St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-04-20
A DIMINUTIVE DIVA,
Whose Wonderful Song De-
lighted a Universalist Con-
gregation.
Little May Griffiths, With a
Throat Rivaling a
Birds.
Rev. Vail breaches Of the He
roes of the Ungirt
Loins.
When Opportunity Comes,
Certain Heroes Are Never
Ready.

only to attract attention. but to give
promise of great future excellence.
Yesterday she sang at the church ser
vices at the Grand opera house, and her
rendition of The Ninety and Nine''
was wonderful piece of vocalization,
and thrilled her auditors like music from
another world. High c is a very clear
and pure mark for her, and her express
sion and shading give evidence of the
possession of great talent. The young
diva is in the hands of Prof Lienau for
training, and will make her mark in the
future.
Rev. w. S. Vail drew his sermon Sun
day morning from MIR. Browning's
statement that there is class of peo-
pie who may be properly called 1.-THE
heroes OF the ungirt loin and the unit
lamp" taking as text the words (St.
Luke xii, 80: Let your lOins be
girded about and your lamps burning"
At meeting of the Browning club in
London, Mr.. Dowden, the Shakespeare
ian scholar, had fastened on this idea,
and made a plea for those who were the
apparent failures as compared with
what they might have done. This SEN
tence had lodged in the mind of the
preacher, although he was no longer
81
nected with the meeting. 1t is for us to
remember that there is for US a per-
manent lesson in the truths that
cluster about the thought. 1t calls for a
panoramic view of the world. 1t asks us
tolook at mankind as it is: and any view
is revelation of surprise. The ex-
tremely successful man is more puzzled
than those who watch him. Unless in
hated to the last degree with egOtism he
IS always wondering how it is that his
influence runs SO far and wide. Mr..
Lanier speaks of George Eliot before
and after her success. He says she was
like little purling stream that run
down through meadows, and laughed
over stones, but without a moment of
warning widened out to great river,
so wide and so deep that ships bearing
the commerce OF the world might float
on Its waters, and the navieS of the
world might rest in its broad stream.
And she was never able to explain the
great success she achieved. Nor could
Napoleon explain why his presence was
power to a body of troops. Nor can Mr..
Gould do otherwise than wonder at the
magic OF his name in business circles.
In word the largest Success-whether
or the orator, the actor, the financier,
the singer, and the StateSman-iS phe-
nomenal and surprising.
But these men are the few. They are
the peaks of intellect that stand far
above the ordinary range. a majority
of us represent far different kind of
life. Hawthorne touched us when he
represented the procession of life; when
he saw the vast army of men walking
before him, and looking into their toys,
their sorrows, their hopes and fears,
asked men to be
A Little More HIercifuI,
asked that humanity remember suffer-
ing, and felt that the world needed svm-
pathy. And look at this procession,
Every man bears with him the wrecks
of hundred schemes. Can you recall
the young people who have taken hold
of the study of music and let it go for
the study of art aud dropped it? Or
those who have made business ventures
to fail because they did not have the
true courage? Do you recall the Young
and llghthearted who went out as mer-
rily to engage in the battle of life as
they did to chase the painted butterfly
In the days of childhood? How many
have made an easy success? How many
who made success have done 1t at the
expense of ease and even health and
find that it is rolling a stone UP hill?
There is no place to stop and rest, and
we must push on or lose all we have
gained.
But some of Us must confess to a still
greater difficulty. We have not done as
well as we can. We are ever prepar-
ing but never lighting. Our friends are
always expecting great things OF us,
but we never have time, or the occasion
is never right; we wait and procrasti-
nate; we will do better some other time.
Alas, that other time seldom comes.
There is something in our blood that
makes us careless. We will pray and
promise: we seldom amend. But | do
not intend to allow you to grow fat with
cOncelt because you are methodical and
we are indolent. This world owes
something to us after all. Some of your
greatest men will have to plead guilty
to this charge. Some of the greatest
orators have been of this class. The
greatest tragedian of this age. so far as
America is concerned, notably belongs
to it. When Newman touched the
shores of Italy he fell into a rapt con-
dition. and before him passed the long
gone life of that dead world. He saw the
magnificent pageant in all its glory.
When Greedy touched the historic plain
he kicked his foot into the dirt and said
the present need of Italy was a subsoil
pillow. If he were there today he would
say the present need of Italy was less
Malta and more mutton; less inSolence
and more industry; less murder and
more macaroni. But if Newman had
been Greedy he could not have written
LEAD Kindly Light" And so when
we call up the condition that makes the
most who are SO. ''heroes of the ungirt
loiD and the unlit lamp'-dreamers,
ldlers and isappOintmentS-we find
that all the songs of rest and the har-
vest home; all the songs of rural sport
and happy, innocent gaiety; all the en-
during pictures that take in sea and sky
and mountain;
All the Ideal Theories
that go so far to purify the thought and
hope of man, and all the legendary pict-
ures that soften the outlines OF a rugged
past-like idyls of King Arthur's court
come and can come only by the man
who dreams.
Besides all else we enjoy it. Per-
hapS we do not need so much pity, eX-
cept that we do not understand how to
extract the best from the condition.
Mark Twain tells how the dude COM
miserated the cowboy, and the cowboy
laughed until he was red in the face at
eAS iNASOINuo appearance VI TIC uiIuC'
And l real y believe that one of the best
enjOyments is that of the man who re-
signs himself to the rest of beauty and
nature-like the poet floating on the
Bay of Naples in the perfect day when
the clouds became the ramparts of
heaven; when the blue seemed waiting
him on to the fortunate isles. when
lifeIseemed a dream and he was at the
door of paradiSe-like Burns by Alton
water, when the pain of the heart
was alleviated by the life of
nature all round him-like Longfel-
low lying on the headland. watching the
meadows of amethyst" listening to
the long dull but never ceasing music of
the waves. And when sit down to read
my friend, Whitcomb Riley, ! am in full
sympathy with him. want to get away
from city and street for awhile. | want
to go down there to the green Wabash
wood" l want to lie under the broad
leayed sycamore apd
Listen fo a Cnnaart