The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1888-11-14
SONGS OF WORKERS.
How Labor's Burdens Are Light
ened by Music and Singing.
The Trade Songs of tho Ancients
Have Their Counterpart ut
the Present Time.
NIneteenth Cenfnrr.

tllI hklA Va W t%NNV@s- :
chant. The anvil, the loom. the dairy,
the field, the wharf, the plantation,
ay. and even the golfers dreary world
are each in themselves an incentive TO
some sort of music, and their laborers
in all parts make for themselves, il
not pleasing recreation, at any rate
soothing monotony by grooming, or
humming, or chanting, some ryth-
mical measure. Atheneus has
preserved the Greek names Of
different songs as sung by various
trades. but unfortunately none of the
songs themselves. There was one for
the corn grinders, another for wool
workers. another for weayers; the
reapers had their carol, the herdsmen
a song composed by Sicilian OK
driver: the kneaders, the bathers, and
the galley rpwers were not without
their chant. Ii is still the custom in
Egypt and in Greece to carry on an
immense labor by an accompaniment
of music and singing; hence the story
of Amphion building Thebes with his
lyre. In Africa to this day the labor
ers on the plantations at Yaoorie work
to the sound of drum.
Almost all these old Grecian trade
songs have their counterpart II the
present time, in some land, ii not uni
yersally. The corn-grinders' song is
initiated on the Russian wharyes.
where the women sing in chorus as
they crush the grain for expectation;
the weavers in Ayrshire, where are
still TO be found the almost absolute
hand looms. Groom some weird High
land tune as they sit at their work ;
the reapers in Russia have their wheat
chorus and rye chorus, and the hay
makers in many countries have
special songs OF their own. The
beautiful chansons de yendange,
or vineyard songs, of the champagne
district are world renowned for their
harmonious gayety; these, like the
wheat gatherers' chorus in Russia, are
sung in procession; the men and
women. each with a basket on their
arm. assent bic at the foot of a hill, and
stopping there, arrange themselves in
a circle: one of them then bursts into
a iovous song, the burthen OF il IS
chorused: then they ascend and dis
perse in the vineyard, and work and
sing. NOW anu again nCH NSsfANsS
will resound from some of the dreSsers.
The herdsmen's songs live to-day IN
the canions of Switzerland and on the
wide Mexican plains. Texas PROVIDES
hog feeders with a dity that IL not
poetic is certainly realistic III tone:
The kneaders must have suggested
the chant du Boulanger OF the bread
eating France OF to-day, and the galley
rowers have numberless imltators IN
the Venetian gondoliers, the Nile boat
men, and the Chinese crackers, whose
songs have become so much part OF
themselves that one never thinks 81
disassociating them. DIR. johnson
noted in the Highlands that the strokes
of the sickle were timed by the modu-
lation of the harvest song, in which all
the laborers' voices were united.
They accompany every action which
can be done in equal time with an APP
propriate strain, which has not much
meaning, but its effects are regularity
and cheerfulness. Like the Greek
and shepherds of old, the
Scotch have their sheep farmers songs
and their herders' choruses, and even
the potato workers in Ayrshire their
own style of singing while they pur-
sue their occupation. Any evening in
August YOU may see a picturesque
looking group of women vending their
way and singing as they go
along; the bright red kerchief they
adopt as headgear, and their striped
petticoats and bare feet are quite Tea
ture in the most pastoral OF all Scot
lands counties.
From the cradle to the grave song
is the constant companion of the Rus
SLAMS life. Ii is the delight of both
sexes and of every age. The sports of
childhood, the pleasures of youth, and
all the varied occupations of mature
years have each their own appropri-
ate accompaniment OF song. The
:. X horovod'' is the choral dance with
which Russian boys and girls greet
the approach of spring. The Zap
lackiS or wailing songs bring relief 10
the grief stricken. The "Bylinas,
long metrical romances sung or re-
cited by village MINISTRIES, supply the
epic element by recording famous his
toric exploits; and even that
most prosaic of employment
loading with grain the ships
living in /, the wharf-add some
beautiful melodies to the repertoire OF
Russian national song, the women
who carry on the work of singing in
chorus the while. The vaudevilles
that are so prominent feature in the
repertoire OF French recreation songs
to-day originated as labor songs.
There was once fuller of Vau de Wire,
or the valley by the river Wire, who
used to make his men sing as they
spread their cloths on the bank of the
river. Usually the theme would be
some incident or adventure of the day,
set to arhythmical measure; and thus
from the labor OF the apprentices of a
fuller on the banks OF the Wire we get
the gay, rollicking songs that resound
from every music hail and cafe in
Paris.
Mill songs are especially common in
and have character of
their own. Their "couplets" are wont
to consist OF two lines with refrain,
and the refrain is the principal part of
the song. Auvergne is famous for its
bourries, and Burgundy is rich in
Noels and drinking songs. The itali-
ans have no special labor songs; they
seem to eliven their working hours
with snatches of national music, and
in Tuscany you may hear the straw
plaiters singing as they ply their busy
Fingers some of the lovely stornelli or
rispetti of the country. The stornello,
known as the "Flower of the Pea" is
a particular fayorite with these straw
workers. What of music's past
vocation as a work inspirer? Is there
not ample proof OF it in the many
songs of many tongues that stand out
as beacons Of light along the dull road
OF labor? What of the sailors
chanties, the fresh, breezy, rolling
choruses that helped to tighten Jacks
manifold labors, and that the present,
with its ever increasing power OF
steam, has made things Of the past2
What of the weavers' songs, that
formed so much part of the daily life
at the loom that they seemed almost
woven into the fabric2 The factory
girls and the "mill hands" OF to-day
slug to the whirring accompaniment
OF the latest machinery, not as sang
those refugee hand weavers Of old
whose own limbs were the wheels they
had 10 set in motion, and whose own
brains blended the harmonious colors
together and traced the wonderful and
intricate designs. Here was truly
need for work inspirer and here was
il found in song.
Pictures Of ThunderboIts.
Engineering
The Royal Meteorological Society is
n.