Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-28
MUSIC FOR THE POOR.
Lady Colin Campbell Writes From
London on the Good Work Done
BY ENGLISH SINGING SOCIETIES
In Bringing to the Masses the Most GlO-
rious Gift of God.
WHAT THE PRINCE OF WALES SAID
,ooRREsroxDExcE OF THE DrspArcH.I


both done to and developed in the poor OF
great cities by music, to find more appropri-
ate words to use, as it were, as text, than
those of II. R. II. the Prince of Wales, de-
livered in his speech at the opening of the
Royal College of Music: 'I claim for
music" said the Prince, "the merit that it
has voice which speaks-in different tones
perhaps, but with equal force-to the culti-
waited and the ignorant, to the peer and the
peasant. I claim for music variety of ex-
preston which belongs to no other art, and
therefore adapts it more than any other art
to produce that union of feeling which I
much desire to promote"
h. R. H.'s public utterances are always
admirably expressed, and the sentence 1
have just quoted is an excellent example of
the art OF saying the right thing in the right
words
Music has not only voice which speaks,
but it is almost as great necessity to the
great majority of our fellow creatures as
their own natural gift of speech. And es-
pecially is it so to the toilers of our great
cities 1t is only of comparatively late
years that the civilizing influence of recrea-
tion has come to be recognized; and of all
civilizing influences there is none that can
be compared to that welded BY music. We
need not go back to the Pied Piper of Ham,
elm to be reminded how human creatures,
be they young or old, will be attracted by
music.
That it has power for evil as well as good
| is not to be denied, and it is hardly too
much to say that before the question of
music for the people was taken up with the
enthusiasm that brought at least three So
cieties into being eager for the task of pro-
viding it. the use made of music in the
poorer quarters of our great towns, and es-
pecially in London, leaned distinctly to the
side OF evil. Before these societies took
shape, as it were, out OF the growing neces-
sities of our immense artisan class, re-
| spectacle working man had hardly any place
within his reach to which he could take his
young family.
INNOCENT AMUSEMENT.
Poor people, to their credit, be it said,
are by no means careless of their children's
morals Even in some of the very poorest
parts of London one finds fathers and
mothers who watch over their children care
! fully, almost severely. IF they would keep
them clear of undesirable acquaintance
and unenviable knowledge, where could
such people allow their children to go? Not
to the music halls certainly. where even the
curious precocity Of the children of the
poor was hardly needed to explain to their
eyes and ears the evil they both saw and
heard around them And vet where else
could they go? Music halls and public
houses-saloons, as you say in America
public houses and music halls, lined all the
great arteries that run through the north,
] south and east of London. Nothing else
was there in the shape of amusement, cheap
enough to attract the millions who craved
amusement of some kind or other, after the
hard toll of the long day. To such people
the concerts OF the societies already men
tionaj came as an immense boon. Here
were entertainments either free or well
within the peoples means, to which thew
could go with their families at nightfall,
without the fear of young minds being be-
wlldered or contaminated by equivocal allu-
sions. They were not slow to appreciate
also the superior class of music which they
heard at the concerts; for the mass of the
people are, within certain limits, exceeding
ly good Judges of both the music they hear
and the way in which it is rendered.
The soil was ready and fertile, and it is
therefore not very surprising that the good
seed sown so few years ago should already
have borne such great crop of success.
The experiment was at first tried with a GER
tain amount of misgiving; that feeling van
ished long ago. A good concert is now
found to draw larger audience than al
most any other form of entertainment hith-
erto attempted; nothing is so popular or SO
paying.
1t the working classes continue to paw to
go to the concerts provided for them, there
can be little doubt of their appreciation of
the attractions offered. Not only do thev
feel grateful to the societies that bring so
much music to them but, though there are
several societies for providing music in this
way, they cannot suffice for so gigantic a
city as London and so the people are begin
ming themselves to try and help themselves
in this direction.
REPLACING THE MUSIC HALL.
1 received a letter lately from a poor
workingman, written in the name of four
others beside himself, asking me to 90
down and sing for them on any Saturday
evening I chose to name. Four years ago
these poor acknowledgment earning only
a few shillings a week-had felt that some
thing must be done to save the young people
around them from the influences of the
music halls. As the writer truly said:
'Boys and girls will be boys and girls, and
if they don't get healthy amusement, why.
they will take the unhealthy" These five
men, therefore, had formed themselves into
a committee; they hired small school
room every Saturday evening, and com
menced giving their concerts. To us it may
seem but little thing to do, but to them,
with only their wages and no sort of expert
ence to help them, it was a very great
undertaking indeed. For four years they
had carried on their weekly entertain
ment to gradually increasing numbers,
until last year it was found that such
crowds had to be turned away every Satur-
day night, that this year they decided that
if the good work must be carried on, they
must take larger hall. The larger hall
meant more expense in every way; but the
managers made up their minds to take the
risk for the sake of the good that had been
done in these four years. The music halls of |
the neighborhood had undoubtedly suffered,
and not much wonder; for the night 1 sang
at the request of this committee of working |
men, there must have been between two or |
three thousand people in the hall If that |
number are drawn away from the music |
halls every Saturday night in that neigh |
borhood, it is not surprising that they should |
feel the difference. The action of these men.
by no means solitary instance, shows how |
much they have learned from the lesson |
taught by the societies as to the elevating |
influence of good music.
Another instance and an even more strik- |
ing one, of the lasting and ennobling influ- |
ence of music, is the Royal Victoria Coffee |
Hall, in the New Cut, formerly the Old |
Surrey Theater The name of that street |
not many years ago was decidly ill-favored. |
Both it and its surrounding neighborhood |
had unenviable reputation. The Victoria
Hall, or the 'fVic" as its habitues now
affe etionately term it, was only established |
at Christmas 1880.