonder how much the choir gets
paid, and sit down, never having opened their
lips, never dreaming that they were expected to
have taken part in the music. thinking of it only
as a fine artistic display. Is this right! Can we
praise God by proxy! The sweetest incense that
rises to His throne is the praises and
prayers of mortals, and how can q man
think that he can contribute towards paying
another man so much month for doing his
praising for him Such was certainly not the
way in which the hosts Of Israel praised Jehovah,
or the way in which the early Christians in dens
and caves and catacombs praised their Master,
and why IT should now be considered any more
right for man to keep silent when the strains
of harmony are ascending to heaven, than it was
then, is q mystery. This ancient spirit of throw
ing the whole heart and soul into devotion has
not died out everywhere as 1t appears to
have here. The writer of this, about a year ago.
attended church in Toronto, Canada. wherein
not only the priests and the choir but all the con.
gregetion, too, Joined in both praise and prayer,
until the rafters fairly rung With the mighty
symphony, as we are told the catacombs Of
Rome used to ring with the loud smens with
which primitive Christians terminated their
prayers. In New York he was at o church,
where, as a compromise, enc hymn was sung to
q tune in which all the congregation could Join,
and another to an air only sttainsble by the
practiced musicians who were In the gallery, and
who had that hymn all to themselves. 1t seemed
like giving ore hymn to God and the other to the
world-one hymn to please the auihor and Giver of