Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-15
POWER OF MUSIC.

Washington Star: Concerning the
| power of music" remarked the retired
transformer who had several home
stretch pedestrian records with various
| comic opera companies, II remember on
one occasion to have seen it peculiarly
verified. We had some first-class talent
in the company I was with at the time
we had only been out a month n the
endowment fund wasn't Exhausted yet
and among them was a quartet of male
and female voices that couldn't be beat
anywhere. We We're billed to ppear one
Monday night in a town of 1000 people in
Ohio, which had the reputation of being
the frOstiest place on the road, and the
manager put us on there only because
there wasn't any other place to go with
out costing as much in railroad fare as
we could lose at a performance.
I'VE got to the town Sunday morning,
and it was a long and tiresome 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. I don't know what
kind of q church it was, except that it
| was a big one and there was some kind of
a meeting on that filled it. We had come
~early-and we had seats about the middle
of the orchestra chairs. AS it happened,
! our quartet sat together and they got
| hymn books all right.
''Whcn the first service of song was Of
! fered 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
I could see there was some sensation
| among the people nearest to us, and lots
nf nN-nc and nnI,c NVnyn fJrond n11r WaN.
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 it they went at it with all their
skill and sweetness. By the time the
second verse was finished there were not
a dozen voices to be heard besides their
own, and the sensation had spread all
over the house. On the third verse our
quartet went in alone, and I don't think I
ever heard such singing as they put up.
1t was was one of those good, old-fash-
toned hymns that has the spirit of truth
and glory in it, and the music matched
the words in a way to carry anybody off
of his feet, and it did it for that audience,
or congregation, or whatever you. call 1T,
for when the last note died away the cold
chills run down my back and up my neck,
and if some old brother in the amen cor
ner had not shouted glory, and a dozen
more in other parts of the house followed
suit I believe 1 would have shouted my
self.
"However that might have been, when
everybody had sat down the gentleman
in the pulpit stepped forward n
banked our people for their singing, and
said if they would sing a few more selec-
tons the congregation would be greatly
pleased. Of course, our quartet was
pleased, too, and they not only sang a
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 filled the theater.
Now, that's What I call real power