The Coconino weekly sun., 1895-10-31

Se' AiS uCSidIcu tidt lt SnOulu never happen so again. He reached town late Saturday night and had heard only about the war. He knew nothing of the declaration of peace, or, rather, knew nothing of the armistice of SIX months.
 So, when the first hymn was given out, the choir made that pause of little minute fluttering it's wings and smoothing it's plumage before it broke into song. The silence smote upon the heart of Deacon Standfnst, still rank ling with sense of the indignity put upon his beloved pastor. He arose to his feet, drew up his muscular figure until he loomed up like Saul among his brethren-"from his shoulders and up- ward higher than any of the people, filled his lungs, and in mighty voice that had echoed over the surging backs of many horned herd on the storm swept prairies, a resourding shout of far-reaching cadences that was quali- fled to paralyZe stampeded steer irta forgetfulness of the terror that was driving him into frenzy, he 'raised the tnne." Alas, for the service of the sanc- tuary, out of that strength came forth no sweetness, for Deacon Standfast could not distinguish a funeral dirge from college yell. And he roared off the first verse of that hymn by himself. But he was enough. He needed no reinforcement. With open mouths, dumb with amazement, that choir stood in its silent place waiting for him to reach the end of the Stanza, intend ing to waylay him and head him off on the second. Vain hope! They did not know his powers of endurance. He drew but one long, deep breath at the end of the closing line and went right on with the next verse, developing cumulative power with the eXhila,'a- tion of his work, until he wound up the long hymn with a long-drawn halloo that sounded like cross between a war whoop and a hallelujah. One by one the silent choir sat down as the [ tune. less hymn progressed, but the congre. gation, although not venturing to "as. sist," stood by most nohly while pea- con Standfast Justify sarg his first ard last solo in that church. believe he never sang again; not even in chorus.
 After that break, however, all went fairly we'll for several weeks, maybe month. Then the congregation stood up at eight o'clock one Sunday night and sang:
 Once more, my, soul, the rising day
 Salutes thy waking eyes"
 And once the morning service opened with the hymn:
 Lord dismiss us with thy blessing" But as not more than one singer in . hundred, perhaps, sings a hymn with any thought of it's meaning, simply con sidering the words as rather useless necessities, merely put in to vocalize the music, the incongruity of the se- lection did not strike more than three or four people beside the preacher, and they were not present. But the Sunday morning following that the leader came to the preacher before serv- ice, with troubled face and said:
 Look here, Mir. Seekpeace, this will never do at all"
 Well, what is the matter now?"
 Why" said the leader, this opening hymn. It is:
 Brother, thou vast mild and lovely, Gentle as the summer breeze; Pleasant as the air of evening When 1t floats among the trees Now, there has been but one death in this church in the past six weeks, and that was old Dodd Swearinger, whG got so mad the other day while he was beating his horse with pick handle that he fell down in fit and died in two minutes-a man with the wors. temper in the state of Illinois. Wa can't sing that, Mir. Seekpeace."
 The preacher melted at the sight ol the leaders appealing face. He smiled, q pleasant smile that might have lad two shades of meaning in it. He nay have been pleased to meet n mar. who recognized the fact that a hymn with. out appropriate words is about as virile and strong as human body without skeleton. Or he may have been pleased about something else. Any how, he smiled without permitting a gleam of triumph to shine across, his face. He said: "Very well," anl se- lected hymns for morning and evening service.
 There was never again the shadow of trouble between the choir and the pulpit of that church. Othe, leaders came and went. The choir changed, as choirs do; changing voice., drove out the boys who sang sopralo or alto soprano--we used to call it "trible," didn't we? Marriage closed the mouths of the girls, who, womanlike, appeared to consider it solemn, religious duty to forget their music" after the first baby was born. Bassos and terors came and went. But so long as that preacher was pastor the choir in that church sang the hymnsappointed them, and it was generally understood, al- though nothing was ever said about it, that the head of that church was on it's shoulders, and not on the neck of n music-rack stand.-Ladics' Home Jour- nal.
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