New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-03-28
1.-The Jubilee Singers.

After concert tour in Connecticut which
was continuous ovation, the Jubilee Singer
retured to this city, where they have Just con
clhded the second series of entertainments
with success even greater than that which
they achleved at their first appearance in thu
metropolis. They have now taken their de
parture for Massachusetts and Northern New
England, where they have engagement.
which will occupy them until the first of MAY
n good share of the twenty thousand dol
lars they undertook to raise for the erection
OF new buildings for Fisk University is already
in the bank, and they hope before the close
OF the season to add something handsome to
| this figure.
I 1t has fallen to the lot of these young per.
sons to perform a most valuable service for
their race. Jubilee Hall, which will stand at
Nashville, as the memorial of their success.
will represent but small part of the work
they have accomplished. Their best achieve
ment is what they have done to conquer the
Old prejudice against color, and to win a
| kindller regard and a more generous SYM
pathy Tor the people whom they represent
Seven OF the nine singers were slaves until
the sdict of emancipation and, after passing
an evening in their company, the question
VIII probably never again occur to the hard
est-headed Conservative whether it is worth
while to educate the freedmen. Their modest
| and decorous behavior and their evident in
telllgence go further than any argument could
go to dissolve the dregs of that old negro
phobia which is still part of the religion of
some otherwise sensible people.
Ii has happened to them once or twice to
encounter this prejudice. After returning
from Connecticut, where they had been the
guests of Governor, they went to Newark.
New Jersey, where a tavern-keeper turned
them out of his hostelry. He had supposed,
when lodgings were engaged for them, that
they were company of niger (nOt negro)
MINISTRIES ; and, when he discovered that they
were the genuine article, and not the imita-
ton, he promptly drove them into the street.
The burnt cork of the harlequin is to this
astute publican much more respectable pig
ment than that with which the Creator
touches the work of his own hands.
AT Jersey City also the singers suffered the
same insult. After their rooms had been Sc
cured at the American House, the proprietor
made the same discovery, and caused his
clerk to send note to the rooms of the So
ciety, of which the following is literal copy:
AMERICAN HOTEL, JERSEY CITY,
February Goth, 1872.
Mr.. Warner AS desired me to say that the
JUBILEE Singers can not be Accommodated at
his Hotll att all. JOHN NEwING.
To the American Missionary Association.
If Mr.. Warner will send his clerk to school
Tor short period to any one of these singers,
he Will be sure TO improve in his spelling, and
will be likely to gain some other qualifications
for his office which his employer does not pos
sess. Somebody ought to teach this patriot to
spell American" a little less violently.
These indignities are, however, exceptional
in the experience of the singers. For the
most part they have met with kind treatment
and, while such incidents show the reason why
Mr.. Summers Supplementary Civil Rights Bill
should be passed, the grand result of the work
OF these young people will be to render such
a bill unnecessary.
If we should say that these singers have
done something for music as an art, we sup
pose that the musical critics who write for the
morning papers would wave lis aside with
silent contempt. Yet here is the fact, which
we beg these gentlemen to account for as best
they can. Their concerts have been crowded
from the beginning to the end of the season
by the most cultivated classes of New York
and Brooklyn society; while Nilsson, and
Parepa, and Wachtel, and Santley were divid-
ing among them the honOrs which belong to
the highest musical culture while the town
was revelng at the richest feast which has
ever been spread before the patrons of artistic
music, these uncultivated singers from the
Southern plantations came with their simple
melodies, and gained attention and applause
equal, at least, to that which has been given
to the great artists. We have had excellent
opportunities of watching the effect of their
music upon the audiences to which they have
sung, and we say, without fear of contradic-
ton, that the intent listening, the quick SYM
pathy, the fearful and eloquent silence with
which these dark-skinned MINISTRIES have been
rewarded for the rendering of their spiritual
songs are very rarely vouchsafed to singers of
any class. This is doubtless partly owing to
the remembrance of their former condition.
and partly also to the quaint and exceptional
character of their music; but it is also due in
part, as we believe, to the fact that the very
soul of music, which the florid culture of the
time tends to destroy, lives and breathes in
these simple songs. If our critics, instead of
Judging them by operate standards, would
undertake to find out what is the secret of
their power, they would honor and magnify |
their art.-N. Y. Independent.