Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-11-10

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IL I&SS1EIN the stone were
N$X}1[ XII placed scrolls OF
SN3S!GfIh5GEy history and import
E1SD - < - ant documents, TO
&sVHNMN9 be suggestive if,
one or two hun
dred years after, the building should
be destroyed by fire or torn down. We
remember the silver trowel or iron
hammer that smote the square piece OF
granite into sanctity. We remember
some venerable man who presided
welding the trowel or hammer. we
remember also the music as the choir
stood on the scattered stones and tim
Der of the building about to be con-
Sructed. The leaves of the notebooks
Huttered in the wind, and were turned
over with great rustling, and we re-
member how the bass, baritone, tenor,
contralto, and soprano voices COM
mingled. They had for many days
been rehearsing the special programme,
that it might be worthy of the corner
stone laying.
In my text the poet of UZ calls us to
grander ceremony-the laying of the
foundation of this great temple of
world. The cornerstone was a block
of light and the trowel was of celestial
crystal. All about and on the embank-
ments of clouds stood the angelic
choristers unrolIing their librettos of
overture, and other worlds clapped
shining cymbals while the ceremony
went on, and God the architect, by
stroke of light after stroke of light,
dedicated this great cathedral of a
world, with mountains for pillars, and
sky for frescoed ceiling. and Towering
fields for floor, and sunrise and mid
night aurFa for upholstery. "Who
laid the cornerstone thereof, when the
morning stars sang together"
The fact is that the whole universe
was q complete cadence, an unbroken
dithyrambs musical portfolio. The
great sheet of immensely had been
spread out and written on it were the
stars, the smaller of them minims,
the larger of them sustained notes.
The meteors marked the staccato pas
sages, the whole heavens gamut with
all sounds, intonations, modulations,
the space between the worlds musical
interval, trembling Of stellar light
Quaver, the thunder a bass clef. the
wind among trees a treble clef That
is the way God made all things a per-
feet harmony
The human intellect cut of tune: the
judgment wrongly swerved or the
memory leaky or the will weak or the
f1.ar hi 10
mind exceptional.
Domestic life out of tune: only here
and there a conjdgal outbreak of in
compatibility of temper through the
divorce courts, or filial outbreak
about a fathers will through the sur
rogate's court, or a case of wife-beating
or misunderstanding through the
criminal courts, but thousands of fam
lilies with June outside and January
within.
Society out of tune: labor and capt.
tai, their hands on each others throat.
Spirit of caste keeping those down in
the social scale who are struggling to
get up, and putting those who are up
I'm anxiety lest they have to come down.
No wonder the old pianoforte of society
is all out of tune, when hypocrisy and
lying, and subterfuge, and double-deal-
ing, and sycophancy, and charlatanism
and revenge, have for six thousand
years been banging away at the keys
and stamping the pedals
On all sides there is shipwreck of
harmonies. Nations in discord with
tut realizing it, so wrong is the feeling
Df nation for nation that symbols
chosen are fierce and destructive. In
this country, where our skies are full
of robins and doves and morning larks,
we have our national symbol the fierce
and filthy eagle, as cruel bird as can
be found in all the pathological cata-
logues. In Great Britain, where they
have lambs and fallow deer, their sym
boil is the merciless lion. In Russia,
where from between her frozen north
and blooming south all kindly beasts
dwell, they chose the growing bear;
and in the worlds heraldry a favorite
figure is the dragon, the tabled winged
serpent, ferocious and dreadful. And
30 fond is the world of contention that
we climb out through the heavens and
OdPllLt OHc VI the Olllcl Will
the spirit of battle and call it Mars,
after the god of war, and we give to
the eighth sign of the zodiac the name
of the scorpion, creature which is
chiefly celebrated for it's deadly sting.
But, after all, these symbols are ex-
pressive of the way nation feels to-
ward nation. Discord wide as the con-
tinent and bridging the seas.
Tartini, the great musical composer,
dreamed one night that he made con-
tract with Satan, the latter to be ever
in the composers service. But one
night he handed to Satan q violin, on
which Diabolus played such sweet
music that the composer was awakened
by the emotion, and tried to reproduce
the sounds, and therefrom was written
Tartini's most famous piece, "The
Devils Sonata" dream ingenious
but faulty, for all melody descends
from heaven, and only discords ascend
from hell. All hatreds, feuds, contro-
versies, backbitings, and revenges are
the DEVILS sonata, are diabolic fugue,
are demoniac phantasy, are grand
march of doom. are allegro OF perdi-
tion.