The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-16
THE POWER OF MUSIC.
It Did a Good Turn For a Barn
storming Troupe.
washington Starr

! washington Starr
! Concerning the power of music" re-
marked the retired transformer, who
had several home-stretch pedestrian
( records with various comic opera COM
panies, II remember on one occasion
/ to have seen it peculiarly verified. We
had some first-class talent in the COM
/ pany I was with at the time-we had
| only been out a month, and the endow-
ment fund wasn't exhausted yet-and
among them was a quartette of male
and female voices that couldn't be beat
! anywhere. We were billed to appear
one Monday night in a town of 1000
people in Ohio, which had a reputation
of being the froStiest place on the road,
/ and the manager put US in there only
I because there wasn't any other place
to go without costing as much in rail-
road fares as we could lose at a per-
| Torrance.
we got to the town Sunday morn
ing, and it was long and tiresone
! day, and we We're so bored when night
came that we made up a party to go to
church, just to change our luck.
don't know what kind of church it
was, except that it was a big one, and
there was some kind of a meeting on
that filed it. We had come early
there were six or eight in our crowd
and we had seats about the middle of
the orchestra chairs AS it happened,
our quartette sat together, and they
got hymn books all right.
When the first service of song was
offered, our combination was a bit
shaky with stage fright, for they
hadn't been to church since they had
sung in their home church choirs long
ago; but on the second round they were
all right, all right, and the hymn was
one they were familiar with. Well,
they went at it like they ought to, and
when the first verse was finished [
could see there was some sensation
among the people nearest to us. and
lots of eyes and ears were turned our
way Our quartette was interested by
now in their singing, though, and we
didn't think about anything else but
the word to go on with the second
verse, and when they got ii they went
at it with all their skill and sweetness.
BY the time the second verse was fin
| ished there were not dozen voices to
be heard besides their own, and the
sensation had spread all over the house
On the third verse our quartette went
in alone. and 1 don't think l ever heard
such singing as they put up. 1t was
one of those good. old-fashioned hymns
that has the spirit of truth and glory
in it, and the music matched the words
in way to carry anybody off his feet:
and it did it for that audiepce or con-
gregation, or whatever you call it. for
when the last note died away there
was q stiffness that actually made the
cold chills run down my back and up
my neck, and if some 90 brother in
the amen corner had not shouted
Glory" and a dozen more in other
parts of the house followed suit, be-
lieve l would have shouted myself.
However that might have been,
when every body had sat down, the gen.
tleman in the pulpit stepped forward
and thanked our people for their sing
ing, and said if they would sing a few
more selections the congregation would
be greatly pleased or course, our
quartette was pleased. too, and they
not only sang q few more selections,
but they received the personal thanks
of everybody after the service was
over, and the next night we had an
audience that filed the theatre. Now,
that's what l call real power.