The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-10-24
singing IO MILLIONS
Not of People but of Money,
in New York Churches.
WHAT SALARIES ARE PAID
To the Songsters Who Marble
for the SWeIIs.
WHAT SALARIES ARE PAID

New York Oct 23-There are perhaps
a dozen ultra fashionable churches in
New York where wealth and station in
life are represented from end to end Of
the edifce inthe great congregations that
gather for worship on Sunday. Million
aires and multi-millionaires elbo each 9TH
er all the way down the isle, and "the
poor of the church are those who only
have a beggerly $500, coo or $500. 600 The
humblest passerby might edge his way
into Grace Church. st. Thomas's, st.
Bartholomew the Brick Church or any
CT the rest of the golden dozen if there
we :, vacant seat, and he wol:1 be
courteously ushered to a blackjack row
necessarily He would have to arrive
early, before Money and Power and So
ciaI Supremacy had occupied the pews.
No city in the country has such rich con-
gregations as can be found in New York
When any one of these churches is filed
and the minister takes his place in the
pulpit to deliver words of council and ad-
wise to his hearers and to speak the rules
of life that should guide his listeners, he
Is laying down the moral law to perhaps
$500, Co., 600 of solid capital-in some chur-
ches over double that-and urging some
of the greatest money monarchs IN the
world to humble themselves in meditation
prayer and repentance, and to remember
that we are the mere dust, if the golden
dust Of the earth.
But if these churches represent in their
congregations money and wealth and fash
ion, they represent charity and good
works as we'll for when these millionaire
put their hands in their pockets TO help
any one Of the parish charities the plate
bearers cary heavy load of offerings as
they pass back to the sanctuary.
ST. Thomas, Grace and Bartholomew's
are particularly dear to the heart of the
debutante and the manageable girl, for
when she "comes OUT In society she
wonders how soon her wedding will oc-
cur and will 1t be at ST. Thomas, or st.
Bartholomew or at Grace. In these
three the greatest, SWEETEST, most impos-
ing nuptials of the season are celebrated,
though many other fashionable churches
have theih grand weddings as well.
When one considers the wealth of the
leading churches, the prices paid to the
singers, while adequate to secure good
voices, are not so large as one would sup
pose 1t would not be surprising if an
enormously wealthy congregation were to
determine to pay anything necessary
s2O, 900, $4,000, $4,000 a year-to get the
finest music that could be had. But they
do nothing of the sort. Perhaps $4,000
represents the maximum paid by the
biggest churches in New York.
Twenty five hundred is the highest sum
known to be paid to a church tenor, while
the average in the SWEETEST" choir IS
$1,000 or $1,000. The minimum, so far as
1 can find out, paid in any church is
don't laugh-$25 a month! This beggariy
sum is paid in a we'll known church that
certainly has floating attendance of
5000 people-those who come and go-and
g regular attendance of 1000.
When it was proposed to get good
tenor for that sum it was laughed at, but
the minister insisted that probably some
one "out Of a iob"could be got who would
be glad TO take the place. But he'll
leave as soon as he can get another
| place." said the pianist.
'Then get another man who is out Of
a Job. There are Always men OUT of a
| job" was the rejonder
''But he can't keep body and soul to-
gether on SO a month"; said the choir
| director.
Twenty five dollars will provide for
the body, and will care for the soul"
III
smiling sweetly. Besides there will be
funerals, which will be extra
But we can't kill off the congregation
! to give him funerals" said the director.
"And he can't exist if the congregation
| live"
Twenty five dollars was fixed as the linn
| it, all the same, and the church changed
! tenors with a rapidity that was amazing.
The soprnos of the swell churches
| get from a thousand to fifteen hundred
dollars. as a rule, though the scale runs
| higher and lower. Time was when Emma
! Thursby and Emma Abbott and Clemen-
! tine de We're got from four thousand to
five thousand dollars year for their Sun
| day work in New York churches, but
| those were exceptional cases that are
| few and far between and are of the past.
| No soprano in New York gets that sum
or anything like it now. Put it down at
fifteen hundred as top moth and you are
about right.
The BARITONE and the bass get about
the same figures as are quoted for the So
prano IN these fashionable churches, for
although braytones and basses are not
| ordinarily as expensive as tenor or So
! prano, those in the leading New York
| choirs are the pick of the land.
! The soloists consider their church en-
! eaganents he basis Of thsih incnr,a INF