The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1872-07-04
s.TME TINE OF THE sINGING.n

There is cheerful tradition of New Eng
land history which tells us that at one period
10 the annals Of this hea, en-favoyed region,
all the vanlties and foibles which mar the
symmetry of human character were held as
odious, contemplate, and deserving only OF
the sernest reproach and condemnation
The graces of life and the embellishments of
neighboring civilization were unknown to
it, and when butterfly Of fashion but dared
TO unfold its gaudy wings in atsombre land,
it persisted on the bleak atmosphere Of puri-
tanism and .futtered to the earth.
A spurious morality compounded Of cyni-
cism, st,i,ism, puritauism and pharisocisn,
ruled all things with the rigorous decree OF
the council Of Ten. A laugh was mockery
song, an imp:ous bIasphemy, unless drawl-
ed through the nose of some Amounted and
set to the Psalms of David, while to dance
was simply to revive the hideous orgies OF
barbarlsm and court the vengeance OF Heav-
en-. They groaned under the superintendent
weight and burden Of their sef-erectcd piety.
and thanked God with characteristic self
righteousness that "tEey were not as other
men,"
Boston, the grand centre of this chosen
LAID, as itgrew in population and power, be-
clme the oracle and mouth.picce of those
terrestrial saints. From the prolific desks Of
her pulpis, and the exhaustless fountains
Of her publishing houses, flowed an un-
ending current of maxins and admoni-
tions, which in time were to rescue and
purify her perishing and less holy neigh
bors. Piou;, virtuous, sedate, austere Bos-
ton; the home and abiding place Of all good
people; the favorite shrine of religion and
the true temple of piety, look at her now {!
On the sacred ground where once stood the
rude log churches in which their ancestors
prayed aud prosecuted, now towers the mighty
coliseum of Gilmer. The bones of thousands
Of good purtans lie under its huge shadow,
and vibrate to the laundering 'sstaccato" i. OF
Strauss mammoth orchestra, while instead OF
the nasal ntonations of '.Od Hundred" from
tho quavering Threats of little fold Of the
select" comes the rushi-g tempest of twenty
thousand voices-all going it strong on RAJ
ly Round the Flag Boys" and John Browns
Soul is Marching on
Truly, the genius of change is at work.
and "the time Of the singing" has indeed
come for Boston. Ia this, as ia everything
else, she goes to the utmost extreme Transcen
dental in her views of social law of religion OF
politics and Of morality, she climbs to the
highest pitch she can reach in the musical
scale and bursts the tympanum of all adjacen,
| Massachusetts, with the crash of trumpets and
cymbals, and the roar of human voices
| With our hands over our ears we aonsigu her
to the enjoyment of her triumph. Boston
the puritanical or Boston the operatic; she
is always great. Let us hope that her good
people who have always groaned under their
inability to do Justice to the soul of old John
Brown, will after this last appeal to that i'm
mortal essence to march on, allow it to rest in
peace-trying to feel that at last her tribute
to his memory is fully paid, and soul that
will not march away from such din and clam
or, must sleep in its hopeless lctharey, until
the memory of Gilmer and Strauss and the
Coliseum has faded away like the "baseess
fabric of vision"