Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-10-08
SONGS OF WORKERS.
HOW LAsoR's BURDENS ARE LIGHT
ENED BY MUSIC AND SINGING.

ENED BY MUSIC AND SINGING.
The Trade Songs of the Ancients Have
Their Counterpart at the Present Time
Songs of European Working People.
Music Work Inspirer.
There is scarcely an occupation, certainly
none that demands unity OF purpose and reg
ularity of attack, that has not or has not had,
It's own peculiar kind of song or accompany
ing chant. The anvil, the loom, the dairy,
the field, the wharf, the plantation, ay, and
even the GOLFERS drearv world, are each in
themselves an incentive to some sort of music,
and their laborers in all parts make for them
selves, il not pleasing recreation, at any
rate q soothing monotony by grooming, or
hunming, OR chanting, some rhythmical
measure. Athenaus 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 weavers; the reapers had their carol, the
herdsmen a song composed by Sicilian OK
driver; the kneaders, the bathers, and the
galley rowers were not without their chant.
1t is still the custom in Egypt and in Greece
to carry on an immense labor by an accom-
paniment of music and singing; hence the
story of Amphion building Thebes with his
Tyre. In Africa to this day the laborers on
the plantations at Yaoorie work to the sound
of drum.
Almost all these old Grecian trade songs
have their counterpart at the present time,
in some land, if not universally. The corn
| grinders song is initiated on the Russian
wharves, where the women sing in chorus as
| they crush the grain for expectation; the
weavers in Ayrshire, where arc still to be
| found the almost absolute hand looms, Groom
some weird Highland tune as they sit at their
work; the reapers in Russia have their wheat
chorus and rye chorus, and the haymakers in
many countries have special songs of their
own The beautiful chansons de vendange,
or vineyard songs, of the champagne district
are world renowned for their harmonious
gayety; these, ike the wheat gatherers'
chorus in Russia, are sung in procession; the
men and women, each with basket on their
arm, assemble at the foot of hill, and, stop
ping there, arrange themselves IN circle;
one of them then bursts into a joyous song,
the burthen of it is chorused; then they
ascend and disperse in the vineyard and work
and sing. Now and again new couplets will
resound from some of the dresSers
The herdSmens Songs live today in the
cantons of Switzerland and on the wide Mex
lean plains. Texas provides hog feeders with
ditty that if not poetic is certainly realistic
In tone The kneaders must have suggested
the chant du boulanger of the bread eating
| oft today and the galley haN
numberless imitators in the Venetian Condo.
hers, the Nile boatmen, and the Chinese
crackers, whose songs have become so much
a part of themselves that one never thinks Of
dissociating them. DR.. johnson noted in ths
Highlands that the strokes of the sickle wert
timed by the meditation of the harvest song
in which all the laborers' voices were united
They accompany every action which can b.
done in equal time with an appropriate strain
which has not much meaning, but its effect
are regularity and cheerfulness. Like tn
Greek herdsmen and shepherds of old, tn
Scotch have their sheep farmers songs AM
their hsrders' choruses. and even the potat
workers in Ayrshire their own style of sing
ins while they pursue their occupation. An,
| evening in August you may see aplcturesqu
looking group of women vending heir home
, ward way and singing as they 60 along; tn
, | bright red kerehief they adopt as headgear
and their striped pettieoats and bare fee
are quite a feature in the most pastoral of al
3 Scotlsnd's counties.
From the cradle to the grave song is tn
constant companion of the Russians life.
is the delight of both sexes and OF every aga
The sports of childhood, the pleasures q
\ youth, and ali the varied occupations of ms
ture years have each their own appropriat
: accompaniment of song. The ''Khorovod
/ is the choral dance with which Russian boy
and girls greet the approach Of spring. Til
'Zaplachki" or wailing songs bring relief t
the grief stricken The 'Bylmas,' Ion
netrical rornances sung or recited by villae
MINISTRIES, supply the epic element by recorC
r ing famous historic exploits; and even tbs
most prosaic Of MISUNDERSTANDING wit
! grain the ships lying in the wharf-add sorr
+ beautiful melodies to the repertoire of Ru
sian national song the women who carry G
r, the work singing in chorus the while. II
vaudevillas that are so prominent a featul
Il in the repertoire of French recreation SOM
r today originated rs songs of labor The
:, was once fuller of Vau de Wire, or the va
| lev BY the river Wire, who used to make b
| Ilen SHY as luEN lHeiI ClbbIs pu u
5, bank of the river Usually the theme won
e be some incident or adventure of the da
4 set to rhyth1nical measure; and thus fro
/. the labor of the apprentices of a fuller {
F the banks of the Wire we get the gay, re
= licking songs that resound from every mus
; hall and cafe in Paris.
d Mill songs are especially common in No
mandy. and have character of their ow
Their .'coupletsn are wont to consist of ty
l. lines with a refrain, and the refrain is t
e principal part OF the song. AUvergne
&c famous for its bouTTTes, and Burgundy
/ rich in Noels and drinking songs. T
2, | Italians have no special labor songs; til
seem to enliven their working hours wi
snatches OF national music, and i'll Tusca
you may hear the straw plaiters singing
they ply their busy fingers some of the love
8. stornelli or rispetti Of the country. I
d, stornello, known as Flower Of the Pea i
particular favorite with these straw worke
B What of musics past vocation as n work
IL. spirerl Is there not ample proof Of it in I
H. many songs Of many tongues that stand {
rv as beacons of light along the dull road
- labor? What Of the sailors chanties,
- fresh, breezy, rolling choruses that helped
~ tighten Jacks manifold lahors, and that
- present, with its ever increasing power
~ steam, has made things of the pasta W
In' of the weavers songs, that formed so MI
ei' part of the daily lie at the loom that Il
nix seemed almost woven into the faDricf
Ed factory girls and the mill hands" Of toC
sing to the whirring accompaniment OF
latest machinery, not as sang those refu
handveavers OF old whose own limbs W
the wheels they had to set in motion,
ue, whose own brains blended the harmoni
TO- coors together and traced the wonderful
- intricate designs Here was truly need fC
to work inspirer, and here was it found in SC
ye- Nineteenth Century.
,et,
.st Egyptian Tobacco Condemned.
to A great many English newspapers an
,n- large number of their correspondents
90 earnestly condemning Egyptian tobacco
the doctored cigarettes made in Cairo
London therefrom. 1t is commended til,
hno large number of cases Of mouth diseases
anu resulted from the use of these cigarettes,
ers the discussion, which is becoming hot AMI
tercsting, will very likely result in ser
- injury to the eastern tobacco trade.-Chi'
hu' Herald.