Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-10-17
hO77A
CAMP MEET
To Which Were Sung
in the Good I
ISoeciaI Corresp,


glory, that the so-called 'sacr,
day doesn't wear like the good "CHhMPLINI
camp meeting times" Forty yea
is further back than many Of US Ii1Uid Pearl
member, in the days of backwot
in that section of country wbic. fe reT esi
facetiousy termed "the Wabash g 80 ~, u
many good but emotional people s1TTA.
selves nearer to God and the angels IL m
are likely to get in these days of oSIlp1H
jingle and rhyme.
My earliest religious experience, so ~
parents say, consisted in my dancing vigor-
Dusly in my mothers arms-I was vigorous
2-year-oId-keeping time TO the music, while
a large backwoods congregation of somewhat
primitive religionists sang:
Pray on, pray on, we'ra a-gaIning ground, q
Oh halle-hallelujah!
The power Of God * a-coming down,
Oh, halle -hallelujahi
and other rousing revival songs Of the same
character. There was one song, remember,
still popular in parts Of western Indiana,
with a swinging, joyous semi-refrain, -Oh
tell me, happy sailor, and another beginning
with "Oh how happy are they but sung to q
quaint, inspiriting tune, now seldom heard,
except in the out-of- the way parts of the
country.
There were a dozen or two, perhaps twice
that number, of those old fashioned revival
songs and tunes which doubtless would be
worth fortune to the music publisher who
would but take trouble to gather them to-
gether before the few remaining voices which
once sung them are stilled forever. Then
there might be added to the collection the
variations" of the still well known melodies
which are yet preserved in The American
Vocalist" and stray copies Of older books Of
the @fa sol-la- IA" system; and there were some
tunes in a work which contained figure"
system of notation, with commas, periods and
dashes to indicate the various lengths Of the
notes.
In a few of the country churches OF the
| west you may frequently hear to-day the
variations" referred to, in which the COM
paratively plain and simple psalm tune" OF
the notebook is almost lost in q succession Of
vocal glides, swells and diminuendos, which
| none but skiIlful musician could express by
| means of musical notation. Even in the days
of long ago critics who thought they knew
said that ~Balerma," ~OrtonviIle," Title
| Clear and a score Of other tunes were
marred-murdered-b those untaught pill
| grims TO the tomb Those sticklers for exact
ness forgot that the singers had caught the
| freedom Of the winds of heaven which swayed
| the tree tops under which the camp meeting
congregations assembled to worship-in Gods
| first temples"
What glorious singing they did in thosa
| days. Everybody. sinner as well as saint,
| sang then. The hymns were @lined" as an
! aid to those who were without hymn books,
and the young man or young woman who
| did not Zine in" on the tune was looked upon
| as worse than heathen and a publican To
| assist in the singing was an essential part Of
the etiquette Of the Lords house, and every
body conformed to the custom
There was one hymn which entirely capti-
waited my boyish fancy. Il was particularly
| adapted to calling out to the uttermost the
vocal strength of the assembled worshipsrs.
Everybody, from the OLD grandfather down
to the tiniest urcEin, kew the words, ari
knowing, sang. In the music the bass and
tenor, and even few half afraid alto voices,
found utterance for the talent but recently
developed at the crossroads singing school,
| and the volume Of sound rose with force
that at times threatened the integrity Of the
meeting house roof. The theme was grand
one-the triumph over the world, the flesh
and the devil
When can read my title clear,
began the hymn in jubilant strains; then, the
tune gradually rising to greater heights, came
the next line:
To man dous in-the-skie-s
and while the elderly singers were dwelling
with fond delay on the last word, the younger
vocalists, eager for the next strain, began in
softer tones:
| I'll bid farewell
Now to me came the supreme moment
For few seconds the bass and tenor were
silent; but as the words,
III bid farewell
were repeated the bass voices burst out with
a roar like the approach Of q thunderstorm,
followed at the next repetition Of
I'll bid farewell
by the ringing tenor Of half q dozen brave
and strong young men, every voice gathering
strsngth as the succeeding words were sung
to oev'ry fear,
then, as If each voice were the sweeping
sword Of a mighty conqueror, the last line Of
the verse was uttered with a feryor that
thrilled the heart of the most case-hardened
sinner:
| And w-i-iipe my weeping eyes.
1t was a foretaste Of the victory Of the ran
somed.
A few seconds Of silence followed, broken,
only by the wall of an infant ON the women.
folks" side of the house, or the neigh of .
lost colt among the teams hitched outside.
Then succeeded other verses in like manner
as described, until came the grand finale:
And not a wave
| And not a wave
4 And not wave Of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast;
and in contemplation Of this happy Nirvanic
| conclusion of the Christian warfare the more
| spiritually minded members rested for few
minutes, until the next change in the exer-
| cises
There was one good old brother, @Uncle
Bliss" we called him-long since dead and
| gone to glory-who was looked upon as a sort
Of musical leader in a certain congregation I
call to mind He seemed to sing in one un-
| broken strain when the verses were not
~linedr1 from the beginning to the very last
word of the hymn. How and when he
managed to take breath no one could tell and
Think he carried the secret TO his grave. Ger
tain it was that, at the ends of the lines, where
everybody else in the church halted, @Uncls
| Bliss" sang on triumphantly, as though he saw
| by an eye of faith the dazzling walls Of the
New Jerusalem. The volume OF song poured
forth from his lips in one long uninterrupted
stream, like the prolonged parts of fugue.
1t was absolutely marvellous
The old revival tunes mentioned at the
beginning of this article are still sung in Va
rious sections of the west, where exist certain
religious denominations whose faith and
practice have not, as yet, been completely
moderuized. Middle-aged men and women,
pillars of the church" they are called nowa-
days, once in a while break forth into the
stirring strains Of one of the old songs they
learned twOscore years ago, when the pulpit
| orators and exhorters knew more of the gos-
pei than they did OF grammar, and the whole
congregation sang with the spirit and with
the understanding"