The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1895-11-06
THE STRIKE III THE CHOIR.
RY ROBERT J. BURDETrE.

When | was boy, away back IN the
years when the days were so short that
il took fourteen or fifteen of them to
make week, | attended divine ser
vices with my parents in an old Bap-
tist church in Peoria. My legs were
short and the pew was high, and while
| listened to the sermon and swung
my feet, shackled 10y the unwon;ed and
cruel shoon of the sabbath Day, often
wondered how many hundred years il
would be ere | could reach the floor
with my feet as my father did. There
were two foot-stoOls in the pew, but II
was considered wicked for a boy TO put
his feet on one of them. They were
made exclusively for grown UP people
who did not need them They were
also used Ia trap the unwary stranger
who came sliding softly and sideways
into the pew without an invitation
He fell over one aud kicked the other
That notified the worshipers in the
front pews that there was stranger
within our gates and they could turn
around and look at him. But for this
automatic system Of signaling, many
devout woman would have gone home
without knowing the particular kind
of clothing the stranger wore
Straight across the rear OF the church
high above the congregation, ran a
long gallery. Here was the mclodeon,
which was the pipe-organ OF our day
here sat the choir, literally and musi-
calIv "out of sight | remember We
had an odd custom, originating in
some idea 80 old that nobody could re-
member il, and the rest of Us never
knew it. When the congregation rose
to sing the closing hymn, it about
faced and looked at the choir. Then
at the end of the hymn we faced about
once more and received the benedic-
ton. suppose this was done 70 give
:he congregation opportunity TO see
who was in the choir and what they
had on, and also to enable the singers
10 complete their inventory Of the con-
gregational adOrnments. X must have
been tantalizing 10 look AT the backs of
heads all through the services and
guess at the face trimming of every
new bonnet in the house. Because in
those days you had to walk all the
way around bonnet TO take in the en-
tire pattern. Your mother, dear, did
not wear a postage stamp with two
horns on il, and call it a bonnet. Men
talk about the big hats you wear in the
opera house. | wish your critic might
have stood behind your grandmother
at a baptism out in Peoria back in the
fities. He couldn't have seen the lake
nor very much of the woods on the OPP
posite shore. He might have caught a
glimpse of the sky if the day was fine
and your grandmother stood still. But
when she rose on her tip-toes II rene
"F'' in Coronation he coIld see
her bonnet, that was all. And that
enough. In that day bonnet was
built to cover the wearer's head.
And neck. And a section ofthe should
ers. And to overshadOw the face. And a
fiower-garJien in full bloom blazed and
shone and clustered around, above aud
beneath it. None of your buds and
grasses ih those days.
And our ehoirl Well, now, there
was choir that could sing. When
they felt In good voice, which was
every time they stood up you couldn I
hear the melodeon. They read music
at sight rs a proof-reader reads print.
And they sang in way that made
everybody else sing. Everybody wonid
sing ANYHOW, therefore it was useless
for the leader-nobody called him the
chorister then-tO select new tunes and
spring them upon the audience sudden
Is. The congregation wo1ld join in
with all confidence just the same, on
the second word. and sing right along.
only a syllable OF two behind. If the
hymn was of the usual length,
they sang tir5lsi the third stan
"a they knew the tune as well as the
choir did. and carried the remaining
four or five stanzas through with
splendid spirit. You see we weren't
given to short services IN those days.
There was no reason why We should
be. The singing was never wearisome,
because We did it ourselves, and would
as soon have thought of hiring our
Sunday School teachers as our singers.
never but once heard our minister chop
a hymn up into eutlets and have Us
omit the fret and last stanzas and hop
over the third and fifth, singing IL a
though We We're playing game Of
musical hopseotch, and that was be
cause be objected to some faulty doc
trine in one of the verses. When he
preached he said what he had to say
with out the least regard for the clock.
As he always had something to say
which we either wanted or needed
-. t...x ~ f.o-h IN never occurred TO