, 1880-08-30
Saved by Il Song.

1t was Christmas Eve. A cold, old
fashioned Christmas. with snow lying
thick on the ground and still falling
heavily. with "a touch of fog in the air.
It Was past ten o'clock, and the streets
and lanes of the great city were ali but
deserted. Merchant and broker. clerk
and warehousemen. and the rest of the
busy crowd who hal thronged those
streets by day had one by one dritted
away 80 their homes. and the lofty ware
house loomed black and forbidding
over the silent thoroughfares. Here
and there the CLEAN oi u solitary win
dow struggled .int fecrually with the
outer dafkneSs end served but to bring
into stronger relief the general gloom
and solitude.
And nowhere was the darknes deep
er Or the sense of dsoIaIiou more pro
found than il St WinIfred's S court. St.
Wipiffed's is one of those queer little
alleys which intersect the heart of east
ern London, ami consists, with one ex-
eeption, of houses let out as offices. and
utterly deserted at uight TIE court il
bounded on one side by St. Winifred' S
Church, while in one corner stands a
quaint old house. occupying Il nearl,
triangular piece of ground and forming
the exception we have referred to. hav
ing been for many years the residenc.
Of St. WInlfreds = organist, Michael
Fray.
1ue only sign of life on this Christ
mas Eve in ST. Wiuifred's court was a
faint CLEAN of Pickering freight pro-
seeding from one of the windows of the
quaint thiee-cornered house in which
Michael Fray passed his solitary exist
eneo. Many years b. fore the period
of our story, the same mouth had taken
from him wife and child, and since that
time Michael Fray had lived desolate,
his only solace being the rare old Or
gan, the friend and companion of his
lonely hours. Tue loss Of his wife and
daughter had left hiu without kith or
kin. His father and mother had died
in bis early youth, an only brother, q
gifted but way@ard youth, had in early
life run away to sea, and had there
found a Satery grave. Being thus left
alone in the world, Michael Fray love
for music. which had always been the
most marked feature of his character,
had become Intensified into an absolute
passion. Evening after evening, When
darkness had settled on the city, and
none could complain that his music in
berfered with business, or distracted
the attention from the noble cliDk of
gold. he was accustomed to creep qui
etly into the church and there talk
to himself, as he called it, at the old
organ, which ansu cred him back again
with tender sympathy and power OF
consolation Which no mere listener
could ever have afforded. The organ
Of st. Winifred's Was of comparatively
small size, and made but scanty show
OF pipes or pedals; but TIE blackened
ease aud muehworn keys had been
fashioned by the cunning brain and
skilIful fingers of " Father Smith" him
self, and never had the renowned old
organ builder turued out a more skill
ful piece of workmanship. And
Michael Fray, by use of years and low
ing, tender study. had got by heart
every pipe and stop in the rare old in
strumeut, and had acquired an almost
magical power in bringing out its tend
crest tones and noblest harmonies.
Hear him this Christmas Eve, as he
sits behino the ancient keyboard, one
feeble candle dimiy glimmering over
the well-worn page before him; flicker
ing Weirdly over the ancient carving,
and calling into momentary life the
efIigies of mitred abbot and mailed cru
sader. A feeble old man, whose sands
Of life have all but iuu out; a sadly
weak and tremulous old man. with
shaking hands and dim, uncertain eyes.
But when they are placed upon those
yellow keys, the shaking hands shake
no longer; the feeble sight finds no la
bo1 in those well-remembered pages.
Under the touch of Michael Fray's deft
6ngers the ancient organ becomes in
stinet with life and harmony. Tue
grand old masters lend their noblest
strains, and, could they revisit earth,
need ask no better interpreter. From
saddest wall of sorrow to sweetest
strain of consolation-from the dirge
for the loved and lost, to the + San of the
ilbilant victor-each shade OF human
passion, each tender passage of divine
encouragement. take form and color in
succession unLer the magic of that old